Digital Communities @7587287-blog - Tumblr Blog

Online Gaming

Admittedly, when I hear the words ‘online gaming’, images of pre-pubescent teens getting carried away in the violence of games like Call of Duty are immediately conjured in my head. But is there more to online gaming than expected?

According to Erinma Ochu, a neuroscientist at the University of Manchester, the answer, is yes. In 2011 gamers playing an online puzzle game about protein folding, resolved the structure of an enzyme that causes an aids like disease in monkeys. A problem that researchers had been working on for 13 years, was a problem the gamers solved it in just 3 weeks. Emma Ochu explains why scientists are turning to gamers for help, ‘Our brains are geared up to recognise patterns, and we do it better than computers. This is a new way of working for scientists, but as long as they learn how to trust games developers to do what they do best – make great games – then they can have thousands of people from all around the world working on their data’ (Mohammadi 2014).

References

Mohammadi, D 2014, How online gamers are solving science’s biggest problems, The Guardian, viewed 7 January 2015, <http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/jan/25/online-gamers-solving-sciences-biggest-problems>

Selfish

I personally, have never been one for selfies - too self-indulgent for my liking. That however, has not stopped selfies becoming big business. Kim Kardashian (renowned for her love of selfies) has just released a 352 page coffee table book, and according to global trends expert Chris Sanderson (of the London based Future Lab) marketing departments are cashing in on ‘selfie awareness’ to turn us all into brand ambassadors, although, does predict the selfie craze will eventually wane ‘It's like a virus, they reach extremes, then they come and go. The selfie will always be with us, just as celebrity will and the self-portrait will. It will change, it will pass, it will move on to something else, but we'll always take selfies’ (Colquohoun 2014).

Although nothing new – artists, such as Freda Kahlo and Rembrandt have been painting self-portraits for centuries, and I’m sure we are all aware of the ancient Greek myth of Narcissus, but it is social media that has managed to turn the selfie into a global juggernaut. But has social media become nothing more than a platform for the self-obsessed to flaunt their vanity? And what does that mean for us? According to a recent UK study, the selfie phenomenon can be potentially damaging to real world relationships, with increased frequency of ‘selfie sharing’ linked to a decreased intimacy with others (Drexler 2013). The pressure to be camera ready was also said to heighten self-esteem issues and increase feelings of competition between friends.

References

Colquhoun, S 2015, Selfie Awareness, Why Selfies Make The Marketing World Go Round, Sydney Morning Herald, viewed 7 January 2015, <http://www.smh.com.au/executive-style/culture/selfie-awareness-why-selfies-make-the-marketing-world-go-around-20150201-133fcj.html>

Drexler, P 2013, What Your Selfies Say About You, Psychology Today, viewed 7 January 2015, <https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/our-gender-ourselves/201309/what-your-selfies-say-about-you>

Crowdsourcing

In 2007, during the Kenyan presidential election, protest swept through the region leading to a government ban on local media (at the time the Kenyan government claimed that the media was contributing to the violence). Kenyan lawyer and blogger Ory Okolloh was in the country at the time, providing on-the-ground citizen reporting from her blog. When Okolloh plead with her fellow bloggers to collect data on the death tolls in Kenya, David Kobia, developed a platform in which people could send text messages and reports of the death, rape, looting and other abuse of Kenyans.

Traditionally, in times of crisis in Australia, emergency has been distributed through the radio and television channels of the ABC networks. The ABC’s social media coordinator, Ping Lo states ‘When an emergency happens here, the phone lines of stations are in meltdown with members of the public wanting either to contribute or to request information or assistance’ (Posetti & Lo, 2012, Q5). So why has Australia been so slow in drawing on the power of social media?

An issue that arises when considering crowdsourcing is that of verification. Kobia states; ‘Getting verified information becomes really critical during crises like Kenya. This was really problematic because people were sending text messages to start rumours … This could have a serious reverberating effect and so it was important to be sensitive to the situation’ ( Ford 2012, pg.1) How can we be sure that the information being shared is legitimate, and not an attempt to create havoc? According to Heather Ford, it is important to cross check the information available online by speaking with those who are near reported incidents, speaking to journalists and investigating the identities those who have sent in reports.

References

Ford, H 2012, 'Crowd Wisdom', Index on Censorship, vol. 41, no. 4, pp. 33-39

Postetti, J & Lo, P 2012, The Twitterisation of ABCs Emergency & Disaster Communication, Australian Journal of Emergency Management, Vol. 27, no. 1, pp. 34-39

Trolling on Social Media

With more people online than ever before, social media has rapidly changed the manner in which we communicate with each other. By providing online users with anonymity, trolling (deliberately inciting emotional distress) and cyber bullying are on the rise – and with detrimental consequences.

