Social Media - The expansion through Asia and specifically, China.
I find this very interesting. I'm sure most of us would agree that social media allows us some freedom, right? We can question authorities and criticise things and let our voices be heard... on a global scale too, someone in Canada can listen to the complaints of a 15 year old Australian for instance. Although, this has been achieved by the allowance by the government quite ironically. In China, the government cuts off the chinese citizen's internet reach, so that only Chinese websites may be viewed and many global internet media moguls have been blocked; no Facebook, no Twitter.
My intial reaction was that wow, the Chinese government really does put a choke hold on freedom and access to information and news for their people, and that may be true for an interesting array of reasons (which would most likely lead me off topic). Although, the citizens of China are seemingly adaptive and bright...
I find it quite ironic that when China's social media systems have been heavily regulated, the nation (particularly the youth) has become united. Secret languages and words have been developed to avoid "internet police" that the Chinese government employ to take down things they don't agree with. They gather together and form a place to hang around. Chinese copies of twitter and facebook have been created, through brands like Tencent. Tencent, a mass media company as sky rocketed and has created an empire in China, and only in China... although, still much more bigger revenue wise and user wise than Facebook and Twitter, combined.
The main thing I loved about learning more about this, is the concept I briefly touched on above... the unity that came out of this ironically. As the government conjurs up ways to hold back the citizens of their nation, they think of ways to get around it, whether its a proxy or a language, you best believe the people of China will subtly and sometimes not-so-subtly rebel against major authorities, as they know they deserve the same access to information as everyone else. Good luck to Chinese citizens and best of luck.
It was great to study this as the last topic of Digital Communities, as it showed that after all the theory, history and principles of online culture and social media, we're all just trying to stay connected and we should recognise that and treat each other with respect, despite all the research we conduct online and the other benefits, I guess sometimes we just want to be with the ones we love most of the time, right?


















