2.+What+is+Social+Media?


 * Social Media ﻿and the Influence on Children **

**__ ﻿What is Social Media? __** In order to get a better understanding of how social media influences children, we need to find out what exactly social media is. Social media is connecting people through social networking sites on the computers including: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Texting, MySpace, MSN messenger, Skype. Although most social media is geared towards teenagers and adults, there are, however, social media aimed towards young children some types of sites are Disney Fairies, Moshi Monsters, WebKinz and Build-A-Bearville. There are many games in which children can go on the internet and interact with others from around the world. Webkinz, for example, is a website for children in which you an animal of choice is first purchased, thus giving you access to the Webkinz on the internet. On this particular website, children play games in order to obtain money for them to purchase rooms, furniture, food and clothes. Also, social interaction is used, however, this website only allows you to click on the sentence you would like to send to another person. That way children are protected from any foul language and inapprioate transactions. In the video clip below, is an example of two children playing Webkinz. One child is ten years of age and the other child is nine. In this clip, we will observe the children playing the game and the social interaction these children have with other children playing on WebKinz as well. As previously mentioned, this particular website only allows the children to choose the scripted sentences to send to their networking friends. This video clip will give an idea of how children interact with social media. media type="file" key="Social Media Video-iPhone-cell.3gp" width="300" height="300"