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Let’s talk about China

Almost 500 million people in China are actively online, making up a quarter of the population that use social media across the world.

However, they don’t use social media like we do here in the west as they have government policies in the country that block many social networking sites that we would use- such as Facebook and Twitter. They do however, have their own cool forms of social media.

Some examples are:

Renren- this site is very similar to Facebook. RenRen like Facebook, started as a social networking platform for uni students and is now open to the general public. It is still mostly used by uni students however. (Thai 2018)

Sina Weibo- this site is very similar to Twitter. Sina Weibo is the most popular microblogging platform in China, it claims nearly 60% of the microblogging market and has over 250 million registered users. (Thai 2018)

Youku- this site is similar to Youtube. Youku allows users to upload videos of any length, as well as offers a video library of popular films and TV shows. Copyright laws in China are very loosely enforced, leaving users to upload whatever they please. (Thai 2018)

The Great Firewall of China originally ‘The Golden Shield Project’ was created in 2003 by China’s Ministry of public security. It was created as an attempt to put controls over internet use in place and prevent the sharing of information that could threaten national security, disclose state secrets, or damage the governments reputation. (Xu 2017)

Sites which are blocked in China include:

Google

Facebook

The Huffington Post

Vimeo

Twitter

Youtube

Due to so many people taking to social media in China, it has led to a fair amount of commercialisation.

“The internet is a lot more influential in China in comparison to the US and other countries. Social media is an important channel... Chinese consumers trust a brand more if it is blogged about”. - Jens Thraenhart, President of Dragon Tail, a China based marketing company.

According to Synthesio: 95% of surveyed Chinese citizens believe that brands who microblog are at least somewhat more trustworthy. 61% of Chinese social network users made a purchase because of a digital marketing campaign. (Martins 2011)

References:

Fu, F 2018, The list of blocked websites in China, Sapore di Cina, viewed 29 May 2018 <https://www.saporedicina.com/english/list-of-blocked-websites-in-china/>

Martins, D 2011, Social Media and censorship in China, Synthesio, viewed 29 May 2018 <https://www.synthesio.com/blog/social-media-and-censorship-in-china/>

Thai, N 2018, 10 Most Popular Social Media sites in China, Dragon Social, viewed 29 May 2018, <https://www.dragonsocial.net/blog/social-media-in-china/>

Xu, B 2017, Media Censorship in China, Council of Foreign Relations, viewed 30 May 2018, <https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/media-censorship-china>

#mda20009 #china #social media

Wanna Smash?

Okay picture this right. You’ve started seeing the new boy and he’s everything you ever hoped for. Extremely polite, you have the same music taste, he takes you out on dates and even offers to pay for your meals and things. Sounds great right? Well you roll around to your third date and he asks if you wanna come Smash? Well that’s what you thought you heard anyway. Here you are thinking you’ve found this really great guy but now you realise he just wants to get in your pants. BOYS! AM I RIGHT LADIES!

Well aren’t you mistaken. He actually invited you to come along to his Super Smash Brothers Tournament.

Look, I’m not going to lie it was definitely an interesting choice for a date but I was pretty into him and thought why the hell not!

To be honest, I really didn’t know what to expect. I knew about the game Super Smash Bros but I’ve never played it myself, I also knew that it was more of a kids game as it was played on the Wii U. In my head I was thinking that everyone there was going to be quite young, boy was I wrong. I turn up at this venue and there are people everywhere. The majority were guys aged anywhere from 14 to their mid 30s. And everyone was just happily playing video games. Throughout the day I was introduced to a variety of people, people of different ages, people from different states and even people from different countries. People had flown from all over the country to play this game on the Wii U.

This was almost 6 months ago now, that night the boy I’d been seeing asked me to be his girlfriend and even though it was such an odd experience I really wanted to have more of these moments with this nerd.

Flashfoward to now.

In the almost 6 months I have been with this boy I have been to countless Smash tournaments and have met more an more people within the community.

This is what I’ve learned from being a smash ally:

Everyone is actually really, really nice. One of the earlier tournaments I was at I was kind of awkward and sitting by myself while my boyfriend was playing. I didn’t really know anyone and I was too shy to chat to people without my boyfriend being around. One guy came up to me and asked if I wanted to play ‘friendlies’ with him, I told him I didn’t really know how to play and he offered to teach me.

