Marie-20-Uni of Reading

Marie,Erasmus student from France, Blog created for the module: Language and New Media

[marcellaventurini-blog]

A really important matter: clickbait!

Today I want to talk about an important matter for me. Deforestation? World peace? Nope. Clickbait! But wait, what is it? It’s a very interesting web phenomenon. Basically, it’s when people post on the internet (especially YouTube) content with the one purpose of attract users and make them click on a link to a specific You Tube video or web page.

When you spend more time on YouTube that you like to admit, then you have a serious problem aaand you learn how to avoid stupid clickbait monsters. Provocative headlines and catchy thumbnails are the first clues you have to look for when you want to expose a clickbait monster. I completely understand that for most youtubers posting videos is a real job and to be honest with you they make a substantial living out of it. A substantial living. Just google it, it will blow your mind.

But the point here is that I get that it’s a marketing thing, it’s all about money and most youtubers treat it like a common job. However, if you look closely and think deeply about the matter, you’ll find out that it’s not a regular job and clickbait titles are quite annoying actually.

Youtubers are what they are (famous, rich and bla bla bla) because people like you and me watch their videos. Over the years millions of people have grown quite fond of them, millions of people have spent their time on social media (Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat whatever) following their life. As cheesy as it sounds, for some people youtubers are like some kind of friends. There’s some sort of personal connection between a youtuber and his/her viewers. So please very important YT people, try to be nice to us.  We understand it’s your job but please don’t deceive us. No, I won’t buy that magic cleaning product, no I won’t subscribe to that magazine and no I won’t play that candy-crush substitute. And if you cut yourself with a knife while you were cutting your organic avocado, you don’t need to tell me about your “scary ER ride|| STORYTIME” I don’t care.

[caramesm-blog]

As a fellow YT fan, I have to agree with you, clickbait has become a problem throughout the platform. But especially for smaller and upcoming channels. In the early days of Youtube, you only could get noticed if the content you were posting was original and creative and as a new platform it was rather easy to achieve. But nowadays, if you want to start your own successful channel you will either rely on brand advertisement or on clickbaits, simply because what determines success now is the amount on your pay check at the end of the month, and not your ideas or the original content you are creating. 

This has become problematic for smaller channels with around 100,000 subscribers, as some will trick their own audience rather than simply sharing their content on their different social media accounts. It has gotten to a point where the viewers have called them out for it. Yet in this video (watch from 4:10) the youtuber makes a point on what she considers clickbait and the grey area around it. Is it clickbait if you put forward something that actually happened in the video, even if it’s not long? She argues that in a way she chooses the highlight of her video based on what people might be interested in, to get more views obviously. 

At the end of the day, I can in a way understand why youtubers do it, and I have no problem with it as long as it is not always the case. As you said clickbaiting is a marketing strategy yet on platforms where you would hope to find something genuine and relatable, being seen as an obvious product is very unsettling. 

[hexall3-blog]

Is Instagram a distorted mirror?

What if I told you that only 4% of women around the world consider themselves beautiful? (4%!! ) And what would you answer if I were to ask you what was to blame for such a low percentage? Do you reckon you would say social media? Dove would say yes.

Dove has started a new campaign telling people ‘you are more beautiful than you think’. The aim of their self esteem project is to change beauty into a source of confidence rather than anxiety. Their mission is to ensure the next generation grows up enjoying a positive relationship with the way they look without social media interfering. They spoke to a group of teenagers and asked them what they love and hate about social networking. They said that they wouldn’t upload Selfies to Instagram without adding a filter or photo-shopping themselves to appear skinnier or more tanned. so what are they even uploading? by the time the photo reaches Instagram it probably doesn’t look anything like them.

 Social media offers an edited version of reality. A persons’ online profile is a distorted view of what they look like in reality. No one posts their fat pictures or their bad hair days. Why would you if you can get away with presenting a more flawless you? Self esteem is crashing and Instagram is to blame. 

[caramesm-blog]

Although I do see why people tend to blame social media for ‘lowering people’s self-esteem’ I have to disagree with you. If we want to blame something, it should be media’s fault in general. Before social media got big, television adverts, magazines ect. were the ones that gave out the image of the perfect body. I support Dove’s initiative to try and change things through social media but it will not have a large-scale impact unless all the mediatic fields work towards healthy advertising and body positivity. Furthermore, social media does not only promote the ‘perfect body’ since many instagram users and hashtags support body positivity. For example, to counter the #thighcap instagramers started using the #mermaidthighs. 

Even if a lot of people modify their appearance to look a certain way on instagram, social media is still a large platform that has some consciousness for these issues, it is a place where you can find inspiration and representation of what people deem beautiful. 

