Digital Communities Blog

[digital-gossips-blog]

This wont stop here!

Well I guess this might be the last post for my digital communities’ unit’s weekly blog and I’m really getting to feel sad while writing this:( 

I had really a good time exploring the different range of social media topics and I will really miss posting the regular weekly blogs:(

BUT! here the great thing, I decided to continue posting on this blog because it’s really fun to use gifs haha and its much easier than twitter! 

-you thought this gonna be a goodbye right?- 

See ya soon and good luck everyone!

[digital-gossips-blog]

SOCIAL MEDIA REVOLUTION IN CHINA!

One of the interesting lessons regarding social media in China is the huge extent to which its adoption has increased in the country. Projections indicate that the adoption of social media in the country will increase to staggering seven hundred and twenty-five million users by 2022 (Chiu, Lin and Silverman, 2012). Current figures, which stand at around six hundred and sixteen million users makes China the country with the most significant number of social media users in the world. Surprisingly, social media adoption has increased despite the efforts of the government, which aims at discouraging the trend through censorship (Bamman, O'Connor and Smith 2012). The government banned western-oriented social media platforms such as WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Google+, and Twitter. This measure may have prompted the emergence of uniquely Chinese social media platforms in the form of WeChat, Baidu, Youku, Weibo, and QQ, which have become immensely famous among users in the country (Chiu, Lin and Silverman, 2012). The adoption of these platforms has been influential in expanding the use of the internet in the country more than anywhere else globally.

The trends above indicate that Chiu, Lin, and Silverman are right in stating that China is leading the way in the global explosion of social media adoption and use on the global scale. With the highest number of social media users globally, China also boasts of a significantly high increase in the adoption of e-commerce (Wang 2015). Lending credence to the claims highlighted by these authors is the idea that the design of social media platforms in the country incorporates distinctive features that appeal to the local context, which will most likely fuel enhanced adoption in the next few years.

References Bamman, D., O'Connor, B. and Smith, N., 2012. Censorship and deletion practices in Chinese social media. First Monday, 17(3). Chiu, C., Lin, D. and Silverman, A., 2012. China's social-media boom. McKinsey & Company. Wang, W.Y., 2015. Remaking Guangzhou: Geo-identity and place-making on Sina Weibo. Media International Australia, 156(1), pp.29-38.

[digital-gossips-blog]

I Like your overall theme makes me feel optimistic:) g'luck Maryam

Aw Thank you!! Good luck to you too.

[robotatertot]

End of semester

[digital-gossips-blog]

Literally the reality of my Grades at the end of the semester :)

[digital-gossips-blog]

This is interesting I really thought that I should share it here! 

The Power of Truly Social Games, Tedx speech by James Simpson.

[digital-gossips-blog]

Social gaming: playing the crowd

The argument that we are 'gaming species' is justified if one considers the gaming trends in the contemporary society. Games play an integral part in our social lives. Studies by different scholars have shown that play helps in human development and adaptation to the environment. 

According to a study conducted by Trepte, Reinecke and Juechems (2012, p. 89), it was discovered that children who get at least 6 hours of playtime in 48 hours are more likely to show positive emotional, cognitive and moral development. Several other studies have narrowed down to the significance of different kinds of games to humans. 

The sophisticated digital technology witnessed today has enabled many people to access online games. The gaming community is increasingly expanding by the day. According to the Entertainment Software Association, more than half of gamers play alone online or physically with another person (De Zwart & Humphreys 2014, p.77). About three-quarters of those who engage in different games play at least 1 hour per week. The most important question we should ask should not be whether the gaming society has expanded. 

Our interest should be on ways in which the gaming influences our social experiences. There seems to be a huge conflict between the online games and real-life experiences. Actions in the virtual world have an immense impact on the players. Issues of self-image, violence, and social representations influence the real-life behaviors of gamers. This is well articulated in the discussion captured by CNN News. 

