MDA20009: Digital Communities Assignment 1: Blog @aathorus-blog - Tumblr Blog

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Samplers at #hopnation #beer #saturdayafternoon https://www.instagram.com/p/Bni8VagAvphcjZGLdNfHQcICYuviBnhiOfYAdQ0/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=jcfk11p3a04b

#hopnation #beer #saturdayafternoon

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at Tamale Studios

With Kav Temperley from Eskimo Joe. He’s a cool guy. (at Northcote, Victoria, Australia)

Visual communities and social imaging

In our studies of Digital Communities this term this subject is the one I understand the least. I’m not big on posting photos of myself on social media. When I do I usually get my photographer friend to take a nice portrait rather than taking selfies so posting photos of myself online is not something I do regularly due to the effort it takes to get a good shot. I think that has a lot to do with my age. I tend to find it difficult to take a good selfie, I have wrinkles and I can never get good lighting. However, I do understand why people do it and how digital images are effective for self-promotion.

One of the most obvious factors in the posting of selfies to social networking sites is narcissism (Huang, 2018). But people also want to share what is going on in their lives and this is a fast and easy method of doing so. Now with the advent of apps like Snapchat, images no longer need to be permanent, but the ease with which they can be taken and shared makes them a tool for a new form of communication (Herman, 2014). I must admit I appreciated the phenomenon more when I thought about Huangs (2018) assertion that for some people, narcissism is not the motivating factor but rather the desire to show off travel snaps or events from their lives, which would formerly have been done at home rather than online. My sister and I both participate in sharing pictures of our cats on Instagram under the hashtag #catsofinstagram, so while selfie culture eludes me I do understand the pleasure associated with social imaging in that context.

References:

Herrman, J 2014, ‘Meet The Man Who Got Inside Snapchat’s Head’, Buzzfeed, 28 January, last viewed 2 June 2018, <https://www.buzzfeed.com/jwherrman/meet-the-unlikely-academic-behind-snapchats-new-pitch?utm_term=.fgM18g2oN#.nqrqQenMr>.

Huang, R 2018, "What motivates people to continuously post selfies? The moderating role of perceived relative advantage", Computers in Human Behavior, vol. 80, pp. 103-111, viewed 3 June, 2013, <https://www-sciencedirect-com.ezproxy.lib.swin.edu.au/science/article/pii/S0747563217306283>.

Social Gaming

Social gaming is computer gaming while connected with other users. The platforms today are usually in the form of MMORPG’s or massive multiplayer online role-playing games such as EVE online or World of Warcraft. These online worlds allow users to control an Avatar in a computer-generated realm and interact with other users Avatars or in game characters. These games tend to rely on heavily on social interactions as users band together to complete quests, trade items and share information. In this context it is quite common for friendships to form and communities to develop. In some cases, these games even develop their own economies and governing bodies.

EVE online is a role-playing game set in space where players build and battle star ships (Anon, 2018). In 2012 an incident involving a player known in game as The Mittani gained notoriety beyond the game platform when it was revealed he had encouraged another player to kill himself (Meer 2012). According to Meer (2012) The Mittani defended himself saying “It’s one thing to play a villain in an online roleplaying game – when I post on these forums or on twitter, I usually do so as ‘The Mittani’, and do my level best to convince everyone that I’m an unrepentant space villain, as that kind of facade provides an in-game advantage to me and my alliance. But I am not that character in real life, as anyone who has met me can attest. I went way, way, /way/ past the line on Thursday night by mocking the Mackinaw miner at a real-life event. I am not actually a sociopath or a sadist, and I certainly don’t want people to kill themselves in real life over an internet spaceship game, no matter what I may say or do within the game itself.” In this case it seems the player blurred the lines between his real life personality and his online persona.

The concern that video game violence leads to gamers lashing out in real life is one we are all familiar with. The example of The Mittani highlights the dangers that these games could potentially pose but a study undertaken by Kühn et al. (2018) found no significant increase in aggression in gamers playing GTA than in gamers playing the Sims or a control group playing no games, though admittedly this area needs more study.

References:

Anon 2018, "EVE Online - One community. Countless journeys.", EVE Online, viewed 3 June, 2018, <https://www.eveonline.com/>.

