By Payal Dhar: Since the time humans discovered fire and invented the wheel, technology has been making our lives easier one innovation at a time. These days the buzz is all about ‘social media’, that ubiquitous term that professes to keep us connected and updated without even having to shift our butts from our chairs.But if you’re new to social media — to Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and so on — you’d be forgiven for thinking that you need a PhD in some obscure variation of English to understand the terminology being thrown around. So here’s a bit of help — 10 social-media-related terms you should know — in alphabetical order... Avatar: Nothing divine about this one. In fact, it’s very down-to-earth: if you’re on social media, an avatar is the icon that identifies you. Usually, you’ll see a little graphic next to your username, where you are allowed to put an image yourself or anything else you fancy. That’s your avatar. (In gaming terminology, an avatar is your alter-ego or the character you represent.) Favourite: You’re most likely to come across this spelt as ‘favorite’ and even — horror of horrors — see it used as a verb as well as a noun. To ‘favorite something’ is to either bookmark a link (especially in internet explorer terminology) or mark an item for easy access for future reference. Friend: Ha, not the kind who’ll give you the shirt off their backs or stand by you in times of need! In the world of social media, a friend is merely someone who’s a contact on your facebook (or other social networking) account. So, having 300 friends merely means your account is connected with 300 other people’s accounts—that you may not even know (or like) some of these people is a different thing altogether. By the way, ‘friend’ can also be used as a verb in social-media-speak: when you ‘friend someone’, you add them to your network. Hashtag: You won’t get any jollies from this hash. Hashtag refers to a term preceded by the # (hash) sign to group or identify a messages pertaining to a specific topic. Hashtags cannot contain spaces. Examples: #Elections2014 or #Goodbye CristinaYang. Post: Not the same thing as you get in your mailbox (real or virtual). The Oxford dictionary defines “post” in this context as “an internet posting”, which is quite vague, though, in fact, a pretty accurate explanation. A post can encompass a blog entry, a Facebook comment, a tweet or anything else on social media. (Contrast this with “comment”, which refers to a reaction to a post.) Profile: Quite different from a sideways view of your face, a profile in social-media terms should really be called “user profile”, a summary of personal information about a person (or thing). Trend: This one is actually exactly what it sounds like, but is another of those annoying examples of a noun co-opted as a verb on social media. So you’re likely to come across “trending topics”, which are essentially topics that are popular at the moment and generating lots of comment and interest. Troll: Thinking of an “ugly cave-dwelling creature” (Oxford)? You may not be that far off the mark. On social media, trolls refer to troublemakers who wield their metaphorical clubs to post incendiary messages, mostly in order to provoke other people. Tweet: Not that sweet sound outside your window, but rather a cacophony of sorts. A tweet refers to a post made on the social networking site known as Twitter. A tweet can be a maximum of 140 characters. They often contain hashtags to identify with a trending topic. (If that sentence made sense to you, you’re well on your way to conquering social media!) Viral: It’s not infectious, but you might catch it anyway. On the internet, something is said to have “gone viral” if it becomes wildly popular in a short space of time and is quickly propagated around the web. (The author is a personal tech writer), Source: mydigitalfc.com, Image: flickr.com
Social media jargon deconstructed
By Payal Dhar: Since the time humans discovered fire and invented the wheel, technology has been making our lives easier one innovation at a time. These days the buzz is all about ‘social media’, that ubiquitous term that professes to keep us connected and updated without even having to shift our butts from our chairs.But if you’re new to social media — to Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and so on — you’d be forgiven for thinking that you need a PhD in some obscure variation of English to understand the terminology being thrown around. So here’s a bit of help — 10 social-media-related terms you should know — in alphabetical order... Avatar: Nothing divine about this one. In fact, it’s very down-to-earth: if you’re on social media, an avatar is the icon that identifies you. Usually, you’ll see a little graphic next to your username, where you are allowed to put an image yourself or anything else you fancy. That’s your avatar. (In gaming terminology, an avatar is your alter-ego or the character you represent.) Favourite: You’re most likely to come across this spelt as ‘favorite’ and even — horror of horrors — see it used as a verb as well as a noun. To ‘favorite something’ is to either bookmark a link (especially in internet explorer terminology) or mark an item for easy access for future reference. Friend: Ha, not the kind who’ll give you the shirt off their backs or stand by you in times of need! In the world of social media, a friend is merely someone who’s a contact on your facebook (or other social networking) account. So, having 300 friends merely means your account is connected with 300 other people’s accounts—that you may not even know (or like) some of these people is a different thing altogether. By the way, ‘friend’ can also be used as a verb in social-media-speak: when you ‘friend someone’, you add them to your network. Hashtag: You won’t get any jollies from this hash. Hashtag refers to a term preceded by the # (hash) sign to group or identify a messages pertaining to a specific topic. Hashtags cannot contain spaces. Examples: #Elections2014 or #Goodbye CristinaYang. Post: Not the same thing as you get in your mailbox (real or virtual). The Oxford dictionary defines “post” in this context as “an internet posting”, which is quite vague, though, in fact, a pretty accurate explanation. A post can encompass a blog entry, a Facebook comment, a tweet or anything else on social media. (Contrast this with “comment”, which refers to a reaction to a post.) Profile: Quite different from a sideways view of your face, a profile in social-media terms should really be called “user profile”, a summary of personal information about a person (or thing). Trend: This one is actually exactly what it sounds like, but is another of those annoying examples of a noun co-opted as a verb on social media. So you’re likely to come across “trending topics”, which are essentially topics that are popular at the moment and generating lots of comment and interest. Troll: Thinking of an “ugly cave-dwelling creature” (Oxford)? You may not be that far off the mark. On social media, trolls refer to troublemakers who wield their metaphorical clubs to post incendiary messages, mostly in order to provoke other people. Tweet: Not that sweet sound outside your window, but rather a cacophony of sorts. A tweet refers to a post made on the social networking site known as Twitter. A tweet can be a maximum of 140 characters. They often contain hashtags to identify with a trending topic. (If that sentence made sense to you, you’re well on your way to conquering social media!) Viral: It’s not infectious, but you might catch it anyway. On the internet, something is said to have “gone viral” if it becomes wildly popular in a short space of time and is quickly propagated around the web. (The author is a personal tech writer), Source: mydigitalfc.com, Image: flickr.com