Social Networking Sites

In my experience Facebook and Twitter, though similar can provide different resources that people sometimes use differently. For many of my peers, Facebook is used to make friends and maintain relationships. A lot of people who are geographically separated are able to utilize the Facebook Messenger tool to engage in real time conversation with old or new friends. Facebook also have games, music, and art pages, but for the majority of users that I know, it is used to communicate.

Twitter is similar in the sense that one can post something and view others posts in real time but I believe that long term communication with people is not as utilized. Twitter seems to also be centered around getting news stories and being updated with popular culture and world events. It seems that Twitter emphasizes a connectivity with the world and world events as opposed to Facebook which emphasizes personal relationships more.

The site snapchat is a social networking site that is centered around videos and what is called “stories”. Many of my peers use this site for daily updates on their lives using a video camera. A story is a video made by a user that documents a certain event or group of events in their day that usually last no longer than ten seconds. Because of this, users are forced to take quick videos to provide a concise idea of what happened to them that day or moment. In my opinion, this site is used by people who want to update their friends and peers on what has happened in the recent past or at the very moment and connectivity and news though present, isn’t as greatly emphasized.

Instagram is that last site I will mention. This site to me is similar to snapchat but instead of using videos, it mainly uses pictures. Many people also use this site for daily updates on their life events but do so by posting images more often. A user is able to provide a brief summary of the photo but the star medium of media seems to be picture within this site. Like snapchat, this site is used by people who want to update their friends and peers on what has happened in the recent past or at the very moment. Connectivity and news though present, isn’t as greatly emphasized like in Twitter.