The development and expansion of social media have rapidly changed the interaction and communication of people, thereby attract- ing attention in an unprecedented scale. This paper reviews the relevant literature on social media to yield a better understanding of how it has transformed the way people communicate, acquire and use information. To elucidate on the goals of this paper, the definition of social media, and its characteristics are presented. Different types of social media are also

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... scribed, including globally popular platforms based on social media types in the 21st century. Lastly, a brief review of the research on social media was presented to provide a reference for researchers.