Iced Coffee, Trees & Social Commentary

A blog for the purpose of completing Digital Communities MDA20009: my final unit at Swinburne Online, completing my BA Business Management.

[legenwaitforitdarythoughts]

Activism in the 21st century

When I think of activism, names like Doctor Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, Rosa Parks come to mind, people who dedicated their lives to campaigning for human rights and social causes that brought about change on a large scale. As I began to read about activism in the digital age, I started to wonder what the activists of past generations would make of online campaigning. Would the ‘I have a dream speech’ been as potent delivered via a YouTube video instead of in front of a crowd in Washington? Would the message have had the same result, or would it have been lost within the millions of other videos? And would sharing a hashtag have brought about the same amount of change as the quarter of a million people who descended on the mall in Washington in 1963?

Today, through social media and the internet we are bombarded with charities, causes and videos showing horrific atrocities and society is quickly becoming desensitised and unmotivated to take real action. As a result, a new culture of activism is emerging known as ‘clicktivism’ and ‘slacktivism’ which Reddin (2018) defines as ‘armchair activism’ whereby ‘complex, serious issues are oversimplified to the point where viewership, likes and clicks is thought to be the equivalent of making a difference’. Scholar Evgenyi Morozov (quoted in Gerbaudo 2012) take this definition further describing slacktivism as ‘feel good activism’ that ‘creates an illusion of having a meaningful impact on the world without demanding anything more than joining a Facebook group’.

But is activism in the digital age all negative?

Absolutely not, modern movements like #MeToo, #BlackLivesMatter, #MarchForOurLives, #Kony2012, and the Arab Spring are all grassroots causes that used social media in one way or another to further their mission and generate awareness. According to Youmans & York (2012), social media was a powerful tool in bringing about the collective actions during the Arab Spring providing a method to coordinate action, share information and raise public awareness of the issue on a global scale. Further, Rutledge (2010) strongly supports social media for facilitating sustainable activism suggesting that it brings together people who are passionate about an issue and provides them with a way to harness this collective energy and turn it into action.

There is no doubt that social media has a role to play in modern activism. However, as Sophie Egar cautions in her TEDx Talk, “social media activism is useless if it doesn’t create awareness that leads to action off the internet” (TEDx Talks 2018). Yes, real change requires action beyond the hashtag, like or share. We’re not going to change the world sitting in front of a computer.

I’ll finish with a favourite quote of mine – “it’s better to have less thunder in the mouth and more lightning in the hand.” Actions do speak louder than words (or clicks).

Keep reading

[adigitalworldstudent-blog]

Hi legenwaitforitdarythoughts,

I really enjoyed reading this you certainly have a way with words. I laughed at the tree picture because I have similar thoughts to you. You say that real change requires action beyond the hashtag, like or share and this is true. This  “acceptance of what happens, without active response or resistance” (Oxford Dictionaries 2019), is what oversimplifies issues that need to be taken seriously.

You make a good point about the ‘I have a dream speech’. I too wonder if the message would have the same result. 

Ange

Oxford Dictionaries 2019, passivity | Definition of passivity in English by Oxford Dictionaries, viewed 3 January 2019, <https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/passivity>.

[icedcoffeetrees]

Good Things about Online Games, a Brief Visit to Transylvania and Limitations of Bowling

In 1982 I’d reached the age of eleven and was allowed to go to the movies on the weekend with friends. In those days, cinemas were starting to struggle as they competed with video and home gaming systems like Atari. My local cinema was dying and played The Rocky Horror Picture Show almost every weekend. I think I’d seen Frank N. Furter and the gang about thirty times before I convinced my parents to let me join the gaming revolution.

The Vic 20 computer came with a pre-packaged game called Adventureland. It wasn’t the greatest game, but I played it constantly for a year. On the cover was a dragon, which seemed everything an eleven year-old adventurer could want in a game. My mind conjured up images of treasure, medieval creatures and a queen somewhere in a dungeon to rescue.

Sorry Frank, the queens I mean would not excite you. 

Adventureland was a text only adventure game which consisted of commands typed into the computer like “get axe” or “go north”. Your imagination had to play the part of the graphics card. This and other text-only RPGs share their DNA with today’s massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs). 

Social gaming actually dates back 5000 years to Knucklebones and progressing to online games like World of Warcraft, Eve, Elder Scrolls Online and many more today.

Image Radoff 2010

Going back to my first post, Siapera’s work explored ideas of life and surrounds as effected by the internet (2012, pp.191-192). Putnam’s analysis using the sport of Bowling as a way to demonstrate a loss of social capital (2016) makes me wonder if that should be revisited using online gaming.

After all, there’s probably more people gaming these days than bowling.

Gaming has become big business, with Deloitte (2017, pp.36-37) revealing 58% of Australians now play video games at least once a month, with large growth in female and mature gamer numbers. It’s become so popular that digital communities have been built within gaming worlds, developing their own cultural norms and values.

Antisocial behaviour in video games (trolling and violence) transferring to real life has been a constant throughout media, but little is said of positive behaviour. Such positive behaviour can develop bridging and bonding forms of social capital and lead to real world social support according to Trepte, Reinecke & Juechems (2012, pp.835-838).

Hughes, Griffin and Worthington (2017, pp.387-390) created a scale to measure the sociality in multiplayer online games. Their theory is that playing prosocial games can have a positive behavioural and emotional result on real world interactions. While Greitemeyer & Mügge (2014, pp.586-588) argue that the positive traits to violent games, such as cooperative behaviour and empathy within teams, counteracts any negative effects.

While space-based MMORPG Eve Online has even developed its own online consultative mechanism, consisting of players acting between developers and players to assist with controversies and conflict (De Zwart & Humphreys 2014, pp.77-78). This is typical of bonding social capital as defined by Adler & Kwon (2002, pp.20-24).

Putnam felt that society was losing social capital as a result of technology. However, social networks have a way of developing their own to replace it.

What sort of culture or norms exist in your digital community?

References

Adler, PS & Kwon, SW 2002, ‘Social Capital: Prospects for a New Concept’, Academy of Management Review, vol. 27, no.1, pp. 17–40.

Conversations with Bill Kristol 2016, Robert D. Putnam on Our Civic Life in Decline, 13 March, viewed 8 December 2018, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZHZc-kcyQQ>.

Deloitte 2017, Media Consumer Survey 2017, Australian Media and Digital Preferences 6th edn, Deloitte, 08/17_054372.

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, pp. 77-99.

Fox News 2018, Are video games linked to real world violence?, 8 March, viewed 5 February 2019, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29EN9Anic9Q>.

Greitemeyer, T & Mügge, DO 2014, ‘Video Games Do Affect Social Outcomes: A Meta-Analytic Review of the Effects of Violent and Prosocial Video Game Play’, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, vol.40, no.55, pp. 578–589.

Highretrogamelord 2014,  Adventure 1: Adventureland for the Commodore VIC-20 / Commodore VC-20, 9 December, viewed 5 February 2019, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2PJuLlJQbc>.

Hughes, CM, Griffin, BJ & Worthington, EL 2017, ‘A measure of social behavior in team-based, multiplayer online games: The Sociality in Multiplayer Online Games (SMOG) scale’, Computers in Human Behavior, vol.69, pp.386-395.

Radoff, J 2010, History of Social Games, Jon Radoff's Internet Wonderland, viewed 2 February 2019, < https://web.archive.org/web/20100527090108/http://radoff.com/blog/2010/05/24/history-social-games/>.

Radoff J 2010 A brief history of social games 3100BC -2010 AD [image] in Jon Radoff's Internet Wonderland, viewed 2 February 2019, < https://web.archive.org/web/20101126203455/http://radoff.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/HistorySocialGames1.jpg?v=2>.

robatsea2009 2014, William Shatner for Commodore VIC-20, 17 October, viewed 5 February 2019, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-V-bPLmtAFg>.

Sean MC 2015, Atari Game System 1982 Commercial, 5 May, viewed 4 February 2019, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnyuZhHtMqU>.

Siapera, E 2012, ‘Socialities and Social Media’, in Understanding New Media, Sage, London, pp. 191-208.

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.

[icedcoffeetrees]

Snapchat, Selfie Culture, Narcissism and the Search for The Holy Grail

I’m sure everyone has heard the story of Narcissus, a young man who falls in love with his own reflection in the water and is then consumed by his love for himself. To explain narcissism would take more words than I have here, but in a nutshell, it is an unhealthy love of self that can not only curse individuals, but organisations as well (Symington 1993, pp.1-11).

Is talking selfies linked to narcissism, though?

Photographer and animator Anotonio Bolfo feels we’re bombarded with pictures. He also believes that a photo cannot tell a whole story, it’s just a small piece of a much bigger picture (2012). Anna Rosling Rönnlund expresses that we often use photos to illustrate a fairytale version of our everyday events (2015).

The rise of high quality handheld devices and phones has brought new editing capabilities and ways to share instant images and communicate (Hjorth & Gu 2012, pp. 700-707). This networked visuality has driven competition among social networks to come up with innovative ways to use images.

Snapchat founder Evan Spiegel believes his platform, and the selfie, are the future of communication. Ephemerality is a component of Snapchat’s success, being the temporary nature of pictures within Snapchat before they are no longer available (Herrman 2014).  

Spiegal talks about Snapchat as though it is the Holy Grail of social networks. I’m not so sure, though.

Ephemerality has been around a long time in art and consists of things like sand, snow, or ice, leaves, sticks and other items with a short life cycle (Anapur 2019). In my opinion, ephemeral content is beautiful, but are ephemeral selfies art or something else entirely?

