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Blog 4: Online activism

Social awareness is defined as being conscious of the issues and hardships that varying communities face (Stellenbosch University 2017). Sites such as Facebook and Twitter are mostly used for socialising and entertainment (Gerbaudo 2012), however, activism has found a strong voice online, especially in relation to minority issues that may have faced barriers to being heard previously (Lievrouw 2011), in turn, increasing social awareness.

Online activism has many benefits. It is low cost, has a vast reach, is able to connect people beyond proximity, reveals injustices, teaches an understanding of other cultures and can occur outside of established organisational channels (Rohlinger 2017). Successful online activism has been used on numerous occasions. For example, in 2017, the ‘Yes Campaign’ for marriage equality had a strong social media presence, encouraging thousands of Australians to take part (Equality Campaign 2017). Support was shown in multiple ways including donating money, attending marches, uploading pictures of ‘yes’ votes, making use of rainbow filters and sharing articles. Following a postal vote, marriage equality was successfully passed into law (Kozioi 2017). It is interesting to note that in the mid 1980s, prior to social media platforms, 64% of Australians thought homosexuality was wrong, but by 2016, only 21% described it as wrong (McKinnon 2017). This aligns with Lievrouw’s (2011) theory that minority issues are now being given a voice online. This provides some proof that social media activism can eventuate into policy change, making the passing of the marriage equality law quite significant.

In some cases, online activism can result in immediate improvements to a person or situation, whilst operating outside of the traditional mainstream methods. For example, in 2014, when foreign correspondent reporter, Ayman Mohyeldin, was removed from his position for reporting on four Palestinian boys who were killed whilst playing soccer, people created the hashtag #LetAymanReport. The next day, Aymen was back reporting in Gaza due to online support for the cause (Khan-Ibarra 2014). Without social media, it would be unlikely that Aymen’s story would be heard.

Despite these positive outcomes, the now famous, Occupy Wall street movement spread across the Western world in 2011, attempting to bring awareness to economic inequality. Micah White, co-founder of the movement, now describes the entire event as a failure, claiming that no meaningful change ever resulted from the movement. He acknowledges that recent years have seen the biggest protests in human history, yet none of these mass mobilisations really changed society (Funnel 2017). ‘We live in a world where you can gain power either through winning elections or winning wars. It seems to me that we should try to win elections,’ (Funnel 2017). White’s statement came after giving thought to how true societal change can eventuate. It is interesting that he deemed the traditional method of ‘winning elections’ to be more effective than the affordances digital communities offer us.

Equality Campaign, 2017, ‘Equality Campaign: About Us’, viewed 25 January 2018, http://www.equalitycampaign.org.au/marriage-equality.

Funnel, A 2017, ‘From slacktivism to ‘feel good protests, activism is broken: Here’s how to fix it’, viewed 4 January 2018, http://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2017-10-25/activism-is-broken-heres-how-we-fix-it/9077372.

Gallagher, B 2013, ’20 things on Facebook we hate the most’, viewed 4 January 2018, http://www.complex.com/pop-culture/2013/05/20-things-on-facebook-we-hate-the-most.

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

Hammarstand, V 2017, ‘Social media activism, the good, the bad and the ugly’, viewed 7 January 2018, http://www.guard.social/blog/social-media-management/social-media-activism-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly.

Khan-Ibarra, S 2014, ‘The case for social media and hashtag activism’, viewed 3 January 2018, https://www.huffingtonpost.com/sabina-khanibarra/the-case-for-social-media_b_6149974.html.

Kozioi, M 2017, ‘Same-sex marriage legalised in Australia as Parliament passes historic law’, viewed 30 December 2017, http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/samesex-marriage-legalised-in-australia-as-parliament-passes-historic-law-20171206-h00cdj.html.

Lievrouw, L 2011, Alternative & Activist New Media, Polity, Cambridge, U.K, p. 2.

McKinnon, A 2017, ‘Kath and Kim show exactly how Australia can accept same-sex marriage’, viewed 25 January 2018, http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-09-15/kath-and-kim-show-how-australia-can-accept-gay-marriage/8945296.

Rohlinger, D 2017, ‘How social movements are using the internet to change politics’, viewed 4 January 2018, http://www.scholarsstrategynetwork.org/brief/how-social-movements-are-using-internet-change-politics.

Stellenbosch University 2017, ‘Social Awareness’, viewed 14 January 2018, https://www.sun.ac.za/english/students/student-societies/social-awareness-societies.

Xu, C 2015, ‘Going viral using social media for activism’, viewed 14 January 2018, https://medium.com/social-media-stories/going-viral-using-social-media-for-activism-78cade6e2371.

