Social media can be defined as an umbrella term used to describe forms of digital communication and user-generated content enabled by web-based technology. Users of social media are able to generate and share content such as text, images, audio, and video amongst user groups and virtual communities. It promotes ubiquitous, decentralized connections and establishes a new way to socially interact with others by sharing information and ideas through digital means. Social media empowers users to easily and rapidly connect with one another, creating new forms of social networks and expanding existing ones.

See also: collective intelligence, decision making, narrative warfare, systems thinking