Social Networking Sites

While all social networking sites having the main purpose of connecting people, different sites take different approaches. When comparing between four different sites, it’s evident that each of them have their own unique touch. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Reddit are all social networking sites that have similarities and differences, yet are still intertwined.

Facebook, one of the most popular forms of social networking for years, serves as a great way to keep in touch with others. It allows people to post pictures, videos, and their feelings on different matters without a limit. Most user content is only viewable if they are on your “Friends” list. However, Facebook Is not just limited to family and friends, it can be used for businesses and promotions too.

Twitter on the other hand is much more different since people “follow” each other and topics that they are interested in. Tweets are 280 characters so people must be concise with what they are saying. Twitter allows people to broaden their circle because people can search up a certain word and many different tweets will show up. Hashtags are a big part of Twitter because they allow people to participate in topics all at once and which topics are “trending” both worldwide and locally. As stated in the Mashable article, Twitter used to have other sites which were necessary to be able to post pictures and videos, however, Twitter eventually decided to allow picture and video posting. At first it started with only one picture being allowed to be posted, but now it is up to four.

Similar to Twitter, Instagram is structured around the idea of “following” people and topics. Instagram focuses more on pictures but does allow captions which have a limit 2,200 characters. Hashtags are a big part of Instagram too and much like Twitter they are used to find new posts, but also grow your following.

Reddit is the most different from the others. It is more like a blog and forum where people can post under “sub reddits” based on topics that their post is focusing on. Because posts are based on categories, people can find exactly what they are looking for easily.Other users vote on these posts and those with more votes will show up first. Reddit allows different forms of media to be posted no matter what the content is.