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Many users claim that FarmVille is ‘boring’ but they simply cannot stop playing it (Saint, 2010)

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Blog 8: Social gaming

Social media continues to redefine human connections as our digital citizenship now allows us to form social connections in a range of new ways. One of these ways is gaming, facilitated via a social network. Gameplay provides relaxation, an opportunity to compete with others and an escape from real life, which is ironic because online games are often based on a replica of real life. Today’s blog explores an online game that has captured the attention and time of millions of people. What is most interesting about FarmVille is that its many users say it is ‘boring’ but they cannot stop playing it (Saint 2010). I was intrigued to know what characteristics could have such an effect on people.

Zynga launched FarmVille in 2009 and quickly reached eight million players, all connected via Facebook (Bort 2013). With only a slight drop off after 2013, it remains the most popular social game ever (Goad, 2009). Its premise is to maintain a farm, in a simulated environment, harvesting crops, selling produce and raising livestock (ZyngaNetwork 2018). Notable features of the game include its high quality animation, with characters that move in a life-like way, who have real stories. It has user-friendly navigation and a true to life ecosystem (ZyngaNetwork 2012). Whilst these features have contributed to the game’s success, it is the next two factors that made FarmVille the most popular game of all time. Zynga goes to great lengths to ensure you feel a sense of duty and social obligation to play, as it prompts you via Facebook to ensure you feel bad if your friends suffer when you aren’t playing (Saint, 2010). This is an interesting dynamic because the characters are only animations but people feel like they are genuinely suffering, which reinforces how real our online lives are to us. The second contributing factor is the manner in which FarmVille advertises. Players share their achievements on Facebook with others, in order to gain rewards. Despite many non-players finding this disruptive to their News Feed, the constant reminders encourage people to take action (Saint, 2010). This is a cost effective method, as people are more willing to receive recommendations via word of mouth (Kapadia 2015). This fast paced word of mouth is made possible by the social media affordances of Facebook.

Interestingly, Zynga made several other games that are not connected via Facebook and none have been as successful (Saint, 2010) showing how core social media platforms are to its success. Following the closure of several games, including one called PetVille, Zynga customers complained about the connection they felt to the characters in the game ‘Please don’t remove PetVille, I’m going to miss my pet Jaime, why do you want to cause depression for me and others’ said a loyal PetVille gamer (Constine, 2012).

The makers of Farmville claim that social connection is the most important factor in social gaming (ZyngaNetwork 2012). Users may socialise in varied ways including posting their accomplishments online, discussing their opinions in a gaming review forum or posting their tips, successes, cheats and more on YouTube. To a non-gamer, these posts and videos have little conventional appeal, yet a two minute video titled ‘Farmville cheats and tips’ has 124,845 views (MrFarmvilleGuy, 2009) and a video titled ‘Amazing farm in Farmville’ has almost 330,000 views (Kong, 2009), proving considerable interest in the videos.

This is one of the ways social media offers people new affordances via their digital citizenships. People socialising, communicating and competing during gameplay is one of the many ways social media continues to redefine human connections.

References

Bort, J 2013, ‘8 million people play Zynga’s FarmVille 2 every day’, viewed 20 January 2018, https://www.businessinsider.com.au/8-million-people-play-zyngas-farmville-2-every-day-mark-pincus-says-2013-5.

Constine, J 2012, Zynga shuts down Petville, Fishville, Mafia War 2’, viewed 1 January 2018, https://techcrunch.com/2012/12/30/zynga-shuts-down-petville-fishville-mafia-wars-2.

Goad L, 2009, ‘FarmVille: Biggest online game ever’, viewed 14 January 2018, https://www.aol.com/2009/09/15/farmville-biggest-online-game-ever.

Kapadia, A 2015, ‘Why word of mouth marketing is important for your brand’, viewed 20 January 2018, https://www.getambassador.com/blog/word-of-mouth-marketing-statistics.

Kong, 2009, ‘Amazing farm in FarmVille’, viewed 26 January 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Y9-ejtHObU.

MrFarmvilleGuy, 2009, ‘Farmville Cheats and Tips’, viewed 23 January 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7e6Tt8rcDjQ.

Saint, N 2010, ‘Why the no-fun FarmVille is so popular’, viewed 26 January 2018, http://edition.cnn.com/2010/TECH/social.media/09/28/farmville.popularity/index.html.

ZyngaNetwork 2012, ‘The Making of Farmville 2’, viewed 14 January 2018, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnNKko2ELKQ>.

ZyngaNetwork, 2018, ‘Grow your own farm online with FarmVille’, viewed 24 January 2018, https://www.zynga.com/games/farmville.

