What comes to your mind when you hear the term “Social Media?» Mostly people think the media help them meet and communicate with people around the world. Nowadays, social media seems like a big part of our life. When your friends didn’t reply to your text, you can greet them on Facebook. When you want to listen to music or see a music video from your favorite singer – go to YouTube. When you just wake up and open your eyes, you don’t have to walk outside to get the newspaper, just take your phone and scroll your Twitter timeline then you’ll get the information. Blog and Forum are also types of social media because they allow you to share “what you think” about articles, pictures, videos and so on. People use social media to share views, ideas, thoughts, attitudes, emotions about their profession, studies, work, company, politics, religion. Often it helps people to find a job and allows the company to find the employees. Everything looks and feels easier to do with social media today.

If you look at the numbers below, you will realize what makes social media so powerful today. Here’s some statistics for August 2015:

• Global active internet users now totals 3,175 billion. That’s nearly half of the world’s population (7,357 bl).
• 30% of the world’s population use social media – 2,206 billion active users.
• Facebook adds ½ million users every day; 6 new profiles every second.
• 12 new active mobile social users are added every second, that’s 1 million per day.

WhatsApp has gained 300 million new users for the last year (a 60% year growth).

Vocabulary

Social media/networks – социальные медиа (средства массовой информации/сети)
Make powerful – делать могущественным
Reply to the text – ответить на смс
Greet — приветствовать
Favourite — любимый
Wake up — просыпаться
Walk outside – выходить на улицу
Scroll the timeline – прокручивать ленту новостей
Get the information – получать информацию.
Allow — позволять
Share thoughts/attitudes/ideas/emotions – делиться мыслями/позициями/идеями/эмоциями
Find a job/employees – найти работы/работников
Realize – понять/осознать
World’s population – численность населения в мире
Facebook profile – страничка в соцсети Facebook
Add a user – добавлять пользователя