Table of contents Introduction 2 When to use which social media site? 3 Presentation of Social Networks Facebook 4 Instagram 7 Twitter 9 Snapchat 12 Rules of behaviour What are you allowed to do on social media? 14 What are you not allowed to do on social media? 16 Safety and privacy 17 Facebook 17 Instagram 18 Twitter 19 Snapchat 20 Internet addiction 21 Cyberbullying 24 Final word 26 1
Introduction After two years of research into intercultural communication, it has become apparent that social media is continuing to grow and develop. Social media can be useful for cultivating contacts and relationships, collecting donations and also for business purposes. As the number of users on social media continues to rise, more features are becoming available on social networking sites. We have decided to put together a guide on how to use popular social networking sites and tips on staying safe online. 2
3 Photos Videos Chatting Sharing stories When to use which social media site? Facebook Twitter Instagram Snapchat If you want to share beautiful pictures or pictures you want to keep for example: holiday pictures. Small short videos, mostly funny. Videos on Facebook are mostly used for sharing. Sometimes people use it to spread an important message. Facebook has his own messenger service. With Facebook Messenger you can talk to everyone who uses Facebook. You can also form groups to talk to each other. You can post a status, which is a long or short story with a mood. You can like, share or comment on these posts. You can also share articles from sites. Pictures are possible but not very popular on twitter. Twitter is mostly used for texts. Videos are possible on twitter but also not very popular. You can message someone on Direct Messenger or you can send a message by mentioning their name in your tweet, this tweet is only available for people who follow both of you. You cannot write full stories because the text cannot be longer than 140 characters. If you want to edit pictures or want to show your photographer skills. You can also use it to show people what you re doing or where you are. Also short videos, max. 15 seconds. Videos on Instagram are mostly about humour, lifestyle and spreading messages. You can send a photo to one particular person on Instagram Direct. Below the photo you can write a message. You can write a little story below the picture you post. If you want to send confidential pictures. These pictures are only visible to the people you sent them to for a couple of seconds. It s also used to show where you are or with whom you are. Very short videos, max. 10 seconds. These are used for funny situations or showing where you are. There is a chat function available. You can send a text message but after the person you sent it to has seen it, it will disappear. Not possible.
What is Facebook? Facebook is an online social networking site that was founded by Mark Zuckerberg in 2004. It is used by millions around the world to communicate with friends and family through writing statuses, liking and commenting on posts, privately messaging people, video calling and uploading photos and videos for your Facebook friends to see. Features of Facebook One feature is the option to update your status which is your opportunity to share with your friends and family what you have been up to recently and how you are feeling through emoticons. You can include them by tagging their name in the status. You are also able to add photos to go with your status or you have the option to upload a photo or several photos to an album. You can even choose the name of the album and who gets to see it. Your posts will be seen by your friends or 4
friends of friends depending on what option you choose and they have the option to like your post, to comment or to share it. You will have the chance to privately message your Facebook friends at any time or create a group conversation and you can also do a video call to another computer via webcam. Facebook is available on smartphones through all the app stores and has created an app specifically for the messaging feature on Facebook, which also allows you to audio call your Facebook friends directly from your smartphone whenever you have an internet connection. There is a search bar which is always at the top of any page on Facebook which allows you to search for other pages, whether these pages regard your interests or other Facebook users, which you can go on to add as friends if you know them. 5
Sign up / Log in To sign up with Facebook, you must be at least 13 years of age. You simply fill in the boxes which ask for your data such as your name, gender, date of birth, email address and a password you wish to use. Privacy There is the option to choose what people can see of your profile if they are not friends with you on Facebook. It is recommended that you keep your profile as private as possible to those who are not friends with you. If there is someone bothering you, you are able to report them to Facebook and block them. This will stop them from seeing any of your activities on their newsfeed. You will also receive friend requests from people. Always accept people that you are comfortable to have on your friend list and never add or accept people you do not know. Further Help If you require any further assistance or information on the use of Facebook, the site has set up a help page which can answer your questions. Simply visit: www.facebook.com/help or ask someone who is familiar with the use of Facebook. 6
Instagram How to create an account? Step 1: download the app in the App Store on an ios device or on Google Play on an Android device. Step 2: once it s installed, open the app. Step 3: you can register with Facebook or register with an e-mail address. In both cases you just have to fill in some personal information and then you ll be done. The Beginner s Guide Post photos or videos by tapping the camera icon. You can upload a picture from your gallery or take one instantly. Share the picture or the video with other services. Add filters and effects. You can also add a caption, tag people on the picture and say where you were by adding it on the map. 7