Ephemeral also seems to be a word introduced into marketing when expressing temporary material (Trounce 2018). Spiegel’s use of the temporary content as an attraction may be confusing to users who could mistakenly feel they are protected from risks associated with posting online, which is not good citizenship on Spiegel’s part, as defined in my entry here.

Delving into darker matters, McCain et al. examined the selfie culture and found it consistent with narcissism and self-presentation. When you consider this alongside Sherry Turkle’s argument that our devices change who we are, is the narcissism a result of that, or was it already there before?

Rather than staring into the water like Narcissus, we’re staring into a camera lens.

It isn’t all bad news, Phua, Jin & Kim (2017, pp.118-121) looked at social media’s ability to create social capital, with Snapchat high on bonding social capital, but low on the bridging form. Twitter, interestingly, produced the opposite results while Facebook and Instagram were more middle of the road across both forms. This is consistent with Siapera’s work (2012, pp.195-204) when examining the loss of social capital associated with technology, but potentially regained through forms of social media and you can read my entry discussing that here.

What do you think of the selfie culture?

Anapur, E 2018, Remembering Ephemeral Art and All of Its Faces, Widewalls, viewed 2 February 2019, < https://www.widewalls.ch/ephemeral-art-definition-artists/>.

Herrman, J 2014, Meet The Man Who Got Inside Snapchat’s Head, Buzzfeed, viewed 21 January 2019, < https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/jwherrman/meet-the-unlikely-academic-behind-snapchats-new-pitch#3dlvjg2>.

Hjorth, L & Gu, K 2012, ‘The place of emplaced visualities: A case study of smartphone visuality and location-based social media in Shanghai, China’, Continuum, vol.26, no.5, pp.699-713.

Holpuch, A 2013, Snapchat admits to handing unopened ‘snaps’ to US law enforcement, The Guardian, viewed 31 January 2019, < https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/15/snapchat-hands-snaps-pictures-to-federal-law-enforcement>.

JoyMystic 2010, Andy Goldsworthy environmentalist Artist - P1, 19 December, viewed 3 February 2019, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4jV87O_cMI>.

McCain, JL, Borg, ZG, Rothenberg, AH, Churillo, KM, Weiler, P & Campbell, WK 2016, ‘Personality and selfies: Narcissism and the Dark Triad’, Computers in Human Behavior, vol. 64, pp. 126-133.

NBC 15 2014, Dangers of Sharing Photos on the Internet, 21 August, viewed 5 February 2019, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtsIcByS2As>.

Phua J, Jin S V, & Kim, J 2017, ‘Uses and gratifications of social networking sites for bridging and bonding social capital: A comparison of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat,’ Computers in Human Behavior, Vol.72, pp.115-122.

Siapera, E 2012, ‘Socialities and Social Media’, in Understanding New Media, Sage, London, pp. 191-208.

Symington, N 1993, Narcissism: A New Theory, London: Routledge.

TED Ed 2013, Connected, but alone? - Sherry Turkle, 19 April, viewed 19 December 2019, < https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=171&v=rv0g8TsnA6c>.

TED X Talks 2015, Using photos as data to understand how people live|Anna Rosling Rönnlund| TEDxStockholm, 12 March, viewed 3 February 2019, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvsAvvKeGhc&t=106s>.

TED X Talks 2012, More than a thousand words — the power of images: Antonio Bolfo at TEDxEast, 30 June, viewed 3 February 2019, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8cIFDia-kA>.

Trounce 2018, Ephemeral Content: Everything Marketers Need to Know, Search Engine Journal, viewed 3 February 2019, <https://www.searchenginejournal.com/ephemeral-content/238589/>

[unclewez]

Game On!

Ass. 1b. Week 10.  Social Gaming: Playing the Crowd.

Social gaming. What is it? Social gaming is how we describe games that are predominantly made for playing on social media sites (O’Neil 2008). Though that may be the case, it would become clear that it has long since outgrown that description. Massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPG) have grown to the point that within themselves they have created a social network or social group. People do not just play the game, they team up, make plans, and execute them as if they were in the real world. Sure, going alone is an option, but enduring success is unlikely (Williams 2016 p.665).

Understanding the overall picture of the gaming world takes a lot more attention than a surface glance. When we mention online gaming, people automatically seem to think of violence or gambling. However, there are games out there that carry a far more positive aspect. Yes, games like Fortnite, War Thunder, Call of duty, and World of WarCraft call us to arms, to kill or be killed. However, it appears the hype of negative media forget the likes of Farmville, Words with Friends, and Pop Quiz entirely. All of these are social, and all stimulate our capacity to learn. Add Pokémon Go, that got people of their seats and out into the streets, and the benefits of online games become apparent.  

Okay, so we can justify the personal social side of gaming, but what about the issues? Like anything that involves human beings, there is always an issue. For example, online games usually involve an in-game currency. Fortnite had a case where it was accused of being used to launder money (Gershgorn 2019). Likewise, Eve Online has had a couple of scandals that saw players lose $300,000 worth of purchases over a simple in-game deal that went wrong (Thornhill 2014). Eve also encountered an issue when one player from the in-game council (the Council of Stellar Management), failed to step out of his game role and into reality during an online video post. The player, known as ‘The Mittani’, and for his violent and ruthless actions, made statements and threats that are not acceptable in the real world (De Zwart & Humphreys 2014 p.93). While the Mittani apologised, the damage was already done. 

Of course, this poses the question, are people able to distinguish between the virtual world and the real world? That will need to be thrown over to the psychologists and anthropologists of the world, while I go back to my game to fight an air battle over Great Britain.

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, pp. 77-99, viewed 17 January, 2019, <https://search-informit-com-au.ezproxy.lib.swin.edu.au/documentSummary;dn=225934593111540;res=IELLCC>.

Forbes 2019, Mew, [image], viewed 29 January, 2019, <https://www.forbes.com/sites/olliebarder/2018/06/15/you-wont-be-able-to-transfer-mew-from-pokemon-go-to-pokemon-lets-go/#48c8044f22e6>.

Fortnite 2017, Fortnite Battle Royale - Gameplay Trailer, viewed 29 January, 2019, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gUtfBmw86Y>.

Game On 2019, GameOn, [image], viewed 29 January, 2019, <http://www.gameonlu.com/>.

GameSpot 2014, This is Eve Online - Gameplay Trailer, viewed 29 January, 2019, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqoxRcP5kbo>.

Gershgorn, D 2019, The “Fortnite” economy now has its own black market, viewed 28 January, 2019, <https://qz.com/1528941/fortnite-is-reportedly-a-money-laundering-hotbed/>.

O’Neil, N 2008, What Exactly are social Games?, viewed 13 January, 2019, https://www.adweek.com/digital/social-games/

Thornhill, T 2014, EVE Online sees biggest ever battle involving more than 4,000 players, viewed 28 January, 2019, <https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2547908/EVE-online-sees-biggest-battle.html>.

Williams, D 2009, “Groups and goblins: The Social and civic Impact of an Online Game”. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, vol. 50, no. 4, pp 651-670.

[adigitalworldstudent-blog]

Hi Unclewez,

I had completely forgotten about Pokémon Go, that was an interesting time when people all went out on the streets to look for Pokemon. I do remember the time people were getting hurt while playing the particularly that of a teenager who was hit by a car while playing Pokemon go. Like you have said a lot of games are violent but they also bring people together to collaborate and share interests which is really cool.

Ange

[adigitalworldstudent-blog]

Affordances of Ephemeral Communication

Our lives both on and offline have meshed together as people sharing photos of themselves ‘on the go’ allows others to see how we live our lives moment by moment. As Lobinger (2015, p. 475) points out ‘Networked photography’ is photo sharing practices that share photos through mobile visual communication instantly following real-time photo capture that has become a pervasive communication routine for many.

Ephemeral Communication is “Communications that are deleted or otherwise not made available after a certain, relatively-short time period”. Social media tools that allow people to create cartoons of themselves, filters, lenses and send messages that self-destruct appear to be popping up everywhere. 

“The growing interest in platforms that are designed to erase communication artefacts after a short period are distinct from those associated with more permanent platforms” (Bayer et al. 2015, p. 957). 

Indeed, the ephemeral nature, enabled by these platforms such as those of Snapchat has gained traction for the possibilities of controlling the content one share with the audience. This “self-destructive” messaging approach affords users the capacity to communicate with close friends rather than an extensive network of more formal acquaintances, such as Facebook (Piwek & Joinson 2016, p. 365).

Facebooks highly publicised failure to acquire Snapchat twice has made it obvious that the key players in this industry are keen to progress into this field (Ganzenmuller 2014, p. 1242). However, with these affordances, there are also risks.  As Ganzenmuller (2014, p. 1241) points out this self-districting communication has enabled people to make poor choices as messages disappear users are left feeling immune to repercussions. Despite the risks, the affordance of ephemeral communication will continue to grow, and people will continue to enjoy sharing the ‘moments’ of their lives with whom they choose. 

References

Barack Obama Taking Selfie [IMAGE], in GIPHY 2019, Barack Obama Selfie GIF, viewed 27 January 2019, <https://giphy.com/gifs/m2J5d72A5xRXq>.

Bayer, J, Ellison, N, Schoenebeck, S & Falk, E 2015, ‘Sharing the small moments: ephemeral social interaction on Snapchat’, Information, Communication & Society, vol. 19, no. 7, pp. 956-977, viewed 27 January 2019, <https://www-tandfonline-com.ezproxy.lib.swin.edu.au/doi/abs/10.1080/1369118X.2015.1084349>.