Problems such as intolerance, harassment, assault, disclosure, indecency among other issues have grown with the increased exposure to the gaming world (Scutti, 2018, p. 1). At the same time, gaming has brought wide-ranging positive experiences. Social gaming promotes adherence to the rules since gamers must abide by the rules of the game. This spirit of respect for the rules can be applied to real-life situations by becoming a law-abiding citizen. The most important aspect is to understand different impacts social gaming on people's life.

References:

De Zwart, M & Humphreys, S 2014, "The Lawless Frontier of Deep Space: Code as Law in EVE Online", Cultural Studies Review, vol. 20, no. 1, p. 77.

Scutti, S 2018, "Do video games lead to violence?", CNN, viewed 16 May, 2018, <https://edition.cnn.com/2016/07/25/health/video-games-and-violence/index.html>. Trepte, S, Reinecke, L & Juechems, K 2012, "The social side of gaming: How playing online computer games creates online and offline social support", Computers in Human Behavior, vol. 28, no. 3, pp. 832-839.

[mother-trillest-deactivated2019]

Reblog if you got vaccinated against influenza this year! Let’s set an example and be proud of our choices to protect those around us!

[webofgoodnews]

Cats, the ultimate weapon in public health

With rat problems up 67%, Chicago is trying an old fashioned, low tech, solution to solve the problem -- $600 cats.

[digital-gossips-blog]

Meows are dangerous? 

[digital-gossips-blog]

Public health campaigns & communities

Nowadays, Digital media provides a social environment that facilitates health education and public health promotion through faster information dissemination, peer pressure, and social support. The technologies enable people to spread wellness messages, rally people, and exploit resources towards public health campaigns as they are available at any time. In case the technologies create positive effects, then they can improve effectiveness in public healthcare provision. However, studies show that social experiences are bound to many problems compared to other campaign strategies as mass media (Burges, 2015). Among the issues are credibility of digital materials, internet literacy, and digital inclusion. The problem of digital literacy limits people who can receive public health campaign messages through digital technology sites. Although social media usage is widespread, many people still do not understand how to use the sites and even interpret the contents provided (Balatsoukas, 2015). At times, individuals are misled by the digital content provided rather than help in public health promotion. Still, even with the increased interactivity in social media, most engagements do not assist in meeting public health campaign goals. Burges (2015) discovered that many interactions in Movember campaign are only concentrated on celebrities and sports personalities rather than promoting health messages. Therefore, even if social media public health movements can appear large, many individuals in the groups are not concerned with the improvement of clinical outcomes to meet the group goals. 

More importantly, it is difficult to ascertain the credibility of clinical information shared through social media networks. Normally, people make clinical perception based on the judgment of the content shared (Hart et al. 2015). Nevertheless, with multiple materials shared daily, many people find it challenging to judge good and bad sources. To sum up, even if digital media offers opportunities for public health improvement, it is bound by different problems that hamper healthcare improvements. There is need to find ways of solving the challenges for public health promotion.

REFERENCE:

Balatsoukas, P, Kennedy, CM, Buchan, I, Powell, J and Ainsworth, J 2015, 'The role of social network technologies in online health promotion, a narrative review of theoretical and empirical factors influencing intervention effectiveness,' Journal of Medical Internet Research, vol. 17, no. 6.

Burgess, J, Cassidy, E, and Light, B 2015, 'Deeply superficial digital media engagement? The case of Twitter and Movember 2013,' In Selected Papers from Internet Research 15, The 15th Annual Meeting of the Association of Internet Researchers. AoIR.

Hart, M, Stetten, N, and Castaneda, G 2016. 'Considerations for public health organizations attempting to implement a social media presence: A qualitative study,' JMIR Public Health and Surveillance, vol. 2, no. 1.

[digital-gossips-blog]

The Making of Movember Foundation!

