The Social Media Today

Communication

Skype

Skype is a part of Microsoft software; it is the most popular voice communication site in the world. It has over 350 million users. The main reason Skype is so popular today is because it allows people to have free PC to PC international calls, and you will not be charged more than your monthly internet service rate. From any place in the world, you can make unlimited, totally free calls to anyone provided that person is also a user of Skype. Therefore in order to talk to someone through Skype you have to arrange it between people. It is also possible to use Skype to make local and international calls to both landline and mobile phones, through something called PSTN networks. You can also receive calls from these phones on your PC although this is not free it is very cheap compared to traditional landline and mobile international rates. These services are called Skype Out and Skype In. As a result in Skype becoming so popular, many people can be found on Skype from friends to business partners. People around the world use Skype for several things ranging from long-distance meetings with family and friends or remote activity monitoring and also for business calls.

 

Forums

An internet forum is a discussion area on a website. Website members can post discussions and read and respond to posts that other forum members have added. An Internet forum usually allows all members to make posts and start new topics. They can be focused on nearly any subject; people have the option to post what ever they wish. Internet forums are also known and recognised as message boards or discussion groups.

 

An Internet forum is different from a chat room. Members in a chat room usually all chat or communicate at the same time, while members in an Internet forum post messages to be read by others whenever they happen to log on. Internet forums also tend to be mostly related to a topic and all posts are meaningful. A blog is also very different from an internet forum, they are usually made by just the one person and all topics and messages are posted by the one person onto a blog, where an internet forum allows all members to make posts and start new topics.

 

Before a prospective member joins an Internet forum and makes posts to others, that person is required to register. The prospective member has to agree to a certain number of rules that the website may have. When a member is finally approved by the administrator or moderator of the Internet forum, they then continue to create their own user name and password. A password is often supplied for more security. There will also be an option, similar to many social networking site to place a picture of yourself next to you name.

A separate conversation in an Internet forum is called a thread. A thread is also known as a topic. Threads are made up of posts written by other forum members. Internet forum members have the option to create edit their own posts at any topic of their choice, post in their choice of threads and edit their profile. A profile usually has information uploaded by that forum member about their self such as what town they live in and their interests.

 

An Internet forum administrator or monitor also plays a part in all forums. A forum administrator can modify threads as well as move or delete threads if necessary. Moderators often help the administrator and moderate Internet forum members to make sure the forum rules are being followed.

 

Blogs
 

A blog is simply you own personal diary; it is a website, where you write stuff on an on-going basis. It gives you a chance to update a collection of your own private thoughts on a daily basis. Your blog is whatever you make it to be. There are millions of them all across the World Wide Web, and there are no real rules. Your personal blog is a collaborative space of which you can share your political thoughts, personal stories and experiences, images and quotes. Your get the chance to share anything you wish that you may find interesting such as news stories or anything with a great importance. If you wish to recommend websites or videos then you can also post a collection of links.

The layout of the average blog is pretty simply, new stuff appears up at the top, so your visitors or following can read what's new on your page. They then have the option to comment on it or link it to their own page if they like it.

Blogger was launched in 1999 and since then blogs have reshaped the web. People are becoming more aware of the new of the world which has resulted in an impact on people thoughts and emotions towards politics and any current problems.  Millions of people chose to use blogs daily which has given them a wider chance of connecting with others and meeting new people who may have similar interests as you. But you have to remember that even personal blogs are not safe and anyone has the option to view you page, so you have to be careful not to post anything too personal because there are risks, similar to any social networking sites.

 

Mobiles phones

A mobile phone, otherwise known as a cellular phone or a hand phone. It is a device that can make telephone calls though a radio link while moving through a wide geographical area. Every phone is connected to a cellular network which is provided by a phone operator. A phone operator is a company such as ’orange’ or ‘Vodafone’. Every mobile device requires a sim card in order to contact people, when purchasing a mobile phone you have the option to either go on contract, in which case you pay a certain amount of money each month over a period of time to pay off the cost of phone. Whereas pay as you go allows you to pay for the phone you want and then just put money on it whenever you fun out of credit.

