Information and Communication Technology · Classes 9-10 · Chapter 1

Social Networking and ICT.

A friend of yours probably posted a photo on Facebook today, and someone else shared an opinion on Twitter in a single line. Both are social networking, yet one number sets them apart: 280. This note fixes that number, and the years and features of four platforms, in your head.

1. People, communication and ICT

Humans are social beings. To move about in society and to grow, people need to communicate with one another. Nobody moves forward alone.

In ICT, social networking now means interaction among people through virtual communication and networks. Whatever people create and exchange, using the internet and ICT, to communicate and express themselves is social networking.

As ICT has grown, this communication has become easier, cheaper and, in most cases, safe.

Credit goes to the internet, e-mail, mobile phones and messaging systems, blogging and social platforms.

The book names four social networks on the internet: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram. The two most popular are Facebook and Twitter. Below, one outside name has been slipped in. See if you can catch it.

2. Four platforms, one by one

Facebook (www.facebook.com) was launched by Mark Zuckerberg with his friends on 4 February 2004.

Anyone can join, and it costs nothing. Users add friends, send messages, share and update personal information, and post audio and video. Any organisation can open its own page, and like-minded friends can start a group.

Twitter (www.twitter.com), or X, differs from Facebook in one basic way: you must express yourself within 280 characters.

A message of 280 characters is a tweet, which is why Twitter counts as a micro-blogging website. Tweets show on members' profile pages. To read someone's tweets you follow them, and those who follow are their followers.

Put the same post on four platforms and watch the rules change.

Now tap the chips and check whose feature each one is.

Instagram (www.instagram.com) was launched in 2010. It is mainly for sharing photos and videos. You can make stories, search content by hashtag, and use reels and shopping. It is also one of the leading platforms for digital marketing.

LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com) is the largest professional social platform in the world. People use it to look for jobs, make professional contacts and build business networks. It was launched in 2003, the earliest of the four.

Put all four in one grid and tap along the rows. The book gives no year for Twitter, and its cell says so.

3. Check yourself

Three questions. The first comes straight from the book.

In the second, remember the number.

In the last, match the feature.

The whole note on seven cards.

This chapter's board questions, with answers and reasons →

Source: Information and Communication Technology, Classes 9-10 (NCTB), Chapter 1 “Information and Communication Technology and Our Bangladesh”, the “Social Networking and ICT” part.