I would say that instagram(and other platforms ) should promote body positivity through the smaller accounts  and not only those  with a large number of followers, who are usually those that appear to have the perfect body and a perfect life.

[sophh-lou-blog]

Unauthorised

http://braininspired.net/todays-relationships-cheat-literally-every-day/

This article is sexist, and it implies that there are only expectations from one side in a heterosexual relationship. So why did it convince me?

When texts were originally produced, they had to be printed via a publisher, meaning that there was a clear distinction between the ‘reader’ and the ‘author’. The writer had to know what they were talking about. Despite the ease at which we can now all write about anything on the internet, we still associate the author to have some authority on the topic they discuss. The author of this article is anonymous, posting for an unknown site, and making them entirely unworthy of our trust.

Thanks to the media we’re glued to, we’re fed ideologies about what ourselves and the other half of our relationship should be doing. When this article tells us that our partners our cheating on us by not wishing us ‘good-morning’ first thing, we believe them, because we trust the author.

With the breakdown of so many relationships as a result of social media, we need to establish a mutual understanding of what’s acceptable, and what isn’t. It might be frustrating that you’re boyfriend forgot to message you this morning, but don’t believe that he’s cheating on you because someone wrote an article or made an Instagram post about it. With unsustainable expectations prescribed to us by things we read, as online readers, we must learn to not be so passive and accepting.

It’s okay to be cynical.

Then again, I’m just another online author.

[caramesm-blog]

I agree that the internet is in a way aiming to generalise everything, in order to have a reaction from us. I feel that with social media it is hard to go unnoticed. Even if you are not active yourself, someone is very likely to post something concerning you, whether it is a photo or a new facebook status. And this makes us all the more aware of what we do and how we present ourselves and the same goes for other people. I feel like we tend to overthink about how our s/o is acting on social media. And this feeds to a kind of obsession of knowledge. So, I completly agree with you, we need to re-establish a mutual trust and understanding and not blindly trust either an anonymous article on the internet or give in to our own insecurities. 

[caramesm-blog]

Being Internet famous

In the recent years, the “internet famous” phenomenon keeps getting bigger and bigger but also more ephemeral. Who remembers Alex from Target? Or more recently Daniel from the Damn! Daniel videos? I guess most of us do, but what happened to them? Not much they probably went back to living their normal life but this time with the satisfaction on being internet famous!  

But being famous is not always the dream, you don’t always get invited on the Ellen show or to big fancy events. Some internet “celebrities” saw their lives crumble under their feet because of the Internet. In this BBC News video, we see how one model’s life was drastically changed when she was made internet famous because of a widespread rumor. This rumor ruined her career as now people associate her with a meme (since it did become one) and she will be forever recognized as the lady from this meme. 

I feel like this also raises the question of image rights, in this case the lady was a model so she was already considered a public figure, but what about those who are not public figures and are made internet famous, be it in a meme or a viral video. Did they know they were being filmed? or that their picture was being taken? Are we ready to play around with a stranger’s life on the internet just for our own entertainment? 

[libbynewmedia-blog]

The world of YouTube

Social media has evolved so much since the first black and white TV that people can now make a living from it. ‘YouTubers’ is now an official job title created by the growth of social media. As we are constantly bombarded with serious breaking news, YouTubers spotted a niche in the market that people actually REALLY care what they eat in a day, with some videos hitting over 1 million views.

YouTube is a bit like when you peer in somebody’s house if their curtains are drawn, except this way you don’t look like a stalker, you can watch the entire of somebody’s day from the comfort of your own bed. This is called ‘vlogging’, where you video log your entire day. Two of the most popular vloggers in the UK are couple, Zoella and Pointless Blog, otherwise known as #zalfie, who have both set up separate 'vlog channels’ after the success of their 'main channels’ where they post planned, scripted videos.

Their natural videos of their daily life have earned them a mass following online, with them both bringing out their own merch, writing their own books etc. Zoella alone is reported to get paid a whopping £50,000 a month, not bad for someone who started out by doing Primark hauls in her bedroom.  

[caramesm-blog]

I’ve had this discussion with a friend the other day, and we both agreed that Vlog and daily vlogs have become a kind of TV reality. 

Just like other reality shows it is edited and what is filmed is carefully chosen. But, I think that what has made youtubers so popular  is the transparency and openess they have with their viewers, they are constantly interacting with them on different social media platforms. 