Ganzenmuller, R. G. 2014, ‘Snap and destroy: Preservation issues for ephemeral communications’, Buffalo Law Review, vol. 62, no. 5, pp. 1239-1288, viewed 27 January 2019, <https://heinonline-org.ezproxy.lib.swin.edu.au/HOL/Page?collection=journals&handle=hein.journals/buflr62&id=1281&men_tab=srchresults#>.

IGI Global 2019, Communications, IGI Global, viewed 27 January 2019, <https://www.igi-global.com/dictionary/virtual-hoarding/60277>.

Lobinger, K 2015, ‘Photographs as things – photographs of things. A texto-material perspective on photo-sharing practices’, Information, Communication & Society, vol. 19, no. 4, pp. 475-488, viewed 27 January 2019, <https://www-tandfonline-com.ezproxy.lib.swin.edu.au/doi/pdf/10.1080/1369118X.2015.1077262?needAccess=true>.

Piwek, L & Joinson, A 2016, ‘What do they snapchat about? Patterns of use in time-limited instant messaging service’, Computers in Human Behavior, vol. 54, pp. 358-367, viewed 27 January 2019, <https://www-sciencedirect-com.ezproxy.lib.swin.edu.au/science/article/pii/S0747563215301023>.

Snapchat app [IMAGE], in Getty Images 2019, Yahoo Set To Invest $20 Million In Snapchat, viewed 27 January 2019, <https://www.gettyimages.ie/photos/snapchat?family=editorial&mediatype=photography&phrase=snapchat&sort=mostpopular>.

Stock Photo [IMAGE], in GIPHY  2019, Stock Photo GIF, viewed 27 January 2019, <https://giphy.com/gifs/xWfCVTBxb5FYBOD4Wp>. 

Vermeulen, A, Vandebosch, H & Heirman, W 2017, ‘Shall I call, text, post it online or just tell it face-to-face? How and why Flemish adolescents choose to share their emotions on- or offline’, Journal of Children and Media, vol. 12, no. 1, pp. 81-97, viewed 27 January 2019, <https://www-tandfonline-com.ezproxy.lib.swin.edu.au/doi/abs/10.1080/17482798.2017.1386580>.

[legenwaitforitdarythoughts]

Another excellent blog @adigitalworldstudent. You write well and covered this topic very thoroughly.

I like that you drew attention to how ephemeral messaging allows users to “communicate with close friends” as opposed to our acquaintances on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter. As I mentioned in my own blog, there is a very distinct difference in the way people interact with each social platform which is quite interesting. People definitely have a stronger relationship with the people they communicate with on Snapchat than they do on Facebook or Instagram. 

It’s great that you also pointed out the negative side and risks associated with this type of “self-destructing” communication. I read a few articles recently that discuss the effect that Snapchat is having on mental health and body image along with other safety concerns. Whilst there are risks associated with all social media, I think it’s up to the user as to how they choose to use this medium.

Great read!  

[icedcoffeetrees]

I really enjoyed this content and have found myself looking forward to you blog entries during the course. Another great read!

[icedcoffeetrees]

Navigating the Ocean of Crowdsourcing and Social Capital in a Crisis

Back in 2006, Jeff Howe wrote a story about some outsourced images and used the term crowdsourcing to describe how organisations used the internet to source goods and services. Crowdsourcing is described by Wilson, Bhakoo and Samson as an organisation taking a task and outsourcing it to a network of providers, usually large crowds (2018, pp.1467-1468). Howe revisits his initial article in 2013 to demonstrate the success story of Japan’s Muji and describe an oncoming trend, as big jobs are converted to many smaller ones to be crowdsourced.

Hossain & Kauranen (2015, pp.2-3) explain well-known projects of the past have used crowdsourcing principles. An example of this was the Longitude Prize during the eighteenth century, with the realisation of the advantage of successful and accurate navigation of the oceans.

Not all modern examples are a roaring success, though. Cappuccino flavoured chips by Frito Lay are a pretty good example of the crowd taking the Michael.

Crowdsourcing in the 21st century generates game-changing platforms like GE’s Fuse, which has been used to pool innovations that tackle technical problems like data collection from machinery around the world (Kloberdanz 2017). Equally impressive is the Ushahidi platform, which has become an acclaimed platform helping people gain a voice or assistance(Ford 2012, pp.34-35). During the 2011 Christchurch earthquake, volunteers in New Zealand and abroad used Ushahidi to help with information on road conditions, supplies and services in conjunction with Twitter hashtags. #eqnz or #helpme (McMurren, Verhulst & Young 2016, pp.7-8).

In an article for the Australian Journal of Emergency Management, the potential for refining crowdsourcing and microtasking in emergency management was explored. Previous successes utilising mobile telephony and social media to better harness crowdsourced information from the public were explained. However, the authors expressed the need of good digital citizenship in the fair treatment of paid overseas contributors (Poblet, Fitzpatrick & Chhetri 2017, pp.48-52).

Having previously been an active member of the SES for many years, I’ve seen the importance of trust and community resilience during challenging times when people fear they’ve lost everything. Tapping and combining the social capital existing as a result of social media and emergency preparedness can reverse some of the capital lost through technology use and discussed here. 

An article regarding Victoria’s Community Fireguard showed how the program developed a sense of preparedness and strong social bonds within communities (MacDougall, Gibbs & Clarke 2014, p.264). Social capital developed within programs where the community works together using social media helps to build upon bonding and bridging types of social capital (Siapera 2012, pp.203-204). 

Crowdsourcing, whether it be paid assistance or free, is a brand new ocean for organisations to navigate and seek advantage. It has applications across business and essential services, including emergency services. In some instances, it can contribute to the trust and resilience within communities, whether large or small, real world or digital.   

Have you used crowdsourcing before?

References

Daniel Szesniak 2011, Christchurch Earthquake - Live 2011/02/22, 6 April, viewed 31 January 2019, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMAT7jaEYEg>.

CFA 2019, Community Fireguard, Country Fire Authority, viewed 31 January 2019, <https://www.cfa.vic.gov.au/plan-prepare/community-fireguard>.

Ford, H 2012 ‘Crowd wisdom’, Index on Censorship, vol.41, no.4, pp.33-39.

Hossain, M & Kauranen, I 2015 ‘Crowdsourcing: a comprehensive literature review’, Strategic Outsourcing: An International Journal, vol. 8, no.1, pp.2-22.

Howe, J 2006, The Rise of Crowdsourcing, Wired, viewed 29 January 2019, < https://www.wired.com/2006/06/crowds/>.

Howe J 2013, Crowdsourcing-Now at a store near you, Wired, viewed 29 January 2019, <https://www.wired.com/2013/04/crowdsourcing/>.

Kawamoto, K & KIM, K 2019, ‘Efficiencies of bonding, bridging and linking social capital: Cleaning up after disasters in Japan’, International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, Volume 33, February 2019, Pages 64-73

Kloberdanz, K 2017, Working The Crowd: This Fuse Will Set The Collective Brain On Fire, GE Reports, viewed 31 January 2019, < https://www.ge.com/reports/working-crowd-fuse-will-set-collective-brain-fire/>.

MacDougall, C, Gibbs, l & Clark, R 2014, ‘Community‐based preparedness programmes and the 2009 Australian bushfires: policy implications derived from applying theory’, Disasters, vol.38, no.2, pp. 249-266.

McMurren, J, Verhulst, S & Young, A 2016, Open data’s use after Christchurch earthquakes, Govlab, Omidyar Network, viewed 29 January 2019, <http://odimpact.org/files/case-studies-new-zealand.pdf>.

Poblet, M, Fitzpatrick, M & Chhetri, P 2017, ‘Microtasking: redefining crowdsourcing practices in emergency management’, Australian Journal of Emergency Management, vol 32, no. 2, pp. 47-53.

Siapera, E 2012, ‘Socialities and Social Media’, in Understanding New Media, Sage, London, pp. 191-208.

Wilson, KB, Bhakoo, V & Samson, D 2018 ‘Crowdsourcing: A contemporary form of project management with linkages to open innovation and novel operations’, International Journal of Operations & Production Management, vol. 38, no. 6, pp.1467-1494.

Zetlin, M 2016, The 5 Worst Crowdsourced Ideas of All Time, Inc, viewed 1 February 2019, <https://www.inc.com/minda-zetlin/the-5-biggest-crowdsourcing-fails-of-all-time-.html>.

[icedcoffeetrees]

Digital Citizenship, Trolls, Civil Society and the Mass Production and Distribution of Online Sadism

There is no collective noun for a group of trolls.

While most associate trolling with bullying and online behaviour among youth, trolls can have an impact on all society. Trolling is deceptive, disruptive and/or destructive action for no apparent reason within internet settings (Buckels, Trapnell & Paulhus 2014, pp.97-98). Those authors liken internet trolls to mythological and fictional characters, like Loki from Norse mythology, or The Joker from DC’s Batman.

Now, before everyone starts to think that’s kind of cool, remember there’s a reason Gotham City Jail is full.

Deceptive, disruptive and/or destructive are fairly broad descriptions that could be subjectively applied. There is a saying, ‘One man’s terrorist is another’s freedom fighter.’ So, given that broad description of trolling, someone’s troll could be another’s honest opinion giver.  

A narrower description of trolling is important so it’s not confused with other communication online. Coles and West (2016, pp.233-237) demonstrated that trolling is difficult to identify and at times may be just candid discussion in good faith.

