What is social media used for?

While avoiding doing all of my work before spring break, I stumbled across the following diagram which describes how different people use social media.

Looking at the picture, you can see that the types of behavior are broken up into different categories.  The section with the highest percentages of social media use is Friends/Family.  Considering Facebook in particular, most people “friend” others because they are family, know them personally now, or used to know them.  Social media tools like this help people keep their network ties strong even when there is distance between them.

Another reason people use social media is for entertainment purposes.  While this does not exclusively apply to expanding your network, things like games and blogs can possibly forge connections between certain people.  Individuals with certain interests can meet others with the same interests and develop a personal tie that way.

Social media can also be a great outlet for products and services.  As we discussed in class, it can often take multiple exposures to a fact or piece of information for a person to actually believe it, and social media gives companies a way to put their product on the market.  Reviews from different consumers, either positive or negative, can determine whether or not a person will buy something.  Without social media, there would be less of an opportunity to be exposed to that feedback.  Unfortunately sometimes companies take advantage of this and create fake entries of positive feedback, but overall this can be very beneficial to consumers.

The final category for social media use is in finding jobs and expanding your professional network.  Sites like Linked-In are places where job opportunities and business contacts can be found which can be very beneficial if you are looking for a specific type of work in a certain area.

This diagram also helps us distinguish between the social media uses of men and women.  The percentages in purple are the ones that are comprised of mostly women and the ones in blue are mostly men.  With that in mind, we can tell that it is more common for women to use social media as a creative outlet, to give positive feedback, and to receive coupons.  On the opposite side, men use social media more than women when they are looking for jobs or business contacts as well as potential dating partners.

Looking at the percentages, it is more clear how people use social media and this information can be used to understand how people form relationships and friendship ties.