The first hand held phone was invented by Dr Martin cooper of Motorola in 1973. Mobile phones support a wide variety of other services such as text messaging (SMS), MSM which is usually picture messages, e-mail, internet access, Bluetooth, gaming and a camera.

The technology has adapted a lot overtime therefore the mobile phones around today are a lot more advanced compared to the hand held phone 20 years ago. This includes the visual aspects as well as the hardware and software installed on a phone. When you put an advanced phone around today next to a phone from many years ago the visual difference is obvious, for example the I phone has a large touch screen and a maximum of 4 buttons, the rest of which are on the actual screen.  On the other hand phones from previous generations just have the standard arrow keys, the numeric keys, and star and hash tag keys. The screen is extremely smaller and everything you do is controlled by the buttons you press. So overall the hardware of a phone today is far more advanced.

 

Smartphones

 

A Smartphone is a mobile phone built on a mobile operating system but they come with more advanced capability and connectivity than a standard phone. The most commonly used mobile operating systems used in modern Smartphone include the following, Google’s android, Apples iOS, Rims Blackberry OS, Samsung  Bada, Nokia Symbian and Microsoft’s Window phone. These can all be installed to many different phone models and each device is capable of receiving multiple OS software updates.

A smart phone is a device that lets you make telephone calls but also adds in features that in the past you would have only found on a computer or a personal digital assistant, such as receiving e-mails.

 

Smartphone’s will always have the capability and ability to do more, this is one of the reasons that the popularity of a Smartphone has increased  and the devices have become most appealing to attackers who try to attack them with malicious software also known as malware.  This is one of the many dangers that can occur when using you personal details with you mobile, such as your e-mail.

 

A selection of Smartphone’s may allow you to download apps such as personal and business finance managers or even handy personal assistants. There are now apps that allow you to edit your own photos and download music also, this is usually made possible through iTunes. Maps are very useful to have downloaded also in case you are ever in need of driving directions.

 

Accessing the web is a necessity for most people in this generation; Smartphone’s are able to do so at much higher speeds, this is through the use of 4G and 3G data networks, with an addition of Wi-Fi to support many handsets. Although not all smart phones have high speed internet access, all have some kind of internet browsing access overall, this makes it much simpler to browse at your favourite websites more often. This is one of many benefits of owning a Smartphone.

 

All mobile phones can send and receive text messages, but the aspect that sets a Smartphone’s apart from an ordinary phone is the handling of e-mail. Smartphone’s can sync with your personal e-mail and most likely your professional email too. Some Smartphone’s can support multiple e-mails at once, but even if this is not possible others still include being able to access other instant messaging services such as BBM for Blackberry’s, Skype, Whatsapp messenger and MSN.

 

Social networking

 

A social networking site is an online service or site that focuses on people getting to know one another and to help build social relations among people who have real-life connections such as shard interests or hobbies or even backgrounds.

 

The standard social networking site is usually we based and provides the means for users to contact each other over the internet, they consist of a personal representation for each user which is usually know as a profile or ‘My account’.  This makes every user an individual and therefore can be uniquely identified.

 

The main types of social networking services are those of which contains category places, these could be done in school years or classmates, which means makes it much simpler to search your friends and make contact. The most popular social networking sites today are Facebook, Tumblr and twitter, all of which are completely safe depending on your set privacy settings and who you allow to be you friend. You have to be careful when publishing your personal details on any social site and be aware that if you’re not careful that just about any person can find out information about you which is always dangerous.

 

These sites are available to absolutely any person of any age but are most popular to the younger generation as these type of sites are a relatively new service, this is also the reason that there is currently no confirmed charge for membership, in some cases a charge price has not yet been established.

 

Social networking sites are extremely common today; they are starting to take over some peoples life’s as they are so widely available. It is now possible to upload these networking sites to your phone which means wherever you go you can always have some form of contacting people. This is not always a good thing though, nearly every teenager today has access to their own personal ‘profile’, this means that they are easily distracted, when really they should be concentrating on their homework and revision for school. But social sites and blogs can be so mesmerising as for a teenager they hold a lot of funny and interesting photos or quotes, this makes it simple for people to sit on the internet for hours on end and completely discard the thought of school work.  I know that social networking sites can become brain washing from personal experience; I used to sit next to my laptop with Facebook open the whole time I was trying to study for my exams. I automatically got distracted when someone either engaged in conversation with me or a post caught my eye as i found it interesting. This put me off doing my work as it was much less entertaining then scrolling through Facebook news feeds.