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Mobile devices allow the public to interact with government in new and game-changing ways and users expect those interactions. As a result, many agencies are taking advantage of native apps for crowdsourcing projects. The White House Open Government Initiative recently defined crowdsourcing “as a

The greatest gift you can give another person is your attention’

Patricia Lange 2009

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Blog 7: Visual Communities

Perhaps you installed your own blinds thanks to a YouTube instructional video, or you felt motivated to get fit after viewing health advice on Instagram, or maybe you laughed at a cat on Facebook. With access to friends, hobbies, entertainment and information, it is clear that social media benefits us in many ways. Despite its positive attributes, it has also contributed to a rapidly declining attention span in humans (Stevens 2016). Australians spend 70 hours per week on the internet (Carmody 2016) and are exposed to 600 advertising messages a day, ignoring 99% of them (Rock 2014). It is with this information that we might reflect on the things in life we are willing to give our undivided attention to.

Some of that attention is directed at social media because social media platforms afford us the opportunity to socialise in ways that differ from conventional face to face interactions. People who don’t even know each other seek out resonating content and form social groups around topics of interest. Specifically, the uploading of photos and videos to a digital platform is becoming a common way of communicating. This is known as 'networked visuality' where online imagery has become a form of communication within itself. Those who relate to the imagery may receive a feeling of identity and agency as they connect with its content. Lange (2009) describes this as ‘videos of affinity.’

In the past, it was assumed only polished and professional content would attract advertising funding or be worthy or viewing. YouTube changed this dynamic, as now some of the most popular videos of all time are amateur, spontaneous or just for laughs (Lange 2009). In 2014, father of three, Ryan Hafey, uploaded a 20 second video titled ‘What it’s really like to have kids’ (Hafey 2014). The video contains a father staring blankly into the camera whilst three kids run laps around the dining room table, screaming with joy. He does not speak throughout the video because the imagery tells the story. The video has been viewed 261,711 times with 90% of viewers giving the video a thumbs up. This video has created a connection between groups of interested people on a social network, sharing similar experiences and ideas. No one demanded that people give their attention to this video. It is not professional or expensive. It does not meet any specific standards, nor does it contain artistic aesthetics. It may not be worthy of any attention, but is a moment in time shared with others on a digital platform allowing groups of people to feel connected.

References

Carmody, B 2016, ‘Australians spend 10 hours a day on the internet connected devices: The digital trends your SME needs to know’, viewed 19 January 2018, https://www.smartcompany.com.au/technology/australians-spend-10-hours-a-day-on-internet-connected-devices-the-digital-trends-your-sme-needs-to-know.

Hafey, R 2014 ‘What it’s really like to have kids’, viewed 19 January 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oh-NTxd43zY.

Lange, P 2009, ‘Videos of Affinity on YouTube’, in P, Snickars & P, Vonderau (eds), The YouTube Reader, National Library of Sweden, Stockholm, pp. 70-88.

Rock, B 2014, ‘Channel surfing: combining print and TV campaigns’, viewed 20 January 2018, http://newsmediaworks.com.au/newspapers-and-television-in-partnership.

Stevens, J 2016, ‘Decreasing attention spans and your website, social media strategy’, viewed 19 January 2018, http://www.adweek.com/digital/john-stevens-guest-post-decreasing-attention-spans.

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Blog 6: Crowdsourcing

Technology now allows crowds of people to offer resources, ideas, funding, information, content or services using online communities (Webster 2014). This amazing new technology, known as crowdsourcing, has never been seen before and has the potential to change the way government, business and eventually whole countries operate (Houlihan & Harvey 2018). While the future utility of crowdsourcing is boundless, this blog discusses four positive ways crowdsourcing has been used to date.

In its simplest form, crowdsourcing has been used on Twitter to link ideas or provide support to a cause via the use of hashtags. For example, in 2015, the US Supreme Court passed same-sex marriage which resulted in the hashtag #LoveWins being used over 12 million times (Flynn 2015). This meant that people from anywhere in the world, who didn’t know each other, but had similar values, could band together in support of a social or political cause.

Beyond the simple hashtag, from a marketing perspective, many large companies take advantage of crowdsourcing as a free branding tool, using it to elicit ideas from the general public. For example, Lego asks the public to design their new toys. This motivates people to visit the Lego website whilst they review and vote on toy designs, or share their own designs via their social media feeds. The most popular toy ideas are created and sold, with the original designer receiving royalties for their contribution (Kearns 2015).

In more serious situations, such as a crisis or disaster, crowdsourced data can be recorded and communicated much faster than official industry statements. Researchers at RMIT University tracked the location of active fires in real time, with data collected from triple zero calls. This generated a live map documenting the most serious fires (Kaszubska 2016). Australia has been slow to adopt crowdsourcing for emergency situations, however, has made use of simpler versions of crowdsourcing. During the 2013 NSW bushfires, Twitter generated the hashtag #nswfires allowing the media, online users and emergency crews to post updated photos and information. The linking of this information creates a live, holistic view of the event. It can assist those looking for loved ones, allow those affected by fires to document their experience, be used as a warning alert so others know where the danger is and it can let people know how they can offer help (onMedia 2014).

