There may be a lot of reasons why individuals choose a particular media and not others. This could be related to interest, convenience, peer influence, privacy and the state of the technologies itself.

Social media serves to exchange information amongst people and they can take many forms. We can group them broadly into four types.

1. Social networking: As you have read in the previous pages, social networking websites are the most common form of social media, with examples ranging from Friendster, Facebook, Myspace and others. These websites allow users to become "friends" with actual friends, relatives, business colleagues, and people they may not actually know in real life. As a person's social network grows, more connections and information are exchanged, as well as exposure to new people. Almost all of them share some common features which are as follows:

• Permits individual users to create profiles containing various information about themselves.
• Provision to create groups that share common interests or affiliations.
• Users can often upload pictures of themselves to their profiles and stream videos.
• Allows users to post blog entries for others to read.
• Allows users to search for other users with similar interests, and compile and share lists of contacts.
• Provides users with windows for dedicated conversations and commentary from friends and other users.
• Contains provisions for user privacy.
• Allows controls through which users can choose who can view their profile, contact them, add them to their list of contacts, and so on.
• Facilitates discussions in forums.

2. Blogs: The term blog is derived from ‘web logs'. Blogs are web pages where people "publish" content that is new. These are referred to as 'posts'. Some of these blogs are hosted by individuals while others by existing publications such as Malaysiakini. Anyone can blog on any topic - expertise in Web design, desktop publishing, file sharing or any of the technical aspects of the Internet is not necessary. Because blogs are so easy to start and maintain, there are thousands on the Internet in every imaginable category: personal, political, educational, corporate, activist, journalistic, and so on. Blog content can be controversial, provocative and informal and seek commentary from readers of the blog. If you frequent the blogosphere you may note that very often these commentaries turn into a virtual conversation between or amongst strangers. Blog entries are easy to update and one can maintain excellent records of the entries. The following are a few notable features of blogs:

• Posts appear immediately after publishing.
• Users can comment on posts if the blog owner allows it, and the comments can be displayed alongside the posts.
• Blogs are easier to start and maintain than traditional websites.
• Many sites offer free hosting for blogs.
• Most blogs can incorporate multimedia (photos, music, video, etc.).
• Blogs can post links to other websites which visitors can follow.
• Posts are automatically archived and searchable.
• Blogs can either be publicly displayed on the Internet or can be set up so that access is limited to a small group (or a single teacher).

3. Micro-blogging is a form of blogging, but a limitation on the size of the posting. One of the most popular media amongst Malaysians (especially our political leaders and film stars) is Twitter. This site allows users to exchange thoughts, ideas, news, and personal information in 140 characters or less. It permits users to exchange information in sharp short bursts. Micro-blogging services have revolutionised the way information is consumed. It has empowered citizens themselves to act as sensors or sources of data which could lead to important pieces of information. People now share what they observe in their surroundings, information about events, and what their opinions are about certain topics, for example government policies in healthcare. Moreover, these services store various metadata from these posts, such as the location and time of these shared posts. (Wikipedia: Microblogging)

• Permits almost everything available through blogs.
• Small file size in actual and aggregate.
• Permits text, images and videos
• Allows for text messaging, instant messaging, email and audio.
• Permits privacy settings and access.

4. Wikis: Most of you are familiar with Wikipedia - the most famous of all wikis. There are Wikieducation, Wikimedia, Wikibooks, Wikiuniversity, etc. A ‘wiki', is Hawaiian word for "quick," is a set of interconnected webpages that can be edited by those visiting it. In traditional "Web 1.0" a website is like a book or magazine page, published by one person and viewed by many, but a "Web 2.0" Wiki page is actually edited by the visitors. Wikipedia, is an online encyclopaedia that is created and edited by its millions of users. Within a very short period of time it has replaced most if not all older encyclopaedias. The following are key features of wikis:

• Wikis have a "page history" feature that allows all changes to be tracked and reversed. If a student were to delete or deface a wiki page, the administrator can revert the page to what it looked like before the changes, as well as see who the vandal was. Wikis can be opened to the Internet public, or protected with a password.
• A visitor to a wiki can add, delete or edit any content on any page.
• Wikis can easily post pictures and some can post other media, like music and video.
• Wikis are designed so that any word or phrase can be set up as a hyperlink to either an external website or another wiki page.
• Often wikis require you to create the link to a new page first, and only then create the page that it links to.
• Wikis have spawned a large-scale cultural debate about the "accuracy" of information that comes from the public rather than experts.
• Studies have found large-scale wikis like Wikipedia to be self-correcting and quite accurate, though double-checking information found on wikis is usually encouraged.

5. Professional networks: A good example of a professional network is LinkedIn. There are many others like Netparty, Plaxo, Tyze, Talkbiznow and Xing and many more. Edutopia is a Facebook community of educators from Commonwealth of Nations. If you have time visit this page: http://www.educationalnetworking.com/List+of+Networks

• These networks allow professionals to network with one another via the Internet and exchange information about their professional fields.
• Many professionals use sites like LinkedIn to improve on their professionalism, and supplement their social media image with profiles on Facebook, feeds on Twitter, and blogs. These allow professionals to gather information relevant to them directly.
• Professional networks will have most of the features contained in the more general SNS. Besides that they will also build in extended privacy features and specific events, activities and referral services.

In Table 3.5 below shows how three of the sites that we have described support teaching in the classroom. Do you see any similarities or differences between the networks that you have listed and those listed below?

Table 3.5 Classroom relevance of three forms of social media.
Source: Extracted and abstracted from the New York Times (2008)