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  • Hi again, welcome to engVid.com.

  • I'm Adam.

  • In today's video, I want to talk to you about social media.

  • Now, all of you are, I'm sure, are aware of social media.

  • There're the big companies like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc.

  • Social media has basically taken over almost everyday life for a lot people, so today I

  • want to give you some vocabulary that you might need in order to be able to talk about

  • social media or understand people who are speaking about social media.

  • So, the first things I want to look at are - I want to look at a couple of pronunciation

  • issues, and I want to look at people, people you need to know who are on social media and

  • who affect everyday social media use.

  • So, the first thing I want to talk about is Twitter and tweeter, okay?

  • Twitter is a big company that you can send, you can post short messages and photos and

  • videos, etc.

  • And when you send out anything on Twitter, that's the company name, so Twitter is the

  • company, and a tweet is the message or the picture or video that you send out.

  • And a person who uses Twitter is called a tweeter, okay?

  • Someone who tweets.

  • So, it - ee.

  • A very slight difference, but it's important to understand.

  • If someone is talking about a tweeter they're talking about a person.

  • Anyone who makes videos on YouTube is a youtuber.

  • Now, generally speaking, when we talk about youtubers, we're talking about someone with

  • a following, someone who has a lot of subscribers, or a lot of followers, a lot of people watching

  • their videos.

  • Right now, there are about - there's millions of people making YouTube videos, you can't

  • call all of them youtubers.

  • The ones who are a bit more well known are youtubers.

  • So, I'm a youtuber, let's put it this way.

  • And all the other EngVid teachers are youtubers.

  • Now, someone on YouTube or Instagram or Facebook or any social media platform, and it's very

  • important to know this - all these social media sites are platforms where people can

  • engage each other.

  • So, a person on a social media platform who is very, very popular and many people following

  • and many subscribers, we call this person an influencer, okay?

  • Some people say "YouTube star", star, okay, so maybe very popular, but the more important

  • word is influencer, because this person has the power to influence a lot of people.

  • So, advertisers and, like, a lot of big companies, they try to get in touch with these influencers

  • to help them promote a product or sell a product or an event or information, etc.

  • So, influencer.

  • So next, we have trolls and haters, okay.

  • Very similar but subtle difference between the two.

  • A hater is just like the word says, a person who hates.

  • So, there are people who go online and they look through social media sites and look at

  • posts and pictures and whatever, and they just put something negative.

  • They put some sort of bad comment - "I hate you.", "You look ugly.", "You're stupid.",

  • "You're this and that".

  • These people have absolutely nothing else to do, okay?

  • They're sitting at home, they're bored and - "What should I do?

  • Ah okay, let me write some bad things to this person".

  • Why?

  • Because it's anonymous.

  • What does anonymous mean?

  • It means nobody knows the identity of this person.

  • So, a hater is basically somebody with nothing to do, who is bored, gets online, and writes

  • bad things.

  • The best thing to do with haters is ignore them.

  • If you're putting things on the internet, if you're posting things on your Facebook

  • page, on your Instagram page, on your Twitter page, whatever, and somebody comes and says

  • something negative, let it go.

  • Just move on.

  • It doesn't matter.

  • Don't worry about what this person says.

  • Even this person doesn't care about what he or she is saying.

  • But then you have a troll.

  • Now, a troll is generally similar to a hater, will usually come and write something negative,

  • the difference is that the hater, once he or she has written something, they just forget

  • about it.

  • A troll is trying to get a reaction, which - this makes a troll a lot more dangerous,

  • okay?

  • A troll will come and say something that he or she knows will annoy you or irritate you

  • or make you angry or make you sad, but he or she is hoping that you write something

  • back, because then they can write something bad again, and they want this exchange.

  • Again, the best thing to do: ignore the trolls.

  • And you'll hear if you listen to the news or you read newspapers, you hear about "trolling",

  • this is the action of what a troll does, you'll hear about people trolling each other, famous

  • people trolling each other.

  • They're acting like little children.

  • Ignore them, ignore the trolls on your site, move on.

  • Both of these people are considered cyberbullies.

  • Cyberbullying is a very, very serious social phenomenon.

  • Very dangerous; it's making a lot of people angry, it's increasing the suicide rate in

  • many cities and many countries.

  • It's very dangerous but also very difficult to fight because of the anonymity, because

  • these people are anonymous, so in many cases you don't know who is doing it.

  • You have a lot of, especially teenagers, who are doing bad things to themselves because

  • of cyberbullying.

  • If you see it, do something.

  • Act against it, write against it, try to stop it, but ignore it.

  • That's the main thing if it happens to you, ignore it, move on.

  • Now, again, if you're on social media and you have a lot of people who come and visit

  • your page or your site or whatever, these are called followers.

  • They're essentially your fans.

  • And when we talk about all of your fans or all of a person's fans, that is called the

  • fanbase.