In an even more sophisticated use of crowdsourcing in emergencies, Ushahidi has created a platform that allows users to collect data from victims on the ground via email, SMS, web app or Twitter. A live time-feed then links all the incoming posts, generating a user-friendly visual map of the incident. Ongoing changes can be updated and viewed in real time, potentially increasing the rate of response time. This is a significant advantage over the traditional method of waiting for an official statement. Ushahidi also includes platforms that support the sharing of information around elections and advocacy for human rights, exposing humanitarian issues globally. Whilst information is received from amateurs at the scene, rather than professionals, making verification difficult, this will be an interesting space to watch over the next 20 years.

Crowdsourcing has further been used to help those less fortunate by collecting money. On a rainy day in 2016, six-year-old, Ryder noticed that the homeless people in his town had no boots or raincoats. He asked his parents to help him set up a GoFundMe page seeking money from the public for the purchase of raincoats and boots. With the money he raised, he was able to distribute wet weather clothing to homeless people, providing them a little more comfort (GoFundMe, 2017). Without this crowdsourcing platform, he may not have attracted so many donations, quickly, from various locations globally and with zero start-ups costs.

These are just some of the innovative ways crowdsourcing is being used. By seeking information and resources from the crowd, and seeing what they can offer, crowdsourcing has many possibilities for society and perhaps could one day be the enabler to improve conditions for everyone on earth.

References

Flynn, K 2015, ‘How #LoveWins on Twitter became the most viral hashtag of the same-sex marriage ruling’, viewed 20 January 2018, http://www.ibtimes.com/how-lovewins-twitter-became-most-viral-hashtag-same-sex-marriage-ruling-1986279.

GoFundMe, 2017 ‘Meet Ryder’, viewed 21 January 2018, https://blog.gofundme.com/meet-ryder-e80380b08c70.

Houlihan, M & Harvey, B 2018, ‘How crowdsourcing is shaping the future of everything’, viewed 21 January 2018, https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/307438.

Kearns, K 2015, ‘Great examples of crowdsourcing in the age of empowered consumers’, viewed 20 January 2018, http://tweakyourbiz.com/marketing/2015/07/10/9-great-examples-crowdsourcing-age-empowered-consumers.

Kaszubska, G 2016, ‘How can crowdsourcing help us respond better to disaster’, viewed 21 January 2018, https://www.rmit.edu.au/news/all-news/2016/november/how-can-crowdsourcing-help-us-respond-better-to-disasters.

onMedia 2014, Interactive and Social Media Documenting Australian Bushfires, viewed 8 January 2018, <http://onmedia.dw-akademie.de/english/?p=13759>.

Webster, M 2014, 'Crowdsourcing entry' Merriam Webster, viewed 13 January 2018, <http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/crowdsourcing>.

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The internet may have brought us closer together, but it’s also removed the consequences of people’s actions

Rachel Corbett 2016

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Botsplaining, a tongue-in-cheek play on the idea of mansplaining.

Amazing new technologies: fighting trolls with bots.

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Blog 5: Trolling

The proliferation of social media platforms has allowed people to connect and communicate online, but also expanded the type of conflict humans experience with each other. With just a mobile phone, a 16 year old living in Belgium can quickly and easily threaten or hurt the feelings of a teenager in New Zealand. Social media platforms afford us quick, easy and anonymous access to millions of people globally, which has resulted in some people using their digital citizenship to mock and insult others (Swinburne Online 2018).

Trolling is typically thought to be anonymous people posting inflammatory comments online in order to provoke an emotional response from other users or derail conversation. Cyberbullying, on the other hand, which often gets confused with trolling, has been described by the Australian Government as targeting and attacking a specific person repeatedly online (Office of the eSafety Commissioner 2018).

Teenagers are at particular risk of online conflict because they are trying to establish their agency in an adult world. Participating in pranks, gossip and drama online allows them to compete for popularity and attention (Boyd 2014). When a teenager feels hurt or threatened online, the Australian Government recommends numerous ways to protect themselves including ignoring, blocking, reporting, contacting the social media platform administrator, talking about it to a friend or making a complaint to the eSafety commissioner (Office of the eSafety Commissioner 2018). None of these approaches guarantee that the content will be removed, which can have a harmful effect on young people’s wellbeing (Whiteman 2015). As a result, the Government is proposing to take this one step further and appoint an eSafety commissioner who could remove offensive content (Fletcher 2014). Without this role, teenagers are at risk of harm.

There may be alternative ways to address trolling and cyberbullying that don’t involve Government intervention. In 2015, scientists used bots to scan Twitter for the word ‘corruption’ and find out whether people venting about corruption were willing to take action and become involved in the fight against corruption. The bot automatically posted replies that said “What should we change personally to fight corruption?” They found people were willing to respond and get involved, which was a surprising result. This led researchers to consider how this could be used for online conflict, in particular whether they could change people’s behaviour. It is thought that in the future, bots could respond to people who use inflammatory or prejudice language and suggest more polite ways of interacting (Savage 2017).

