Living Among A.I.?

Hey there, it’s Eunice here, perhaps you can call me Younice because You Nice! I’m currently a tertiary education student studying Bachelor of Marketing at Swinburne. I’ll be sharing about all things on social media, advanced technology and how we view ourselves as digital users linked with the communities in my first ever blog. This blog is for education purposes only and no copyright infringement intended.

[euniceyounice7]

CCTV all around China

What’s the case with China? What’s happening in China? Are the citizens of China living peacefully or frighteningly? Let’s explore more in this week’s blog!

In China, there are 802 million active internet users, representing 57.7 percent of the population, which in comparison, the United States only has 300 million internet users approximately. Yet, the Chinese government, President Xi Jinping, has made the world wide web not so wide as there are several issues (McCarthy 2018).

The Great Firewall of China

The Great Firewall of China has created barriers that limits the flow and exchange of information, in other words, the foreign websites and news agencies such as Facebook, YouTube, Google, Twitter, Reuters and BBC are barred from entering China’s internet (Maags 2019). Instead, China had their own version of Google, called Baidu, WeChat that is equivalent to Facebook and YouTube that is substituted by Youku. Furthermore, Dennis and Kahn (2019) asserted that the Chinese government restricted nine types of information, comprising post that might disrupt social order, and information that might harm the state’s dignity and interests. Additionally, Maags (2019) stated that public belief likewise influenced subtly by governmental social media accounts or “”50-cent army”, the state-employed bloggers that post positive news and comments about the government online to convince and influence public opinion. Nevertheless, there are Chinese citizens that refuse to believe and blindly follow the official propaganda. They responded using metaphors and code words to condemn the government and the lack of freedom of speech by accessing the internet via virtual private networks (VPNs) to avoid the Great Firewall (Maags 2019; Heaven 2019). 

Censorship in China

Censorship in China is another issue faced by the Chinese citizens. Kristof (2019) noted that President Xi Jinping that is anxious and insecure regarding Hong Kong protesters, religion and Winnie-the-Pooh related topic, has lead him to be frightened that real information will penetrate the Chinese echo chamber, undermining his propaganda department’s personality cult around a kind “Uncle Xi”. One example of censorship is the banning of Winnie-the-Pooh at China’s movie theatres and internet, due to commentators that suggested it looks alike with the overweight President Xi (Kristof 2019). According to Kristof (2019), President Xi wanted to censor information in China as well as the discussions and forums in the West these days.  

China’s Social Credit System

(Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOk27I2EBac)

Moving on, the China’s Social Credit System is a ranking system that helps monitor the behavior of its vast population by ranking all of them based on their “social credit” (Ma 2018). According to Ma (2018), the citizens’ score will decrease or increase depending on their behavior. This is a new technology that controls its population in a creepy and terrifying ways, which will be implemented in 2020 to ensure a safety living in China (Matsakis 2019). Each individual is given 1000 points and is consistently observed and rated based on their behavior via the pilot system (Jones 2019). They can earn points by doing good deeds such as helping the needy, donating money and praising the government on social media. In oppose to that, those behave badly such as criticizing the government, smoking in non-smoking zones, and stealing will lead to a decrease in the points. Rewards and privileges for the citizens with good behavior include receiving priority for children’s school admissions and higher opportunity of promotion at workplace. In contrast, the citizens with bad behavior will be punished by prohibiting to book train or flights ticket, public shaming, restriction in getting the best jobs and banning citizen’s children to study in the excellent schools (Ma 2018; Jones 2019).

Is China’s AI technology the answer to the future?

Personally, I think yes. This can be supported by O’Meara (2019) statement as AI technologies promise advances in communications, health care, transport and fundamental breakthrough that can potentially shape China’s future directions and reap the most advantages. For example, AI technology, incorporating huge patient data sets for training software to predict disease that needs research and development has created a distinctive opportunities and great potential workforce for China’s researchers (O’Meara 2019). 

Does China’s Social Credit System help the citizens to behave well and ensure a safety living?

I think it helps the citizens to behave well and ensure a safety living, at the same time, the citizens will live frighteningly as well. Implementation of China’s Social Credit System can assist in reducing crime, so citizens can live peacefully. Citizens with good score will be given privilege and rewards. In contrast, it will also permanently affect the next generation that is innocent and this is unfair for them in the future especially when they wanted to enrol in the best school but restricted to do so due to the previous generation’s bad score. Also, imagine Chinese citizens walking on a road with thousands or millions of surveillance cameras tracking them, they have no privacy and completely transparent as all the personal data is controlled by the government and there is limit in freedom of speech on politic issues.

That’s all from me, thanks for reading!

References

Dennis, MA & Kahn, R 2019, Internet: electronic publishing, Encyclopaedia Britannica, 10 April, viewed 24 November 2019, <https://www.britannica.com/technology/Internet/Electronic-publishing>.

