The invasion of skies by Satellite Television channels is the beginning of the development of new technologies that have emerged since the mid-1990s. This development has led to Internet-based applications known as social media that enable people to interact and share information through media that were non-existent or widely unavailable sometime before.
In the last five years, social media have played an increasing role in various activities of human lives, including Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (ISCRAM). We all know that the communication revolution has brought about astonishing changes in our society. Many of us have a computer, more powerful than those that controlled the first lunar landings, in our pockets, which also serves as a telephone and as a television. Such advances are a revolution as significant as the one initiated by the Gutenberg printing press; the difference is that we are in the midst of this new revolution.
The
revolution of the "Gutenberg Galaxy," as Marshall McLuhan might have
put it, is nowhere near a close; since artificial intelligence is in its
infancy, and it will play an ever-greater role in mass communication, "Social
Media" will continue to change and to change our world. There’s a dire need that we must understand
"Social Media" in the same way that McLuhan argued it was essential
that we understand "media hot and cool," wherein the distinction
between "hot and cool" media has blurred in an age of universal digitisation.
This
book aims to provide both an overarching metaphor and clearly-explained
technical information which can serve to guide us through Social Media driven
by new technologies. For the reason that this book thoroughly discusses various
concepts of Social Media, this book has been aptly entitled, “Social Media: The
Distinct Culture of Connectivity.”
—The Author