[digital-gossips-blog]

CROWD SOURCING IN TIMES OF CRISIS

There is no denying that social media has changed the patterns of distributing information among people making possible the spread of information through decentralised and distributed networks. This change bears important implications for crisis management and responding to various times of cataclysms. Crowd sourcing of information is a powerful tool for the emergency agencies as well as people seeking guidelines for action in times of a disaster. At the same time, the use of this modern tool calls for careful approach and special skills (Martin-Shields, 2013).

First of all, crowd sourcing of information in times of crisis is challenging because it calls for the verification of the provided information. Unfortunately, there are people who do not take disasters affecting the lives of people seriously and post fake information and pictures trying to exaggerate the effects of a particular event. In addition to disrupting the operation of emergency agencies who may erroneously react to such disinformation, such actions may discredit these agencies in the eyes of the public (Martin-Shields, 2013). This outcome is undesirable because it may damage the efficiency of their operation when a crisis occurs. The observation made above leads to the conclusion that while it is desirable to employ social media to crowd source the information about critical situations, it is unreasonable to create distributed systems of the spread of such information. The decentralised model is more acceptable as it allows the control over the credibility of the received information. One may consider the impossibility of creating a perfectly distributed network of information exchange for reacting to times of crisis as unfortunate. However, such approach ignores the fact the goal of emergency services is to not leave people alone in the time of need. Therefore, they need to have a certain amount of grip on the flow of information. Otherwise, all the reaction to crises would be left to the self-organization of the communities through social media which is not a desirable outcome in anybody's book.   References Martin-Shields, C 2013, The Technologist's Dilemma: Ethical Challenges of Using Crowdsourcing Technology in Conflict and Disaster-Affected Regions, Georgetown Journal of International Affairs, 14(2), 157-163. 

Pang, A, Limsico, J, Phong, L, Lareza, B, & Low, S 2018, Reputational damage on Twitter #hijack: Factors, dynamics, and response strategies for crowdsourced campaigns. In Vasterman P. (Ed.), From Media Hype to Twitter Storm: News Explosions and Their Impact on Issues, Crises, and Public Opinion, 355-382.

Raggio, R, & Folse, J 2011, Expressions of Gratitude in Disaster Management: An Economic, Social Marketing, and Public Policy Perspective on Post-Katrina Campaigns, Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, 30(2), 168-174.

[digital-gossips-blog]

Activism and Protest!

Civic education makes the citizens of civilised countries understand and know their rights. Social media is a platform where individuals utilize their freedom to expression. Furthermore, it has also become a neutral ground where activists can confront the government and criticise the ideas and decisions that are made without public participation and knowledge. It is a tool of self-expression and should not be interfered with. In recent years, conservative states have faced criticism over the arrest and illegal detention of people that use social media to express themselves (Kizer 2015). Such a move is against international human rights. 

Activism, subactivism, clicktivism, antiracism, and civic cultures are ideas used by social media to achieve an objective (Lin 2017). Activism can be defined as using vigorous systems to attain a political objective. Clicktivism is classified as the use of social media for the greater good of the society (Halupka 2014). On the other hand, civic cultures are cultures meant for a standardised community so that it does not get oppressed by the surrounding people. An example of civic cultures is the use of civil rights. Nevertheless, creating a revolution does not always stir harm in a society. Martin Luther King proved that Americans can unite without racially discriminating each other and sharing the same rights. In Egypt, social media was a platform where the governing body could not oppress them for their actions. A Facebook page was opened by the opposition, which was called "We are all Khaled Said", a young civilian who was abused by the police and killed. His death was the main cause of the revolution that took place in Egypt 2011. 

Social media is a great component to express ideas and connect (Hargreaves, 2016) with people from all over the world. Nevertheless, it is important to take into account the dangers it can cause to users of various online sites. Social media sites should figure out a way to reduce the cases of cyberbullying and further embrace clicktivism (Perrin, 2015), which is basically meant for the greater good of the society.

