Point and shoot. If you're taking snapshots of friends and family you might not be interested in anything more complicated than that. Perhaps that's the reason why you've purchased a simple compact camera (or single lens reflex camera) with automatic functions. Automatic settings mean that your camera will do the work of adjusting settings, flash and will help you adjust to varying light levels. Most of the time automatic camera technology is so good that this will produce perfectly decent photographic memories.
But once you start learning more about photography - you might want to make better use of your camera's capabilities. That's the moment when you go back to your camera's handbook (if you haven't lost it by now...) or you might start fiddling with bells and whistles - and amongst the adjustable settings you will find the scene modes on your camera.
On many compact and digital single lens reflex cameras there are six scene settings and each one of these is designated by a particular symbol: A flower (for close up shots), mountains (for landscapes), a sporting figure (for fast moving objects and sports events), a woman with a hat (for portraits), a child (for children), a figure with a star (for shots taken at night). The symbols are the same (or very similar) on most cameras.
The scene settings are intended to programme the camera to cope with frequently occurring challenges easily. When you first start using a digital camera you might be overwhelmed by the different controls and may not know how to take pictures in particular light conditions, for example. The scene modes are going to help you with that. You might want to photograph a human subject and might want to make sure skin tones are natural and softened - the portrait setting is going to do that for you. You might want to take some shots at an evening event with fireworks in the background: choosing the 'night' setting on your camera will help you deliver perfect results. Taking photographs of children can be awkward as they tend to move so quickly. Choosing the 'child' setting on your camera or the 'sports' setting will help you do just that.
To choose a scene mode select the appropriate symbol from the menu (or rotate the dial if you have one) - and check that you can see the symbol you want in the information display.