But what if I don t want everyone to see what I post? Well, you have 2 options: 1) You can choose to go private so that only your followers (and you will be able to control if you accept someone to follow you or not) can see your pictures. 2) You can send a direct message. Only the people that you choose will receive it. Like photos and follow people You simply have to look for what you want thanks to the hashtags. You can also add hashtags on the caption of your photos so other users can see them. To like a post you can either tap the heart button or double tap on the picture. Following someone is very easy, you have to enter their username and once you have found them you just have to tap the follow button. 8
What is Twitter? Twitter is an online social networking site that was cofounded by Jack Dorsey and Biz Stone in 2006. It enables users to send and read short 140-character updates, better known as tweets. Sign up / Log in You must be at least 13 years old in order to sign up with Twitter or have the consent of a parent/guardian. You simply fill in a few personal details in the boxes provided such as your name, date of birth, email address and a password you wish to use. 9
Features of Twitter The main feature of twitter is writing short updates which will appear on your followers` dashboard, telling them what is happening in your life that is worth sharing within a limit of 140 characters. You are also able to add photos to go with your tweets and these will feature in a collection on your twitter page. You don t have friends on twitter but instead you have followers who you can choose to follow back or not and you do not necessarily have to know them personally. You can follow celebrities and tweet them by tagging them in your message just like you would with a regular twitter user using the @ symbol. You may also retweet a tweet you have seen from someone you follow in order to share it with those who follow you or favourit a tweet if you like it but don t feel it is necessary to share it. There is the option to directly message someone if they follow you back. Direct messages also have a character limit of 140. Hashtags are a popular feature of twitter as this allows you to see what searches are trending around the world at any time. By adding hashtags to your tweets, you allow those who search that particular hashtag to see your related tweet along with others with the same hashtag. A search bar is also available at the top of the twitter page which enables you 10
to search for particular tweets and users. A twitter app is available on all the app stores if you wish to use the site on the go. Privacy Twitter is commonly used publicly by its users, however, you do have the option to set your tweets to private if you wish. This means you will have full control over who follows you and users will not be able to see your tweets until you have accepted their follow request. If you unfollow someone, they may be notified of this through third party apps and sites. Users will still be able to follow you and see your tweets even if you do not follow them back, therefore if you are not comfortable with a particular user seeing your tweets, it is best to block them through the settings available on their page. If you need further assistance with privacy or another aspect of twitter, visit the help page that twitter has set up: www.support.twitter.com 11
Snapchat How to create an Account: Step 1: Just as for Instagram, you have to download the app and open it. Step 2: Tap on Login Step 3: Fill in some personal information, enter your e-mail, choose a username and a password and you re done! The Beginner s Guide 1) On Snapchat, you can send photos or videos for a short amount of time. They are called Snaps. You can draw on them or add a caption. You can also chat by sending Snapchat messages. 2) You can only see a snap once. However you are allowed to repeat one every 24 hours. 12
3) Instead of sending a snap privately, you can also add it on your story and all of your friends will be able to see it as many times as they want for 24 hours. Be careful with what you send though! Some people screenshot embarrassing pictures or hack them by using illegal apps! Fun fact: you have a score on Snapchat and the more you send snaps, the higher your score gets. Also, the 3 people that you chat the most with will appear as your best friends. How can I look for my friends? You can either look for their username if you know it or you can look for them in your contact list by giving your number to Snapchat. Can I only see pictures and videos taken by my friends? No. In your story section, you can see snaps live from all around the world about a famous event happening at that moment. 13
What are you allowed to do on social media? You can use social media when you have accepted their terms. You can use personal data of others as long as you don t offend anyone. You can publish almost whatever you want on social media if it s not offending. You can upload pictures of other people if the person who is in the picture has accepted that. You can use links as long as you post who has been the original sender. You can use Facebook and Instagram when you are at least 13 years 14
If you don t follow the rules for social media you can be forced to pay indemnity. If you don t follow the rules for social sites you can get suspended from the site and your account disappears. If you found a really good citation and you want to write it under your Instagram picture, it s okay, as long as you write down who has been the original sender. You take pictures in the classroom and want to upload one of them on Facebook it s allowed as long as every single person in the picture accepts it. 15
What are you not allowed to do on social media? You are not allowed to publish pictures on the internet if any person in the picture has not accepted it. Do not offend other people! You have to make an assessment in each individual case and assess all the circumstances. If personal data are published in a continuous text on the Internet, such as a blog, publication is virtually permitted as long as it does not violate the personal data stored. You may not use social media if you have not accepted their terms. 16
