6 - Three Ways of Seeing Social Media

Summary

This chapter is about social networking sites and social media. Bracketing direct and private communication through other modalities (e.g., email, IM, chat/text), the remaining types of communication made possible through social media are examined. This chapter reviews mass-personal communication perspective on social media. This chapter offers three themes to understand social media use: social media as the social news, social media as the archive of self, and social media as bridging social capital. Social news is the idea that we use social media to advertise the events of our lives and read about the lives of others. The archive of self refers to both the searchability and permanence of our digital connections made possible with social media. Theories of social capital were among the first perspectives to develop during the rise of social media, and the value of social media for bridging social capital is examined in this chapter.