Heaven, D 2019, ‘China’s Great Firewall and the war to control the internet’, New Scientist, 12 March, viewed 25 November 2019, <https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg24132210-400-chinas-great-firewall-and-the-war-to-control-the-internet/>.

Jones, K 2019, ‘The game of life: visualizing China’s social credit system’, Visual Capitalist, 18 September, viewed 26 November 2019, <https://www.visualcapitalist.com/the-game-of-life-visualizing-chinas-social-credit-system/>.

Kristof, N 2019, ‘Let’s not take cues from a country that bans Winnie the Pooh’, The New York Times, <https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/09/opinion/china-censorship.html>.

Ma, A 2018, China has started ranking citizens with a creepy ‘social credit’ system – here’s what you can do wrong, and the embarrassing, demeaning ways they can punish you, Business Insider, 29 October, viewed 26 November 2019, <https://www.businessinsider.my/china-social-credit-system-punishments-and-rewards-explained-2018-4/?r=US&IR=T>.

Maags, C 2019, The Great Firewall of China, Fair Observer, 23 September, viewed 25 November 2019, <https://www.fairobserver.com/region/asia_pacific/great-firewall-china-censorship-chinese-news-today-vpn-china-38018/>.

Matsakis, L 2019, ‘How the west got China’s social credit system wrong’, Wired, 29 July, viewed 26 November 2019, <https://www.wired.com/story/china-social-credit-score-system/>.

McCarthy, N 2018, ‘China now boasts more than 800 million internet users and 98% of them are mobile [infographic]’, Forbes, 23 August, viewed 24 November 2019, <https://www.forbes.com/sites/niallmccarthy/2018/08/23/china-now-boasts-more-than-800-million-internet-users-and-98-of-them-are-mobile-infographic/#461cd01e7092>.

O’Meara, S 2019, ‘Will China lead to the world in AI by 2030?’, Nature Research, 21 August, viewed 26 November 2019, <https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-02360-7>.

[euniceyounice7]

Let’s Play!

Hey all, welcome back! I’m a gamer, are you? I play PUBG and Mobile Legends. Today, let’s talk about some of the gaming communities; The PUBG community, The CSGO community and The Sims. Does these games benefit us or harm us?

What is Social Gaming?

According to Collins Dictionary (2019), social gaming is defined as the activity of playing online games with other members of the same online group.

The Positives

Social game brings benefits to an individual when adequate amount of time is spent and when there is self-control. It helps to release stress, decrease loneliness, create teamwork and strengthen the bond between friends or family when online mission is accomplished. Esports is providing a lot of job opportunities nowadays. For example, it is required to hire announcers, location sponsors, TV broadcasts and online live-streaming channels to organize a CSGO world tournament. Refer back to the previous blog on fan as in fandom, I am also a fan to Team Liquid that is professional in playing Dota and CSGO. Team Liquid has earned total prize money of $24,448,847 in 1430 total tournaments (Top 10 esports teams, earnings, and salaries 2019). It is clearly shown that playing games provides job opportunities and by playing professionally, it is possible to earn income.

The Negatives

On the contrary, an individual that is addicted and obsessed with social game leads to negative impact like violence, social replacement and bankruptcy (Bartholomew 2019). Violence occur when an individual is obsess with violent video game or shooting game such as Dota, CSGO and PUBG as they can just simply shoot anyone in the game where he or she will just bring it to reality by shooting anyone in the real world just like the case where a Kurdish man accidentally killed his friend with a shotgun when role-playing PUBG (Subarno 2019). Besides, social replacement happens when an individual that is addicted to social game lock him or herself in the virtual gaming world where the actual face-to-face interaction will no longer needed. According to Jansen (2010), there are 19% of the online users paid for digital games and 5% of them have paid for tools or materials to use in computer or video games. This has shown that gaming communities are growing towards monetisation rather than playing leisurely which means when players get addicted, bankruptcy happens. 

The PlayerUnknown’s Battleground (PUBG) community

My experience in PUBG with my brother and my boyfriend:

PUBG actually helps strengthen my siblings relationship as we communicate and coordinate better when playing together. Furthermore, PUBG helps me to understand and trust my boyfriend as well. I remembered there was once my phone is lagging while swimming halfway through the river until I almost lost my life in this game, but my boyfriend was actually there for me and keep healing me with the ‘first aid kit’ and ‘bandage’, so that I can be alive and continue to play the game. Hence, I think PUBG is a game that benefits me as long as I surround myself with the right people. 

The Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CSGO) community

On the contrary, when you are not surrounded by the right people, gaming can be toxic. It is sexist and racist just like the example in the video below. In the video, the Chinese girl is being boycott by the other three male team members through their words and actions in the game. 

(Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ur3J_AKlfAc) 

The Sims community

Also, some games promote LGBTQ, just like The Sims 4. In The Sims 4, players can now form same-sex relationships to get married and even male can get pregnant that encourages gay intercourse and gay parenting (Duffy 2016). This may be reflected to the real world as well. In my opinion, I am strongly against it as we are not told to have same-sex marriage even some of the countries such as Australia, Brazil, and United Kingdom have recognized it. 

References

‘social gaming‘, 2019, Collins Dictionary, viewed 23 November 2019, <https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/social-gaming>.

Bartholomew, J 2019, Video games: pros and cons, Utah Valley Pediatrics, viewed 24 November 2019,<https://www.uvpediatrics.com/topics/video-games-pros-and-cons/>.

Brain, E 2019,  The Sims 4’ gets pride month update & island living expansion pack, Hypebeast, 11 June, 20 November 2019, <https://hypebeast.com/2019/6/the-sims-4-pride-month-lgbtq-game-update-gender-neutral>.

Duffy, N 2016, ‘Feature: how the Sims became the most LGBT-friendly game of all time’, PinkNews, 8 June, viewed 20 November 2019, <https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2016/06/08/feature-how-the-sims-just-became-the-most-radical-lgbt-friendly-game-of-all-time/>.

Jansen, J 2010, 65% of internet users have paid for online content, Pew Research Center, 30 December, viewed 22 November 2019,<https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2010/12/30/65-of-internet-users-have-paid-for-online-content/>.

Subarno, A 2019, 12 bizarre incidents that happened across the world that were reportedly because of PUBG, Scoop Whoop, 12 February, viewed 24 November 2019, <https://www.scoopwhoop.com/bizarre-incidents-reportedly-because-of-pubg/>.

Top 10 esports teams, earnings, and salaries 2019, Influencer Marketing Hub, 15 March, viewed 24 November 2019, <https://influencermarketinghub.com/top-10-esports-teams-earnings-and-salaries/>.

[euniceyounice7]

10 posts!

[euniceyounice7]

Are you a fan?

A fan is...

No No No! This is not the fan that we’re talking here!

Today, we’ll discuss on the fan as in a fandom!

A fan (noun) is someone who admired and obsessed with a particular celebrity, band, star, film and TV show where they will get themselves involve in fandom or fan activism (Hills 2002).

Do you consider yourself a fan if you didn’t involve in fandom?

Why not? I can be a fan even if I doesn’t involve in fandom.

Fan clubs do exist on social media such as Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr and YouTube. Yet, you do not need to become an official member to be a fan apparently (Kleefeld 2017). For example, an individual wearing merchandise as in t-shirt, cap or bracelet proclaiming his or her fan interest such as “I’m part of this fandom. I’m an A.R.M.Y.” (BTS fans’ name), going to Shawn Mendes’ concert or participating in Lakers’ message boards, none of that is necessary to be a fan. With that said, there is no rules and no exact process to join or leave a fandom. On the contrary, Kleefeld (2017) noted that a person keeping his or her fan interest to his or herself, separated from others, then that person is not part of the fandom but still considered as a fan. Therefore, you are still considered as a fan even if you do not involve in fandom. 

My own experience as a fan:

Everyone sure has an idol or a fan of a team or band, so do I!

I’m a fan of Taylor Swift. I’m a Swiftie since 2009. She’s gorgeous, she’s cute and she’s talented. She’s just like a sister to me that taught me many things through her songs. I was once a girl with low self-esteem, she taught me to be Fearless, taught me to Speak Now when I faced any difficulties in life to the person that I trust (my parents and confidant) and the latest song Lover taught me to care and love my beloved one more. In 2010, I bought the “Red” album and I bought the “Speak Now” album in 2012. I kept listening to the songs by looping it while I’m studying that time and that gave me motivation and strength to study.

Has fan activism gone too far?

It is so exciting to see your idol performing on the stage and have the latest album that you purchased signed; it is so motivating and entertaining when you can interact with your idol be it in person or through YouTube Live; you’ll always follow the current trend of your idol such as what brands your idol use, what type of fashion style they are wearing recently and what is your idol’s latest songs or newly released video about your idol’s life. Yet, what if an individual or a group of fan is too obsess with their idol? What will happen when fan activism gone too far?

In my viewpoint, being an obsess fan leads to the imagination that an individual is being in love with the idol, that he or she will start to think of the idol more often, think of touching the idol or search for the idol’s address, which in other words, stalking. According to Tiffany (2017), an obsessive fan will feel disappointed when the idol does not reply messages or does not agree to meet up, which then makes the idol feel irritated when an obsess fan keep on writing letter or text his or her idol until he or she gets a reply. When there is rejection, an obsess fan might not think rationally and even has no self-control. For example, sexual harassment, cyberbully that leads to long-term depression of the idol, or even killing of idol due to multiple rejection may happen when fan activism gone too far. As an illustration, the video below shows one of the K-pop star, Sulli’s suicide case due to depression caused by obsess fans.

(Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIwoWyG7vyQ)

References

Hills 2002, Fan cultures, Online Research Library: Questia.

Kleefeld, S 2017, ‘Fanthropology: fans vs fandom’, Freaksugar, 4 September, viewed 19 November 2019, <http://www.freaksugar.com/fans-vs-fandom/>.

Tiffany, K 2017, I love you, Jake Gyllenhaal: what I learn from a year of obsessive fandom, The Verge, 3 November, viewed 22 November 2019,<https://www.theverge.com/2017/11/3/16576850/jake-gyllenhaal-newsletter-fandom-fans-essay>.

[euniceyounice7]

Crowdsourcing vs Crowdfunding

Wow, “Crowdsourcing” and “Crowdfunding”? What a BIG word to me! Let’s explore more on what does these two big words mean and is there any difference between them?

What does crowdsourcing and crowdfunding mean?

Crowdsourcing is the process that involves obtaining opinions or information from a huge group of people in an online setting, such as social media, the internet and via mobile apps (Hargrave 2019). According to Goodrich (2013), crowdsourcing required a big group of people with diverse skills, ideas and participation to generate content or assist in the product or campaign’s creation. In other words, crowdsourcing is the distribution of problem solving. As an illustration, a company that needs funds for a marketing advertisement, upcoming campaign, project, or research for an innovated product, it can acquire high amount of money, content and information from the crowd (Goodrich 2013).

Crowdfunding involves crowd to donate or contribute small amounts of capital to finance and support a new business project (Smith 2019). Based on Smith (2019), crowdfunding website or social media page helps connect huge networks of people such as investors and entrepreneurs together to bring a new project to life. Crowdfunding occurs when it comprises voluntary donation-based effort (Neiss et al. 2016).

What is the difference between crowdsourcing and crowdfunding?

So, crowdsourcing is basically the process where crowd search information together, whereas, crowdfunding involves crowd to contribute money on a voluntary basis to support start-up corporations, charities or even individuals (Harvard 2019).

Let’s discover the example of crowdsourcing and crowdfunding!

McDonalds’s! Yes, who doesn’t like McDonald’s? One of the example of crowdsourcing is ‘McDonald’s Burger Builder’.

This crowdsourcing campaign gave McDonald’s customers the sovereignty to submit ideas for the desired types of burgers they would like to see in store and even purchase it (Kearns 2018). Once the perfect burger is created online, the voters from all over the world can vote for the best ones and the winners along with their photo and brief bio will be listed as McDonald’s released the burgers weekly (Kearns 2018).

(Source: https://tweakyourbiz.com/marketing/9-great-examples-crowdsourcing-age-empowered-consumers)

Everyone has their own dreams, isn’t it? And these dreams can’t be fulfilled when there’s lack of capital. No worries, we’ve got crowdfunding! Kickstarter is one of the example of crowdfunding.

Kickstarter is a crowdfunding website that allows inventors, entrepreneurs or even individuals to raise millions of dollars to fund development and production of an idea or a project (Thrope 2018). Thrope (2018) asserted that the successful projects include the ‘Pebble Watch’, ‘Coolest Cooler’ and ‘Potato Salad’. For the idea on making ‘Potato Salad’, the inventor, Zach Danger Brown had notoriously raised $55,492 where it has exceed the initial goal of $10 only.

(Source: https://www.kickstarter.com/)

Conclusion

Can crowdsourcing be beneficial to the communities?

In my opinion, yes, because crowdsourcing allows individual to source for big group of people from different field with different talent in a shorter period of time and it works more efficiently compared to traditional advertisement. Additionally, with the digital platform nowadays, users can utilize hashtags to find relevant source as well.

Can crowdfunding actually replace traditional funding mechanisms for the creative productions?

I think it can, because with the social networking website nowadays, it is easier for designers, content creators or musicians to seek help from people, provided the people like their contents and ideas, they will definitely achieve the targeted funding.

References

Goodrich, R 2013, ‘What is crowdsourcing?’, Business News Daily, 26 February, viewed 16 November 2019, <https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/4025-what-is-crowdsourcing.html>.

Hargrave, M 2019, Crowdsourcing, Investopedia, 8 July, viewed 16 November 2019, <https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/crowdsourcing.asp>.

Kearns, K 2018, 9 great examples of crowdsourcing in the age of empowered consumers, Tweak Your Biz, viewed 17 November 2019, <https://tweakyourbiz.com/marketing/9-great-examples-crowdsourcing-age-empowered-consumers>.

Smith, T 2019, Crowdfunding, Investopedia, 26 June, viewed 17 November 2019, <https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/crowdfunding.asp>.

Thrope, D 2018, ‘What is crowdfunding?’, Forbes, 26 June, viewed 17 November 2019, <https://www.forbes.com/sites/devinthorpe/2018/06/25/what-is-crowdfunding/#19ad30e965c5>.