Swinburne Clinical and Forensic Psychology lecturer, Troy McEwan (2014) cited Buckels, Trapnell and Paulhus when discussing the case of Charlotte Dawson and the importance of differentiating between trolling and other actions. McEwan points out, trolling and cyberstalking seem similar, but ignoring a troll and ignoring a cyber stalker can have very different outcomes.

Further to this, an analysis of online behaviour relating to the Dark Tetrad (narcissism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy and sadism) found sadism the strongest driving trolls. As other’s seek to individualise their networks (discussed in my article on networked individualism here) so do trolls. Trolls seek out other trolls (Buckels, Trapnell & Paulhus 2014 pp.98-102).

So what happens when the troll gets a troll pack?

Last year, the United States Government delivered sanctions against meddlers in the 2016 Presidential Election (Lee 2018). An article by Kurowska and Reshetnikov (2018) outlined the strategies by troll groups to neutralise opinion, undermine civic culture and attack civil society. Civil society is slightly different to civic culture depending on region, it is the sentiment within communities and business that is autonomous yet interdependent of the state and always changing. It combines with a sense of pluralism, or respect for one another as we coexist as a group of individuals that are each different in our own way (DeWiel 2008, pp.34-36).

The potential for large numbers of players to join the attack in a sort of trolling storm cell assault on the truth reminded me of the DDoS attacks used against Georgia in 2008 (Deibert, Rohozinski & Crete-Nishihata 2012, pp.4-22).

While some open the internet for wider use, others search for ways to retain control beneath the surface. There will always be conflict in society, online or otherwise. Indeed, good forms of conflict emerge when people band together in displays of citizenship like that in McCosker (2014, pp.210-216).

 However, protecting society from massive trolling attacks is something that needs to be considered as part of good digital citizenship by governments and controllers of social media. 

References

Buckels, EE, Trapnell, PD & Paulhus, DL 2014, ‘Trolls just want to have fun’, Personality and Individual Differences, vol. 67, September 2014, pp. 97-102.

Coles, BA & West, M 2016, ‘Trolling the trolls: Online forum users constructions of the nature and properties of trolling’, Computers in Human Behavior, vol. 60, July 2016, pp. 233-244.

Deibert, RJ, Rohozinski, R & Crete-Nishihata, M 2012 ‘Cyclones in cyberspace: Information shaping and denial in the 2008 Russia–Georgia war’, Security Dialogue, vol.43, no.1, pp. 3–24.

DeWiel, B 1997 ‘A Conceptual History of Civil Society: From Greek Beginnings to the End of Marx’, Past Imperfect, vol.6, pp. 3-42.

Howard, PN & Woolley, SC 2018, Computational Propaganda, Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Kurowska, X & Reshetnikov, A 2018, We researched Russian trolls and figured out exactly how they neutralise certain news, The Conversation, viewed 2 January 2019, < https://theconversation.com/we-researched-russian-trolls-and-figured-out-exactly-how-they-neutralise-certain-news-100994>.

Lee, D 2018 The tactics of a Russian troll farm, BBC, viewed 29 January 2019, < https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-43093390>.

McEwan T 2014, Personality differences: trolls and cyberstalkers aren’t the same, The Conversation, viewed 28 January 2019, < https://theconversation.com/personality-differences-trolls-and-cyberstalkers-arent-the-same-23309>.

McCosker, A 2014 ‘Trolling as provocation: YouTube’s agonistic publics’, Convergence, vol.20, no.2, pp. 201–217.

WillyBCoyote 2008, Cyber War on Georgia, 14 August, viewed 29 January 2019, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlJvNy3cqUo>.

[captainhannahuniverse-deactivat]

Trolls and Technology- How to handle trolls on social media platforms

Week 7 - Trolling and Social Media Conflict. 

After reading Danah Boyd’s article of whether social media is amplifying bullying, i believe that it is important to understand that the use of technology and platforms is not the blame for the use of drama that arises between peers, however, to understand and focus on the use of media platforms and technology, that have enhanced personal conflicts and made dynamics of bullying visible. (Boyd 2014) 

Anyone who uses social media platforms throughout their life has most probably either experienced trolling, trolled another individual or witnessed trolling of others. Trolls are full of negativity. So, how do we handle trolls on social media platforms? 

Well first, what is a troll? 

Trolls are individuals who try and put people down. This is seen as a form of bullying as they get pleasure of seeing how many feelings they can hurt by writing negative information towards people or about people to get a response. To keep a reputation online and thrive with positivity. Follow these 5 steps to accomplish just that. 

Step 1 - Establish a Policy 

Establishing a policy will help detail what comments will be allowed on your media platforms. This helps trolls disappear and create a more friendly and engaging environment in the social media world. 

Step 2- Kill them with Kindness

With the use of humour, lightness and kindness, turn the tables around and respond to the troll with a positive comment. This can be seen as a great way to bring in positive attention as well kill the troll with kindness!

Step 3- Choose a path that is positive

It is important to learn to laugh at many trolls. Ignore their nasty comments and do not let them get to you, because the troll will then think they have won. It is important to remember you are the better person as you do not bring people down. 

Step 4- Unmask them 

Many trolls thrive on being anonyms, if you take away that power, it can result in that troll to think twice about what they may post on your platform. 

Step 5- Create your own community

My last and most favourite step is to create your own community. This means deleting negative people, blocking them and having no contact with them at all. By doing this, you are creating a positive community within your social media platforms and you will also see less of trolling of others and even yourself as the use of negative people on your media platforms have now disappeared. 

remember, “ Sometimes you just have to take a step back and realise what’s important in your life, what you can live with, but more importantly what you can’t live without” - Lauren Conrad 

References

arabiangazette.com, ‘ Is Online Identity To The Youth In A Contemporary Society? [image] in Google, viewed 3 January 2019, <https://www.google.com.au/search?hl=en&biw=932&bih=470&tbm=isch&sa=1&ei=DlItXNOVIIOA8wXooYP4Cw&q=media+platforms+friendly&oq=media+platforms+friendly&gs_l=img.3…3225.9524..9835…0.0..0.305.4808.0j17j6j1……0….1..gws-wiz-img…..0..0j0i67j0i30j0i5i30j0i24.Gg6hzh6_mG8#imgdii=jftdv6fYFjBgrM:&imgrc=5Ei2kLGnorBAzM:> 

Boyd, D 2014, It’s complicated: the social lives of networked teens

Daily Mail, ‘Cheerleaders sassy expression’ [image] in Google, viewed 3 January 2019, <https://www.google.com/search?q=sassy+face&tbm=isch&source=iu&ictx=1&fir=0NLLvkLkKfNxeM%253A%252C2wa-1A9ec1cY2M%252C_&usg=AI4_-kTadicelHOXA37h8BOqNHvwebpoYg&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwixgquKqtDfAhXBgLwKHUNKCgkQ9QEwA3oECAUQCg#imgrc=0NLLvkLkKfNxeM:> 

MIT Sloan School of Management, ‘ Probing the origins of happiness [image] in Google, viewed 3 January 2019, <https://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&sa=1&ei=cFQtXMK7E8GE8wWtubW4Ag&q=happiness&oq=happiness&gs_l=img.3..0j0i67l4j0l3j0i67j0.1596.3012..3096…0.0..0.295.1833.0j4j4……0….1..gws-wiz-img…..0.HuaICj7lN0E#imgrc=g8qq0_6z8bInGM:> 

Tara Leesher, ‘ 6 Ways Photographers Can Deal With Online Trolls’ [image], in Google, viewed 3 January 2019, <https://www.google.com.au/search?hl=en&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=932&bih=519&ei=flEtXNTZG8f28QWx5K1w&q=online+trolls&oq=online+trolls&gs_l=img.3..0l6j0i30j0i8i30l3.487.2994..3226…2.0..0.257.2428.0j7j5……0….1..gws-wiz-img…..0.CHtaHh0yEpU#imgrc=6_rBpqEbXhvUXM:> 

[unclewez]

Hi @captainhannahuniverse, I like your hints to manage trolls. Out of curiosity, how would you suggest managing trolls that are family? Lets pretend it is one of your parents? I find mostly it is family that are negative. But siblings you can just visit and punch, parents are a little more difficult.

Uncle Wez

[legenwaitforitdarythoughts]

I really like your tips for handling trolls. I especially like steps 4 and 5. So many Trolls get away with hurting people because no one reports or blocks them – so encouraging people to unmask the trolls and build a community that is free from negativity is very sage advice.

A well written and thoughtful blog @captainhannahuniverse.

[icedcoffeetrees]

This was really great advice and I particularly like the second step: kill them with kindness. I’ve used this tactic myself when I was accosted by a hit and run troll through Facebook. I’m pretty sure the same person returned the next day with a friend request and a fairly dodgy, slightly modified picture of Taylor Swift for a profile picture.

Unmasking them is also great advice because, as you advise, the anonymity of various platforms seems to attract the worst of the species with a keyboard and a chip or two on their shoulders. It would be great if there was more control on profiles within social media, but I think then we’re starting to push things a bit into the privacy territory.

Cheers,

[theresultsarelive-blog]

Keyboard Warriors

I have a friend who is a keyboard warrior. He is polite, articulated and writes considered grammar refraining from obscenities.  He does not target an individual; he does not bully. He posts true facts and attempts to pique the interest and raise awareness of the groups in which he posts. He welcomes opinions, which he then chooses to challenge.  Whilst rallying for those who are seldom heard, today he realised he is an internet troll.

