Social media literacy

Social media emerged alongside widespread public access to the internet in the late 1990’s, beginning with the profile uploading service Six Degrees. In the following decade, blogs, networking sites, and social networking services such as Linkedin, Myspace, and Friendster emerged^[1]. Today, social media refers to the interactions among users who create, share, and exchange information in virtual networks. Social media is used for a myriad of reasons, including socializing, marketing, acquiring news and other information, professional networking, etc^[2]. Social media is primarily characterized by its reliance on user-generated content, allowing for content creation alongside the mass consumption of content. In addition, social interacts through social media take place in real time, contrary to other forms of communication, whether analog, like letters, or digital, like email^[3].

Effects and Drawbacks

Users on social media consume content that is filtered, whether willingly filtered by oneself or filtered through the use of algorithms, which often leads to confirmation bias. In addition, users also choose who they interact with, which enables the forming of isolated groups who become further polarized with through confirmation bias and who often foster a hatred of those outside them. In addition, user-generated aspect of social media, which lacks any kind of fact-checking or verification system, quickly leads to the dissemination of fake news and misinformation, which can manipulate people’s beliefs. Algorithms also prefer fake news, which is reactionary and controversial, making it go viral very easily. Misinformation or fake news can lead to further polarization, either contributing to confirmation bias or a hatred of those outside them^[3].

Social media can often create a toxic culture of comparison and competition, where individuals selectively choose the aspects of their life to present online, creating a false narrative that others then compare themselves too. Features such as filters and photo editing tools play into this false narrative, allowing for images on social media to be edited and manipulated and creating unrealistic beauty standards^[4]. This often leads users into feeling insecure of their own bodies, taking a negative toll on their physical and mental health. By changing the perception of one’s body, the proliferation of idealized and manipulated appearances on social media has been known to cause eating disorders and body dysmorphia^[3]. Research has shown that social media use correlates with experiencing body dissatisfaction and dietary restraint^[5].

Through social media has significant negative drawbacks, the use of social media is not inherently negative and can be used to increase social capital, develop friendships, and reduce feelings of loneliness through the fraternization of like-minded individuals. Social media also enables group collaboration and the dialogue of a large group who produce content. Such dialogue has been known to produce positive results, such as the emergence of social media activism in movements like the Arab Spring Revolution or the #MeToo movement.

Development of Social Media Literacy

Social media literacy is a form of media literacy, which is understood as the skills and competencies required to critically engage with media through the ability to access, analyze, evaluate, create, and participate with media in a variety of forms. One of the core aspects of media literacy is its emphasis on promoting critical thinking, enabling students to understand how media is produced, identify bias, and distinguish misinformation and fact. However, much of media literacy and the education that surrounds it focuses on traditional media such as advertisements and news. As social media has transformed the mass media landscape, it has prompted an update to traditional media literacy literature and theory^[3].

Digital literacy is one approach to redefining media literacy, and encompasses the competences around the use of “digital media, computers, and information and communication technologies.” Its importance is emphasized by the new era known as the ‘information age,’ where individuals are permanently receiving messages from a variety of digital sources and where information is constantly being digitized, promoting the need to understand how to navigate the digital space^[3].

However, digital literacy does not develop a critical approach to digital media, an aspect critical to media literacy. Thus, many consider social media literacy the adequate update to media literacy.

Components of Social Media Literacy

Like media literacy, social media literacy emphasizing critical thinking in relation to social media content. The critical component of social media includes understanding, analyzing, evaluation, synthesizing, and interpreting social media content.^[3] Social media literacy encompasses the same critical thinking skills as media literacy, allowing students to identify bias and misinformation in media, while also promoting competencies specific to the social media landscape, such as how to use social media, identifying scams and frauds, and maintaining online etiquette. ^[6]

For users that create content, the sharing of information elicits an understanding of the implications of sharing personal information and data and the formation of a digital footprint, as the information put out onto the web is used by social media platforms and shared with other companies. Content on social media is also known to have an indefinite lifespan, despite attempts to delete it or erase it, meaning that potentially harmful, controversial, or ill-intentioned content can have negative repercussions on one’s reputation. Social media literacy develops a critical understanding of these implications, enabling users to post information that is not potentially harmful to oneself or to other social media users.

Using social media also requires an contextual understanding of social media within the broader economic and social digital landscape of digital capitalism, which describes the economic relationship between companies and users who have redefined digital data as a form of capital^[7]. In addition to accumulating and selling data, as social media companies build algorithms with the intent of generating profit and capitalizing off of users’ attentions. As social media companies essentially derive profit from keeping their users engaged on their platform for as long as possible, maximizing the number of ads consumers see and the amount of content they interact with, social media platforms aim to design algorithms that specifically appeal to a user’s interests.^[8] However, issues have arisen as these algorithms push users into products and lifestyles and create echo chambers and fragmentation through confirmation bias.^[9]

Building off of digital literacy, social media literacy also encompasses technical competences that include the ability to create and share content as well as the ability to navigate the social media scene by finding information, utilizing functions such as privacy settings, creating social media accounts, and making videos.^[3]

Impacts of Social Media Literacy

Social media literacy aims to uplift the positive aspects and benefits of social media while providing users with strategies to mitigate or protect against negative aspects such as damaging trends, cyberbullying, or polarization. Thus, the development of social media competences can have a positive effect on uplifting mental and physical health^[3]. In addition, social media literacy was found to have a positive impact on student engagement in the online learning environment by promoting technical competencies as well as cognitive competencies that enabled students to interpret and generate content more critically.^[10]

1. ↑ Wordpress, 2U (2020-05-28). "The Evolution of Social Media: How Did It Begin, and Where Could It Go Next?". Maryville University Online. Retrieved 2024-04-08.
2. ↑ "Social Media Overview". Communications. Retrieved 2024-04-08.
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7} Polanco-Levicán, Karina; Salvo-Garrido, Sonia (2022-07-20). "Understanding Social Media Literacy: A Systematic Review of the Concept and Its Competences". International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 19 (14): 8807. doi:10.3390/ijerph19148807. ISSN 1661-7827. PMID 35886657. PMC 9325204. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9325204/. 
4. ↑ "Social Media and Body Image: What's the Link?". Psych Central. 2016-06-17. Retrieved 2024-04-08.
5. ↑ "From social media to body image and back". Division of Research. 2024-01-16. Retrieved 2024-04-08.
6. ↑ "What is Social Media Literacy, and How to Develop It?". www.socialplug.io. Retrieved 2024-04-08.
7. ↑ https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/01634437211053766#:~:text=Social%20media%20can%20be%20put,commodification%20(Baudrillard%2C%202016)
8. ↑ "Social Media Algorithms: Why You See What You See". Georgetown Law Technology Review. 2017-12-04. Retrieved 2024-04-08.
9. ↑ Muha, Tom (2022-10-09). "Social media prioritizes profit over people". The Michigan Daily. Retrieved 2024-04-08.
10. ↑ Tran‐Duong, Quoc Hoa; Vo‐Thi, Ngoc‐Tram (2023-12). "The influence of social media literacy on student engagement in online learning". Journal of Computer Assisted Learning 39 (6): 1888–1901. doi:10.1111/jcal.12849. ISSN 0266-4909. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jcal.12849.