[euniceyounice7]

“Stop Cyberbully Now! Please Help the Victim!” (Trolling and Social Media Conflict)

Social media is supposed to be a wonderful platform for people to engage with friends and family by spreading positive vibes and sharing good news. Yet, this masterpiece has been destroyed by evil people with bad intention that stays unknown and remains untraceable that leads to the culture of trolls and cyberbullies. How should we stop this and what are the ways to save these innocent lives?

What exactly is trolling and cyberbullying? 

According to Cambridge Dictionary (2019), trolling is the act of a group or an individual leaving an insulting message on the internet to annoy someone. Additionally, it can easily be found on the web, resulting in problems for businesses, people and the general wellbeing of some aspect of social media (Hanson 2016). As for cyberbullying, it is a practice where an individual or group send hurtful text or spread hatred towards another person on the internet in the form of message, social media post, and e-mail which are usually untrue just for the sake of mock, harm or harassment (Techopedia 2019). Basically, both trolling and cyberbullying are pretty much the same. Both can cause damage, emotional scarring, long-term symptoms of depression and even until the extend of suicide (Strutt Central 2012). Anderson (2018) asserted that there are 59% of U.S. teens that suffered from online bullying and harassment. However, teenagers mostly think that the government, education sector and social media companies failed to address the problem. Hence, this issue must be look into deeply in order to stop the collateral damage.

Here’s an example of  the effects of cyberbullying:

(Source :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auVtqQIcQFM)

How to eradicate cyberbullying?

Based on Techopedia (2019), there are several recommendations offered by the National Crime Prevention Council (NCPC) for the cyberbullying victims. When victim faced cyberbullying, he or she can block the cyberbullies on all social media platform. Next, report to website administrators that he or she encounter cyberbullies. Online users also can avoid or reject in sharing personal information online by making the profile private. Besides, if he or she is a minor victim, voice out to a trusted adult about cyberbullying would be a good choice as they can calmly aid us in tackling the issue.

Another approach is the implementation of AI technology on the internet. Currently, the machine learning algorithms can clearly detect suicidal tendencies with high accuracy via “neural representation of emotions”. The evolving “Emotion AI” has the potential to become a precious asset in identifying and preventing self-harm in the future. If a machine or system has the capability to interpret and analyse human emotion through face or voice recognition, it will be a tremendous leap forward for the use of AI in suicide prevention (Chester 2019).

Here are 5 ways of healing for cyberbullying victims:

Unplug from technology for a time.

Know that you are not alone.

Keep in touch and seek help from people who know about the cyberbullying attack.

Concentrate on enhancing your own self-worth.

Forgive and forget.

Let me end with these two bible verses:

To all the cyberbully out there, you must stop hatred now.

James 4:11-12 (CEV version) “My friends, don’t say cruel things about others! If you do, or if you condemn others, you are condemning God’s Law. And if you condemn the Law, you put yourself above the Law and refuse to obey either it or God who gave it. God is our judge, and he can save or destroy us. What right do you have to condemn anyone?”

To all the cyberbully victims, we’re on your side, you’re not alone.

Deuteronomy 31:6 (NLT version) “So be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid and do not panic before them. For the Lord, your God will personally go ahead of you. He will neither fail you nor abandon you.” 

References

‘10 tips for healing after a cyberbully attack’ 2019, CMASAS, viewed 6 November 2019, <https://www.cmasas.org/blog/10-tips-healing-after-cyberbully-attack>.

‘Cyberbullying’ 2019, Techopedia, viewed 3 November 2019, <https://www.techopedia.com/definition/2389/cyberbullying>.

‘Trolling’ 2019, Cambridge Dictionary, viewed 4 November 2019, <https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/trolling>.

Anderson, M 2018, A majority of teens have experienced some form of cyberbullying, Pew Research Center, viewed 5 November 2019, <https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2018/09/27/a-majority-of-teens-have-experienced-some-form-of-cyberbullying/>.

Chester, D 2019, How AI can help fight cyberbullying, TechTalks, viewed 6 November 2019, <https://bdtechtalks.com/2019/09/05/artificial-intelligence-online-bullying/>.

Hanson, J 2016, Trolls and their impact on social media, University of Nebraska–Lincoln, viewed 4 November 2019, <https://unlcms.unl.edu/engineering/james-hanson/trolls-and-their-impact-social-media>.

Strutt Central 2012, The cyber bullying virus, 22 March, viewed 5 November 2019, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5PZ_Bh-M6o>.