Everyone supports each other. Yes, it is a very competitive game and they even have a ranking system for people who do compete; that being said those who are ranked higher actually coach and give advice to people who are lower rankings.

Age doesn’t matter. At tournaments I’ve had chats with 14 year olds about how school is going and their stress for Naplan, and I’ve even made friends with a 29 yr old who later invited me to his 30th birthday. Anyone of any age and any skill is welcome to play and it is a very judgement free zone.

They even offer their homes to each other. When really big tournaments come around, people from all across Australia come together to play smash. I’ve noticed through Twitter, people offer their homes to those that are coming from interstate. They even offer accommodation to people they don’t even know, all these people will go to each others houses and hold mini tournaments in the lead up to the big tournaments.

Even though I haven’t been ‘in the scene’ for a long time, I find it so interesting that a video game has actually created such a great community and through that community so many people have been able to create life-long friendships.

#mda20009 #ssb #smash

battlevilla

#mda20009

Am I Healthy?

I think we’ve all been through a time where we’ve had a sore throat or a headache, decided to tell Dr. Google our symptoms and have been told we have stage 3 cancer. I’d like the estimate that the large majority of the time we find out we don’t actually have cancer, but I find it interesting that we are in a day and age where we can just Google our symptoms rather than consulting a doctor.

I have personally googled health symptoms before visiting a doctor, 2 out of 3 times my self-diagnosis was actually correct.

The internet and social media specifically have brought a new dimension to health care. If you have some sort of injury or illness, there is a high chance you can find other people going through the same struggles as you are. Not only does this benefit those who are struggling with the illnesses, but it also helps educate people who want to know more about something.

My friend Pippa, who I’ve mentioned previously on this blog suffers from a large list of physical and mental illnesses and she is very open about all of them. She has realised that it is important for her to discuss these issues not only for her own benefit but in hopes it will help others. She has created a beautiful little community on her instagram account of girls and women who are fighting eating disorders, scoliosis, suffering from mental illnesses and chronic pain. A lot of these people look up to Pippa as an inspiration as she’s a fighter. She posts photos from her surgeries, before and after pics from her eating disorder and even just photos of her dogs for people who just need a smile after a long day.

I definitely feel that it is important to have these sort of health groups on social media, so people know they aren’t alone. I could imagine it would be incredibly difficult to go through something everyday that people have no understanding of, having a community of like-minded people online would definitely give someone a push they needed to get through their daily obstacles. Even if you’ve just found out you or someone you know have an illness, these communities are there to support and educate you.

You can visit Pippa’s Instagram here

#mda20009 #health #chronic pain

spooniestrong

<strong>Invisible Disabilities are REAL.

Enlighten yourselves, educate others.

$end Ca$h Plea$e

Imagine this, you’re on vacation with your family, sitting by the beach sipping margaritas. You pull your hair back behind your ear and what do you discover? Your incredibly expensive diamond earring has fallen into the ocean. You know you spent all your savings on this expensive vacation, but you know looking like a pirate isn’t quite in fashion. There’s only one option left in order to afford a new earring- and that’s crowdfunding.

What is Crowdfunding? Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project, cause, business ect. by raising money from a large number of people who donate a small amount of money, usually done via the internet. In a way it’s like donating to a charity, except you are the charity.

Why do people choose to use crowdfunding? Well, unlike the example I gave earlier crowdfunding is usually thought of as an option during times of crisis. For example, you’ve just found out a family member has cancer but you know you are unable to all derive funds together to pay for any treatments, out of desperation you reach out to the internet for help you raise the funds.

Has crowdfunding ever really helped anyone? Well, yes it really has.

One example is Brandon- He Became addicted to crystal meth after an incident, which led to "some really self-destructive behaviour." (Cook n.d.) Initially, meth felt good, you could go days without sleeping and just party your life away, but that’s what was starting to happen. Brandon was taking it more and more to the point where it led to an overdose. He knew this was a very self-destructive way to live and knew he needed to get his life back on track. He decided it was best for him to go to rehab. However, rehab was far too expensive.

In January 2017, he launched a YouCaring campaign to help him get to rehab. With the help of friends, family and just generous people across the globe he managed to raise 7,245 (goal of $7,000) in under a month, including a donation from London's leading sexual health clinic, 56 Dean Street.

