I’m not sure that I agree with the terminology he’s chosen here, but what I do appreciate, is the sentiment – mobile internet, social media and networked visuality is our current...
I agree with your argument about photography becoming more and more relevant for this particular moment as time goes by. I only need to look at photos from a recent holiday or special event to conjure feelings I'd forgotten I'd felt that day. But does the selfie really come into this category of capturing a moment? Probably not. Maybe, one day, genealogists will be able to look at everyone's selfies to help determine certain characteristics of evolution, or fashionistas will be able to figure out what we wore back in our day. Perhaps the most important use of historical selfies, however, will be their use by the sociologists of the future. You're right when they say the selfie is embedded into our culture, but I doubt they'd have an astounding impact on future generations.
I personally, have never been one for selfies - too self-indulgent for my liking. That however, has not stopped selfies becoming big business. Kim Kardashian (renowned for her love of selfies) has just released a 352 page coffee table book, and according to global trends expert Chris Sanderson...
I LOVED your point about self-portraits, and to be honest, the thought never came to mind when thinking of selfies. I guess it really just is a self-portrait with better technology.
I think the commercialisation of the selfie is an important concept. More and more often now, competitions are being run by companies that involve taking a selfie with a particular product and submitting it to the company for judgement. Not only does this give companies an example of the aesthetic features (such as age, race, location, etc) of that particular product's consumption, it also brings a particular form of involvement into the competition (and it's much easier to do than the tired 'explain in 25-words or less...').
Great work, and I can DEFINITELY appreciate your deterrence from the selfie.
Wikipedia (2015) describes the term ‘coca-colonisation’ to imply an infusion of mostly American cultural values that competes with the local culture. Consequently, social media including Facebook, Twitter and YouTube have been blocked by the Chinese government. This action, added to years...
Finally, a post about China's social media state that isn't just a sympathy piece about how much they're missing out on. What do you think would happen if one day all regulation and censorship ceased and advertising, as well as Western media, was allowed?
I really enjoyed reading this. I've been playing MMORPGs since I was about 15 (back in the Habbo Hotel days). I made friends on there who I still speak to today, ten years later, even though we've never met.
Whilst I do agree with what you're saying about online gaming being a version of reality for gamers, I do believe it is just that - a version. One version of many forms of reality they experience in their lifetime. Always available is the option to 'switch off' from this reality, though, or travel to a different world and connect with different people. Gamers may even choose to create an avatar on a completely new gaming platform. I believe this level of control, freedom and anonymity is what appeals to gamers the most. These are three features which are hard to come by when you're out living your life.
I implore you to create a gaming profile. Find a game that suits your tastes and spend an hour, maybe two, exploring the options and features of the virtual world. I think it'll provide you with valuable insight into the advantages (and disadvantages) of MMORPGs. Let me know if/when/what you decide.
Like many others I thought that China was missing out on social media… I have never been to China before but the people that I do know that have gone have always talked about it is hard to contact people from home because Facebook is not allowed in China. However they do have social media but they...
Great post. I personally think the censorship of traditional media in China plays just as big a part in the Chinese perception of reality as social media does. But if you really think about it, I believe the Chinese population have 'worked with what they've got', so to speak. They've completely taken to their own social media platforms. I do believe that censorship is probably unnecessary, but given the extreme popularity of the social media sites they already have, if Facebook, Twitter, etc was available, do you think there'd be much interest in it? We can chat 'til the cows come home about how unfortunate they are by missing out on Western social media and advertising revenue, but we're living in a fantasy land if we believe the allowance of these sites will be the great fix-all of social media in China.
Admittedly, when I hear the words ‘online gaming’, images of pre-pubescent teens getting carried away in the violence of games like Call of Duty are immediately conjured in my head. But is there more to online gaming than expected?
According to Erinma Ochu, a neuroscientist at the University of...
How intriguing! Before I started uni, the image conjured in my head would be the same as yours. But since studying the effects gaming really has on users, I was pleasantly surprised.