Internet trolls are often given a bad name, due to the controversial, backhanded comments which are oftentimes accompanying their posts (Cook et al. 2017). Trolls are sensation seeking and interaction seeking.  But what if the troll was an individual looking to hold a church group accountable for the predatory behaviour of its pastor, trying to assist in liberating female victims who had previously been silenced?

Let me explain.  I’ll aim to keep it brief.

The Willow Creek Community Church, one of the 10 largest churches in America was founded by Bill Hybels in 1975, with a new approach to religious teachings.  Hybels then formed the Willow Creek Association to link like-minded churches, which hosts an Annual Global Leadership Summit  to assist other churches with development and resources to help direct and manage their congregations more effectively.

What Bill Hybels has achieved for his church is profound, however his work is soured by the accusations of multiple women who state Bill Hybels groomed and sexually assaulted them.  With an accusation being just that, an accusation, there is usually due process to determine the truth of the matter. However in this instance, Bill Hybels denied the matter which drew an applause from the congregation.  There was no independent investigation.

In the age of the #metoo movement, my friend, the Keyboard Warrior took it upon himself and other Americans of similar view to troll and demand answers for the women whose voices have been silenced.  He targeted church groups, their congregation often engaging in the conversation.

My friend uses his keyboard  to ask via social media platforms Twitter and Facebook why members of the Global Leadership Summit are not demanding an independent investigation.  My friend will question those who blindly believe what they have been told without seeking further truth.  My friend will point out to people that the victims could have been their mother, their child.

My friend has found people retaliate in shocking ways, with some people likening his stance to that of the devil.  Another told him his words upset her because she was sexually assaulted as a young woman, and she didn’t want to think about it. My friend apologised for bringing back painful memories, and said he would always side with the victims. She told him to leave her church alone, and that God will make everything right. 

I’m not convinced God is able to make right all the rongs. The truth is, if we don’t talk about the accusations and have the independent investigation which is so desperately needed, we are potentially left with another man in a position of power taking advantage of young women who have no voice.

My friend is a keyboard warrior, an internet troll and I couldn’t be more proud to call him my friend.

#InternetTrolls #MeToo #ChurchToo #MDA20009

Keep reading

[icedcoffeetrees]

This is a great post and I really enjoyed reading it because it’s like so many other experiences these days when dealing with people. We see a lot of retaliation in conversation online, as well as in real life. I think as people perfect the art of controlling a discussion it becomes s tactic to call someone a troll, a bully, a lefty or even Satan to make them take a step back- especially when it isn’t true. There’s probably a healthy dose of sadism in there as well and I found that to be true when researching the subject for my own entry. I think when you look at the definition of what exactly makes a person an internet troll, though, we’re all probably guilty of it in one shape or form at some time in our lives.

There’s a lot of good things religion is responsible for, but if it was a corporation it probably would have been put out of business a long time ago for its abuses. The moral licensing involved with religion is at times frightening. Author Robert Pirsig said, “When one person suffers from a delusion, it is called insanity. When many people suffer from a delusion it is called a Religion.” 

Having said that, I’ve been to areas of the world that would be lost without religion. It becomes the glue that holds communities together in places no one seems to care about. 

Cheers

[icedcoffeetrees]

Musings of Online Activism, Wrestlers, Artists and Alien Entities

As a kid my favourite film maker was John Carpenter. His edgy work had a great deal of commercial success up to the mid-eighties, but it is one of his low budget offerings I think mostly of today. The film was adapted from a short story titled “Eight O’Clock in the Morning and Carpenter’s version released as “They Live”.

It starred a former wrestler with a memorable one-liner, but was dismissed as B grade. Despite this, appreciation has grown decades later (Rothkopf 2014). The plot was simple, the central character discovers activists using broadcast signals to convince the world hidden messages from aliens are within advertising, telling us to “obey”. A special set of sunglasses made the hidden messages and aliens visible, as you’ll see below.

They Live contained a hidden protest about the politics of the Reagan era (Alamo Drafthouse 2011) and images from the film have been used as a form of protest since, becoming part of Shepard Fairey’s culture jamming art. Culture jamming protests control by corporations using consumer objects, commercials, logos, or other symbols (Wettergren 2009, p.2).

When I watched the film again with my son, he asked why they didn’t just use the internet and we had a conversation about a mythical place called the eighties where there was no internet.

Author Clay Shirky describes the trend of emerging technology being used as a launch pad for activism around the globe (2011, pp.28-29). Internet users increased from 738 million in the year 2000 (Davidson, 2015) to 4.17 billion in 2018 (Statistica 2018). That’s around 55% of the World’s population.

Jericho (2013, pp.255-257) demonstrated the impacts of activism as a form of digital citizenship, using examples of the Arab Uprising, as well as Oscar Morales and his fight to stop Colombian revolutionaries that engaged in executions, kidnappings and more during civil conflict in Columbia (Brett 2003, pp.88-101).

Image by Belaid 2011

Flew et al. (2012, pp.160-161) explains options for people engaging in public communication include citizen journalism or underground channels like Wikileaks.

Like wrestling, there is an argument that perhaps not all activism is genuine. Slactivism and clicktivism are terms for low-effort activism generating likes or clicks without engagement. An example was the copy and paste of letters or protests through social media (McCafferty 2011, pp.17-18). In an interview, Micah White (co-founder of the Occupy Wall Street movement) described activism as being turned into something similar to weekend entertainment (Funnell 2017).

Even culture jamming has been questioned, pondering what activism is when it starts to resemble the thing it was protesting against in the first place (Lewis 2013).

The mission for social movements has been made easier through social media, but appropriate use of the internet relating to activism is something we don’t hear of enough. Particularly, we need ensure signals aren’t blurred about whether online activism is aimed to achieve a social goal or something else entirely. Activism can be life or death for some in the world. Breaching law is a risk many activists take to bring attention to laws that were unfair in the first place as the internet opens channels to new cultures.

Have you ever protested something you felt passionate about? Did you use social media or the internet to do so?

References

Alamo Drafthouse 2011, ALAMO DRAFTHOUSE - THEY LIVE John Carpenter, 7 June, viewed 25 January 2019, < https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAOyt37Mi5I>

Brett, S 2003, You’ll Learn Not to Cry: Child Combatants in Colombia. Human Rights Watch.

Davidson, J 2015, Here's How Many Internet Users There Are, Money, viewed 1 January 2019, < http://money.com/money/3896219/internet-users-worldwide/>.

Flew, T, Spurgeon, C, Daniel, A & Swift, A 2012 The Promise of Computational Journal, Journalism Practice, vol. 6, no.2, pp. 157-171.

Funnell, A 2017, From slacktivism to 'feel-good' protests, activism is broken: Here's how to fix it, ABC, viewed 19 December 2018, < https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-10-25/activism-is-broken-heres-how-we-fix-it/9077372>.

History 2018, Here's How the Arab Spring Started and How It Affected the World | History, 8 May, viewed 10 January 2019, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fgcd5ZcxDys>.

Jericho, G 2013, Rise of the Fifth Estate : Social Media and Blogging in Australian Politics, Scribe Publications Pty Ltd., Carlton North.

Lewis, W 2013, How did OBEY go from an anti-corporate anti-Man street un-brand to Made in China fratboy wear?, Elephant Journal, viewed 25 January 2019, <https://www.elephantjournal.com/2013/06/how-did-obey-go-from-an-anti-corporate-anti-man-street-un-brand-to-made-in-china-fratboy-wear/>.

McCafferty, D 2011, ‘Activism vs. slacktivism’, Communications of the ACM, vol. 54, no. 12, pp. 17–19.

obeygiantart 2011, Shepard Fairey talks about the film "They Live",  6 July, viewed 15 January 2019, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=38&v=J24p8QhrWSE>.

Rothkopf, J 2014, Empire of the Sunglasses: How ‘They Live’ Took on Republicans and Won, Rolling Stone, viewed 29 December 2018, < https://www.rollingstone.com/movies/movie-news/empire-of-the-sunglasses-how-they-live-took-on-republicans-and-won-173344/>.

Schultz, C 2017, Book vs. Comic vs. Film: "Eight O'Clock in the Morning" vs. "Nada" vs. "They Live", Lit Reactor, viewed 26 January 2019, < https://litreactor.com/columns/book-vs-comic-vs-film-eight-oclock-in-the-morning-vs-nada-vs-they-live>.

Shirky, C 2011, ‘The political power of social media: technology, the public sphere, and political change,’ Foreign Affairs, vol. 90, no.1, pp. 28-38. 

Statista 2018, Global digital population as of October 2018 (in millions), Statista, viewed 10 January 2019, < https://www.statista.com/statistics/617136/digital-population-worldwide/>.

Belaid F 2011, Tunisians protest outside the gates to the French Embassy in Tunis [image] in ‘The Arab Spring: A Year Of Revolution’, National Public Radio, viewed 28 January 2019, < https://www.npr.org/2011/12/17/143897126/the-arab-spring-a-year-of-revolution>.

[icedcoffeetrees]

Digital Citizenship and Politics in a World that may not Always be What it Seems

Are you influenced by political opinion through social media?

Political discourse online is a great example of digital citizenship. Matters of state are often debated online as part of our civic culture. That discourse can originate with international agitators, as well as domestic contributors like politicians and citizen journalists (Young 2010, pp.205-216).

But is everyone doing the right thing?

