Classroom Publication

Media Credit: Norman Graham Sierra, junior from University at Albany, explains how she doesn't use Twitter, but uses other forms of social media to communicate with others. [Click to enlarge]

Media Credit: Norman Graham Gifty Ameyaw, senior from the University at Albany, explains what social media she uses and how it affects her daily schedule. [Click to enlarge]

The means of communication between people started off with creations like the telegraph, postal mail, telephone and fax machine. During the 1950s, the Internet was formed and four decades later the World Wide Web made communication trendy and straightforward. The Web has not only helped users search for jobs, complete school research or find entertainment, but also has changed the way people communicate with one another.

According to "Online Journalism: Principles and Practices of News For the Web," the Internet is defined as the connection of computers that allows any user on the network to access information from anywhere else on the network. It has allowed people to send messages via e-mail, instant messaging and now by social media. Social media, something that people use via the Web and cellular phone can be defined as works of user-created images, audio, video, text or multimedia created and shared in a social environment.

Examples of social media include Web sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Digg and Myspace, to name a few. According to WebStrategy, the first and largest type of social media, e-mail, was created for users of the Internet to transmit messages to one another, collaborate and share information.

According to a survey distributed to students at the University at Albany, Facebook and Twitter are the two most popular types of social media students use besides e-mail. On Facebook, students are able to connect with people from their campus, as well as people who are far away. They are able to update people on their lives, post photos and videos of important moments, promote upcoming events, use entertaining applications and contact users, whether they are connected to you or not.

Facebook, founded Feb. 4, 2004, in Cambridge, Mass., was first limited to students attending Harvard University and any other higher education institution in the Boston area. The founders, Chris Hughes, Eduardo Saverin, Mark Zuckerberg and Dustin Moskovitz, were college roommates. Zuckerberg made a Web site called "Facemash." Joining with his other roommates has allowed him to change the direction the website was headed and expand it for others to use. According to Facebook, the Web site has more than 300 million users and has 50% of the users log on in any given day.

Twitter, an up and coming Web service, allows users to express themselves freely through status updates. Members are able to follow people to view their updates, "re-tweet" to a previous tweet and create "trending tweets," where members can add input to the topic.

Twitter, created in March 2006 as a side-project by Jack Dorsey, was inspired by another social media Web site, Flicker. Originally named "twttr," its purpose was to have its members use a form of shorthand. The name of the Web site might have changed, but the goals at hand stood the same. According to the Wall Street Journal, there are nearly 30 million Twitter users compared to the 1 million just one year previously.

Alex Rhoden, a junior at the University at Albany, majoring in Africana Studies, not only utilizes Twitter and Facebook, but said she feels like she "lives on them." According to Rhoden, both Web sites stay open on her computer, and she accesses Twitter on her cell phone, too. Rhoden said she uses Facebook for networking with friends and members of her sorority, Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc. She also publicizes events and programs that the sorority has on campus through Facebook. "That's sad that I don't have a reason," said Rhoden, in response to why she uses Twitter.

"Social media is a foolproof method to network, communicate and keep in touch with people - friends, acquaintances, etc.," Leah Rotella said. A junior at the University at Albany, majoring in Spanish, Rotella said that her social media habit helps her procrastinate. Facebook, the only type of social media Rotella uses, is something that she visits six to eight times a day. "It's never for too long each time I go on, but weekly I would say I go on at least 40 times," Rotella said.

A senior at the University at Albany who goes by the name of "Iceloomy Danso," uses Facebook, MySpace and Twitter. Double majoring in criminal justice and Africana Studies, Danso uses Facebook and Twitter "all day, 24/7" and goes on MySpace at least once every two months. According to Danso, these methods of social media affect his daily schedule because "it makes it easier to spread things around within a short period of time unlike making phone calls, which takes a lot of time and is costly."

"Social media is a group interaction that keeps you informed," said Temitope Izevbehai, when asked what social media means to her. Izevbehai, a senior at the University at Albany, uses social media to network, be entertained, gossip and stay informed. The types of social media Izevbehai uses are Facebook, MySpace, Black Planet, YouTube and Media Take Out and use them multiple times in a day. When asked how social media affects her daily schedule, Izevbehai said, "There will be times when I have to get school work done and, instead, I will go on these sites just because… it's addicting. You don't even know you do it as often as you do. Social media has become a normative. Everyone is a part of it now regardless of age."

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