Summary: What is Social Media? It is the social interaction among people for creation and sharing or the exchange of information and ideas by way of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_community" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">virtual communities</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_network" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">networks</a> for Elder Communication. Seniors who use <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_media" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Social Media</a> and networking sites that cater to older users are targeted with quizzes and surveys that often have very invasive questions about your health, wealth, and personal lives. Quizzes are created for revenue. Ask yourself who profits from you answering the questions and who else gets to see your answers. Understand that any information posted in these quizzes is likely to be used by many companies. Answer a medical quiz and you may find your insurance claims, even your ability to get insurance, are affected. Quizzes can also generate SPAM with targeted ‘offers’ based on your answers. Be safe and think about what may happen to your identity. This does not mean Social Media and networking sites are bad. If any offer sounds to good to be true or says FREE, chances are it is NOT. This is why I try to give you safe links on my podcasts. But even these can change. Just remember if you use the most popular Social Media sites, secure your privacy with settings. Default setting sometimes are not enough for your needs. You might need some help here. Elder adults that are taking advantage of the web is growing. As the web matures it needs to be inclusive of all ages not just the tech savvy younger adults and kids. It needs to be more intuitive and easy to use without going too simplistic. Things like font sizing, design responsiveness and accessibilities need to be built in. If you have a more demanding or complicated site, making easy to understand, help and tutorials for these available no matter what your age. Sites not following these core essentials is why we have the Elder Divide today. Well enough about that. You are here to learn more about Social Media. It can be divided into various categories and needs but I will discuss just a few. - Family or Caregivers needing to maintain contact and manage your health, safety or medications. Usually through a paid and secure device or web access service with touch controls or video and audio. Some come with a social community aspect for email, and messaging via video or audio as well as text. Keeping in contact with Friends, Family and others. - Major sites like <a href="https://www.facebook.com/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Facebook</a> or <a href="https://plus.google.com/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Google+</a> for interaction by various means like pictures, video, audio, messaging and sharing with whoever. These are setup to easily find people you know or interests that you like. Some have groups and interests for Elders or the over 50 crowd. - Then there is the single focus sites like <a href="https://www.twitter.com/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Twitter</a> or <a href="https://www.tumblr.com/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Tumblr</a> that are like microblogs containing just limited content or pictures and video. - You also have content communities like <a href="https://www.youtube.com/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">YouTube</a> that you can interact with people but are mainly setup to find content like video or audio of all types. - And of course Dating sites whether you are young or old. - I mainly would like to concentrate on the Elder communities for now and leave others for another update on Social Media later on. They could have forums, chat rooms, dating or just social networking. A way to meet new people. Most are free but some can charge for special access to some areas. Resource links: <a href="http://socialnetworking.procon."></a>