References:

https://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/06/world/middleeast/06face.html

Kizer, K 2017, "The UAE shouldn't imprison activists in the name of counterterrorism", Aljazeera America, Viewed 20 April 2018, <http://america.aljazeera.com/opinions/2015/10/the-uae-must-stop-imprisoning-activists-in-the-name-of-counterterrorism.html>. 

Lin, E 2017, “Against welfare subjectivism”, Noûs, vol51(2), pp.354-377.

Perrin, A., 2015. Social media usage. Pew research center.

Halupka, M 2014, “Clicktivism: A systematic heuristic”, Policy & Internet, vol 6(2), pp.115-132.

[nonbinarypastels]

If it would be inappropriate or rude to treat a stranger a certain way offline, it’s still inappropriate or rude to treat them that way online.

Online life is real life. The people you speak to online are real, the things you say to them are real, their feelings about those things are real, the rules of basic respect and common decency are the same. If you would never in a million years consider treating a person “in real life” a certain way because you know that that behavior is wrong and uncalled for, then it’s no more acceptable to treat someone that way online either.

[digital-gossips-blog]

Agreed to that!

[digital-gossips-blog]

Battle of Trolling War

It is the 21st century and the world keeps on introducing new ways on how to carry out the daily activities with technology (Rauniar, 2014). Social media is a platform that has made the digital world more innovative (Alvares, 2016). It helps people to share ideas and debate on political issues. However, social media is becoming harsher with trolling becoming another form of hate speech (Duggan, 2014). Although there is a good amount of focus on the usage of social media, it is slowly becoming a platform for protestors and activists. Tumblr is a social networking site that engages personalities to share such ideas and engage in topics such as politics (Chang, 2014).

The war of cyberbullying!! Cyberbullying is common (Bourlai, 2014) and several people have been victims of the same, which is also called trolling. Intimidation and abusive language are employed to lower the self-esteem of individuals. In the long run, victims feel offended and can turn suicidal (Organic 2014). However good the attention of the media has for the world to experience, the negative aspects have to be taken into account (Valenzuela, 2013). Therefore, the media should be armed with various ways to tackle such harassment and pose sanctions on those that engage in such actions.

Despite people trolling on social media, there is actually a mechanism of defeating them whenever they try to create a fight. It is best to ignore them and not pay any attention since they aim to garner fame by simply criticising all your posts. Tackling criticism in a positive manner is another important way of responding to a post. However, if one does not agree with the respondent, he or she should disagree on the basis of facts in order to have a healthy debate. The basis of social media is to communicate and share ideas without abusing and instilling hate for each other (Trainor, 2014). There was a case where a fifteen-year old girl took her own life after experiencing the wrath of cyberbullying (No Bullying, 2015). Another incident that showcases the misuse of social media occurred when a heartless individual abused some victims who had lost their loved ones during an earthquake by making a comment stating "may their souls rest in piss". Such malicious statements should be reported to the authorities and offenders should be punished accordingly (Hillman, 2014). A better way to solve such situations is by blocking the person on social media so that they cannot control your personal life.

References:

Alvares, C. and Dahlgren, P., 2016. Populism, extremism and media: Mapping an uncertain terrain. European Journal of Communication, 31(1), pp.46-57.

"Bullying Leads Teens to Commit Suicide - NoBullying - Bullying & CyberBullying Resources" 2015, NoBullying - Bullying & CyberBullying Resources, viewed 20 April, 2018, <https://nobullying.com/commit-suicide/>.

Chang, Y., Tang, L., Inagaki, Y. and Liu, Y., 2014. What is tumblr: A statistical overview and comparison. ACM SIGKDD explorations newsletter, 16(1), pp.21-29.

Hillman, S., Procyk, J. and Neustaedter, C., 2014, February. Tumblr fandoms, community & culture. In Proceedings of the companion publication of the 17th ACM conference on Computer supported cooperative work & social computing (pp. 285-288). ACM.