In 2014, after a long battle with depression and a spate of vicious attacks on social media, Australian TV personality Charlotte Dawson was found dead in her Sydney home. Charlotte became known for her very public battle with cyber-bullies, often re-tweeting the abusive messages she received –many of which called on her to commit suicide (ABC News 2014).

Unfortunately, Charlotte’s story is not uncommon, and with cyber bullying rife among teenagers and young adolescents, action must be taken. According to Professor Cross from Edith Cowan University kids who have been bullied are much more likely to suffer from depression and anxiety. ‘We know that probably the most significant effects on children who've been bullied are effects on their mental health. They're much more likely to feel depressed, anxious, their self-esteem is affected, there are some students that report suicide ideation; it has very serious immediate effects and long-term effects’ (Dikeos 2009)

The Australian government is currently proposing to create a children’s e-safety commissioner with the power to demand social media sites rapidly remove material that is harmful to a child (Law Report 2014).

References

Charlotte Dawson, former model and television personality, found dead in Sydney apartment 2014, ABC News, viewed 6 January 2015, <http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-02-22/tv-personality-charlotte-dawson-found-dead/5277364>

Dikeos, T 2009, Teens Death Highlights Cyber Bullying Trend, ABC News, viewed 6 January 2015, <http://www.abc.net.au/news/2009-07-23/teens-death-highlights-cyber-bullying-trend/1363362>

Law Report 2014, Can A Cyber-Bullying Commissioner Protect Our Kids?, Radio National, 27 February, viewed 22 September 2014, <http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/lawreport/5286036>.

McCosker, A 2014, YouTrolling as provocation: Tube's agonistics publics, Convergence, vol. 20, no. 2, pp. 201-217

#digitalactivism

When 26 year old Tunisian vegetable vendor Mohamed Bouazizi set himself alight in December 2010, after police stole produce from his stand, no one could have predicted the events that followed. Young Tunisians began gathering on social media,protesting the oppressive regime of the country’s 23 year President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali (Fox 2011). When Ben Ali eventually fled Tunisia for Saudi Arabia, his exit triggered similar movements across the region (known as the ‘Arab Spring’) and inspired the infamous Egyptian Revolution.

Beginning on January 25th 2011 (spurring the Twitter hashtag #Jan25 to circulate online) the people of Egypt took to the streets to protest rampant unemployment, government corruption and the autocratic governance of President Hosni Mubarak who had ruled the country for 30 years.

Due to the role social media played in organising the protests, on Thursday 27th January reports were made confirming that the Egyptian government had ordered service providers to shut down all international connections to the internet (Kanalley 2011). ’Every Egyptian provider, every business, every bank, internet café, website, school, embassy, and government office that relied on the big four Egyptian ISPs for their internet connectivity is now cut off from the rest of the world’ (Kanalley 2011). Finally, after 18 days of pro-democracy protest, President Mubarak resigned as President of Egypt and fled Cairo, handing control to the military.

The events above do much to highlight the role of social media in modern day activism. But one has to question - is it enough? A recent study focused on the Save Darfur Facebook page (one of the largest on the social network) revealed that out of the one million-plus people that had signed up, less than 3000 ever donated, raising only $90,000 over 3 years, compared to the wider Darfur campaign which raised over $1 million in 2008 alone (Tostevin 2014). ‘Although it enabled more than 1 million individuals to register their discontent with the situation in Darfur, it largely failed to transform these initial acts of movement participation into a 'deep and sustained commitment to the work' (Goldberg 2014).

Similar criticisms were received when Kony 2012, #BringBackOurGirls and the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge began trending online – despite going viral in a matter of hours, and being viewed by millions around the world, the campaigns were quickly forgotten about. So is digital activism (commonly referred to as ‘slacktivism’) simply creating the illusion of activism rather than facilitating the real thing? Singapore charity Crisis Relief have dedicated an entire campaign warning of the dangers of ‘Facebook Philanthropy’ with gripping images reading ‘Liking isn’t helping. Be a volunteer. Change a life.’ An important reminder that despite the benefit of raising awareness, a Facebook like, won’t change a life.

