Social media is the pinnacle of Web 2.0, where the emphasis is on user content and interaction. Social media is the use of technology whereby individuals and organizations can interact virtually in order to distribute, create, and discuss their own content. With a definition so broad, this incorporates a wide variety of different outlets.
Some examples include Wikispaces, Google Plus, YouTube, reddit, Linkedin, Instagram, Yelp, and Groupon. In the beginning of Social Media, it’s arguable that American Online (AOL) was the reigning champion. With AOL leading a dial-up service, it was natural that many users would take to the AOL member-created communities, where users were already sharing information about themselves [1]. Other early champion examples include Classmates.com (still exists), SixDegrees.com (defunct), Friendster (focused on only gaming now) MySpace.com (focused on musicians) [1]. Of course, as of this writing, Facebook and Twitter dominate social media, with Facebook at over 1.3 billion monthly active users and Twitter at over 271 million [2].
Throughout this application chapter, we will examine how and why social media has become so popular, and we will explore the ways in which user content contributes to big data. The chapter includes several case studies that demonstrate big data analytics in action as well as the complex relationships between social media and human health and behavior. By the end, you will have a solid introduction to many of the concepts, applications, and tools that drive big data in the user-generated web.