[juangyijy]

Trolling and Social Media Conflict

Trolling is happening all around us now, people can be trolling their friends, people can be trolling their parents by doing something stupid or funny or can be pulling a prank. But in online social media trolling, things can be different. Some people take trolling to another level and this have become a cyber-bullying, criticizing people, throwing attacking speech or word on others. People maybe think that it could be a funny troll, but to the person who receive this kind of treatment, they might be getting hurt on their feeling, feel like they are getting attack, traumatize by others. This situation might even cost them to think of suicide, cost them to have mental illness or mental breakdown. It is a everyday things, sometimes when we open our Facebook, Twitter, or any news social media, we might see people suicide because of cyberbully or even costing someone else to change their behavior into violence. People might find it funny by doing so to others, but they themselves is actually trying to seek for attention from others, by putting one victims down. But when they never think about the cost and continue to make fun or criticize others because they think that others would laugh together with them, and they will get more attention by doing so. They are very daring to do something like this because, social media is a place where others might not be able to find out who you are, as you can use fake name, fake identity online that you might not act and talk like the way to present yourselves online. 

As this is spreading very fast, even children is on the social media even they are still young. So, even cases like a 10 years old children victims was cyber-bullied by their friends who posted they half naked online, because they want to “Shame” the friend, in front of their classmates. 

https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education-community/article/2063980/children-aged-10-victims-cyberbullying-classmates

as practice keep going on, this is really unstoppable, because it is something that could happen no matter what age group you’re in. 

In my opinion, to counter this kind of situation, people need to know and learn on what they should share on their social media, not everything that you have posted in the social media, is shared with the same opinion among others. People might view this as an opportunities to attack others, to criticize or to make fun of. In the end, you might get more upset with it and cost you to have mental breakdown. Ways to prevent this is, people need to learn to do not care or ignore about what others say about them, as those are just their opinion and point of views on you, but you should understand more than anyone else about yourself. Then, those who could not hold their emotion, should go talk to their parents, family and friends, take some advice from people who really care about you. 

[euniceyounice7]

This is indeed true. We must be careful to use words online, because maybe some things that seem small or not a problem to you, might be a real big problem and caused pain to others until the extend of having Suicidal Thoughts. Hence, think twice before you post anything online. 

[euniceyounice7]

Protest & Activism (REAL WORLD vs SOCIAL MEDIA)

Is PROTEST the same as ACTIVISM?

Protest is something that people do not show publicly that something is wrong and unfair (protest | meaning of protest in Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English | LDOCE 2019).

Activism is a doctrine or practice that emphasizes direct vigorous action especially in support of or opposition to one side of a controversial issue (Definition of ACTIVISM 2018).

Both protest and activism involve movement and encourages action. Both issues also happen when there is dissatisfaction among the public involved. So, are there any differences?

Here’s some backstory.

(Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oaCyHD2QreA) 

Daryl Morey, the Houston Rockets’ General Manager, tweeted “Fight for Freedom. Stand with Hong Kong.” on 4th October which showed his support towards the ongoing protests in Hong Kong due to opposition of controversial legislation that would allow criminal suspects to be extradited to mainland China. His tweet was a damaging one that caused several China sponsors such as Li-Ning sportswear and Shanghai Pudong Development Bank cut ties with the Rockets (He 2019). The main media partner of the NBA in China, Tencent, with a streaming deal worth $1.5 billion for the next five years also stated it will stop broadcasting Rockets’ games that which leads to drop in views for further NBA games, in which the aftermath of the situation could be seen in the recent Brooklyn Nets and Los Angeles Lakers game in China. 

Two days after the tweet, the NBA league responded that Morey had deeply offended most of their China’s fans and friends, which is regrettable. Adam Silver also commented “I think as a value-based organization that I want to make it clear that Daryl Morey is supported in terms of his ability to exercise his freedom of expression.” (Houston Rockets GM’s Tweet Controversy Simmers On in China 2019). Morey emphasized that his tweet did not intend to offend Rockets fans and his China friends. He stated that he was just giving his opinion (NBA-China issue: Latest news resulting from Daryl Morey’s Hong Kong tweet, what it means for the league 2019). Despite their explanations, the people of China, including Yao Ming, a former basketball player for the Houston Rockets who the current chairman of Chinese Basketball Association (CBA), to further boycott the American basketball league as a protest. 

(Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9EFFoQtWrY)

What about your point of view?

This whole back and forth between the Chinese and the Americans could be seen as a protest against each other. At the same time, there was also the involvement of activism in the Chinese side when they stopped all broadcasting, merchandise and sponsorship relating to the American league.

In my opinion, I think that protest and activism is pretty much the same. They are both the expression of a voice. They all come down to having a voice and the desire to express, discuss and take action on the matter either on social media or through physical conversations. In the end, how you feel about it, it can all be subjective. Leave your comments down below and share what you think. Thanks for reading!

References:

Definition of ACTIVISM 2018, Merriam-webster.com.

He, L 2019, Backlash from China after NBA manager’s Hong Kong tweet, CNN, viewed 15 October 2019, <https://edition.cnn.com/2019/10/07/business/houston-rockets-nba-china-daryl-morey/index.html>.