The internet offers people innovative ways of socialising and connecting over common interests, but the value of the internet is diminished when people decide they want to use their digital citizenship to mock, insult and threaten each other, instead of communicate and connect.

References

Boyd, D 2014, 'Bullying: Is the Media Amplifying Meanness and Cruelty?', in It’s Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens, Yale University Press, New Haven, USA, pp. 128-52.

Office of the eSafety Commissioner, 2018, ‘Trolling’ viewed 27 January 2018, https://www.esafety.gov.au/education-resources/iparent/online-risks/trolling.

Fletcher, P 2014, ‘Transcript of the Hon Paul Fletcher on Radio National about protecting children from cyber-bullying’, viewed 9 January 2018, http://www.minister.communications.gov.au/paul_fletcher/news/transcript_of_the_hon_paul_fletcher_on_radio_national_about_protecting_children_from_cyber_bullying#.WjtXcN-WbIV.

Savage, S 2017, ‘Fighting online trolls with bots’, viewed 28 January 2018, https://theconversation.com/fighting-online-trolls-with-bots-70941.

Swinburne Online, 2018, ‘Week 7: Digital Communities’, viewed 22 January 2018, https://swinburneonline.instructure.com/courses/77/pages/7-dot-2-trolling-and-provocation?module_item_id=6782.

Whiteman, H 2015, ‘Social media: how does it affect our mental health and well-being?’ viewed 21 January 2018, https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/275361.php.

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Social media activism occurs in multiple ways

Blog 4: Social media activism

Online activism has many positive benefits for society. It is low cost, with maximum reach, it can connect people beyond proximity, reveal injustices, bring about an understanding of other cultures and can occur outside of established organisational channels (Rohlinger 2017). Successful online activism has been used on numerous occasions. For example, in 2017, the ‘Yes Campaign’ for marriage equality had a strong social media presence, encouraging thousands of Australians to take part (Equality Campaign 2017). Support was shown in multiple ways including donating money, attending marches, uploading pictures of ‘yes’ votes, making use of rainbow filters and sharing articles. Following a postal vote, the law successfully passed in parliament (Kozioi 2017). It is interesting to note that in the mid 1980s, prior to the internet, 64% of Australians thought homosexuality was wrong, but by 2016, only 21% described it as wrong (McKinnon 2017). This aligns with Lievrouw’s (2011) theory that minority issues are now being given a voice online, where in the past they faced barriers to being heard. Proof that social media activism can eventuate into policy change makes the passing of the marriage equality law quite significant.

Despite these positive outcomes, the same formula can problematic for others. For example, most people would assume it is beneficial to reach millions of people quickly in order to gain support for a cause, but it can also mean large angry mobs support false or misleading causes. When PETA vowed to boycott the film A Dog’s Purpose, claiming alleged animal cruelty, an investigation found there had been no animal cruelty. Unfortunately, it was too late because ticket sales had already dropped due to millions of people supporting the cause online (Hammarstand 2017). PETA positions themselves as a reputable activist group online, there is an expectation they would be diligent in their research, before making such a claim.

A final thought about online activism. The now famous, Occupy Wall street movement spread across the Western world in 2011, attempting to bring awareness to economic inequality. Micah White, co-founder of the movement, now describes the entire event as a failure, claiming that no meaningful change ever resulted from the movement. He acknowledges that recent years have seen the biggest protests in human history, yet none of these mass mobilisations really changed society (Funnel 2017). ‘We live in a world where you can gain power either through winning elections or winning wars. It seems to me that we should try to win elections,’ (White 2017). White’s statements came after giving thought to how true societal change can eventuate. It is interesting that he deemed the traditional method of ‘winning elections’ to be more effective.

References

Equality Campaign, 2017, ‘Equality Campaign: About Us’, viewed 25 January 2018, http://www.equalitycampaign.org.au/marriage-equality.

Gallagher, B 2013, ’20 things on Facebook we hate the most’, viewed 4 January 2018, http://www.complex.com/pop-culture/2013/05/20-things-on-facebook-we-hate-the-most.

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

Khan-Ibarra, S 2014, ‘The case for social media and hashtag activism’, viewed 3 January 2018, https://www.huffingtonpost.com/sabina-khanibarra/the-case-for-social-media_b_6149974.html.

Lievrouw, L 2011, Alternative & Activist New Media, Polity, Cambridge, U.K, p. 2.

Stellenbosch University 2017, ‘Social Awareness’, viewed 14 January 2018, https://www.sun.ac.za/english/students/student-societies/social-awareness-societies.

