

Observers have also seen that there has been a rise in social movements using social media as a tool for communicating and organizing in times of political unrest. Social media can help to improve an individual's sense of connectedness with real or online communities and can be an effective communication (or marketing) tool for corporations, entrepreneurs, non-profit organizations, advocacy groups, political parties, and governments. Observers have noted a wide range of positive and negative impacts when it comes to the use of social media. Studying how the rhetoric that exists in the digital environment has become a crucial new process for many scholars. Since the dramatic expansion of the Internet, digital media or digital rhetoric can be used to represent or identify a culture. For instance, a newspaper is delivered to many subscribers, and a radio station broadcasts the same programs to an entire city. Additionally, social media outlets operate in a dialogic transmission system, i.e., many sources to many receivers, while traditional media outlets operate under a monologic transmission model (i.e., one source to many receivers). Social media outlets differ from traditional media (e.g., print magazines and newspapers, TV, and radio broadcasting) in many ways, including quality, reach, frequency, usability, relevancy, and permanence. Wikis are examples of collaborative content creation. Depending on interpretation, other popular platforms that are sometimes referred to as social media services include YouTube, QQ, Quora, Telegram, WhatsApp, Signal, LINE, Snapchat, Pinterest, Viber, Reddit, Discord, VK, Microsoft Teams, and more. Some of the most popular social media websites, with more than 100 million registered users, include Facebook (and its associated Facebook Messenger), TikTok, WeChat, Instagram, QZone, Weibo, Twitter, Tumblr, Baidu Tieba, and LinkedIn. This changing relationship between humans and technology is the focus of the emerging field of technological self-studies. Additionally, social media are used to document memories, learn about and explore things, advertise oneself, and form friendships along with the growth of ideas from the creation of blogs, podcasts, videos, and gaming sites. As users engage with these electronic services, they create highly interactive platforms which individuals, communities, and organizations can share, co-create, discuss, participate, and modify user-generated or self-curated content posted online.

Users usually access social media services through web-based apps on desktops or download services that offer social media functionality to their mobile devices (e.g., smartphones and tablets). As such, social media can be viewed as online facilitators or enhancers of human networks-webs of individuals who enhance social connectivity.

The term social in regard to media suggests that platforms are user-centric and enable communal activity. Social media helps the development of online social networks by connecting a user's profile with those of other individuals or groups.Users create service-specific profiles for the website or app that are designed and maintained by the social media organization.