Kühn, S, Kugler, D, Schmalen, K, Weichenberger, M, Witt, C & Gallinat, J 2018, "Does playing violent video games cause aggression? A longitudinal intervention study", Molecular Psychiatry, viewed 3 June, 2018, <https://www.nature.com/articles/s41380-018-0031-7>.

Politics and civic cultures.

Social Media can be a powerful tool for political campaigning for both politicians or political activists. In recent years we’ve seen a darker side emerge with hacktivists harnessing that power to influence the US presidential elections with fake news as well as the scandalous Cambridge Analytica use of Facebook data. The days of ‘Kevin ‘07’ and Obama’s ‘Hope’ campaign seem like a distant memory.

2007 was a time when social media was really taking off in the public sphere. Sites like Facebook and Twitter were still relatively new and incredibly popular among younger people. Obama’s victory can be directly attributed to his ability to tap into the youth voting base and even Facebook seems to be aware of its new role in political discourse having launched a forum to encourage political discussion around this time (Dutta & Frazer 2018). I myself was in my late 20’s at the time and I remember feeling quite optimistic about the future. I followed Kevin Rudd on Twitter and Facebook and I was ecstatic when he won (the disillusionment would come later).

Fast forward to 2017 and the atmosphere had changed. Political campaigning had become more commonplace with almost anyone being able to post political memes, be they factual or not, or simply share content from sources they favour. In my view it’s become decidedly adversarial with a more openly hostile tone. Take for example the recent posts made by Nationals MP George Christensen just days after a mass shooting in Florida where he posted a picture of himself aiming a gun with the caption ‘Do you feel lucky Greenie punks?’ (Nothling 2018) or Donald Trumps Twitter rants. I’m certain that it’s the politicians feeding this phenomenon. Needless to say, I no longer engage in political discussions on social media. No one is interested in having their mind changed, they are only interested in being right so most political discussions degrade into slanging matches. It’s just bait for trolls.

References:

Dutta, S & Frazer, M 2018, "Barack Obama and the Facebook Election", US News, viewed 3 June, 2018, <https://www.usnews.com/opinion/articles/2008/11/19/barack-obama-and-the-facebook-election>.

Nothling, L 2018, "'Do you feel lucky, greenie punks': George Christensen under fire over Facebook post", ABC News, viewed 3 June, 2018, <http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-02-18/facebook-post-mp-george-christensen-feel-lucky-greenie-punks/9459476>.

Activism and protest.

The internet has had a heavy impact on the way humans deal with protest and social change. The ability to share information instantaneously with multiple recipients can make organising an event or getting the attention of the media a relatively easy thing. For our assignment this week we looked at some examples of social media playing an active role in protest movements and I looked at the #neveragain movement which has grown in response to the shootings at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School (MSD), in Parkland, Florida. The students use of Twitter, utilising the hashtag #neveragain is a great example of the power social media has to make our voices heard.

Emma Gonzalez had never set up a Twitter account until the shooting. After 11 days she had amassed more followers than the NRA (Alter, 2018). She now has 1.01 million followers after questioning NRA spokesperson Dana Loesch on CNN about their stance on bump stocks and automatic weapons while Loesch has only 784,000 and the NRA only has 589,000 (Economos, 2018). The ability to generate so much attention in such a relatively short time has certainly worked for the Parkland students, but what about the campaigns that don’t achieve anything? The Kony 2012 campaign springs to mind. The Kony campaign generated a lot of attention initially. People could feel good about sharing a link as if they were actually doing something when in reality they were merely engaging in slacktivism.

References:

Alter, C. (2018). The School Shooting Generation Has Had Enough. Time. Viewed 19 May 2018. 2018 <http://time.com/longform/never-again-movement/?xid=homepage>

Economos, N. (2018). Who is Emma Gonzalez, the US student fighting for gun control?. The Sydney Morning Herald. Viewed 11 Apr. 2018 <https://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/life-and-relationships/who-is-emma-gonzalez-the-us-student-fighting-for-gun-control-20180227-p4z1x0.html>

Trolling and social media conflict.

A Troll is defined as a person whose intention is to disrupt, cause and or inflame conflict online for the sake of their own amusement (Phillips, 2015). Internet trolling can take on various forms such as harassment, verbal attacks, cyberstalking and provocative behaviours designed to prompt an affected comeback (Hosie, 2017). I’ve had my own experience with an internet troll recently which actually prompted me to seek assistance from Police. Going on what I’ve learned from that experience I believe Australia does need a cyber-safety or social media ombudsman.