This reality is what sells mowadays, nobody wants to see excessive, unrealistic and over-the-top shows, where what sells is one’s absurdity. And these give a sense of pride to those who don’t identify with them whereas vloggers are seen as real, reliable, sometimes relatable, and worthy of admiration. But, do we also like them because we are just really nosy people ? ☚(ﾟヮﾟ☚)

[caramesm-blog]

Internet Persona

Every year we seem to spend more amd more time on the internet and so on social media. And every year we expend our social media circle, we add newly-met people on Facebook, follow more people om Twitter or discover new Youtubers and Instagram accounts. Yet in the middle of this social media bubble we are both creators and receivers of “illusory identity”.

We, social media users, “edit” ourselves in a specific way in order to appear as something that we aren’t or to exaggerate something we are, it goes both ways. It doesn’t need to be truthful, it only needs to look like it. In 2015 the Telegraph published this article showing the long and tedious  process of forging your own online identity is. It is very damaging, both for the creator and the viewer. The pressure they place on themselves to look and have the perfect shot is both physically and mentally tirying. On the flip side, the internet give its users the illusion of being close to one another, that anyone can be Instagram famous, that they know the people they admire. But, it’s not the case, and this illusory proximity is important because it has the power to influence people. In both good and bad ways. 

If we need to remember one thing is: never to judge a book by it’s cover, in this case someone’s social media. 

[spinachleafmedia-blog]

First of all, you’re welcome. In response to my previous post, I really got on the ‘meme education’ train and got thinking! The most recent meme star is “How Italians…”. Admittedly, i do find these rather hilar tbh. But looking at this objectively, this is perhaps an insight as to how meme’s can actually attack culture. The finger purse gesture typically means “what do you really want?” and is obviously recgonised as something stereotypically Italian. So these meme’s are surely just attacking a part of Italian culture? Do you think I’m just looking too much into this?😅 or is it meme’s destiny, as it spreads more and more, to become a way to attack people rather than the typical character-related meme’s…

[caramesm-blog]

Oh good question!! After some thought I still can’t find a proper answer.Yet, I think that there is a thin line between what is acceptable and what isn’t. I feel like even if it plays with a stereotype it isn’t a harmful one or at least not so as much as others. But, obviously, you can’t justify the mockery of one culture because ‘its only a joke’ or ‘just an internet meme’. Being on the Internet for so long I’ve noticed that some people are truly ruthless and unrespectful. Memes are very ephemeral, and just like the others, this one will probably die soon that is why we shouldn’t take it too seriously but if it does go on and expends in a more harmful way, than we shouldn’t just overlook it. 

[hannahpearce87-blog]

The power of visual design

I was searching the Internet for effective marketing campaigns when I came across this visual argument created by the Salvation Army. It struck a chord. At first, I was thrown back to 2015 when the Roman originals white and gold vs. black and blue dress debate broke the Internet. Then I noticed the bruises. Why was she bruised? I did not immediately understand the message. The argument was designed so that I would read the given information (the dress), before the new information (the text), as the dress was placed on the left-hand side. After I read  “why is it so hard to see black and blue” the connection between the struggle to see the actual colour of the dress, and the struggle to see domestic violence, became clear. What an impact. The content creators used the text to enhance the image and present their message. They also extended it further through statistics “one in 6 women are victims of abuse.” I was convinced to take action.

Impressed by the complementation of the textual and visual message, I began to look more closely into how the Salvation Army had designed its visual argument. To ensure that the model was the first place you looked, she was illuminated against the black background. The creators also drew your attention and demanded a response, through her face-on gaze. Finally, the text was placed at the top left, as we read the top, middle, and left of multimodal texts. It’s scary how design has the power to influence your emotions.

[caramesm-blog]

Very nice and interresting post !!

I just have one thing to add: I think this is very cleverly done. *applause*. they were able to mix a widely known and recognised image in order to support their project. I think this shows the widespread grip the Internet and social media has on us. For these awareness projects as well as a brand’s marketing to be aware of the internet’s trends and knowing how ephemeral and powerful they are is key in this day and age. Another brand that stepped up its game is Wendy’s, this Youtubers’ React episode illustrates it pretty well.   

[caramesm-blog]

The superficiality of social media ?

The other day I was watching The Painted Veil and a scene strucked me. The main female character was writing a letter. And what suprised me was the amount of details she was giving, describing the landscape, the way of life, the people. If I were to go to a foreign country now I would take some pictures with my phone, either Snapchat it for everyone to see or send them in a private message. Has social media made us more superficial and more brief in our relationships? Is a 10 seconds video long enough to describe the beauty of a landscape? Are we putting less thought in what we are writing because of the immediacy that we are currently living in ? And are we sharing our life as a way of reminding people of our existence ? Letters was the communication medium of the time and just as a writing is limited (e.g. how can we realisticly describe something? Or how can we convey our feelings if a words isn't the right one ? ) My question still stands: are we becoming more and more superficial or it is the other way around are we finally able to share our feelings and views more openly?