I think most of the discourse around violence and video games stems from a generational dissonance. My parents didn't play video games. My grandparents didn't play video games. They simply haven't had the opportunity to be educated on this like we have. Your point about the disease is particularly interesting. I wonder what will happen to gamer stigma in 20, 50, even 100 years, when education and technology evolves to include these benefits?
Technological advances in recent years has ushered in devices that allow us to immediately connect to the Internet (Boyd, 2012, p.71-72), while the creation of social media platforms has enabled us to remain “always on” (Fuller, 2012). As we continue to exploit social networking, the occurrence of...
Have you ever seen/experienced cyber bullying? Your point about Twitter is interesting. Even though they have to name a 'reason' for the decline in users, I once read somewhere (I wish I could remember where it was) that Facebook was becoming so embedded into culture these days that there is absolutely no way it can lose popularity on a large scale (unless they do something disastrously wrong). It has been compared to Google in the way we use it. Twitter, on the other hand, was defined as a peripheral outlet, meaning people use it the way they used Bebo or MySpace. It's a fad, and eventually people will tire of it. What do you think?
That was pretty off-topic, but what I was supposed to say is that I don't think cyber bullying or "trolling" has much of an effect on Twitter's popularity decline as they'd like to think.
It is the debate which has captured communities across the globe: Is online gaming “good” for you?
Let’s consider this situation first: A man is severely depressed and reclusive. He has social anxiety and can’t stand the thought of leaving his house. He craves human contact, but he doesn't think he’s worthy of the attention in real life. Pretty soon, MMORPGs become his salvation. Here, he is able to talk to whoever he wants, whenever he wants, without the pressure society places on etiquette or “norms”. He can be the best version of himself when he signs in – unencumbered, cunning, intelligent. A real joker. Confident. For a while, he forgets about what’s plaguing him. He begins to make real money from his online experiences. He meets the love of his life. He develops a group of close friends who have no intention to ever meet in real life. Eventually, this has a profound effect on his mood and motivations in life.
Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPGs) exist for a number of reasons. Their incredible success is proof that people need an escape from their ordinary lives.
Book (2004) suggests that there are six main features of MMORPGs:
1. Shared Space: Online worlds allow multiple users to play at any given time.
2. Graphical User Interface: 2D or 3D effects make gameplay feel realistic and aesthetically appealing, which offers users more entertainment than other online connectivity avenues, such as chat rooms.
3. Immediacy: When users play, they play in the moment. Every other user appearing on the screen is also playing at that exact moment.
4. Interactivity: Users are able to customise the world around them, including their avatar/online appearance.
5. Persistence: The game continues when the user has logged out.
6. Socialisation/Community: Interaction between users is encouraged in order to be fully immersed in gameplay.
Let’s consider another scenario: Kristen is an architectural student at a rural university. Initially, Kristen is drawn to MMORPGs because it provides an outlet for her creativity. Here, Kristen can create the tallest, smallest, most extravagant, wackiest buildings she can think of, and it’s completely free of charge. She begins to rely on these online building sessions to help her with ideas for assessments. Her structural awareness is fine-tuned. She realises ideas she didn’t even think could exist. These effects have a huge impact on her grades at university. Because she’s a rural student, MMORPGs also allow her to connect with people across the world. She joins an architect guild within the game and meets other students studying similar degrees. These students become professional connections. Eventually, Kristen finishes university and someone in her architect guild offers her a job in the big city. MMORPGs presented opportunities she wouldn’t have had otherwise.
Based on this information, it can be argued that MMORPGs, though users do not exist in a physical reality within the game, can be an important tool for many different people, and can offer unique opportunities for personal connection, career advancement or monetary gain. However, as with everything, there also exists a dark side to MMORPGs.