Xu, C 2015, ‘Going viral using social media for activism’, viewed 14 January 2018, https://medium.com/social-media-stories/going-viral-using-social-media-for-activism-78cade6e2371.

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Malcolm Turnbull understands the dynamics of being a savvy social media participator.

Blog 3: Politics online

With loss of privacy, shorter attention spans and the increased circulation of non-factual information, social media is associated with some negative societal impacts (Jung 2017), however, one positive aspect is that people may eventually use their digital citizenship to engage in political conversation online, resulting in true democracy (Swinburne Online 2017).

When digital platforms were becoming popular socialising hubs, websites began to appear allowing the public to take part in opinion polls, mock voting and discussions around politics. This new environment created opportunities for public debate of political matters as well as alternative communication avenues for political marketing (Carson 2016). Despite the interest from the public, Australian politicians were not overly quick to take up social media (Grant, Moon & Grant 2010), with some dismissing its impact. In 2015, Tony Abbott said ‘Social media is like electronic graffiti, you make a big mistake to pay too much attention to it, it has about as much authority and credibility as graffiti.’ Abbott is an ex-journalist and should know that graffiti is also a form of human expression which can be used to demonstrate political dissatisfaction (Snowden 2015).

Now that social media captures every word, politicians need to be cautious with their language and message. Emily Thornberry, a British politician, tweeted a picture of a small house with three English flags on the window of the home. She included the hashtag #Rochester. Regardless of what she meant, people quickly jumped to the conclusion that she was being snobby and/or accusing the house owner of being racist for his pride in his country. This created immediate backlash on Twitter and despite an apology, she felt pressure to resign from her role. A responder on Twitter typed: ‘Twitter is not for everyone you know, maybe time to take a break’ (Donald 2014). It is possible that Thornberry did not understand the nuanced culture of social media.

Other politicians, who still have their jobs, but did not grow up with social media, are attempting to navigate this new world with questionable results (Jericho 2012). Some may consider whether online participation will help or hinder their careers. To increase the success rate, politicians must avoid temptation to solely push political messages, as research shows that personal and light-hearted posts receive more positive responses from the public (Young 2010). Australian Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull appears to understand the dynamics of being a savvy social media participator. He posts about his personal life, amongst policy issues, using simple, relatable language on his Facebook and Twitter feed (Dunn 2016). In December 2017, Turnbull had 393,185 followers on Facebook while his opposition leader, Bill Shorten had 209,232. A review of the Bill Shorten Facebook page shows that he posts mostly about policy issues.

Social media has empowered the public to take part in news and politics. Currently 48% of Australian’s get their news via Facebook (Liddy 2015), though algorithms used by Facebook can result in polarised, unreliable information being viewed and shared. Those who are interested in politics share what angers or interests them but are unlikely to see contradictory arguments (Phillips 2016). This is a challenge if true democracy is to flourish online. On a positive note, Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, recently announced that he plans to change the algorithms to prioritise ‘meaningful social interactions’ between friends and family, rather than from media outlets and businesses (Wong, 2018). This may decrease polarisation of content in the News Feed which is a positive step for democracy and the well-being of society.

One final thought to consider before it is determined that our digital citizenship has the potential to contribute to political decisions. Despite regular political debate on Twitter, it is estimated that Twitter may have only around 150,000 active accounts in Australia (Jericho 2012). This makes up less than 0.6% of Australia’s population. With 99.4% of Australian’s not active on Twitter, online conversations hardly represent the majority opinion, of which the government are meant to reflect in a democratic country (Dahl 2017). Perhaps in the future, there will be a legal requirement to have a digital citizenship in order to participate in political debate.

References

Carson, A 2016, ‘Please like me: why Facebook might be the key to success in the 2016 election’, viewed 4 January 2018, https://theconversation.com/please-like-me-why-facebook-might-be-the-key-to-success-in-the-2016-election-56427.

Dahl, R, 2017, 'Democracy', Encyclopaedia Britannica, viewed 29 January 2017,https://www.britannica.com/topic/democracy.

Donald, A 2014, ‘Emily Thornberry: How one tweet led to her resignation’, viewed 10 January 2018, http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-30142579.

Dunn. M 2016 ‘Malcolm Turnbull most popular party leader on Facebook thanks to his personal posts’, viewed 10 January 2018, http://www.news.com.au/technology/online/social/malcolm-turnbull-most-popular-party-leader-on-facebook-thanks-to-his-personal-posts/news-story/2a412ce46f7c03663f83b9ecc0f803ac.

Grant, W, Moon, B & Grant J 2010, ‘Digital Dialogue? Australian Politicians use of social network tool Twitter’, Australian Journal of Political Science, v16, Iss.5, viewed 19 January 2018.

