"Social Media" is the buzz word one often hears irrespective of which part of the World one resides in. Knowingly or unknowingly, each one of us is drawn into this whirlpool called Social media, the wondrous creation made possible by the advent of Internet.

If you wonder what exactly Social media is, there is no specific answer to it, due to its evolving nature. Social media can, at best, be described as the means of interactions between people using either written words, audios, videos , pictures or a combination of all these, through dedicated web sites created on the Internet.

Social media facilitates an individual or a community to express their thoughts, share pictures, videos & audios electronically and discuss over it with other people located almost anywhere on Earth, in real time. Social media can be accessed either through computers or through your mobile hand sets, using web based technology.

Social media vastly differs from the conventional media in many aspects. The conventional electronic/print media is almost one dimensional, giving limited room or no room for the immediate participation of its users in real time and its reach also is restricted due to its limited distributing networks & associated distribution costs. Contrarily, Social media thrives only because of its unique participatory nature. Social media allows its users located anywhere in the World to share, engage, discuss, debate and shape thoughts & opinions, in real time at a faster pace.

Unlike the conventional media which can be run by only the educated & qualified people,  Social media is meant for the masses - any average Joe can join in & be a part of it. Social media easily supersedes & scores over the conventional media in terms of its reach, participatory nature, size, frequency, speed, immediacy, permanence and the costs of accessing it.

Social media can be broadly categorized into six different types as under:

(i) Collaborative projects: Where people demand, create and update the contents on almost all topics under the Earth, any time. Best example : Wikipedia

(ii) Content communities:  Where people share videos of all kinds and comment on it. Best example: YouTube

(iii) Social networking sites: Where people interact & develop friendship/relationship. Best example: Face book

(iv) Blogs & micro blogs: Where people express their thoughts/opinions freely. Best example: Twitter

(v) Virtual game world: Which are multiplayer online role-playing games where people play a specific character which is the main feature of the game. Best example: Vanguard

(vi) Virtual social world: Which are multiplayer online real-life games where people can edit and alter their character (called Avatar) at will which allows them to play a more dynamic role, or multiple roles. Best example: Second Life

Social media is really fascinating and it, indeed, has changed the way we live our lives in many positive ways. But, there does exist its negative side too, such as: lack of privacy, cyber bullying, increased alienation from real life due to overuse of Social media, financial frauds using data mined from unsuspecting users, unhealthy exposure to risky life styles - drug culture, alcohol, mindless pornography.

Presently, an estimated two Billion people around the World use the Social media, in one form or the other. With this figure expected to rise to four Billion (that is nearly 60% of Earth's population) by the year 2015, it seems there's no escape for the human race from this pet monster called Social media, anytime soon.