Thanks to those people’s generous donations Brandon is now able to get his life on track and receive the proper help he needs.

References: Cook, B n.d. Brandon's Story, Staying Negative, viewed 20 April 2018, <https://stayingnegative.net.au/stories/brandons-story>

#mda20009 #crowdfunding

#mda20009 #crowdsouring

You’re a slut...

Did you know- 40% of all internet users report experiencing at least one form of online harassment (McCosker 2017). I feel like this isn’t an incredibly shocking statistic. I feel like the majority of us can say we have seen or personally experienced some sort of online harassment or cyberbullying.

I can’t say I was really a victim of cyber-bullying because I really brought it upon myself. Back in 2012/ 2013 the use of anonymous question sites were all the rage, imagine all the things you can say to someone when they don’t know it’s you. You can tell your crush you like them, you can compliment someone you’re too shy to talk to in person, or you could just flat out bully people without them knowing it’s you. This is what happened to me.

I was 14 years old, just started at a new school and was very curious to know what people thought about me; everyone else was making an account so I thought I’d do the same.

I was the new kid at school at the time, previously leaving my old school due to being bullied- there were a lot of rumours spread about me, mostly around me ‘being a slut.’ I am now very anti-slut shaming but at the time I was 13 years old and hearing those words everyday really made an impact, especially since the ‘sluttiest’ thing I did was kiss a boy (how scandalous.)

After creating my Qooh.me account I started to receive mass amounts of questions from people, mostly around why I left my old school, I truthfully responded explaining that I was bullied, being called a slut blah blah- then I started to receive even more questions. “How far have you gone?”, “I heard a rumour you had 100 boyfriends last year”, “Why are you such a slut?” The questions eventually just turned into flat out bullying, people telling me I was unpopular, that I had no friends, that no one liked me, someone even told me I looked like a horse when I smiled.

I responded to every question/comment, I felt like I had to. Everyday I would post a status asking for more questions, knowing what the outcome would be but I still did it anyway, my parents eventually caught on and told me to delete my account, I ended up just pretending I did and hiding all the posts from them on Facebook.

I could have made all of this stop at any point I wanted but I decided to keep my account and keep posting the status’. Everyone else was doing it and I didn’t want to miss out on anything. I’m just glad I was confident in myself enough to not let what anyone said to me too much.

#mda20009 #cyber bulling #high school

fuckingrubyfuckingrose

Preach

lgbt-aesthetics

Sapphic + Motivation & Spoonie Aesthetic

~Requested by @zettelkaestchen~

I’m not an Activist

As the title says, I am not an activist. There are no issues that I have a great passion towards, or causes I want to fight for, I just kind of do my own thing and let the other people do the fighting. Is this a good way to go about life? Probably not, it makes things kind of boring really when you have no strong opinions on issues. However, I’ve got friends with strong opinions on things, that like to do things about those opinions. Meet Pippa. Pippa and I have been friends for many years now and I’ve watched her fight for her causes over the years, the mains ones surrounding Illness. Pippa identifies herself as a ‘Spoonie’, a spoonie is someone living with a chronic illness. A brief backstory- Pippa was diagnosed with scoliosis a few years ago, had the surgery in order to correct it but due to complications, the surgery didn’t go as planned and she now lives her day to day live in chronic pain.

Pippa doesn't want your sympathy or your sorries, she just wants you to listen. Last year Pippa became a leader for Curvy Girls, which is a worldwide scoliosis support group. The purpose of the group is to bring girls who have scoliosis together so they can discuss the issue they face and just provide support for eachother. Pippa is the only leader in Melbourne so she is in charge of running the Melbourne section of the group- which includes: meetings, information nights and newsletters. She runs most of the events by herself, with the support of her mum.

Pippa posts a lot about her day to day medical issues on her instagram, she is also open to anyone asking questions and provides support to anyone going through similar struggles. You can find Pippa here

Also, If you want more information on Curvy Girls, you can find them here

#mda20009 #activism #scoliosis #curvy girls

beautifullly-broken-blog

I finished my latest drawing!!! To everyone who has scoliosis, no matter the size of the curve, please keep fighting! I know you can make it through this. We might be a little bent but we are not broken!!

Cambridge Analytica did what?!