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

Liddy, M 2015, ‘Australian’s don’t trust the news – except when it comes from their favourite sources’, viewed 21 January 2018, http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-06-16/australians-digital-news-trust/6548232.

Phillips, A 2016, ‘Social media is changing the face of politics’, viewed 9 January 2018, https://theconversation.com/social-media-is-changing-the-face-of-politics-and-its-not-good-news-54266.

Snowden, C 2015, ‘No, Tony Abbott, you can’t dismiss social media as electronic graffiti’, viewed 14 January 2018, https://theconversation.com/no-tony-abbott-you-cant-dismiss-social-media-as-electronic-graffiti-36819.

Swinburne Online 2017, ‘Week 5: Digital Communities’, viewed 22 January 2018, https://swinburneonline.instructure.com/courses/77/pages/5-dot-1-this-weeks-focus?module_item_id=6767.

Wong, J 2018, ‘Facebook overhauls News Feed in favour of meaningful social interactions’, viewed 21 January 2018, https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/jan/11/facebook-news-feed-algorithm-overhaul-mark-zuckerberg.

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insanjuniperowetrust-blog

What’s behind a ‘Selfie’?

In December of 1998 I was able to taste, for the first time, what it felt to ‘chat’ with another person through a computer. This was only possible because of the Internet of course, but also because of the chat rooms that were created for this end so that people could connect and ‘talk’ without using their voices. It’s been almost 20 years and I can still remember my fascination for talking to someone in Philadelphia or Johannesburg whom I had never met, and whom I would probably never meet either. It felt as if the future had finally arrived.

‘Do you have a photo of yourself’?

Millennials may be surprised, but this question was a commonplace in most conversations during the early years of chat rooms – just as frequent as its equally anachronistic answer: ‘Sorry, I don’t have a scanner’. Almost twenty years later, not only do we have the possibility to take as many photos of ourselves as we pleased, but we have turn this practice into a real cultural thing.

NETWORKED VISUALITY The growth of the selfie culture – an arms-length self-portrait taken with a smartphone or a webcam with the purpose of being share in social media (Selfiecity 2014) – has led to a new level of online interaction in social networks. Indeed, a large amount of social media users – particularly adolescents and young adults – are nowadays using images as a way of building and sharing their life narratives (Vivienne and Burgess 2013). This phenomena is known as ‘Networked Visuality’ (Hjorth 2011), and its impact is such that a number of social media platforms such as Pinterest and Instagram were created specifically to foster (and take advantage of) this trend. Of interest, according to Selfiecity women take more selfies than men.

For another perspective on the Selfie issue, watch this very engaging TED Talk called ‘Me, my selfie and I’.

PRIVACY: THAT THING FROM THE PAST One of the major issues associated with the sharing of images photos and videos is privacy. Or I should say, the lack of privacy. Indeed, not everyone is happy about showing themselves in social media, with the potential of being seen my countless of curious friends of friends. In this respect, one may feel tempted to say something like ‘Well, then do not share those photos’. Fair enough, but what if it was not the actual person who uploaded that photo, and it was rather a Facebook friend? Moreover, what if you do not even do social media but you attend to a party, have lots of fun, and then you are tagged in a number of photos shared on Facebook?

In a focus group aimed at exploring the social media privacy issue, Besmer and Lipford (2010) found that incriminating evidence was one of the main concerns among participants. Specifically, people’s main fear was being caught by the camera when drunk. In a less serious fashion, people were also urged to delete photos of themselves uploaded by others where they were in an ‘unfavourable light’ (AKA ‘I look terrible!’) (Besmer and Lipford 2010). Interestingly enough, this focus group found that no participant related the lack of privacy with perceive unsafety (i.e., strangers stalking their profiles to gather information for potential crimes). Yet, it is worth noting that this last finding is not consistent with previous studies (see Athern et al. 2007). Finally, you may also want to watch the following social media experiment by Jack Vale (2013), which has a very powerful message for all social media users.

References

Ahern, S, Eckles, D, Good, NS, King, S, Naaman, M & Nair, R 2007, ‘Over-exposed?: Privacy patterns and considerations in online and mobile photo sharing’, In Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems, pp. 357–366, San Jose, California, ACM.

Besmer, A & Lipford, HR 2010, ‘Moving beyond untagging: Photo privacy in a tagged world’, Univerisy of North Carolina at Charlotte, viewed 14 January 2018, <http://dmrussell.net/CHI2010/docs/p1563.pdf>.

Hjorth, L 2011, ‘Mobile spectres of intimacy: the gendered role of mobile technologies in love – past, present and future’, in R, Ling & S, Campbell (eds) The Mobile Communication Research Series: Volume II, Mobile Communication: Bringing Us Together or Tearing Us Apart? Transaction Books Edison, NJ , pp. 37-60.

Jack Vale Films 2013, ‘Social Media Experiment’, viewed 14 January 2018, <https://youtu.be/5P_0s1TYpJU>.