 

The 'At' symbol which is nessersary
in every email address today.

E-Mail

Also known as electronic mail, E-mail consists of sending real times message to another internet user who has their own e-mail or in fact many recipients at once. This could also be known as instant messaging through the internet, this is very similar to text messages using a mobile phone. An E-mail message send over the internet consists of three components; these are the message envelope, message header and finally the message body. The first E-mail was ‘mailbox’ which was first introduced in 1965. E-mail is one of the most popular forms of contacting people today, especially to the younger generation. It is extremely useful to internet users in any case; it is a quick way to contact you employees within a work force if you have something to say of any importance, it saves you having to tell them in person. E-mail today is comparable to using chat rooms, but unlike chat rooms people have to be invited to a conversation in order to join. 

 

When any person makes an e-mail account, if they wish to contact people they know through email, they have to make it slightly obvious who they are through the name of the email its self; so that user can be identified easily. E-mail users can keep track of welcome guests and contacts by makings a series of different categorized lists.  

 

When a contact sends an email to another user, the receiver is alerted of this message immediately without usually having to be signed in to your personal email.

E-mail is almost essential today, but it also exposes organizations to a variety of risks. One of the best ways to minimise the risks of e-mail is for an organization to distribute an E-mail Policy to all of the company’s employees and to make sure that new employees receive it when they are hired.

 

The main risk of e-mails is that it is easy for just about anyone to track down your email and send you an attachment which may sound like it is advertising something or sending you a useful piece of information, when really you could be opening up a link to a virus which will attack your PC. This tends to happen often on MSN messenger because younger children seem to think it’s funny to send around viruses.

Introduction to online services

My blog will contain information about what life involving a number of different types of online services is like today. It will cover a series of interesting topics which may come of use to people and teach you about topics which may be of useful knowledge to hold.

Online services have developed over time and will continue to develop further in the future, so if you are up to date with what most online services hold today then this may come as a use in the future as you will be aware of the changes that have taken place. There are series of different online services which is contained within the internet, this has been since the World Wide Web was emerged and became an everyday use for the average person. There are many different categories which fit into online services, I will be discussing about a selection of these in detail. The categories I have chosen to research are:

Communication

This section will cover a selection of different pieces of information about ways of communicating with other members of the public today. The popularirty of different forms of communication will be explored and explained, this includes both using the internet to do so and also other forms such as the use of SMS on a mobile phone.

Entertainment

People today find many ways of entertaining and amusing theirselfs. But when im talking about entertainment i mean through the use of multimedia, this is the most popular type of entertainment around. This includes most of what is done through the internet today, such as video streaming and downloading has become very well known to do rather then buying films they are now downloadable also, the same goes for music.

Commerce

Commerce is an organized system for the exchange of goods between the members of the industrial world and the means of advertising them. It looks after the distribution aspect of a business. Whatever is produced it must then be consumed. There is the the need for commerce which is concerned with the smooth buying and selling of goods and services, a prime example of this is online shopping.

Real Time

Real time is the involvement between us and what is happening right now in the world today. A number of aspects of real time are purely based to holding a series of usful information that may be needed to know by the general public, such as the weather. Real time is inforation that id provided to us and is available at any time, just like it is possible for us to look up train timetables for convieniance.

Education

Education has changed dramatically over the years including the ways in which children are being taugh and the help that is available to them, there are now hundreds of educational websites that never used to be a option to the younger generation years ago. All information that is needed for children to learn today is some place on the internet meaning children have a much wider chance of getting better grades.

Goverment

How we lead out lifes today is totally dependant on the choices the goverments makes for us, we have to follow the rules which have been inflicted, these rules differs to the rules which used to apply. But exactly how have they changed?

Business

The biggest importance of a business is that it provides products or services to customers. These products or services in the world today are provided by entrepreneurs who organize, manage and assume the risk of starting businesses mainly for earning profit. A business makes the best possible use of scarce resources such as men, machines and materials for the production of goods. But how are businesses coping today?