Title: Web Mediated Communications – Positive and Negative Effects Year: 2013 Author/s:

Web mediated communications revolutionized traditional social interactions. It is designed to facilitate information exchange between individuals and to enable people to connect with friends, family, classmates etc. virtually. By the formation of virtual communities, “web mediated communication ” is defined as a wider concept known as “social media”. Social media enhances the volume of communications and interpersonal interactions based on the power of web 2.0 technology. People join to the virtual communities of online social networks to procure information from everywhere, share ideas, experiences, photos, videos and memorable moments while extending friendships beyond the geographical and cultural borders. The emergence and fast growth of social media among people added value to the web activities and convinced web masters to integrate web services such as e-mail, chat, discussion rooms, forums and third party applications to the social media web sites. Many of social media web sites are hosting millions of members, equipping their web sites with communication tools, sharing options, dynamic content creation and collaborative authoring facilities which never experienced before. Facebook, Twitter and GooglePlus are examples of most known social media web sites which gained popularit