Papadoupoulos, L 2015, ‘Me my selfie and I’, TEDx White Hall Women, viewed 14 January 2018, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAdOeP6d3pQ>.

Selfie city, 2014, viewed 14 January 2018, <http://selfiecity.net/>.

Vivienne, S & Burgess, J 2013, ‘The Remediation of the Personal Photograph’, Journal of Material Culture, vol. 18, no. 3, pp. 279-98.

allthingsdigitalandsocial-deact

The concept of networked visuality has been more prominent since the rise of the selfie culture. Do you recall the song Let Me Take A #Selfie? That’s what it reminds me of.

The impact of the selfie trend in the 21st century is extensive; so much so that Kim Kardashian produced her very own coffee table book of her selfies; title Selfish.

[image] World stage 2015

References:

Michael Donel 2014, Let Me Take A #Selfie - Official Music Video - The Chainsmokers, 11 March, viewed 16 January 2018, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yN1xomBlhSA&ab_channel=MichaelDonel>.

World stage 2015, ‘Kim Kardashian Selfish Book’ [image], Kim Kardashian’s Book is dumb & selfish’, World stage, viewed 16 January 2018, <http://blisstree-2012-stage.com/2015/09/kim-kardashians-book-is-dumb-selfish/>.

amandafelb09-blog

Interesting thought in regards to people who choose not to be on social media, but they still end up in pictures all over social media including being tagged, likely all without their permission. I remember those initial chat rooms ! :)

insanjuniperowetrust-blog

Social Media: You can afford it!

Some time ago, I came across an interesting article which suggested that many people use Facebook because they want ‘to belong’ and because they feel the need to self-present themselves (Nadkarni & Hofmann 2012). While this made sense to me, I remember wondering if these people were aware that this social media platform, much like many others, enables you to do much more than just sharing photos or posting ‘happy birthdays’. As a matter of fact, over the last few years Facebook has been releasing a number innovative tools such as Facebook Video, Facebook Live, and several others that are really useful for businesses.

The many ways in which users interact with social media interfaces is known as ‘Affordances’ (Norman 1999). The term, which was invented decades before the arrival of the Internet, was coined by psychologist Gibson (1977) and referred to the countless ways in which one can interact with their environment. Later, cognitive scientist Norman (1999) utilised the term to describe the potential uses that an object can have. Since social media somewhat involves these two definitions, it is not surprising that their platforms are now being analysed in terms of their affordances (Norman 1999).

Social Behaviour Many scholars hold that social media influence our social behaviour (Butcher & Helmond 2016; Hughes, Rowe, Batey & Lee 2012). Specifically, that a user’s behaviour in any given digital community is the result of the affordances that the corresponding social media platform present. The following are two examples illustrating this scenario. Twitter Soon after its launch in 2006, this revolutionary platform quickly skyrocketed and positioned itself as one of the most popular social media sites. It was revolutionary because, while all sites encouraged users to post as much information as they wished, Twitter decided to limit each post to 140-characters. As a result of users being forced to write posts (or tweets) rather briefly, alternative ways of social interaction emerged. For example, facing the impossibility of elaborating on an idea, users often sought to convey a vehement message. Unfortunately, sometimes vehemency comes with a dose of antipathy, and when this occurs the original message can be misinterpreted.

YouTube There are enough examples to suggest that this social media platform also produced an unprecedented shift in terms of social behaviour. Among them, the possibility for users to access material that they had never seen before, such as interviews, documentaries, or even back stages for their favourite band. Likewise, it allowed users willing to share this material to express themselves through the videos they shared (as opposed to written communication). As such, by affording this salient aspect of YouTube people of this community developed an alternative way of interaction.

As it can be appreciated, each social media platform encourages a unique way of interaction, and this in turn generates certain social behaviours that are inherent to such community.

amandafelb09-blog

I agree with your comment regarding Twitter’s word restriction creating antipathy. Professor Brian Cox, a British physicist, once described ABC’s Q&A as ‘adversarial’ because important ideas and complex situations cannot be discussed with the nuance required.

You touch on the idea that humans can only behave in ways that a platform allows them to. This can create criticism when negative outcomes result from platform use. For example, there have been cases of people committing suicide following online trolling. One must question whether any blame can be apportioned to a platform that allows vitriol. On the contrary, freedom of speech is very important and platforms argue that they simply create an avenue for conversation. YouTube often finds itself being criticised regardless of which avenue they pursue (i.e. they may edit/remove content online in accordance with social moral expectations or allow terrorists to post videos encouraging violence). It currently chooses to use a flag system where a member of its digital public can flag inappropriate content.

I do wonder if there is an unknown platform waiting to be invented that humans haven’t discovered they need, since prior to the 1990’s no one knew they needed Instagram or Facebook!

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