Houston Rockets GM’s Tweet Controversy Simmers On in China 2019, Voice of America, viewed 15 October 2019, <https://www.voanews.com/usa/houston-rockets-gms-tweet-controversy-simmers-china>.

NBA-China issue: Latest news resulting from Daryl Morey’s Hong Kong tweet, what it means for the league 2019, CBSSports, viewed 14 October 2019,<https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/nba-china-issue-latest-news-resulting-from-daryl-moreys-hong-kong-tweet-what-it-means-for-the-league/>. 

protest | meaning of protest in Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English | LDOCE 2019, Ldoceonline.com.

[elvistai-jpg]

Politics & Social Media: What is social media to politicians?

We live in an era where most things can be done through the internet. People shop, get car rides, or even at times buy groceries with just one click or one touch of a screen, why is that? 

I find that as technology advances, the rate of speed in which a demand can be delivered becomes more and more important (Technology In Our Life Today And How It Has Changed 2019). With the help of social media, communication between friends who live across the world became something that can be done almost too easily. The enhanced experience in communicating through social media has brought light to many people, even politicians. 

But how exactly does it benefit politicians? 

Well, first off - politicians can easily have direct contact with voters. Social media tools such as Facebook, Twitter and even YouTube enabled politicians to have a direct engagement with their voters.

Second of all, politicians can and have always been using social media tools to advertise themselves and the party they represent, these politicians would often show as much of the good they have contributed to society to win over people’s hearts (Murse, T. 2019).

However, many politicians have also caused controversy by their “tweets” or the posts they share online. Take President Donald Trump as an example, the current president of United States of America have always been infamous for his controversial tweets, some of it can be considered as direct attacks on news stations such as CNN (Trump attacks CNN, Carl Bernstein Over Trump Tower Story 2018). 

For several years now, petitions have been made to ban the current president from Twitter but it was said that banning him from Twitter will not affect any changes.

All in all, I think social media is a platform that can provide spaces and opportunities for politicians if used in the right way. Meanwhile, social media has always been somewhat entertaining for users like myself when funny memes about politics such as the recent Najib memes surface.

[euniceyounice7]

This is an interesting politics blog post I’ve read! Thanks!

[euniceyounice7]

“Look at this Photograph” meme #politics

Reporter: Have you ever spoken to your son about overseas business dealings?

Joe Biden: I have never spoken to my son about his overseas business dealings. Here comes Nickelback music video- "Photograph"

(Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51n0Yh7oQJE)

A Little Theory on Political Behaviours and Political Engagement…

Political behavior is traditionally defined as an “activity that has the intent or effect of influencing government action— either directly by affecting the making or implementation of public policy or indirectly by influencing the selection of people who make those policies” (Verba, Schlozman & Brady, 1995, p. 40).

It can be typically accepted that political behaviors can be scoped widely, which include everything from the nerve wrecking job of running for an elected office (Black 1972), to the relatively tedious act of voting (Wolfinger & Rosenstone 1980), and even to a mere shallow act of an online petition signing (Cruickshank, Smith & Eelmann 2010).  

The political behaviours such as commenting on others’ political postings on social media and indicating that you “like” them involve engagement and mobilization, but need very little resources as they do not cost money, they take very little time, and require almost no skills (EshetAlkalai & Chajut, 2009).

(Source: https://loudwire.com/trump-nickelback-photograph-meme-twitter/)

So, What’s Happening?

On Wednesday night (2 October 2019), President Donald Trump tweeted a parody video, without Nickelback band’s permission, that later became a trending and viral meme, featuring Joe biden on a golf course together with his son, Hunter Biden and his son’s partner in a Ukrainian gas corporation (Martosko 2019). Former Vice President, Joe Biden claimed that he never spoke with his son regarding his overseas business. Joe Biden is then under pressure for boasting that he had no choice but to force Ukraine in firing a top presecutor after the release of this bombshell video. The ‘#ParodyIsFairuse’ hashtag rapidly trended on Twitter after Trump’s posting of the edited 20-second video. Trump's Nickelback tweet was retweeted more than 100,000 times and the video had more than 12 million views (Nickelback’s record label got Trump’s ‘Photograph’ Twitter video taken down due to copyright 2019).

On Thursday, the video was taken down by Twitter as an action against President Trump’s tweet for copyright infringement. Sandler (2019) stated that the tweet is still visible, but the video itself has been replace by a message “This media has been disabled in response to a report by the copyright owner” after the owner Nickelback filed a complaint to Twitter.

The copyright removals remain as opposed to Twitter’s policy about Trump’s tweets, which explicitly place the president exempt from the law that everyone else follows with regards to implementation of the informal community's very own guidelines. In June, the company announced a policy to restrict, however not to remove some renowned politicians that defy its rules about abusive behaviour. The social network argued that if those tweets were newsworthy, then even if they were likely to cause some harm, it would not be in the public interest to remove them (Hern 2019).

