Language and New Media

A blog that explores the social impact of technology.

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Netiquette

Spring is almost upon us; the weather is starting to look less bleak, and for uni students like myself, the Easter term break is within sight. Hooray!

Unfortunately, the holidays also bring with them their own inconveniences. Let the ‘like’ begging begin. I can guarantee you; one of your friends will rudely decide to spam your Facebook newsfeed with their holiday photos. They will upload every. single. one. as a separate post. NOOOOO. Stop it, Carol. I don’t care about your extravagant meal in the Maldives or your hiking trip through the Himalayas. Keep it to yourself.

One, annoying, inconsiderate, like begging friend will break netiquette for their own SELFISH gain. We hate you.

Yes, okay, in the rules of Facebook it doesn’t strictly say that you cannot post more than once a day. But, we all know, the unwritten rules of the Internet are just as important as the written ones. Multiple posts, liking your own status and declaring a deleting spree are just not acceptable. 

So, when the Easter break does arrive, please bear in the mind the poor people you consider ‘friends.’

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A specialist genre: Video game literature

From the age of 12, people who love video games have surrounded me. Hours upon hours they would spend playing MMOGs (massively multiplayer online games). 24-hour video game sessions were a common occurrence and swapping tips to overcome obstacles a favourite past time. I never understood.

Recently, my housemates convinced me to try the latest Call of Duty. It was a disaster. I did not have of any of skills necessary to mediate and move between the toolset, and the enfolding action, as I had never played a video game before. In fact, I found the division on the screen between the game world and the tools needed to participate in it very confusing. Clearly, I had a lot to learn.

Where to start?

At university, I spend the majority of my time learning passively in lectures. However, an affordance of video games is that players can learn actively through experimentation. If I were to become proficient at video games, I would have to adapt my learning style. My housemates assured me that this would not be a problem, as I could progress in stages throughout the game. Each level would match the ability I was at. Intrigued, I created an avatar. 

My next attempt at playing the game was no better than my first. However, as a literature fan, I enjoyed the fact that the story was embodied in my avatar’s choices and actions. I also realised that if I got stuck, I could go online and find a walkthrough that would explain what I was doing wrong. These were player-generated and presupposed that I had existing knowledge about the game.

I didn’t realise the extent to which video games and the texts outside of them, required specialist knowledge -until I began to play them.

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On a wet, miserable, February day like today, there is nothing more appealing to me than a holiday. So, when I was scrolling through Facebook and this offer popped up; it caught my attention.

A big picture of camels, rhetorical questions I could identify with and the opportunity to win a prize…what more could I want? I clicked on the link to upload my photo. I was drawn into the post and engaged with it exactly how Expedia intended.

Smart marketing.

Most of the time I spend on Facebook I am dual switching between working on assignments and scrolling through my newsfeed. Or, my attention is constantly switching between the screen space, those I am chatting to in my physical space, and those I am chatting to in my virtual space. I only ever pay partial attention to what appears on my newsfeed. So how could a company that I am only vaguely interested in make me pause?

They gave me attention.

Expedia created the illusion of personal communication through the use of the second person personal pronoun “YOU.” The company also offered me something to stop for -a prize. But ultimately, they knew what I was interested in. I had found the post through “#BeachBound.”

In the information-saturated world we live in, their tactics demonstrate that value is placed on attention. 

We are in an attention economy.

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The power of visual design

I was searching the Internet for effective marketing campaigns when I came across this visual argument created by the Salvation Army. It struck a chord. At first, I was thrown back to 2015 when the Roman originals white and gold vs. black and blue dress debate broke the Internet. Then I noticed the bruises. Why was she bruised? I did not immediately understand the message. The argument was designed so that I would read the given information (the dress), before the new information (the text), as the dress was placed on the left-hand side. After I read  “why is it so hard to see black and blue” the connection between the struggle to see the actual colour of the dress, and the struggle to see domestic violence, became clear. What an impact. The content creators used the text to enhance the image and present their message. They also extended it further through statistics “one in 6 women are victims of abuse.” I was convinced to take action.

Impressed by the complementation of the textual and visual message, I began to look more closely into how the Salvation Army had designed its visual argument. To ensure that the model was the first place you looked, she was illuminated against the black background. The creators also drew your attention and demanded a response, through her face-on gaze. Finally, the text was placed at the top left, as we read the top, middle, and left of multimodal texts. It’s scary how design has the power to influence your emotions.

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Can Donald Trump's social media genius take him all the way to the White House?

He has millions of followers and likes on Facebook, Twitter, Vine and Instagram. He uses YouTube and Periscope. His polling numbers remain high. Could Trump’s social media strategy really win him the biggest job of all?

The social media president

In the morning of Wednesday 9th November, when Donald Trump was announced the next president of the United States I, like most of the UK was in shock. Now, almost a month since Donald Trump took the presidential office, the reality of the situation is beginning to sink in. A man who is known for his offensive, racist, and slurring comments is the leader of the United States. The leader of a global superpower.