Digital citizenship has many definitions and it’s probably best to nail it down using some academic opinions that range from;

Attitudes and participation in politics and policy (Mossberger, Tolbert & McNeal 2008, pp.4-9), 

Beliefs such as freedom of speech, welfare and dignity (Isin & Ruppert 2015, pp.19-23). 

Appropriate dealings using internet tools across finance, ethical and moral considerations, health and well-being, people, values, the environment and more (Crockett (2015, pp.39-40 ).

Digital citizenship is about a person’s behaviour online, their responsibilities and how they contribute.

Our civic culture links politics and society, contributing to an effective political system. Civic culture includes the way we communicate about politics online, as well as things like respect, trust and consensus. It connects with digital citizenship to provide positive actions by populations according to Couldrey et al. (2014, pp.615-617).

Social media is a big player in our civic culture, to the tune of 3.4 billion social media accounts worldwide (Statistica 2018). Political parties, activist groups, commentators and even internet trolls have a line to huge audiences in either a one-size-fit capacity, or differentiated to suit their tastes through networked individualism. Unprecedented numbers of social media users mean increased capacity for engagement. Obama was the benchmark for this in 2008. 

Influencers through social media may not be what they seem, though. They may not even be real.

In the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election, fake social media accounts designed through computer code to act human were used. Social media robots searched for phrases/hashtags, followed accounts and even judged opinion. Organisations like Pandora can create an artificial intelligence, while less-advanced code is available online for budget-conscious, propaganda enthusiasts (Bessi & Ferrara, 2016).

Recently, Oxford University writers revealed political interference across numerous geographical borders (Howard & Woolley 2018, pp.6-7).  In relation to the United States 2016 Presidential Election, the authors described ‘armies of bots’ influencing the vote on social media (2018, pp.190-193).  

Political opinions across social media, amateur or otherwise, have been called into question. Social media entrepreneurs seem reluctant to act as fake news and fake accounts are used strategically over networks.  

Indeed, financial values attributed by markets to those social media organisations are heavily influenced by user and traffic quantities and may be causing a reluctance to self-regulate. Responsibility to act falls somewhere between the complex debate on government regulation, corporate citizenship described by Hoff-Clausen & Ihlen (2015, pp.18-35) and digital citizenship by the individuals controlling and within those platforms.

In the interview below, Samantha Bradshaw indicated bots are widespread. Some for good purposes and some not (Y Combinator 2019). There is no question that political players and commentators now engage using social media, but are they acting responsibly or interfering with a sovereign state’s democratic process if they use bots?

What’s your views on fake news and social media accounts across Facebook and other networks?

References

Abeshouse, B 2018, Facebook, Russian trolls and the new era of information warfare, AlJazeera, viewed 9 January 2019, < https://www.aljazeera.com/blogs/americas/2018/01/facebook-russian-trolls-era-information-warfare-180131135425603.html>.

Bessi, A & Ferrara, E 2016, ‘Social Bots distort the 2016 U.S. Presidential election online discussion’, First Monday, Vol.21, No.11, viewed 2 January 2019, <https://firstmonday.org/article/view/7090/5653>. 

BBC 2018, Facebook will not remove fake news - but will 'demote' it, BBC News, viewed 9 January 2019, <https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-44809815>.

Carr, D 2008, How Obama Tapped Into Social Networks’ Power, New York Times, viewed 10 January 2019, <https://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/10/business/media/10carr.html>.

Couldry, N, Stephansen, H, Fotopoulou, A, MacDonald, R, Clark, W & Dickens, L 2014, ‘Digital citizenship? Narrative exchange and the changing terms of civic culture’, Citizenship Studies, vol. 18, no. 6-7, pp. 615-629.

Crockett, L 2015, ‘Conversation: Digital Citizenship,’ The Social Educator, vol.33, no.1, pp. 39-43.

Frier, S 2018, Facebook Has Removed More Than 800 U.S. Accounts Spreading Fake News, Time, viewed 16 January 2019, <http://time.com/5422546/facebook-removes-800-fake-news-accounts/>.

Hoff-Clausen , E & Ihlen, O 2015, ‘The Rhetorical Citizenship of Corporations in the Digital Age’, in Adi, A, Grigore, G & Crowther D (eds) Corporate Social Responsibility in the Digital Age (Developments in Corporate Governance and Responsibility), Volume 7, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, pp.17 – 37.

Howard, PN & Woolley, SC 2018, Computational Propaganda, Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Isin, EF & Ruppert, ES 2015, Being Digital Citizens, Rowman & Littlefield International, London.

Maverick, JB 2018, The Top 6 Shareholders of Facebook, Investopedia, viewed 8 January 2019,<https://www.investopedia.com/articles/insights/082216/top-9-shareholders-facebook-fb.asp>.

Mossberger, K, Tolbert, C & McNeal, R 2008, Digital Citizenship: The Internet, Society, and Participation, MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass.

Pandora Bots 2019, Home, Pandora Bots, viewed 11 January 2019, <https://developer.pandorabots.com/>.

Smith, A 2009, The Internet’s Role in Campaign 2008, Pew Research Centre, viewed 15 January 2019, <http://www.pewinternet.org/2009/04/15/the-internets-role-in-campaign-2008/>.

Statista 2018, Global digital population as of October 2018 (in millions), Statista, viewed 10 January 2019, < https://www.statista.com/statistics/617136/digital-population-worldwide/>.

[artististicswinburnestudent-blog]

Isolation within Social Media

The individual mind, body and spirit has been interrupted by technology in today’s day and age. The way we interpret our social selves begins by revolving around the social connection through our devices. Times have most definitely changed. In the Nineteenth Century, our communication was limited to the people around us, relying heavily on face-to-face contact as the main form of communication (Siapera, 2012). During these times, humans could develop a deeper more thought provoking connection to one another, as opposed to relying solely on the messages they sent to each another through a screen.

Recently, I read an article I found on the Independent website, that reported that spending over two hours a day on social networks, your chances of feeling socially isolated are twice as high (Hosie 2017). Although we may not feel like we are being isolated, because the amount of stimulation that comes with social media and devices is endless, the real fundamentals of face to face interaction are depleted. Human beings are social creatures, and without the real life social connection, there is not much that to build from. On the other hand, if an individual has already built a foundation with someone, and then follow them on social media and connect through comments and likes, that can help build upon the relationship because it provides validation that the person is interested in your day to day life. As humans, we want as much validation as we can get, in order to feel good about ourselves.

Former sociologist Gemeinschaft believed that through organic and natural will, humans are able to build binding relationships that are affective and strong when face to face. Humans tend to spend more time on social media then they do when interacting with each other because it is a constant stimulus. Many scholars also debate the fact that social media might not have been the driving force of isolation amongst humans, but people might have initially felt isolated and then decided to turn themselves onto social media to help cover their instability. On a personal level, I can relate to this explanation because there was a time when I didn’t feel socially secure with any communities and I was travelling a lot, so did not feel any close connection with other humans, so I turned to social media as an escape from the reality of loneliness. I was able to treat my insecurities by communicating with people I didn’t know online. I found it to be therapeutic in a way. My subconscious mind, found a connection to people I didn’t know. Weird, but truthful.

References:

Siapera, E 2012, ‘Socialities and Social Media’, in Understanding New Media, Sage, London, pp. 191-208.

Hosie R, 2017, Independent, Rachel Hosie, viewed 6 December, 2018,

Travis, E, & Sykes, T 2012 ‘Social Media And Disasters : Uses, Options, Considerations’ New York: Nova Science Publishers, Inc, eBook Collection (EBSCOhost), EBSCOhost, viewed 6 December, 2018. .

[icedcoffeetrees]

Hi,

Congratulations on a great post. It was well worth the read. I have to admit that during the last 4 years of study there has been many times I’ve felt isolated and alone as I try to get an assignment finished or catch up on texts. I’ve used Facebook more than I ever have over this time and, while it’s good for touching base with people, I don’t think it helps a great deal for taking away the loneliness when you’ve isolated yourself for one reason or another. Just today I found myself struggling a bit and human interaction (combined with a bit of a chat with an old ladies dog) was what I really needed. And a walk.

Having said that there is something satisfying about meeting someone online that you may have otherwise never had the chance to. Finding that balance is the key. 

[unclewez]

- Digital Junkie -

Week 1-2

Social media, social networks, and digital communities; we are all so consumed by them, and yet we know so little about them. Is it possible we are all guilty of losing ourselves to our mobile devices, checking Facebook, sending tweets, or reading someone’s blog, all the while ignoring the people right in front of us? Recently I discovered I might be an addict - a digital junkie! The question is, why does this medium so consume us, and how is it impacting on our need for community and relationships?

To understand the effects of digital communities on society we first need to understand what they are. The most basic explanation of social media is it is a medium or platform by which users can create content, share content, modify content and comment on another person’s content (Kaplan & Haenlein 2010, p. 60-64). They can include collaborative works, blogs, content communities, social networking sites, gaming sites, and virtual worlds (Kaplan & Haenlein 2010, p. 62-64). Add mobile devices like smartphones and tablets into the mix, and we can email and text whenever and wherever we want. We become permanently contactable and permanently connected. This constant connection to the digital world poses an important question, what impact is it having on our society?

In a speech on Ted-Ed (2013), Sherry Turkle suggests that we are ‘connected, but alone’. My initial reaction was one of doubt. However, further research found her opinions are widely shared. danah boyd [sic] collaborated Turkles sentiment when she wrote: “Like many others around me, I am perpetually connected to people and information through a series of devices and social media channels.” (danah boyd 2012 p. 72). I soon found myself not only agreeing, but also feeling an upward surge of dread as I realised I had become dependent on both my phone and my social networks. The question I fail to answer is to what and why am I addicted to being connected.

