Chapter 2.0 Literature Review 1.

0 Social Media Trends

Firstly, it is undeniable how social media affects our lives, especially those who are born in the millennial age. Internet has become an increasing part of the lives of young adults so much that statistics show 93% of young adults become the most likely to go online. 72% of these young adults use social media (Lenhart, Smith and Pew Internet and American Life Project, 2011). According to (comScore as cited in The 2013 Entertainment, Media & Advertising Market Research Handbook, 2013), Facebook and Twitter are the Top 2 most visited social networking sites. Young adults only represent 18% of those who use Facebook, ranking them 3rd (The 2013 Entertainment, Media & Advertising Market Research Handbook, 2013). However, young adults who use Twitter rank 1st with 30%. Other than that, young adults lead the way when it comes to reading and posting status updates (Lenhart, Smith and Pew Internet and American Life Project, 2011).

1.1 Selfie
According to Rowe (2013), the term Selfie can be defined as a photo taken of yourself and later uploaded to social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and so on. In a Selfie, the arm of the Selfie is often seen along the pose of some sort. For those who are not familiar with the term Selfie, there are other common synonyms such as Selca or Self-Portrait. Selca is defined by Kwon and Kwon (2011) as a compound word that combines both self and camera. This term is also recognized as self-portrait photography in Korea. Based on the past research done by Kwon and Kwon (2011), it was discovered that young adults prefer selfie as compared to regular photography, because it shows the public how they see themselves instead of how they look. Lentamendi (2012) suggests that a psychological concept called the Snow White Looking Glass Self causes one to develop his or her sense of self based on what how those closest to them perceive. Another interesting point is that Kwon and Kwon (2011) observed Selfie as a medium to magnify features that one ideals. For example, a person would exaggerate the best features to reflect his or her beauty. However, Rutledge (2013) refutes that Selfies are not proof of narcissism and moral decline but instead is a by-product of technology enabled self-exploration. She clarifies that selfies have been around ever since 2004 when MySpace and Flickr was started (Rutledge, 2013). Rutledge (2013) also states several reasons to refute

selfies as being narcissistic such as offering an alternative for people to use images to express themselves, to seek approval, to reinforce social identify or even be normalizing.

1.2 Snapping Food Pictures and Sharing Them

Recently a lot of research has been done on regular photo sharing trends, but there is less emphasis on food pictures and the reasons why they are often posted onto various social networking sites. Reality is that by the year 2010, more than 80 billion photos were uploaded onto social platforms (Facebook Photo Trends as cited in 360i POV) and 52% of them are mobile users who take photos using their phone cameras (comScore MobiLens January 2011 as cited in 360i POV). Furthermore, 19% of them would upload at least a photo a month onto social networking sites (comScore MobiLens January 2011 as cited in 360i POV). 360i POV (2011) highlighted the reasons people were motivated to share food photos on social networking sites. A quarter of people shared photo foods in terms of daily status updates just to tell other people what they are eating. An analysis of tag clouds of food photos showed that the term dinner was tagged as the photo title out of so many other word choices such as breakfast, lunch or food Other reasons listed by 360i POV (2011) were documenting self-creation, special occasion, food art, family/friend moment, food/restaurant review, recipe or extreme foods. Moreover, in another separate article, Alders (2013) listed out another ten reasons why people posted food pictures on Facebook ranging from asking people to check this out to taking opportunities to freak people out by posting unfavourable food. Alders (2013) also states that food is social so it is not surprising food photos would find their way to social platforms such as Facebook.

1.3 Hashtags
A major reason that causes teenagers between age group of 18-23 use hashtags is to share personal feelings and ideas (Gesenhues, 2013). In this case, using social networking sites, young adults post their comments and pictures on the Facebook or Twitter to find how many people share their preferences and tastes. Gesenhues (2013). At the same time Chaney (2013) says that there are 10 ways to use hashtags not only for personal interest but also for commercial approach. Some of these ways concern advertising and promotion, follow Friday (#FF), and event marketing. He assumes that business firms benefit from using hashtags to create conferences and get attention of internet users, especially teenagers, to participate in their commercial promotions.

Other than that, Fashionbi Team (2013) points out that hashtag has been used as a keyword on Twitter to search a specific topic directly and to see the tweets related to that topic. For example, writing #Kpop on the Twitter, people will find Asia style collection which is related to this topic. Asian style collection has got 156 tweets of people who are interested in Asian brands. On the other hand, Correia (2013) believes that currently hashtags are used only to get more followers in you social networking site. Although young adults are very excited of thinking how many people follow them on Twitter and Facebook, they forget about how useful hashtags could be if people involve them in searching information, creating a real time conversation, and get more conference participants (Correia, 2013). Eventually, hashtag is essential social trend for young adults. Young adults between age group of 18-23 are tremendously interested in hashtags because hashtags tend to be useful and easy way to search particular information, share ideas, create group conversations, and get followers in social networking sites.

2.0 Internet Crazes Viral Videos

One of the reasons that cause young adults to watch and share viral videos is because it reduces boredom as they find it interesting, enjoyable and comforting (Scribd, 2012). This is also stated by Smiths (2009) that watching and sharing viral videos are entertaining (Smith, 2009). Another point that has been highlighted by Smith (2009) is young adults see the act of watching and sharing viral videos as a stage to build communities. This is further reaffirmed by Haridakis and Hanson (2009) that young adults watch and share viral videos just to maintain their social status by getting involved, seeking attention and love from others, and being socially accepted. For example, the same authors state that YouTube users tend to use YouTube as a medium to share their online activities with their friends and family. They used YouTube as a tool to enhance their social circles. On the other hand, May (2010) explores that young adults watch and share political viral videos to obtain political campaign information as they are eager to know about it. For example, during the United States 2008 election, 4 in10 of the younger group watched political videos online. Similarly, Jasons and Melanies (2008) claim that young adults consume and forward the online contents are due to curiosity. However, Wallsten (2010) disagrees with May (2010), and Jason and Melanie (2008) as he acknowledges that the bloggers

and members of political campaigns are the ones who convince people to watch and share the political videos.