The term “catfishing” has become more and more prominent in an online society lately. It is a term used to describe the assumption of another persona online in order to lure another into a relationship. In a story most of you would remember, Australian Idol finalist Casey Donovan was involved in a 6-year relationship with a man she thought was named Campbell. However, Casey and Campbell never met. After many strange encounters with a woman she named “Olga” in her recent memoir, she eventually realised that Olga was Campbell all along, and had been deceiving her the whole time (Leaver 2014).
Consider this trailer for a documentary entitled Catfish (2010):
Although this particular instance occurred over mainstream social media such as Facebook, the use of Role-Playing in online gaming provides ample opportunity for catfishing. When taking into consideration the fact that MMORPGs encourage role-playing, it becomes very easy for users to lie about their “real life” persona in order to instigate an online relationship with another user.
So yes, while it can be argued that MMORPGs provide users with the ability to live the life they’ve always dreamed, it can become very dangerous, especially when real relationships are established in these environments. Nobody wants to be catfished.
List of References:
Book, B 2004, ‘Moving beyond the game: Social virtual worlds’, State of Play 2 Conference, 2004
Leaver, K 2014, ‘What happened to Casey Donovan is so common that it has its own name. Catfishing’, MammaMia, viewed 1 February 2015, <http://www.mamamia.com.au/social/casey-donovan-hoax/>
Vlogging: Because my life is just that little bit more important than yours
Finally, I feel like this week’s material has taken us to the crux of what all social media sets out to achieve: visible publics, visual communities, the vlog, and the selfie.
As I’ve written a post about the selfie before, I won’t be going into detail about it again here. Instead, I want to talk about the visual journaling taking the world by storm: vlogging.
I must admit, I’m a huge fan of the British “YouTubers”, or so they like to call themselves. I’m WAY over the targeted audience age group (12-17 year old females) but I enjoy watching nonetheless.
Here’s one of my favourite YouTubers, Alfie Deyes, talking to the camera recently:
Despite my enjoyment, there is something inherently disturbing in the way ordinary people become international sensations by filming their own lives and expecting everyone to tune in. I spoke about digital narcissism in my selfie post, and I think my feelings of unease stem from that.
However, after reading this week’s material, I’ve come to understand a point of view that I didn’t think existed. The point of view is this: In the YouTube environment, attention means money. With increased attention comes increased demand, and even though “vloggers” may not enjoy the content they post, they’ll still create and upload them for the attention, communication and, ultimately, the money the video creates.
This quote from Lange (2009) pretty much sums it up: “Even creators may feel that a video of affinity is not necessarily original or interesting; instead, such videos are often communicative attempts to negotiate attention from other people to maintain ongoing connections or relationships” (p. 73).
Moreover, as an audience, we’re becoming more demanding. We need updates right.now.goddamnit and we’ve come to expect immediacy if it’s been shown to us in the past. This is especially the case with YouTubers. If a person begins to post vlogs every day, the online community will come to expect vlogs every day, even if it was not the original intention of the publisher. But where does immediacy become a problem?
The use of Facebook’s tagging system is a big issue for many. Other users are able to tag you in posts, photos and check-ins, so that not only your friends, but your friend’s friends can see your full name, where you are, what you look like, and who you’re with at that particular moment. There are probably hundreds of people on your friend’s friends list that you don’t know exist, but these people now know you exist. This is an example of being in a visible public, where everyone has the opportunity to both see and be seen, in the case of friends and strangers alike.
Being a member of a visible public has legal, as well as moral implications. If a person tags you in a post or photo which you deem inappropriate and they refuse to take it down, you could technically sue them for defamation under Australian law. Defamation law in Australia can be defined as:
“The publication of any false imputation concerning a person, or a member of his family, whether living or dead, by which (a) the reputation of that person is likely to be injured or (b) he is likely to be injured in his profession or trade or (c) other persons are likely to be induced to shun, avoid, ridicule or despise him.
Publication of defamatory matter can be by (a) spoken words or audible sound or (b) words intended to be read by sight or touch or (c) signs, signals, gestures or visible representations, and must be done to a person other than the person defamed.”