  • These are all the people who are following you, who are fans of your content, okay?

  • And that's what social media is all about, it's about content.

  • It's about articles, it's about vlogs and blogs, etc., about things that people put

  • online to share with other people.

  • I'll talk more about that as well.

  • Now, a very cool part of social media is something called a flash mob.

  • It used to be very, very popular a few years ago but it still happens every now and again.

  • A flash mob happens when somebody puts on their social media feed, their social media

  • page, that they want people to come to a specific location at a specific time and wait for a

  • signal.

  • And when that signal happens, everybody who got this message will get together and start

  • doing a dance, okay.

  • They've practiced this, it was all shared through social media, they know the song,

  • they know the steps, they know where everybody should be, and these are all strangers who

  • got together to have fun and it's actually a very interesting and very cool sight, okay.

  • So - there's good and bad to the social media thing, but we'll get more about that.

  • Now, you can often hear about social media campaigns.

  • Now, what is a campaign?

  • A campaign is an effort to do something, to achieve something.

  • So, you'll have a lot of campaigns like educational campaigns, ad campaigns, where they're pushing

  • a certain piece of information to get people to buy something, to act on something, to

  • go somewhere, take some action, etc.

  • But a very interesting and becoming more and more popular campaign is called crowdfunding.

  • So, there's a site or there're applications called Kickstarter or GoFundMe, where people

  • have a very good idea and they need money to make this idea come alive, so they create

  • a crowdfunding page, they create a crowdfunding campaign, and people from all over the world

  • send them a little bit of money, and they collect all this money, sometimes it can be

  • very huge quantities, and they take this money and they can pursue their product.

  • Now, some people start companies, some people invent a new machine, new technology, etc.,

  • so it's a very positive use of social media.

  • However, there are also a lot of scams.

  • A scam is like a trick to try to get something from you, so a lot of people will get on these

  • sites and say, oh, you know, "My wife, she's pregnant, but she has cancer and I need a

  • surgery for her but I don't have money, will people please help me?"

  • And people are nice, they're generous and friendly, they're helpful, they send money

  • to this person, but this person is not married, is young, has nothing going on but, you know,

  • just taking the money and going on vacation.

  • So, you have to be very careful about the places you send your money to.

  • Be very, very careful where you're sending your money.

  • Now, crowdsourcing is very similar to funding, but it has nothing to do with money.

  • Let's say I want to start a new website and I have a very, very good idea for a service

  • to provide people.

  • The problem is that I have all the content, but I don't actually know how to build a site.

  • I don't know how to make functions on the site.

  • So, I can go to crowdsourcing sites, especially social media sites, and I can ask people to

  • help write the code or look for people to do the coding to help me build this site and

  • create my vision of the website.

  • So, crowdsourcing is getting people to help you with actual work, with tasks, with their

  • knowledge, with their skills, which is actually a very interesting thing.

  • A very good thing.

  • And now there's also something called Creative Commons.

  • So, what social media has done is it connected the world.

  • It made everybody be able to reach basically everybody and work together.

  • So, Creative Commons, a lot of people are sharing photos and videos and articles for

  • free, and they say you can use this information, you don't have to pay me anything, there's

  • no license, if you want to use this picture in your website, go ahead, it's free.

  • So, you get a Creative Commons license.

  • I'm going to go to black because I lost my red [marker].

  • So, you get a Creative (Commons license.

  • You can go to some website where they have some kind of really beautiful pictures and,

  • of course, there are websites where you have to buy the picture and they're a little bit

  • expensive.

  • There are Creative Commons sites where you can take the picture and use it and you have

  • a Creative Commons license, it means it's not copyrighted.

  • It's free for everybody to use and share, so it's a very nice thing.

  • Now, very common, very popular thing to do on social media is a blog, which is a web

  • log, and that's basically people - you know, it started off as people just writing their

  • ideas and thoughts and whatever.

  • It was like a journal and they shared it on the world wide web.

  • Now, more common is vlog - video log, which is essentially YouTube and other streaming

  • services where people can share videos about anything and everything.

  • Now, clickbait.

  • Very interesting little situation here.

  • Click, you know, on the mouse, you click.

  • Bait, this word, bait, if any of you have ever gone fishing, okay, you have your rod

  • and you have your line and at the end of your line you have your hook.

  • If you throw this into the water, the fish won't come.

  • They won't care, you know, it's just a piece of metal.

  • But if you put a worm on the hook, or a piece of bread, or another little fish, then other

  • bigger fish will come and bite it.

  • So, that's the bait.

  • The stuff you put on the hook to attract the fish is called the bait.

  • So, clickbait is headlines, very powerful headlines or pictures that really, all these

  • people want is for you to click on them.

  • The more you click, the more money they get.

  • The more visitors to their site they get, the more advertising money they get, so be

  • careful about clickbait.

  • It's very, very tempting.

