Sharing

In the context of social media, sharing means taking content—like posts, images, videos, links, or other types of media—and distributing it to a larger audience within your network. Often, when people share, they do so with the intention of spreading a piece of information, making it go 'viral,' or endorsing something by associating it with their profile. Social media make this easy.

They offer buttons or options (like 'Share' on Facebook or 'Repost' on Instagram) that people can click and, just like that, they're sending something out into the world. But in the act of sharing is also this: when people share, they may or may not offer up some kind of personal commentary or context that makes what they just passed along a little bit more meaningful for the people seeing it. Those seeing the post as a new piece of content may not be privy to the original content that was restructured into a share.

Yet, within the last decade, sharing stories one hasn't personally participated in—especially news stories, funny memes, or ads—has become a really big deal.