A system is a set of elements or parts that rely on each other to carry out an intended purpose. Systems may or may not serve human purposes. The elements of the system may or may not be tangible. Despite the ambiguity, systems are always present. Some are critical to our physiological well-being like our organ system. Others, such as human resource systems are important for our stability. And, even others meet our needs of belonging. A prime example is social media.
Social media has become a tool for individuals, businesses, non-profit organizations and special interest groups to communicate and share information. SM, as it is commonly referred to, has become a technique for monitoring, entertainment, outreach, learning, and even crime-fighting. There are many types that serve to communicate, collect, and curate. SM is used by young children and teenagers, college students and new professionals, the middle-aged, and senior citizens. All religions, ethnicities and races, professions, genders and abilities use some form of social media—it does not discriminate.
Social media is a system. It is composed of various parts that affect each other. To fulfill a specific purpose, the elements work together. As illustrated in the concept map above, SM must be purpose-driven and specific types of SM must be selected to reach a targeted user base. As users of social media, we must be strategic and select the elements that best enable us to meet our many individual, group, and community purposes.
Contributed by Sarah Ho
National FFA Convention Roadtrip 
Nice illustration! I did one similar but didn’t include users. Never thought about social media not discriminating. 🙂
I agree with most of your blog post. The concept map is rad and colorful, and you’re correct when saying strategery (yes, it’s a word) and targeting an audience matter. Most of the time, that is, unless you’re posting cathartic stuff so people will ask what’s wrong with your life.
Anyway. . . .
Social media is useful to those with smartphones, WiFi, and money. While SM does not discriminate, in a way it does because unless you have what I previously listed then you’re in the out-group, a group of people that want to be cool but don’t have the means to be or don’t know what cool is.
What would be awesome is if everyone had access to social media. Now I know local libraries offer services for people without Internet, but often times the wait to use an outdated computer might deter someone from hopping online to chat with whomever. I’m assuming they have someone to chat with!
The way that you connected both parts of our lecture, systems and social media, was perfectly illustrated. Having the link between the two attaches a purpose to why social media exists in the first place. Great Job!
This illustration is an excellent way to show how the different types of social media are part of a system. I like it!
This really helps explain why social media is very important. The graphic really ties everything together!
I loved the way you connected everything we learned in class together! I’m definitely a visual learner (as I learned in my learning style in class today) and this helped me focus better! What a wonderful idea…and an awesome post!
I was not in class for this lecture and only got a small portion from what the power points said but you helped me grasp how both of these subjects related! The illustration drew the whole thing together. Really nice job!
This is a great example of how to utilize social media in order to bring together information from different sources in a aesthetically pleasing manner. Everything in here makes sense.
Nice social media map! I really appreciate you tying users into your social media system. This is something many often forget to do, but it helps make a big picture of who is using social media.
This info-graphic is really cool! For something like social media which is hard to wrap your head around it really helps simplify it all!
Great image to use for this type of information being presented. It makes a strong statement that social media is indeed a system through out our community today.
This is a really great connection you presented between systems thinking and social media. Your illustration really presents a great composite of what you were presenting to the audience and gave me a better understanding towards the connection of systems thinking and SM.
Wow, this is so great! What a great way to illustrate this into such a dynamic system. This makes all the connections so much easier to see as well! Great job!
Your social media map really helps break down social media as a system. The visual representation is a nice touch in helping people understand the different components of the social media system.
I am a huge fan of visual representation, and the way that you utilized this tool really helped me have a better understanding of social media and how it works. You did an outstanding job using colors, and bullets to really map out the entire breakdown of things clearly. Well done.