References

Fox, Zoe 2011, 9 Social Media Uprisings That Sought to Change the World in 2011, Mashable, viewed 5 January 2015, <http://mashable.com/2011/12/07/social-media-uprising-activism/>

Gerbaudo, P 2012, Tweets and the Streets : Social Media and Contemporary Activism, Pluto, London

Goldberg, E 2014, Dislike: Facebook Activism Does Not Actually Translate into Donations for Causes, Huffington Post, viewed 5 January 2015, <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/13/facebook-likes-donations_n_4950041.html>

Kanalley, C 2011, ‘Occupy Wall Street’ [image], Occupy Wall Street: Social Media’s Role In Social Change, Huffington Post, viewed 5 January 2015, <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/06/occupy-wall-street-social-media_n_999178.html >

Kanalley, C 2011, Egypt Revolution 2011: A Complete Guide to the Unrest, Huffington Post, viewed 5 January 2015, <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/30/egypt-revolution-2011_n_816026.html>

News.com.au, 2013, ‘Liking isn’t helping’ [image], ‘Liking isn’t helping’: Ad critics Facebook Philanthropy’, http://www.news.com.au/technology/liking-isn8217t-helping8217-ad-criticises-facebook-philanthropy/story-e6frfro0-1226673248223

Tostevin, R 2014, Online Activism: It’s easy to click, just as easy to disengage, The Guardian, viewed 5 January 2015, <http://www.theguardian.com/media-network/media-network-blog/2014/mar/14/online-activism-social-media-engage>

Politics & Civic Cultures

In 2008,President Barack Obama (referred to as the Digital Candidate) broke new ground,using email, text messages and the Web to reach voters throughout America during the election campaign. According to the Pews Research Centre, nearly 74% of American internet users went online during the 2008 presidential election to take part in, or get news and information about, the campaign (Jericho 2012, p. 204).

Joe Rospars, Obama’s chief digital strategist stated, ‘The successful campaign is going to be one that integrates all the various elements of the digital channel – email, text, website, mobile apps, and social networks – together as one digital program and also mixing the digital program together with the offline reality of field organizations’ (Huffington Post, 2012).

With the rate of household internet access in Australia rising to 64% between 2006-2007, many Australian politicians have joined social media, but few have embraced the medium with any verve (Young, p. 255). But what impact can social media have on an election campaign? During the 2012 Queensland election campaign, ALP candidate Peter Watson was forced to resign his candidacy due homophobic remarks he had made as a 15 year old on blogs such as slakbastard coming back to haunt him (Young, p.254).

According to the director of Barack Obamas 2008 political campaign, Teddy Goff ‘Democracy has undergone a fundamental change in the way voters participate in today’s political campaigns. People have the ability to reply back to a politician about a policy they may or may not like, and the friends of these people can see that such questions have been asked on social media. People expect to be treated in a certain way and they expect people in positions of power to be responsible. They also want to receive feedback.’

References

Jericho, G 2012, 'How many votes are there on Twitter?', in The Rise of the Fifth Estate, Scribe, Victoria, Australia.

Mitchell, A, Gottfried, J, Kiley, J, Matsa, K Facebook a top source of political news among web users [image], Section 2: Social Media, Political News and Ideology, Pew Research Centre, viewed 5 January 2015 <http://www.journalism.org/2014/10/21/section-2-social-media-political-news-and-ideology/>

Rhodes, J 2014, National Agenda 2014, University of Delaware viewed 5 January 2015 http://www.udel.edu/udaily/2015/nov/social-media-politics-110314.html

Thomas, K 2011, Obama 2012 campaign to go beyond email, text, Huffington Post viewed 5 January 2015 <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20110628/us-digital-obama/>

Young, S 2010, 'News, political reporting and the internet', in How Australia Decides, Cambridge University Press, Victoria, Australia

Remaining Anonymous in a Digital World

Touching briefly on my preference for privacy on social media in my previous blog post, I was shocked to read of reddit gone wild: a glorified pornographic website featuring nude self-portraits (predominately of women), but with a difference. The bodies that are featured are without faces, allowing the user to remain anonymous. Despite arguments from Gary Marx (van der Negal 2013, p.3) that anonymity online encourages experimentation and assists in making merit based judgements, Kling et al (van der Negal 2013, p. 2) states some of the perceived harms of anonymity includes ‘abuse, bullying, harassment, fraud, and other illegal activities’ and I wholeheartedly agree.

One only has to seek out the comments section on any social media site or webpage to find examples of abuse, bullying and harassment. ‘Swamp monster’ – a comment taken from the Daily Mail (an online tabloid) aimed at young New Zealand singer Lorde. The poster, other than a username, remains largely anonymous. Would we be so quick to criticize should the person be standing with us face to face? Or does the security of anonymity make us feel comfortable saying things we wouldn’t normally say, shielded by our computer screens? In my opinion, if you are not prepared to offer your opinion to someone’s face, perhaps it should not be said at all.