Safety and privacy Communication on the Internet brings certain risks. For example your account password can be hacked or somebody can see things you don't want him or her to see. To begin with, you should get a safe password. A safe password has more than twelve characters and is composed of capital and small letters, special characters like # % / + and numbers, too. Your password should not be a word or a name. The next step is to adjust your privacy settings. For example you can change who can see your profile, posts and pictures. Facebook: It depends on your own knowledge about Facebook safety how safe your account will be. There are many possibilities to make your account more private: 1. You can choose whether to make your photos visible only for your friends, also for friends of your friends or for everyone. 2. You can go to settings and choose edit privacy. There you can choose whether you want your posts and photos to be private or public. 17
Instagram: On Instagram your posts can be private and only visible for your friends. Go to edit profile and scroll down. On the last line you will find posts are private. You can activate and deactivate this setting. 18
Twitter: The only thing you can do to make your account private is to make your tweets only visible for your followers, who have to ask whether they can follow you or not. We will show you here how to make your tweets private. First go to profile settings. Then click Protect my Tweets. 19
Snapchat: Although it seems that Snapchat is really safe, you can make it even more safe. Go to settings and scroll down. There you will find who can to edit your privacy settings. 20
Internet addiction There are different things in life you can be addicted to. In this booklet we refer to addictions which are connected with our new means of communication, for example the internet, smartphones, tablets and similar devices. Addiction can include chatting, roaming the internet or playing (online) computer games. How do you notice that you are addicted to the internet? You can check for yourself if you feel unsure about your internet consumption because there are signs of internet addiction. Just take a short look at these questions: Have you decided not to meet your friends because you wanted to play computer games or surf on the internet in the last few weeks? Have your social media friends become more important to you than your real life friends? Is playing online games more important to you than meeting friends? Is checking out your social media devices the first thing you do after waking up? 21
Do you quarrel with your parents about your consumption of playing games, roaming the internet or chatting? Don t you pay attention to your spelling and do you make more spelling mistakes in school? Is it unimportant for you if your room is a mess, because you prefer spending time on the internet to cleaning up? Can t you do your homework without looking at your smartphone? Do you look at your mobile phone in school or even during the lessons? Do you look at your mobile phone only to check if you ve got a message? Can t you imagine powering down your mobile phone for a whole day? If you have answered more than three questions with yes, you should think about your internet consumption. The internet shouldn t dominate your life even if you have a lot of fun on the internet. 22
What can you do to avoid becoming addicted to the internet? First of all, you shouldn t be afraid of talking to somebody if the questions show that you are in danger of addiction. Talk to your parents or friends about it. Another option is to follow this advice: Set yourself a time limit for every day. You shouldn t exceed 1.5-2 hours. Write down the time you spend on the internet, playing computer games or chatting each day. This is a way to check yourself. Meet your friends or do other things without technical tools. Turn off your mobile phone in school or while you are doing your homework. You can also give your mobile phone to your parents for these times. 23
Cyberbullying Today many people use social media, for example to chat with friends, stay in contact with vacation acquaintances or get to know new friends. But social media has also disadvantages. Cyberbullying is one big problem, which is often underrated. In the following paragraphs you will find some advice on how to protect yourself from becoming a mobbing victim and how to behave to get out of that. Cyberbullying stands for deliberate insults, threats, exposures or nuisances that go on by using modern communication mediums like Facebook. The offender is often anonymous, but the victim and the offender usually know each other from school, sports etc. It happens very rarely that a foreign person bullies someone he does not know. There are different types of cyberbullying. The first one is Flaming which takes place in the public internet, for example as a mean comment. Harassment is the next category of bullying. It stands for recurring attacks from other users in social networks. Denigration means that someone destroys someone s circle of friends or standing. If someone pretends to be someone else you call it Impersonation. These people often insult others on social networks. More dangerous are Cyberstalking and Cyberthreats. These types describe long lasting (sexual) harassment or threats to hurt or kill someone. 24
In order to avoid problems on the internet, you should be careful with your profile on social networks. Use the setting options at Facebook for example, so that not every user can see your profile, pictures or posts. Moreover you should not speak about your problems on social networks. Meet your friends privately or talk with your family about your problems. If you are already a victim of cyberbullying, here are a few tips for you: - do not answer offending messages - take a screenshot to secure it as an evidence - block the offender so that he cannot bully you anymore - announce the delinquent - inform the owner of the website and ask him to delete the pictures/ comments - talk with your friends and family to handle this situation - maybe go to a psychotherapist and talk with them about your situation. He/ she will help you - contact the police and ask for help So, despite the many advantages of social networks, you have to be very careful when you use them. 25
Final word We hope you have learned a lot from our information. Always make sure that you re surfing the Net safely. If you don t feel comfortable or unsure about something, you should always ask an adult or someone who can help you. Search the internet for more information or ask someone who knows a lot about it. But most important: make sure you enjoy social media! Comenius Group communication skills 2015 26