(The News Manual Australia, 2008).
So, I urge you to think twice about what you post and about whom you post, because you could be facing a very expensive lawsuit because of it!
References:
‘Defamation in Australia’, The News Manual, viewed 25 January 2015, <http://www.thenewsmanual.net/Resources/medialaw_in_australia_02.html>
Lange, P 2009, ‘Videos of affinity on YouTube’, The YouTube Reader, National Library of Sweden, pp. 70-88
In many situations of crisis and disaster, visual access to events is often vital form emergency services. The immediacy of amateur visual coverage of the details of disaster has become crucial to public knowledge, response, and recovery (Learning materials, 2015).
Hi - Great post! I like that you spoke about some limitations of crowdsourcing, but you also pointed out the benefits of crowdsourcing in a time without crisis. It is true that businesses can benefit from the input of an online community. Can you think of any websites that do that now? Has there ever been a time when you've relied on that information to make a decision?
I personally think crowdsourcing isn't the complete future - I think it will play a vital role in the way we access and harvest information, but I also think sometimes a professional approach is the most appropriate (e.g. sometimes we need to test things against a control for research purposes, and this can't really happen when solely using crowdsourcing)
Crowdsourcing is the process of obtaining content by a large group of people or especially the online community by contributing ideas together (Swinburne Online 2015). Basically it is a combination of ‘crowd’ and ‘outsourcing’. The idea of crowdsourcing is that more heads are better than one; the...
Hi there, I like the style of your blogs. You incorporate many interactive sources and your style of writing is inviting and conversational, which makes your post an absolute joy to read (also, the Usher pic helps a lot with that too). Have you been involved in any crowdsourcing activities before?
As social media becomes bigger so does the possibility of being trolled/ cyber bullied. Trolling is a term that has only been used in the last few years (Swinburne online 2014), it refers to being harassed or bullied online. A troll is mainly an anonymous person that abuses a person for usually no...
Hi, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this post. You offered a unique perspective about what it's like for young people and their families when they're faced with cyber bullying. Do you think there is such a huge difference between trolls and actual bullies, though? I agree with your suggestion for governance, but how do we monitor something so broad, with so many nooks and crannies? Do you think an ombudsman would be the answer?
As we learn to live in a connected age we need to learn how to engage positively with other online users. When proactively participating as Digital Citizens it is important to consider the potential influences we can have on other online users. CyberSmart Cizitizan Guide explains; “that when we...
Hey! Nice post! I liked how you spoke about both yours and your partner's experiences. I would've liked to see more resources regarding trolling. Have you managed to find any good YouTube videos about it?
Social media has brought the ability to share stories and visuals from causes around the world and while awareness is a large part of beginning to solve an issue is digital activism generating tangible results?
Digital activism is on the rise and definitely has it’s place as our society...
Hi, great post. I liked your use of inclusive language ("we" etc.) and I especially liked how you tied this in with statistics. It shows you have a thorough understanding of the topic and it also shows off your great research skills. Have you personally witnessed any instances of social activism? I'd love to hear about your experiences.
I have never really been into the whole activism thing, even though I have strong opinions of certain local and global issues I usually keep them to myself as I do not what to feel alienated for having an opinion. However, a few month ago I saw that a friend of mine liked a community group on...
What a fantastic piece of reflective writing. I loved reading about your personal experiences with activism on social media and I liked how your post wasn't just a basic review of the learning materials. It's clear that you researched widely regarding this issue and drew appropriately on your own views. Just a tip - proof read your posts before you post them (or after, whichever floats your boat). There are a few words that are missing apostrophes or an "s" at the end of them, etc. Otherwise, keep up the great work!
A survey of Britons aged between 17-21 highlighted young people becoming increasingly disengaged from politics. “Young people’s voices don’t get heard…” (Stringer cited in Whitehouse 2013). Sani (Whitehouse 2013) insists political parties need to try harder to engage younger people in a way they...