Rauniar, R., Rawski, G., Yang, J. and Johnson, B., 2014. Technology acceptance model (TAM) and social media usage: an empirical study on Facebook. Journal of Enterprise Information Management, 27(1), pp.6-30.

"The Life and Death Consequences of Cyber Bullying | Organic Digital Consultancy" 2015, Organic Digital Consultancy, viewed 20 April, 2018, <https://theorganicagency.com/blog/life-death-consequences-cyber-bullying/>.

Trainor, K.J., Andzulis, J.M., Rapp, A. and Agnihotri, R., 2014. Social media technology usage and customer relationship performance: A capabilities-based examination of social CRM. Journal of Business Research, 67(6), pp.1201-1208.

Valenzuela, S., 2013. Unpacking the use of social media for protest behavior: The roles of information, opinion expression, and activism. American Behavioral Scientist, 57(7), pp.920-942.

[weavemama]

BEWARE OF TWITTER TRUMP

I can’t believe I’m making this post, but yes. Over the past few days, there was a spike in the amount of followers trump gained. Now this may not seem like a very big deal considering the fact famous people gain followers all the time, but there’s something very fishy about drumpf’s new followers: 

A LOT OF THEM ARE FREAKING BOTS…. LIKE… LITERALLY HALF OF THEM…. 

 A little less than half of trump’s follower’s a fake… which means that he most likely paid for these bots. 

So why does this all matter???? a lot of you are probably wondering….

Well apparently the white house is launching a “war room” to censor any information regarding the Trump-Russia scandal. This can include a variety of anti-trump posts made on social media, particularly twitter. All of these bots can be used to censor out and silence the people who post about the Russia scandal.  These bots can also be used to trick the twitter algorithm into promoting his ideologies. Trump and his administration are now targeting social media in order to to prevent the truth from coming out. 

This isn’t a highly severe tactic against the American people, but it’s still a fucked up form of censorship. A president should not be blocking out his/her citizens, yet here we are……… 

[digital-gossips-blog]

What! fake followers? 

[digital-gossips-blog]

Politics and Social Media?

Social media is greatly impacting the citizens, content, and production techniques leading to new political communication. It is evident that the social networks have gained mastery of enlightening the public, creating a correlation, and satirizing the political arena (Young 2010, p.203). For instance, Fey's satire of Sarah Palin was popular than her posted speech on YouTube making it hard for to rise to the position of a vice president. Elsewhere, social media has been instrumental in reducing gaps in the society through the propagation of information. For example, it has brought down gender stereotypes and ethnic diversity. However, Young (2010, p.202) that some variance still exists in the media such as overrepresentation of the young generation and low usage in some geographical location. Areas with a high level of poverty do not have adequate broadband coverage in addition to unaffordability of access by the local residents. From this perspective, the political influence of social media has limited impacts on the excluded population. 

Although social media has not replaced the traditional channels in addressing the audience, it has provided a new touchpoint where individuals can gain political mileage (Enli 2017, p.51). However, the development does not eliminate or overshadow traditional political communication that propagates populism, personalization, and anti-elitism. Elsewhere, blogs have been critical in enlightening the public on political issues. Despite the overshadowing of impacts emanating from blogs by social media, their influence is enormous due to the ability to present subjects from personal perspectives. Popular blogs such as the Huffington Post have grown from a standard blog to an online newspaper. The phenomenon illustrates the growing acceptance of the blogs in the public sphere. It means that the political communication delivered through the channel will effectively reach the target audiences and citizenry.  

References:

Enli, G 2017. Twitter as arena for the authentic outsider: exploring the social media campaigns of Trump and Clinton in the 2016 US presidential election. European Journal of Communication, vol. 32, no.1, pp. 50-61

Young, S 2010. How Australia decides: Election reporting and the media. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

[digital-gossips-blog]

Nice name ;) Looking forward to seeing your blog posts!

Aw! Thank You:)