Definitional Argument : Social media

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Social Media: Definitional Argument
1. Part One: Writing Studio Draft
Technology has always been around. For millennia, humans have learned to develop and master using different innovations for numerous purposes including, of course, for survival. In ancient ages, innovations were more or less easy to use and, perhaps more interestingly, easier to predict. The use of sticks, for example, to produce fire was understandable given how simple making a fire was millennia ago. The progress of human civilization – and, for that matter, inventions – has made innovations more complex, more widely adopted and, for one, increasingly, harder to predict long-run outcomes of. Today, innovations are not only harder to predict yet, more importantly if not dangerously, more manipulative and elusive. Take online platforms and websites.
In early Internet days, online chat and discussion boards were so popular yet also so simple and easily predictable. In essence, users simply wrote something in a way similar someone writes on a notebook and press “Send.” The answers were just as straightforward and predictable from registered users. The focus in online chat and discussion boards was, indeed, on conversations per se. That is, given how simple design of chat and discussion boards was, users, not distracted by so many features or notifications, were almost exclusively focused on ongoing conversations, i.e. substance, not form. The case for a conversation-only chat is no, or at least largely, not applicable to more sophisticated online social interaction applications and platforms including, most notably, social media.
Today, social media has come to dominate everyday life for millions. If anything, millions of all ages, backgrounds and education are now literally hooked to social media platforms, particularly n
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cell phones. The volume of interactions on any given day and for any given country is, indeed, beyond
imagination. In contrast to earlier (and much simpler in design) chat and discussion boards, social
media – including, most notably, wildly popular services such as Facebook, Twitter and SnapChat – do
not only far surpass earlier social boards in content but in design sophistication and, more interestingly,
user manipulation. Specifically, social media – and, for that matter, similar user engagement
innovations including AI-enabled devices – now increasingly include design features and user
experience attention grabbers making conversations a matter of secondary importance and laying more
emphasis, intentionally or not, on user's attention and, for commercial purposes, pocket. In so doing,
social media have come to shape, directly or not, user experiences, if not behaviors, instead of being
enablers for user interaction and empowerment.
The current state of social media affairs raises a very legitimate question about what social media are all about. Or, in a more contemplative manner, what social media are. That is, if in early Internet days a much more simpler and “innocent” goal of developing chat and discussion boards was to enhance user interaction and enable deeper conversations (at minimal feature and design distractions), what social media platforms stand for, or are about, when more sophisticated features and design components are included and which, according to many analysts and critics, shepherd users in ways users may not approve of should underlying rationale – and, for that matter, manipulative features
– are made more explicit and under user radar. To offer a balanced argument, a more in-depth discussion is required of current and future state of affairs and applications of social media. This definitional argument aims, accordingly, to provide a working definition of social media in accordance to current and possible future usability features and design components shifting user's attention away from interactions and conversations per se into more manipulative purposes crafted by developers and designers of such media.
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2. Part 2: Final Copy
Typically, getting social means establishing social connections in direct and/or indirect circles one is expected to be in. The concept of “man-as-a-social-animal” has been around for decades. Indeed, everyone connects to people in different social settings in one way or another. The way one chooses, or is sometimes forced, to form social relations has, however, always been a matter of debate and, for one, of constant evolution. In ancient ages, humans needed to be available in close physical settings to socialize. Or, if need arose, had to travel long distances, often for months, to establish connections for different purposes. Moreover, a connection established for one purposes usually developed into different forms of human interactions such as commerce, marriage or peace-making. The journey of human civilization and progress has changed, undeniably, how, where and when humans choose, or are forced to, interact for social purposes. The adaption of agriculture, for instance, as a basic means of subsistence, after or in addition to hunting-gathering phase, drew human communities closer and, by growing social connections, whole new forms of developed civilizations were created. The advent of Industrial Revolution had, similarly yet in more nuanced ways, reshaped human socialization and interaction processes. For instance, in lieu of more direct and communal social exchanges, so common in agricultural societies and communities, people, particularly city residents, came to develop social relations not so much direct or face to face yet increasingly mediated by different emerging communication innovations including, most primarily, expedited letter exchange methods and landline phones. That is, humanity can, in a sense, be said to have moved from more direct and immediate face-to-face interaction methods during socialization into more indirect, or mediated, forms. In more advanced phases of a postmodern world, such as one humanity now experiences, mediated communication has...