The data reveal an increasing trend in terms of the number of social-media-related studies across the four disciplines, indicating that social media have gained incremental attention among scholars, who have in turn been responding and keeping pace with the increased usage and impact of this new medium. One noteworthy finding involves the increase in articles that coincided with the emergence and rising significance of social networking sites (e.g., Facebook in 2004 and Twitter in 2006). Furthermore, considering that a trend in research addressing the new communication technology follows a diffusion curve,53 this study predicts that social media research will continue to grow and keep pace with the evolution of social media usage, continuing to document resultant impacts and applications.