Siapera (2012) claims the way we commune has changed from being based on location and person-to-person or face-to-face interactions to interactions where network individualism has removed barriers and opened broader opportunities to connect. Since the individual can now control the information they share, the willingness to connect more broadly has increased (Siapera 2012). Likewise, the ability to limit information has also given us the ability to construct and display whom we wish to be (cited in Wilken & McCosker 2014 p. 292).

Like it or not, many people are displaying themselves to the world. As danah boyd (2012, p. 75) writes “publicness is one of the strange and yet powerful aspects of this new world”, but to what extent is this new publicness true? Is what we see the real world, or is the world about to implode as the self-created filter bubble collapses? After all, people are people, and the truth seems to have a way of making itself found.

References

 Ahkuoi, D 2018, Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody Parody (Opinion Rhapsody), viewed 1 December, 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IABRgZH12YA .

 Boyd, D 2012, ‘Participating in the always-on lifestyle’, in Mandiberg, M 2012, The social media reader, New York University Press, New York, pp. 71-76.

 HANUKA, A 2018, Likeholic, viewed 1 December, 2018, https://www.architecturendesign.net/satirical-illustrations-show-our-addiction-to-technology/.

 Kaplan, A & Haenlein, M 2010, “Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of Social Media”, Business Horizons, vol. 53, no. 1, pp. 59-68, viewed 29 November, 2018, https://ac-els-cdn-com.ezproxy.lib.swin.edu.au/S0007681309001232/1-s2.0-S0007681309001232-main.pdf?_tid=68fefca4-8562-4cc1-a6ea-82f4130d8b83&acdnat=1543497919_7b97a11a105f088cdb0dd2e0ee6a88bc.

Siapera, E 2012, 'Socialities and Social Media’, in Understanding New Media, Sage, London, pp. 191-208.

 TED-Ed 2013, Connected, but alone?- Sherry Turkle, 19 April, viewed 26 September 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rv0g8TsnA6c

 Anon 2018, Cant Escape, viewed 1 December, 2018, https://www.architecturendesign.net/satirical-illustrations-show-our-addiction-to-technology/.

 Wilken, R & McCosker, A 2014, 'Social Selves’, in Cunningham & Turnbull (eds), The Media & Communications in Australia, Allen and Unwin pp. 291-295.

[icedcoffeetrees]

A great article. I think we’ve all felt the addiction of social media over the years and I think the biggest concern are the people who can’t stop checking their likes while they are driving on the roads. I cover 300- 400 kilometres each week day and see some really stupid things people do trying to drive and read their phones at the same time. They probably all aren’t looking at social media, (there might be some checking emails) but I reckon a lot do. 

The warnings from Sunstein discussed within Siapera are also very relevant these days. People do have the ability to close themselves off and become drawn in by divisive collectives on social networks (like extreme right and left wing groups). Add the social network addiction and you’ve probably got someone with a really big problem. 

[communitygoesdigital]

First blog post, chookity! Not entirely sure what I’m doing, so I think this gif might be appropriate - 

Social media has enabled, even encouraged smartphone users to be “always on” (boyd, 2012), which has fundamentally altered the way we relate to one another, how we use language, as well as our basic sense of selves. Many people (myself included) experience nomophobia, the “fear of being unable to use one’s mobile device” (Arpaci et al. 2017). The definition goes on to include the “affordances these devices provide”, suggesting that it’s not just not having a phone that’s responsible for the anxiety we experience; it’s what we can do with the phone that we don’t like being without. Personally, I like to be able to find answers to questions I have as soon as I wonder about something. I’ll forget the answer almost immediately, but it’s nice to have the knowledge for 10 minutes or so!

Sherry Turkle speaks about receiving a text as like “getting a hug”. I absolutely agree with her. When I moved to the country, being connected to my friends back in Melbourne via SMS and social media was like carrying them around in my pocket. I could include them in my life through Snapchat, see what they were up to on Instagram. Turkle then goes on to make the point that we want control over how we appear through texting and posting, which struck a chord with me. The amount of time I’ve wasted poring over a post, both for uni discussions and social media engagement, is ridiculous. I’ll overthink what I’m saying and how it’s written, trying to perfect it. And I often bail on posting at all because I can’t get it right. In a classroom or a real life social situation, I’d just make a fool of myself and move on. Turkle goes on to point out that “we use conversations with each other to learn how to have conversations with ourselves”. Applying this to my situation is a perfect way to demonstrate that my social skills won’t get any better without practicing.

Siapera’s statements about individuals being able to join a virtual community “to meet like-minded people” rings very true. In my case it was like-gutted people, because when I was diagnosed with Coeliac disease, it was a Facebook group where I learned everything: available resources, not-so-well-known unsafe food practices to look out for, safe places to eat, recipes for foods I can’t eat anymore, and short and long term side effects. Then there was the support on the page – people who knew what I was going through were (and are) so supportive and understanding. Therefore, I cannot agree with Putnam’s statement of technology, that “the result (of technology) is a society that is not much more than a collection of individuals, meeting and socializing occasionally… Who do not share any strong bonds or any sense of common purpose.” My argument would be that strong bonds can be found anywhere in society, whether a common purpose is present or not. We’re social animals, after all.

Comments welcome! Thanks for reading :)

REFERENCES

Arpaci, I, Baloğlu, M, Özteke Kozan, H & Kesici, Ş 2017, “Individual Differences in the Relationship Between Attachment and Nomophobia Among College Students: The Mediating Role of Mindfulness”, Journal of Medical Internet Research, vol. 19, no. 12, p. e404, viewed 3 December, 2018, <https://www.jmir.org/2017/12/e404/#ref28>.

boyd, D 2012, ‘Participating in the always-on lifestyle’, in M Mandiberg (ed) The Social Media Reader, NYU Press, pp. 71-76.

Siapera, E 2012, 'Socialities and Social Media’, in Understanding New Media, Sage, London, pp. 191-208.

TED-Ed 2013, Connected, but alone?- Sherry Turkle, 19 April, viewed 26 September 2018, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rv0g8TsnA6c>.

[icedcoffeetrees]

Hi There,

Just got to say what a great read that was. For someone that wasn’t quite sure what you were doing, I’d say you’re a natural. You’re comments on Coeliac Disease was certainly interesting. I have a member of the family with the same, but he went through the discovery during the 90′s and there really wasn’t a lot of information out there to help him, apart from a few flyers at the doctor’s office and some books in the local library that were probably already 20 years old when he found them. 

Hope to see more from you soon!

[memoirsofaunistudent-blog]

Digital communities

Welcome to my wonderful blog, if out of change you have wondered here by mistake

You are welcome to stay and enjoy the ride. The purpose of this blog is to be perfectly honest to complete the task set out by my university course MDA20009 and hopefully complete them in a satisfactory manner that will allow me to pass.

During my trimester with MDA20009, we will be exploring the theories and ideas of Digital Communities and Social Media and reflecting week on what I have learned with each weekly module I complete, with a sprinkling on internet memes, because what is a blog without memes?

Week 1 was the Introduction to digital communities and social media platforms. Digital communities are all around us, except for a maybe one person in your social network (Jess I’m thinking of you), generally all of us are on some social media platform/digital community. I myself am pretty much on everything, I have a YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, LinkedIn, Google +, Pinterest, I keep a personal WordPress blog, for work we use yammer, and now I also use Tumblr. I’m sure I have others accounts that I use. In the time of starting this blog post to writing this sentence I’ve checked my phone over 4 times. I would say that growing up in the 90’s I’m lucky enough to remember a time before the internet and after but I’m also young enough that I just took to it like a baby with an iPad.

I remember in school we were all taught not to use our real names on the internet and now we plaster them across globe for all to see. After watching the video Connected, but alone?  (TED-Ed 2013) presented by Sherry Turkle. I would say that I’m always connected but I am not alone. My friends and I may use social media to organise a catch up but when we do catch up with talk. I chat to people online, but the conversation just continues offline where it was left online. However, I can see as highlighted the negative side of always being connected. I have seen people out at lunch or dinner not saying a word and just the glow from their screens lighting their face. With everything in life moderation is key. Society has changed, I would claim that we are in the digital age and to me it seems strange when someone is disconnected.

As part of this university course, all the students are in our own digital community for MDA20009. For some of us we might even start communicating daily, however for a lot of us we have never met each other. I know when sitting in the exam room for my other uni students, it is just a sea of strangers. We’re all connected through a digital community because we all choose to complete the same study unit and not our geographical location (Siapera 2012). Siapera (2012) poses the question that is it possible that technology has hindered our way of communicating because we’re not sharing our interests in physical proximity? To this question I believe that just because you are physical located next to someone doesn’t mean you want to communicate to that person. Technology has made it easier for humanity to connect, whether you like dogs, cats or dogs dressed up as cats, you can find someone who will share in your interest making you feel a little less along even if you are isolated geographically.  I believe that because digital communities can reach far beyond the boundaries of location and with the natural level of anonymity digital communities provide gender, age race and religion and gender, the potential of having meaningful connection with someone globally is increased.

Ferdinand Tönnies in the 19th century observed the social evolution, through his theories it could be suggested that digital communities/groups will only remain successful as communities if they continue to be organic and natural. On the other hand, there is society, and this is formed due to the thought of rational will and taking part to achieve a common goal. If we were to compare this to social media, I would conclude therefore the internet gets so mad when they are lied paid product advertising pretending to be a genuine review.