  • Now, I personally have clicked many things that were just clickbait because you can't

  • help it, they're so attractive, you go to them, you click, and then ah, clickbait!

  • And then you've wasted your time.

  • Feed.

  • Everything you put on your social media site or social media platform is called a feed

  • or post.

  • On Twitter you put a post, on Facebook you put a feed, and it goes up and down, and up

  • and down, and it keeps moving.

  • So, your feed is basically the collection of posts, and they keep moving up and down.

  • The more posts people put on, the more crowded the feed gets until nothing really matters

  • anymore.

  • And then, of course, unless something goes viral, alright.

  • If it goes viral, it spreads very quickly to a lot of people and it becomes very popular

  • until people forget about it and something else becomes viral.

  • And then you have something that's trending.

  • Now, something that goes viral is one thing, spreads very quickly.

  • Something that's trending is more of like a topic and more and more people start talking

  • about it.

  • So, it's not one thing, it's one category, and more people start adding things to it

  • to get the conversation going.

  • Trends last longer than viral posts or things.

  • Livestreaming is basically you're taking a video and instead of recording it and then

  • posting it later, you're doing it live.

  • So, whatever the person is doing on the camera, other people can see at the exact same time,

  • and then you can even communicate with people who are livestreaming.

  • This is becoming more and more popular.

  • And that's why we have something, it's more and more streaming media.

  • More and more live video broadcasting, okay?

  • Now, something that happens on a mass scale, this is a very important phrase.

  • Mass means a lot or big.

  • Scale means size, so a big size.

  • So, anything that happens on a mass scale means it affects a lot of people; travels

  • to a lot of places.

  • It's a very, very big audience, I guess you could call it.

  • An app is short for application, so anything you don't do on your desktop computer, you

  • do it on your mobile computer, it is specifically set just for that platform.

  • For example, Twitter, you can do on your desktop computer.

  • If you want to do it on your phone, you download the Twitter application, and that application

  • is only for Twitter and it doesn't interact with other things.

  • Hashtag.

  • Hashtags used to be very popular, they're still popular, but a hashtag basically looks

  • like this: # and then whatever words come after it.

  • A hashtag just connects this word to other posts that have the same hashtag.

  • So, if you put something with a hashtag, it will connect with all the other posts with

  • the same hashtag so it's easier to find information about a particular thing.

  • A meme - the pronunciation meme, not meh meh or mi mi or whatever, meme.

  • A meme is basically a picture or an expression or a video, a short video, that is taken out

  • of its context, out of its original context and lots of different things are added to

  • it and it gets sent back out onto the internet.

  • So, for example, somebody posts a picture of a smiling baby.

  • And then somebody else takes that picture of the smiling baby and puts that smiling

  • baby surrounded by lions and then they say, "Who's happier?", right?

  • And then someone takes the baby and puts it in a different situation; someone takes the

  • baby like it's speaking something.

  • They take one picture or one thing and put it in many different contexts because they

  • think it's funny.

  • Okay, so lastly, we have something called phishing.

  • So, like I mentioned before, it's similar to clickbait but it's a lot more dangerous

  • and a lot more negative.

  • So, first of all, notice that I have phishing with a "ph", so "ph" can sound like "f", so

  • it's phishing with a "ph" not fishing with an "f" like the fish, okay.

  • So, what is phishing?

  • One of the problems with social media is that people can interact with people directly and

  • they can sort of establish relationships.

  • So, what people do with phishing is they try to connect with people who are -- maybe they

  • need a friend, maybe they're lonely, they try to become friends with them.

  • They try to attract them and gain their trust and then they will run a scam on them.

  • They will try to steal something from them.

  • Steal their identity, steal money, steal anything they can, and that's the whole purpose of

  • phishing.

  • So, if you meet strangers online, especially on social media, always have a little bit

  • of questioning.

  • Like, don't 100 percent trust any stranger, just like you wouldn't trust a stranger on

  • the street that you just meet for the first time, don't trust somebody you just meet on

  • the internet.

  • And again, some of these people will spend months or years trying to gain your trust

  • until they can finally work out their scam.

  • So, be careful.

  • Always use common sense on the internet.

  • So, again, as you see, the social media.

  • Good uses, bad uses, use your common sense to know which is which.

  • Enjoy the social media; be a little bit wary, be a little bit careful and always keep your

  • eyes open.

  • Be sure you know what you're doing, okay?

  • So, I hope this was a little bit helpful.

  • You're going to be on the computer, social media is getting bigger.

  • Know the words, know what's going on, take care of yourself.

  • If you have any questions about any of this, please go to www.engvid.com and ask me there.

  • There's also a quiz; you can practice this vocabulary and make sure you understand it.

  • If you like the video, give me a like.

  • Don't forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel and come back for more helpful videos on English

  • and other things, okay?

  • See you again soon.

  • Bye.

Hi again, welcome to engVid.com.

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