As I’ve mentioned in my previous blogs I mainly only use Facebook as far as social media platforms go. I run an online store on eBay which I advertise through a Facebook page and one night earlier this year I began receiving comments on a product in my store. It’s an offensive T-shirt, designed by myself. It reads ‘Gods not Real’ on the front and ‘Grow up!’ on the back. I was inspired to print them during the marriage equality campaign in 2017 after an encounter I’d had with a supporter of the Australian Christian Lobby. You might say I was engaging in a bit of trolling behaviour myself. Anyway, the comments section on the advert I was running included a frame capture from Google maps of my house. They had taken my address from my Facebook Business page and were using it to threaten me. I contacted Police who referred me to ACORN, Australian Cybercrime Online Reporting Network. As the trolling continued I sent frame captures of the behaviour to ACORN but they just referred me back to the Police. The Police then advised that I take out an intervention order but as I did not have an address for the trolls the order couldn’t be served. By this stage the trolling behaviour had been going on for a week. I had blocked the ringleaders, but they organised a flagging operation against my page. People I didn’t know were flooding my page with negative reviews and comments. I wrote to The Hon. Philip Dalidakis, minister for small business and his staff referred me to the website of the eSafety commissioner. I looked over the website but all the measures they were taking seemed to be aimed at protecting children.

The process of obtaining a restraining order took over a month. I had to resort to some stalking tactics of my own to obtain addresses for the ringleaders but once I did so and the restraining order was issued the trolling stopped. The whole process was prohibitive and stressful. Based on my own experience I think the approach is to 'governing' online behaviour and social media practice is ineffective.

References:

Anon 2018, "eSafety Homepage", Office of the eSafety Commissioner, viewed 1 May, 2018, <https://www.esafety.gov.au/>.

Hosie, R 2017, ‘Online Trolls: Why do people become Cyberbullies?’, The Independant, 7 March, viewed 1 May 2018, <https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/online-trolls-why-people-become-cyber-bullies-social-media-twitter-facebook-study-cornell-stanford-a7616126.html>

Phillips, W 2015, This is why we can't have nice thing, The MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, pp. 18-26.

Crowdsourcing in times of crisis.

Prior to embarking on this week’s readings, I had little knowledge of the concept of crowdsourcing. I’d been aware of efforts to crowdfund artistic projects but never really thought about the potential of internet platforms to assist during times of crisis. Crowdsourcing can be quite effective in responding to events and getting aid and emergency services to the places they are needed. The example of Usahidi, a Swahili word meaning ‘witness’ or ‘testimony’ (Ford, 2012. Pg 34) which is a web platform developed by Kenyan American David Kobia in order to track human rights abuses during the civil unrest that followed Kenya’s 2007 elections (Ford, 2012. Pg 34). Responding to a plea for assistance from Ory Okolloh, a Kenyan blogger reporting on the ground during a government imposed media ban, Kobia and a team of 20 Kenyan programmers developed a simple platform linking to a Google map to SMS text messages from people in the country (Ford, 2012. Pg 34).

Since it’s inception in 2007 Usahidi has become one of the foremost not for profit technology companies (Ford, 2012. Pg 38) and is a great example of crowdmapping being used to successfully respond to crisis’, but this type of crowd interaction does not always achieve the desired effect. In 2016 the Natural Environment Research Council in the UK attempted to use crowdsourcing to name their new research vessel. The voting was hijacked by internet trolls and the resulting winner was to be ‘Boaty Mcboatface’ (The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, 2016) which was later ditched in favour of ‘RRS Sir David Attenborough’. This example highlights the vulnerability of crowdsourcing campaigns to troublemakers and those who seek to benefit from deceiving the public.

Many media outlets now harness the power of crowdsourcing in their efforts to collect and report information. The use of Facebook and Twitter to report on the Black Saturday bushfires really paved the way for social media to become part of the accepted work practice for broadcasters such as the ABC (Posetti & Lo 2012). All though I can see a few issues surrounding verification of information and ‘noise’ generated by constant updates, crowdsourcing seems to be an effective tool for media outlets reporting on events in real time.

