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University of Huddersfield Repository Penni, Janice The Online Evolution of Social Media: An Extensive Exploration of a Technological Phenomenomen and its Extended Use in Various Activities Original Citation Penni, Janice (2015) The Online Evolution of Social Media: An Extensive Exploration of a Technological Phenomenomen and its Extended Use in Various Activities. Masters thesis, University of Huddersfield. This version is available at http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/id/eprint/28332/ The University Repository is a digital collection of the research output of the University, available on Open Access. Copyright and Moral Rights for the items on this site are retained by the individual author and/or other copyright owners. Users may access full items free of charge; copies of full text items generally can be reproduced, displayed or performed and given to third parties in any format or medium for personal research or study, educational or not-for-profit purposes without prior permission or charge, provided: • The authors, title and full bibliographic details is credited in any copy; • A hyperlink and/or URL is included for the original metadata page; and • The content is not changed in any way. For more information, including our policy and submission procedure, please contact the Repository Team at: [email protected]. http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/ THE ONLINE EVOLUTION OF SOCIAL MEDIA: AN EXTENSIVE EXPLORATION OF A TECHNOLOGICAL PHENOMENOMEN AND ITS EXTENDED USE IN VARIOUS ACTIVITIES By Janice F.Y. Penni A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER by Research In THE SCHOOL OF COMPUTING AND ENGINEERING STUDIES THE UNIVERSITY OF HUDDERSFIELD April 2015 © Janice Penni, 2015 Abstract The rise and popularity of Social media technologies has created an interactive and communicative global phenomenon that has enabled billions of users to connect to other individuals to not just Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn; but also with media sharing platforms such as Instagram and Pinterest. The aim of the research is to provide an overview of the evolution of online social media in order to contribute to current literature for a better understanding of this technological phenomenon. In this context, the study examine questions that help define social media and Web 2.0 applications, the functionalities, characteristics, usage, classifications, the history and development and challenges surrounding social media technologies as well as the value and impact in e- government services. Based on a number of nationwide surveys of more than 2000 American citizens, the study explored several characteristics of social media use. The results of the quantitative analysis show that there are considerable differences in the communication activities on popular social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, LinkedIn, YouTube and Instagram which includes the extent, purpose and classification of social media usage as well as social media users general attitudes towards the technologies. The results present the differences in the demographic groups particularly in terms of gender, age, education and income and the factors that determine the use of social media platforms. The findings revealed that there is a strong relationship between age and gender and social media technologies and that the variables have a significant impact on how social media is used for social purposes. Age and gender was also strong predictors of social media use and the future usage of the tools. The results also showed that women, the younger generation, college graduates and those with higher incomes were dominant users of social media. The findings also indicated that media sharing platforms are becoming popular, for example, respondents who used YouTube are also more likely to use Instagram, due to the rise of video and photo tools dominating social activities. Future implications of social media technologies for social networking activities are also discussed. i Table of Contents Abstract ........................................................................................................................................... i Table of Contents .......................................................................................................................... ii List of Tables ................................................................................................................................ vi List of Figures .............................................................................................................................. vii Chapter 1: Main Body ...................................................................................................................1 1.1 Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter 2: Literature Review .......................................................................................................5 2.1 Social Media ................................................................................................................... 5 2.1.1 Definition of Social Media.......................................................................................... 6 2.1.2 Definition of Social Networks .................................................................................... 6 2.1.3 The chronology of social media .................................................................................. 6 2.1.4 The 1970s .................................................................................................................... 6 2.1.5 The 1980s .................................................................................................................... 7 2.1.6 The 1990s .................................................................................................................... 8 2.1.7 The early 2000s ........................................................................................................... 9 2.1.8 The late 2000s ........................................................................................................... 11 2.2 The role of social media ................................................................................................ 12 2.2.1 Social media use and profile of users ....................................................................... 12 2.2.2 Functionalities and usage of social media and social networks ................................ 13 2.2.3 Characteristics and classifications of social media and social networks .................. 14 2.2.4 Web Generation ........................................................................................................ 18 ii 2.3 Web 2.0 and social media tools .................................................................................... 19 2.3.1 Web 2.0 applications and tools ................................................................................. 19 2.3.2 Range of social media technologies and mobile social networks ............................. 20 2.4 Mobile Social Media ..................................................................................................... 22 2.4.1 Definition and context............................................................................................... 22 2.4.2 Segmentation of Mobile Social Networking............................................................. 24 2.5 An Overview of Web 2.0 applications .......................................................................... 26 2.5.1 Web Social Media ..................................................................................................... 26 2.6 Social Networks and Web 2.0 tools in E-Government ............................................... 29 2.6.1 Social Media in e-Governance .................................................................................. 29 2.6.2 Advantages of Using Social Media in e-Governance ............................................... 29 2.7 E-Government and Social media .................................................................................. 32 2.7.1 Migrating towards E-Government 2.0 and M-Government ..................................... 32 2.7.2 Citizen engagement, citizen trust, citizen conduct, participation, and co-production 35 2.7.3 The demand –side of social media in government and the interaction of citizens and public authorities using social media tools and applications ................................................ 36 2.7.4 The Limitations and challenges of social media and in the government .................. 38 2.7.5 Future Implications for Governments ....................................................................... 40 2.8 Summary of Literature Review Analysis ...................................................................... 41 2.8.1 Summary of social media and e-government ............................................................ 50 Chapter 3: Methodology..............................................................................................................53 3.1 Formulating the review question .................................................................................. 53 iii 3.2 Defining inclusion and exclusion criteria ..................................................................... 53 3.3 Developing search strategies and locating studies ........................................................ 54 3.4 Selection of studies ......................................................................................................