As we joke about Wi-Fi becoming one of the most basic human need, it just highlights how much humanity has changed our digital lives are just an extension of our physical ones.

TED-Ed 2013, Connected, but alone? - Sherry Turkle, 19 April, viewed 26 September 2018, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rv0g8TsnA6c>.

Siapera, E 2012, ‘Socialities and Social Media’, in Understanding New Media, Sage, London, pp. 191-208.

Images

‘Astonished Aden’ 2014, viewed 6 December, 2018, <https://imgflip.com/i/cfaz0>.

‘Level Up’ 2014, viewed 6 December, 2018, <https://www.mutilatethemortgage.com/2014/08/11/the-light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel/>.

‘This isn’t the droid… you’re looking for’ 2018, viewed 6 December, 2018, <https://memegenerator.net/instance/63035559/jedi-knight-this-isnt-the-droid-youre-looking-for>.

‘0-free-wifi’ Anon 2014, [image] viewed 6 December, 2018, <https://ijgolding.com/2014/11/25/the-big-wi-fi-conundrum-a-way-to-make-money-or-a-way-to-give-customers-what-they-need/>.

[icedcoffeetrees]

Thanks for a great read. As a Star Wars fan, you had me at Obi-Wan Kenobi. In fact, there was a section of Siapera where Putnam’s reality helmet was mentioned and I immediately thought of Dark Helmet from Spaceballs, 

I’d really like to see a sequel if Mel Brooks is reading?

I feel a bit fatigued sometimes trying to keep up with all the platforms and apps associated with the day to day grind. Just for the sake of nostalgia, I met my wife on something called Friendster, which I think eventually was one of the casualties of Facebook’s rise and rise. At the time we were on different continents and I doubt we would have ever met without the internet. 

Your point on device use is something I think everyone has seen at some time and I could certainly relate to many of the points Sherry Turkle discussed throughout her Ted Talk. And I think you make a strong point further on that there are many positives to the digital communities we’ve all created. 

Thanks for the great post!

[icedcoffeetrees]

Privacy Concerns about Networked Individualism

In 1984 I turned thirteen. I was one of the geek crowd that spent Friday evenings jostling for a turn at the latest computer game at my friend’s house. There was a cool geek in every teenage nerd’s life that managed to get all the latest computer games- most of which were illegally pirated. My favourite was a game called Elite, which was a futuristic, 3D simulator that pointed to a time of trade profiteering, piracy and even searching for individuals in space that had a price on their head. 

Those were times when only nerds and scientists had computers. Among my friends, devices were the Commodore 64 or Amstrad computers and our network was the fixed-line, home phone (usually used by our mum’s to ring and tell us it was time to go home) or face-to-face communication. Transport was by push bike and privacy was a reason to grow a climbing plant in the garden, maybe a nice Jasmine. 

I find it surprising that my fifteen year old boy thinks those days were retro-cool in the extreme, although I think the Netflix series Stranger Things has driven his interest in life in the 80′s. Back then, devices, and the applications that ran on them, didn’t spy on you, unless they were from outer space, or maybe the future. Now it seems like everyone, and everything, is watching.

Fast forward to today and the affordances of new media (Siapera 2012, pp.198-200) are alluring but terrifying at the same time. Broader bandwidth brings connections with video that were unimaginable when I was young; personalisation allows choice of who and what we communicate with (and who and what we don’t communicate with); portability means that we link up anywhere we like; and global connectivity opens everyone up to greater collective learning and access to almost all areas. All of this leads to greater networked individualism, giving us what we want based on skills, knowledge, backgrounds and allowing us to exclude that which we don’t want. It possibly goes even further, perhaps undermining what we understand about being together as groups of individuals as informational capitalism progresses.

The simple fact is, the more you personalise a network, the more you’re telling someone, or something, about yourself.

The future proposed by authors Rainie and Wellman (2012, pp.291-296) provides two scenarios. One is a world of ultimate networked personalisation, where life takes care of itself thanks to the technology available that is used only for the greater good. The other is something darker, an Orwellian-style of network where privacy seems to be a thing of the past and every choice has a consequence. That scenario really scared me, mostly because it seemed so possible. The classic novel 1984, by George Orwell, seemed unthinkable when I read it in high school. Coincidentally, it was also the year 1984. The same year that Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg was born, long before all the concerns about his creation.  

In 2018 so many things relating to technology remind me of Orwell’s novel. Especially the potential for surveillance through social media and the networks we’ve grown to trust. In 2018, it seems like we’re connected to everything and everyone. In his book Massive Change, Bruce Mau (2004, p.129) said, “When everything is connected to everything else, for better or for worse, everything matters.” Everything is on these days, so everything somehow ends up available to look at, search for or use. Author boyd (2012, p.76) reflects on the always-on lifestyle and the privacy concerns, as well as professional ramifications, associated with perhaps something as simple as an opinion.

Sherry Turkle (2013) further builds on this, describing some of the things we use technology to do as everyone attempts to customise their lives to that ultimate personalisation, not only in what we see, but in what people see of us. However, in the search for the perfect impression we seem to have lost the authenticity of our relationships and, perhaps, opened ourselves up to the misuse of technology as we fade into a lesser shade of our former selves. 

I’m not saying burn your smart phones or sleep with one eye open at night, just that progress should be greeted with a balance of caution and enthusiasm.

Thanks for reading.What do you think about privacy now and in the future? Leave a comment if you like.

References

boyd, d 2012, ‘Participating in the always-on lifestyle’, in M Mandiberg (ed) The Social Media Reader, NYU Press, pp. 71-76.

Classic TV Ads 2015, Amstrad Computer Ad from the 1980's, 16 March, viewed 10 December 2018, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M68eaVzlkvE>.

Curran, D 2018, Are your phone camera and microphone spying on you?, The Guardian, viewed 10 December 2018, <https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/apr/06/phone-camera-microphone-spying>.

Mau, B, Leonard, J & Institute Without Boundaries 2004, Massive Change: A Manifesto for the Future of Global Design, Phaidon Press, New York.

Newcomb, A 2018, A timeline of Facebook's privacy issues — and its responses, NBC News, viewed 10 December 2018, <https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/social-media/timeline-facebook-s-privacy-issues-its-responses-n859651>.

Rainie, H & Wellman, B 2012, Networked : The New Social Operating System, The MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass.

rainbirdrich 2007, C64 Elite (Firebird) , 31 December, viewed 10 December 2018,<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRjaZsVRtgc>.

Siapera, E 2012, 'Socialities and Social Media’, in Understanding New Media, Sage, London, pp. 191-208.

TED -Ed 2013, Connected, but alone? - Sherry Turkle,19 April, viewed 10 December 2018, < https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rv0g8TsnA6c>.

[icedcoffeetrees]

The Social Capital of Bowling and Chocolate Beverages

David Christian (2011) reveals a stage in history when our ancestors began recording information. Language is the reason humans are so dominant, learning collectively and eventually becoming globally connected. It was just the other evening my wife sent me a message through social media, from the next room, asking me to make hot chocolate (the beverage not the band). Thirty minutes later it was happy wife, happy life and a picture of my effort had received 8 likes on Facebook- some coming from around the World.

We’ve come a long way.

Socialities and Social Media by Eugenia Siapera (2012, pp.192-194) discusses the adaption to new media thanks to technological advances. It discusses whether digital communities contribute to social capital. I admit, the concept of social capital has absorbed me. I live in a town which has changed from a rural community to a town surrounded by mining. Most obvious is the disappearance of reciprocity and general well being talked about when discussing a healthy, rural town. The OECD (2009, p.102) goes into great depth to analyse social capital and describes it as the links, shared values and understandings enabling individuals and groups to trust and work together. It also mentions Robert Putnam’s 1995 book, Bowling Alone.

Putnam’s concerns were that more people were bowling in the United States, but less in leagues where they worked as a team and had a chance to build trust. People weren’t engaging anymore, just existing around each other while they go about their day to day business. Alone together in a world where social capital was disappearing. Technology played a key role in Putnam’s theory, as he felt it was television causing the void at the time. Siapera also references Putnam’s research, describing loss of community (2012, pp.195-196) and the fact that perhaps technology would continue to erode social capital now that we seem to spend even more time in front of even more screens. A person might have a thousand friends on Facebook, but do they really ever form a social bond with them? 

This concern is felt by Putnam. In an interview, (2016) he explains one of his seminars was a beta test for Facebook. He describes the good and bad of that platform and suggests that face to face and digital worlds do have a place, but there needs to be a tempering in the same way you might make an alloy.

What do you think of society in the digital age?

Thanks for reading. To contribute, hit reply or like or maybe share to pass my thoughts on to your network.

References

OECD 2009, OECD Insights: Human Capital. What is social capital?, OECD.

mjuzik PL 2012, Hot Chocolate - You Sexy Thing, 17 September, viewd 10 December 2018, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tcxhRLc9ms>.

Siapera, E 2012, 'Socialities and Social Media’, in Understanding New Media, Sage, London, pp. 191-208.

TED 2011, The history of our world in 18 minutes | David Christian, 11 April, viewed 5 December 2018, <https://www.ted.com/talks/david_christian_big_history?referrer=playlist-fascinating_history#t-1011694>.

Conversations with Bill Kristol 2016, Robert D. Putnam on Our Civic Life in Decline, 13 March, viewed 8 December 2018, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZHZc-kcyQQ>.