Social media usually means a website or an app where users can share their ideas, pictures, and videos with other users of the same service.
One thing that makes social media different from older kinds of media like newspapers and TV is that ordinary users are the ones that create the “content” – what gets shown on the website. People put information and pictures about what they are doing on the web site. They can “follow” friends to see what they are doing or saying. Often they can play games and take quizzes on the site, too.
(Source: Blogtrepreneur, via Wikimedia Commons.)
Social media companies save information about what their users do and like. This information is often called “data”. Usually social media companies make money when other companies pay to show ads or videos to their users.
Examples of social media companies include FaceBook, Twitter, Instagram, SnapChat, and Pinterest. In Asia, Baidu Tieba, WeChat, and Weibo are examples of popular social media sites.