[caramesm-blog]

The dislike button on Youtube

I have to be honest: I’m a big fan of Youtube in general but especially vloggers and daily vloggers! Although, they have a massive following and mainly supportive viewers there are some haters, just like everywhere. But the amount of dislike, hate comments and borderline.cyberbulling is shocking. Those who live in their care-bear bubbles often will try to run away from those comments, but at the same time Youtube allows for closer relationship between creator and viewers. They are an active part of the channels they follow simply by liking a video or not. So, can we say that Facebook is a Utopia when Youtube is real life? Facebook doesn’t have (for now) the dislike button, it has it’s “reactions” but isn’t that the same as a comment? The Facebook filter bubble is so intelligent that it won’t show you what you don’t want to know or hear about! But at the same time that filter bubble won’t allow for an exchange of ideas, for a conversation. Could we say that Youtube is an exchange platform, whereas Facebook is a self-centred one ?

[caramesm-blog]

Be careful of your punctuation !

I have been searching all over facebook to find the punctuation break up video (yes that gif is me, in these desperate time! If anyone has a link to this video please do hesitate to add it to this post! ) Basically, the video was about how a girl got a text from her boyfriend but this was what she received: “hey.” (note the punctuation) She immediately assumed that he was going to break up with her and she proceeded to screenshot the conversation and send it to her friends, who being the good friends they are encouraged her to break up with him first. Turns out he just wanted to go on a date with her. If this is any indication of the importance of punctuation! Not only could you involuntarily break up with someone, but punctuation in a text where you can only rely on words to transmit all your thoughts and emotions can be really tricky! 

[caramesm-blog]

Gifs or Emojis ?

Gifs and emojis technically have the same purpose, to give more realism and liveliness to a text. But then when is a gif or an emoji more relevant? and as a gif is a moving image is it more realistic than a static one faced imaged? I personally tend to use both but in different occasions. For example, on WhatsApp or Facebook I’ll constantly use emojis to set the tone of the conversation, and in a way, I’m hoping to transmit via a screen my feelings and facial expressions. While gifs are rather used to mimic my movements, and or sounds (scream, applause....) What do you guys think? Do you prefer gifs or emojis?

[caramesm-blog]

Reddit the new intellectual hub ?

The other day i stumbled upon a YouTube video on the music sub-reddit. The youtuber pointed out that the users were generally very critical when it came to music tastes and that the sub-reddit is also considered as the “hipster birthplace”. Being so important as an “idea exchange” platform, I was sort of sad to notice that the new intelectual movement wasn’t going to take place in cafés or university groups, but on the internet ( i’m really sad because we are loosing a romantic ideal ) But at the same time the movement is so widespread and isn’t so elitist anymore and I feel that, that’s very exciting !

[thedigitalhuman]

The House of Lords has passed the Investigatory Powers Bill, putting the huge spying powers on their way to becoming law within weeks. The bill – which forces internet companies to keep records on their users for up to a year, and allows the Government to force companies to hack into or break things they've sold so they can be spied on – has been fought against by privacy campaigners and technology companies including Apple and Twitter.

The House of Lords has passed the Investigatory Powers Bill, putting the huge spying powers on their way to becoming law within weeks.

The bill – which forces internet companies to keep records on their users for up to a year, and allows the Government to force companies to hack into or break things they’ve sold so they can be spied on – has been fought against by privacy campaigners and technology companies including Apple and Twitter.

But the Government has worked to continue to pass the bill, despite objections from those companies that the legislation is not possible to enforce and would make customers unsafe. The House of Lords’ agreement to the text now means that it just awaits Royal Assent, at which point it will become law.

Despite criticism from almost every major technology and internet company – including usually reticent ones like Apple – and from senior parliamentary committees the legislation has received little opposition in parliament. Early on, the only amendment that the bill received from MPs was a measure that stopped themselves being spied on, and while Labour has raised objections to the sweeping spying powers it has not voted against the bill.

This is worrying.

[washingtonpost]

Read more in our series about teens and technology, “The Screen Age.” 

This is what it’s like to grow up in the age of likes, lols and longing

Inside the race to decipher today’s teens, who will transform society as we know it

The seventh-grader’s sext was meant to impress him. Then he shared it. It nearly destroyed her.

Teen lives and futures depend on the Internet. What happens when they can’t afford it?

When every moment of childhood can be recorded and shared, what happens to childhood?

Video games are more addictive than ever. This is what happens when kids can’t turn them off.

Instagram, Wattpad and YouNow aren’t just apps — for many teens, they’re more than that