Another thing to be considered is the danger in sharing online. In the case of reddit gone wild, users must be aware that ‘at some point in the near future someone is going to start mining those images and running facial recognition software on them’ (van der Negal 2013, p. 7). It also raises the question; has this person actually given consent for the image to be used on the site or has it been mined from elsewhere? Perhaps an important reminder that once something is put out onto the internet, there it remains!

References

Nubi Kay 2013, 'Bullying on the internet' [image] 5 highlights in social media land, Social Media Week, viewed 5 December 2014 <http://socialmediaweek.org/lagos/2013/10/22/5-highlights-in-social-media-land-from-facebook-and-twitter-to-cyberbullying-and-ipo/>

van der Negal 2013, 'Faceless Bodies: Negotiating Technological and Cultural Codes on reddit gonewild', Scan Journal of Media Arts Culture, vol. 10, no. 2, Macquarie University

Sayers, S 2014, Daily Mail Australia, viewed 6 December 2014, <http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2861857/Cringe-Lorde-s-mum-Sonja-Yelich-posts-flashback-photos-star-wearing-cute-matching-outfits-alongside-siblings.html>

ashleestandingblog-blog

7587287-blog

Ashlee,

Really liked reading your blog! Particularly love the presentation - looks great!

Adriana

hannahmcelhinneystudent-blog

7587287-blog

Hi Hannah,

Really enjoyed reading your blog - had an unsual hankering for quiche after reading! : )

Particularly liked your honesty when you mentioned you would not have posted the quiche had it not been a success. I am of the belief that social media can be quite misleading at times due to individuals ability to filter what or what does not make it to thier profiles!

Adriana

A spoken word film for the online generation

Forever Alone?

Growing up with digital technology, there’s no denying I am well and truly hooked on social media. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube all feature heavily in my daily routines. I can’t remember a time without it and it’s now almost to the point where I can no longer bare to be bored, not even for a second. Waiting for a train now involves a scroll through my Twitter feed. An Ad break on the television results in a check in on Instagram. Despite my heavy usage of social media, I’m what you would consider more of a voyeur, preferring to sift through the private lives of others whilst rarely if ever posting or sharing any information about myself. And although I see the pros to digital communities particularly in a business sense, I still have my qualms with social media.

I will agree that social media can be an incredibly effective and powerful means of communication particularly as it’s usage and popularity continues to increase; as of September 2014 the total number of Australians on Facebook was 13,600,000!(SocialMediaNews 2014).

Despite the trends, I can’t help but wonder if we as individuals are losing the ability to create and maintain meaningful and rewarding relationships in the ‘real world’. Particularly if we have the ability to create and project an image of ourselves on social media that may not always reflect reality. As Slater states, individuals may ‘choose, construct, interpret, negotiate, display who [we] want to be seen as’ (Wilken & McCosker 2014, p. 292).

According to Dale Carnegie, renowned author of How to Win Friends and Influence People ‘When dealing with people, remember you are not dealing with creatures of logic, but creatures of emotion’ (Brainy Quote 2014). Can genuine emotion truly be experienced via something as mechanical and lifeless as a computer or is it nothing more than an illusion? Especially when you consider the power to filter and manipulate what is projected to others on social media is in the palm of every individuals hand. Which begs the question; does anyone still care? As Sherry Turkle states, social media provides ‘the illusion of companionship without the demands of friendship’ (TED-Ed 2013). Has social media begun to destroy our ability to form genuine relationships to the point where we now all believe it is just too hard? And if so, are we destined to be forever connected yet forever alone?

References

Brainy Quote2014, Dale Carnegie Quotes, viewed 5 December 2014 <http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/d/dalecarneg130727.html >

Gary Turk 2014, Look Up, 25 April, viewed 1 December 2014, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7dLU6fk9QY>

SocialMediaNews.com.au, 2014, Social media statistics, viewed 26 August 2014, <http://www.socialmedianews.com.au/social-media-statistics/>

TED-Ed 2013, Connected, but alone?- Sherry Turkle, 19 April, viewed 26 August 2014, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rv0g8TsnA6c

Wilken, R & McCosker, A 2014, 'Social Selves', in Cunningham & Turnbull (eds), The Media & Communications in Australia, Allen and Unwin pp. 291-295

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