Any Thoughts?

In my opinion, Twitter’s users’ policy had always strives to protect their users. Although Twitter has the correct approach in protecting users, freedom of speech is limited as the other users cannot voice out their opinion on politics which may discourage users from engaging in any political matters in the past, present, as well as the coming years.

References:

Black, GS 1972, ‘A theory of political ambition: Career choices and the role of structural incentives’, American Political Science Review, vol. 66, no. 1, pp. 144–159.

Bode, L 2017, ‘Gateway political behaviors: the frequency and consequences of low-cost political engagement on social media’, Social Media + Society, vol. 3, no. 4, p. 2.

Cruickshank, P, Smith, CF & Edelmann, N 2010, ‘Signing an e-petition as a transition from lurking to participation’, Electronic Government and Electronic Participation, Lausanne, Switzerland.

Eshet-Alkalai, Y, & Chajut, E 2009, ‘Changes over time in digital literacy’, Cyberpsychology & Behavior, vol. 12, no. 6, pp. 713–715.

Hern, A 2019, Trump’s video taken off Twitter after band Nickelback complains, The Guardian, viewed 6 October 2019, <https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/oct/03/donald-trump-video-taken-off-twitter-copyright-nickelback>.

Martosko, D 2019, Twitter takes down Trump video trolling Biden over son’s overseas money ties, Mail Online, viewed 6 October 2019, <https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7532123/Trump-trolls-Joe-Hunter-Biden-sharing-manipulated-Nickelback-music-video.html>.

Nickelback’s record label got Trump’s ‘Photograph’ Twitter video taken down due to copyright 2019, BuzzFeed News, viewed 6 October 2019, <https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/davidmack/nickelback-trump-tweet-removed-copyright-photograph>.

Sandler, R 2019, ‘Twitter usually leaves Trump’s Tweets alone—except when it comes to copyright’, Forbes, 3 October, viewed 6 October 2019, <https://www.forbes.com/sites/rachelsandler/2019/10/03/twitter-usually-leaves-trumps-tweets-aloneexcept-when-it-comes-to-copyright/#28880b5c1b00>.

Verba, S, Schlozman, K, & Brady, H 1995, ‘Voice and equality’, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Wolfinger, RE, & Rosenstone, SJ 1980, ‘Who votes?’ New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

[euniceyounice7]

‘Is Tumblr a Blog or a Social Networking Site?’

Hey, it’s my first time on Tumblr!

It is my first time using Tumblr and I have no idea how to use it at first, but the guide experience was good and I found it compatible and user-friendly. With that said, all information on features, functions, hints and tips are included in the “Get Started” slides which create a positive presence and a good experience for me as a newbie on Tumblr. Do refer below for what I’m trying to say. 

Let us start with a little history of Tumblr: 

Tumblr was established in 2007 and was founded by David Karp, and now owned by Automattic Inc. Tumblr offers a simple layout comprises of text, photo, link, chat, audio and video which enables the user to create their unique portfolio and some interesting journal (Reeve 2016). Tumblr’s culture is everyone can reblog others’ blog post by commenting or adding our thoughts and share it to our profile again. There is this “notes” symbol that compiles all the likes, comments and reblogs which allow users to see their current blog post status (Reeve 2016).

So, is Tumblr a blogging platform or a social media site?

In my opinion, Tumblr is both a blogging platform and a social networking site. Why did I say so? It is because it allows me to create my portfolio based on my creativity and share my life story to other users. These are the examples that I would use my Tumblr as a blog site. I can select any topic to write about be it from politics, games, artists, poetry or activism perspectives.  

Tumblr is more visual which makes my blog more interesting when I insert animated GIFs, photos or videos. Besides that, I will always be updated with the current news and trends as Tumblr will filter my activities according to my interest (Moreau 2019). 

On the other hand, Tumblr is also a social networking platform. It is because I can connect with other users by communicating via private message on Tumblr. Addition to that, I can follow other users and view who is following me on Tumblr. I can as well like, comment and reblog others’ blog. 

“I called it a sense of belongings when you’re in the virtual community.”

That’s all from my viewpoint. Hope all of you enjoy reading my first blog post and had a clearer idea on what Tumblr is.

References:

Moreau, E 2019, ‘How to use Tumblr for blogging and social networking’, Lifewire,20 July, viewed 24 September 2019, <https://www.lifewire.com/how-to-use-tumblr-4049305>.

Reeve, E 2016, ‘The secret lives of Tumblr teens’, The New Republic, 17 February, viewed 24 February 2019, <https://newrepublic.com/article/129002/secret-lives-tumblr-teens>.

[thegoodvybe]

[euniceyounice7]

We eventually need to learn to forgive ourselves.

[thegoodvybe]