How did this happen?

The article pictured above, written before the election results, talks about Trump’s popularity as a result of his social media prowess. During his campaign, he made use of Youtube, Vine, Instagram, Periscope and Twitter – his most favoured platform. Short video clips, live, and, personal tweets combined with an easily meme-able persona, allowed Trump to engage with a huge audience at relatively little cost. 

But how was this tactic so effective?

An affordance of social media, low participation transaction costs are likely to blame. Trump supporters had the opportunity to press ‘like’ on Facebook, re-tweet a post or share a video with very little effort. Friends with strong ties would then have seen this engagement, and been more motivated to join his cause. This commitment would also have spread to other groups, through bridging by weak ties. One tiny show of support causes a huge impact on civic participation.

Social media is a powerful political tool.

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This week we had Valentine’s Day.  A day where you express how much you love and appreciate the people in your life. A day full of emotionally charged conversation.  

A day where I have never been so grateful for digitally mediated interaction...

A couple of days before the looming event, my boyfriend asked me “What do you want to do for Valentine’s day?” This seemingly innocent question elicited a variety of responses from “ahhh cringe, let’s not do anything” to “dinner and a film could be cute.” He conveniently posed the question via text, so I had time to construct an answer “Could we go to lunch at Yolk :) <3?”  I could appear relaxed and excited about the situation, in comparison to the inner freak-out session that actually happened. Text is a fabulous emotional buffer.

In the text, I sent the ‘<3’ and ‘:)’ emoticons to indicate the positive tone of the message. I could have responded with a phone call, which would have plainly conveyed my excitement but this way, I avoided anyone overhearing my awkward conversation. In other words, I lowered the transaction cost. Why should I reveal my social ineptness when I don’t have to? Text makes it possible to have a synchronous conversation, without the pain. An affordance I abuse regularly.

How you express yourself can make a tremendous difference to how others perceive you. Valentine’s day is daunting, as you are under a lot of pressure to perform. Luckily, we have digitally mediated interaction to help. You can be discreet, and present yourself as a competent human being, through less rich media.

Please feel free to share stories where you have been saved by digitally mediated interaction.

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How the Internet changed the way we read

Welcome to the age of hyper-information.

1. “Reading has become a relentless exercise in self-validation”

This practice is supported by the Google page rank algorithm, which determines what web pages are relevant to you, based on your past search history.  Therefore, you are more likely to come across information that matches your preconceived opinions about a topic, creating a confirmation bias. This means that developing a rounded view on a subject is less attainable. 

2. “technological democratisation of social media has effectively deconstructed the one- sided power of the Big Bad media”

The digital media affordance of being able to instantly give feedback and share opinions through comments, as well as having the opportunity to self-publish, has shifted media power from a select elite to the general population. In the article, Bliss claims that people do not distinguish between the quality of reading an amateur blog post or a newspaper article, as it is easy to flick from one to the other. However, I argue that because of the volume of information we encounter when navigating through the internet, we place higher value with respected sources.

3. “Author’s aren’t privileged anymore”

In the article, Bliss suggests that because there are so many authors on the internet, you are no longer respected as one. However, I argue that because there are so many content creators when you come across something that holds your attention, you respect the authors writing ability even more. 

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Digital literacy: It is not as easy as you think.

For 90s babies like myself, digital literacy is a skill that we take for granted. We know how to maintain relationships through social networking sites, read complex multimedia documents and know how to protect personal data from misuse. Skills that we have picked up along the way. But for the older generation, it is not that easy http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-32511489 What we would consider basic skills such as using a touchscreen can prove challenging, as the slightest tremor can be registered as a swipe rather than a touch. Also, the response time for icons on an Apple device is 0.7 seconds whereas, the average over 65 has a response time of a second. There are specialised devices aimed at the older generation; such as the Breexie tablet made by Samsung. However, most new digital technology is not built to accommodate usage by the over 65′s. It is less accessible than you think.

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I found this post whilst I was scrolling through iFunny, and I thought it was intriguing how the author believes that my generation was the “first” to have technology. It demonstrates how the vast majority of technology has become so transparent that we are oblivious to the tools which mediate our day-to-day experience of reality. From the toothbrush, we use to clean our teeth to the fridge where we store our food. We view these things as objects but not technological tools. There are no feelings of anxiety about how they impact our experience of reality attached to them. Comparatively, the internet and iphones are more obvious mediums and cause concern. The author expresses a technological dystopian based fear; that our ability to relate to each other in meaningful ways is being destroyed by technology. She suggests that the way that we relate to others, and what we do has been negatively impacted because of these inventions. She associates her view with that of a “grandma.” This reveals that the constraints she believes not “playing outside” are not shared by her peers. It is arguable that her peers recognise that interacting with people online is not necessarily bad but just a different way to form relationships.