References:

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

Posetti, J & Lo, P 2012, "The Twitterisation of ABC's emergency and disaster communication", Australian Journal of Emergency Management, vol. 27, no. 1, pp. 34-39, viewed 12 May, 2018, <https://search.informit.com.au/documentSummary;dn=046926063833158;res=IELAPA>.

The Late Show with Stephen Colbert 2016, The People Have Spoken, 20 April, viewed 12 May 2018.

Facebook is no longer comfortable pt 2.

My Facebook friends consist mainly of people I have worked or studied with. I’m not really in favour of adding people I don’t know so my friends list is only made up of 201 people. Of those 201 I probably only regularly interact with about 20 people in the real world, or offline. That is not to say that I have not formed some very strong relationships with people in some very far off places. I have a friend in Boston, Massachusetts who I’ve never actually met in person. Another in Karachi, Pakistan. I have friends I’ve remained in touch with since I travelled to South East Asia, old school friends. As time went on I’ve connected with many people from my time in Film school and various workplaces. I used to be quite open about myself with my posts but in recent years I’ve set my privacy to friends only and I don’t share a lot of personal information. My birthdate is private for example and I never ‘check in’ with my location, ever. I do however participate in Facebook groups and I interact with a wide variety of people of varying nationalities to discuss subjects such as theology, philosophy and politics, and I’ve made some important connections through these groups.

I didn’t feel like I agreed with Turkle when she said that social media makes us feel less connected. I have an active social life away from Facebook. I have the ability to switch it off when I need to. But I feel it enhances some of my relationships and increases the level of connectivity I have with my social circle. I also gives me the opportunity to connect and interact in real time with people I would never have the opportunity to otherwise. So I’ve come to realise that I’m dependant on Facebook and that thought makes me extremely uncomfortable. It’s so terribly Orwellian to think that a single company can have access to the private information and data of over 2 billion people, and even more terrifying to think that a company like Cambridge Analytica could use that data to sway the democratic processes of the most powerful country in the world. So even though I haven’t deleted my Facebook account yet I will be minimising the amount of information I share on the platform. Perhaps one day Facebook will go the way of Myspace, replaced by a newer better social network with more care for it’s users data. One can only hope.

#blogs #social media #social networking

Facebook is no longer comfortable.

I belong to a very specific generation, somewhere between Gen X and Millenials, who happened to have been born between 1976 and 1983. We grew up in the time before the internet and mobile phones. We remember when you used to go to a friend’s house not knowing if they were home or not. Talking for hours to our friends on the landline phone. Sending and receiving letters. We were the first generation to embrace the internet. We chatted on MSN or Yahoo messenger. We learned to code with Myspace and saw it superseded by Facebook. It’s been interesting to observe the way these technologies ingratiate themselves into our lives and society.

According to McCosker and Wilkin (2014) Social network sites “enable constant communication and connection, while encouraging increasingly public levels of self-disclosure or exposure.” This means that we are using these platforms to enable us to stay in constant contact while at the same time encouraging one another to disclose more personal information. But according to Mandiberg (2012) “Humans are both curious and social critters. We want to understand and interact. Technology introduces new possibilities for doing so”. While many may assume that we are addicted to the technology, Mandiberg tends to see it as facilitating and enhancing human interactions (Mandiberg, 2012). In my own experience as of late I’ve been quite concerned about the privacy of my Facebook account. I don’t use many social media platforms, I have a Twitter account which I barely ever use. I use Facebook quite frequently but when the Cambridge Analytica scandal broke I’ve wanted to delete my Facebook account but found that the connections I have with friends from all over the world were too valuable to just throw away. I have a lot of friends who I can communicate with cheaply in real time from places like America, Pakistan and South East Asia and it would truly pain me to lose these connections. Sure I could move to a different social network but there’s no platform as commonly used or easily accessible as Facebook. I guess this is what is meant by the term ‘social capital’, but who is really capitalising? Is it us or is it Mark Zuckerberg?

References:

Mandiberg, M. 2012, The Social Media Reader. NYU Press, New York. ProQuest Ebook Central. Viewed 14 April 2018 <https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/swin/reader.action?docID=865738&ppg=84>

McCosker, A & Wilken, R 2014, ‘Social selves’, in S Cunningham & S Turnbull (eds), The media & communications in Australia, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, pp. 291-295.

#social media #blog

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MDA20009: Digital Communities Assignment 1: Blog