It was recently discovered that company Cambridge Analytica, managed to harvest the information of over 50 million Facebook users; the majority of these users had no knowledge that their data was being harvested (Rosenberg, Confessore and Cadwalladr 2018). How did Cambridge Analytica collect this data and why? Cambridge Analytica is a company that specialises in data analysis for targeted advertising, specifically for politics (Cadwalladr and Graham-Harrison 2018). In 2012, psychologist Aleksandr Kogan created an app (thisisyourdigitallife) which got users to complete a personality test. The app told users that the information was anonymous and for physiological research. In order to use the app, users had to log in with their Facebook account, this coupled with the results of the personality test allowed Kogan to put together very thorough profiles on over 270 000 users (Rosenberg, Confessore and Cadwalladr 2018). Collecting the data and explaining the use of the data is completely fine, 270 000 people agreed to have their data collected. However, more than 49.7 million other users did not agree to have their data collected. Through the app’s Facebook login agreement, users allowed the app to view their friends list, from there Kogan was able to view these people’s friends and through their Facebook profiles, make educated guesses about their personalities (Rosenberg, Confessore and Cadwalladr 2018). Legally, Kogan did nothing wrong, as the data he collected from those who did not use the app, was all public information. Ethically, however, it is widely agreed that harvesting data from people’s public Facebook accounts, without their knowledge or consent is wrong. Not only, was all this information harvested (consensually and non-consensually) but it was also sold to Cambridge Analytica (Cadwalladr & Graham-Harrison 2018). As a company that specialises in data analysis, Cambridge Analytica used all this recently acquired data to create targeted ads for political campaigns including: The Ted Cruz republican Campaign and Donald Trump’s presidential campaign (Rosenberg, Confessore and Cadwalladr 2018).

References:

Rosenberg, M, Confessore N, & Cadwalladr,C 2018, 'How Trump Consultants Exploited the Facebook Data of Millions”', The New York Times, 17 March,viewed 2 April 2018, <https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/17/us/politics/cambridge-analytica-trump-campaign.html>.

Cadwalladr, C, & Graham-Harrison, E 2018, 'Revealed: 50 million Facebook profiles harvested for Cambridge Analytica in major data breach', The Guardian,18 March, viewed 2 April 2018, <https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/mar/17/cambridge-analytica-facebook-influence-us-election>.

#mda20009 #cambridge analytica

So? What is Tumblr?

With over 406 million blogs and an accumulated post total of over 159.5 billion, the popularity of Tumblr hasn’t really been a topic of debate. However, the question surrounding “What is Tumblr?” has sparked debate. For years, people have argued that Tumblr is simply a blogging site on the other hand; due to Tumblr’s advanced personalisation and non-traditional blogging features such as image only posts and gifs, it can be argued that Tumblr is more of a social network than a blog.

Let’s have a look at both blogs and social networks.

Blogs- Gray and Killcoyne (2014, p.299) state that “a blog is an online journal created by an individual, a group or a corporation.” Through a blog you can write about anything that interests you, you can write about yourself, thingsyoure interested in, or even your feelings, the possibilities are endless.

Social Networks- According to the Cambridge Dictionary a social network is “a website or computer program that allows people to communicate and share information on the internet.

So… What is Tumblr?

The ‘About’ section of Tumblr explains that “Tumblr is where your interests connect you with your people” (Tumblr 2018). Relating this back to our previous discovery, this sides Tumblr with the platform being a social network, as the purpose of the site is to connect with people through interests. “Tumblr is your canvas. Post text, photos, GIFs, Videos …”(Tumblr 2018) These features stated are typical features of blogging sites which means Tumblr would side more on the blogging platform side?

Tumblr is really the best of both worlds in this case, it is both a blogging platform and a social network. Tumblr gives you the basic blogging features of a typical blogging platform such as posting text posts, photos, videos ect. but it also gives you the ability to be part of a wider community. Users are able to tag posts using hashtags, allowing users to easily find the content they like; as well as having the ability to reblog posts that suit their interests. What makes Tumblr different in the sense of traditional blogging is your entire blog may actually be only content from other users and none of it being created by you. Which on Tumblr is completely fine.

Overall, Tumblr is both a blogging platform and a social network; but since it is not completely similar to traditional blogging platforms it is more accurate to say that Tumblr is more of a social network site than a blogging platform.

#MDA20009

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