IT CAME FROM CYBERSPACE! @itcamefromtheonlinespace-blog - Tumblr Blog

Finding friendship within social games

Source: Lan, n.d. Long gone the days of old fashion LAN (Local access networks) parties, where players would quite literally bring their whole desktop computer to a common location, usually someone’s garage, to play multiplayer games with friends. These days, one simply needs to login into their Facebook’s account to instantly connect and play with their friends. Given the leading social game creator, Zygna, recorded 22 million daily active users towards the end of 2017 (Statistica 2017) suggests that the popularity of these games is unwavering. Although, while Facebook games such as FarmVille and Restaurant City have been praised for facilitating exciting opportunities to play and engage with friends, critics argue that these type of games are only considered social because they exist on social media sites (TEDx Talks 2014).

Source: FarmVille, 2016. In FarmVille, users create and maintain a virtual farm where they are encouraged to trade assets and contribute to their friends’ farms’ (Zygna 2018?) to advance their game. Indeed, whether it be in the real world or game space, communities can grow stronger when friendships are strengthened by sharing and helping others (O’Brien n.d). However, the CEO and Founder of a popular social gaming company GoldFire Studios, James Simpson, firmly believes that the social interaction on games such as FarmVille is nothing more than another form of currency (TEDx Talks 2014). This notion is indeed justified when players are encouraged to invite their non-playing social media friends to join the game, because the more farm neighbours a user has, the more advantages a user receives and the faster the user can level up (FarmVille 2012).

Source: Request, 2011. In his TEDx Talk (2014), Simpson goes on to explain that while games that are not situated on social media are often perceived as antisocial, Simpson disagrees. In his opinion, these alleged antisocial games, such as World of Warcraft are actually the most ‘truly social games ever made’. Simpson believes that true social games should offer real-time social interaction, such as meeting, interacting and creating new friendships. Indeed, Simpson has a valid point. When considering that any social aspects of FarmVille only exists within a user’s current Facebook friend circle, other games like World of Warcraft or Final Fantasy offers a much broader opportunity for social interaction. In fact, a couple wedded ‘after growing close as they guided their virtual alter egos through the world of Final Fantasy’ (Smith 2010). While these games have not only observed the forming of friendships or relationships, they also offer the real-life support of others during times of need. Simpson (TEDx Talk 2014) recounts a time where a lifelong member suddenly passed away. It was obvious that this gamer had a strong impact on the lives of others when the gaming community raised funds to donate to the gamer’s bereaved family and friends.

Indeed, games within social media certainly offer ways to connect and play with friends, but in contrast, games outside of social media are where the real sense of community and true social interaction can be found.

References: FarmVille, [image] 2016, FarmVille game guide, Game guides, viewed 11th February 2018, <https://guides.gamepressure.com/farmville/>. FarmVille 2 2012, Community Neighbors!, FarmVille 2, viewed 10 February 2018, <http://zyngablog.typepad.com/farmville_2/2012/08/community-neighbors.html>.

Lan, [image] n.d, 90’s lan party, 9GAG, viewed 11th February 2018, <https://9gag.com/gag/an1g6vn/90s-lan-party>.

O’Brien, J n.d, Actions That Build Community, Inclusions, viewed 10 February 2018, <http://www.inclusion.com/downloads/actionsthatbuildcommunity.pdf>.

Request, [image] 2011, The little (annoying) things about Facebook, Yaa, viewed 11th February 2018,<https://www.youthareawesome.com/annoy-me-facebook/>.

Smith, A 2010, Happy ever avatar: Couple marry after falling in love in online game before they'd even met, Daily Mail, viewed 10 February 2018, <http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1329250/Couple-marry-falling-love-online-game-theyd-met.html>.

Statistica 2017, Average monthly active users (MAU) of Zynga games from 4th quarter 2011 to 4th quarter 2017 (in millions), Statistica, viewed 9 February 2018, <https://www.statista.com/statistics/273569/monthly-active-users-of-zynga-games/>.

TEDx Talks 2014, The power of truly social games: James Simpson at TEDxOU, 19 February, viewed 10 February 2018, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DO7uaoMX60o>.

Sharing connections or self-promotion?

Even as inherently social creatures, connectedness is often sacrificed for our increasingly busy lives. The advantages of social media are that it affords a convenient way to build and maintain our relationships with family and friends. The ability to upload or thumb through personal photos has indeed become a new form of communication, which is particularly favoured by the time poor. However, when critics argue that social media encourages and reinforces narcissistic characteristics (Gackenbach 2017), are these users posting photos to share connections or seeking to self-promote?

Source: Self-obsessed, 2014. By sharing our personal photos on social media, we are inviting those online friends to share our experiences, interests, emotions and general lives. Through this, our friendships can form stronger bonds of intimacy and trust (Sullivan 2015). While Oxford University professor of evolutionary psychology, Robin Dunbar (2016), states that indeed, friendships decay in the absence of contact, social media can function to slow that decay down. However, there does appear to be a distinct difference between users who share photos to nurtures relationships and those who share photos for self-promotion.

Source: B.O.F.F, n.d. But when does social media become less about networking and more about broadcasting? Interestingly, Dubar’s study (2017) also indicated that of the 150 Facebook friends an average user has, only 15 could be considered actual friends and only 5 as close friends. Additionally, where research has shown that ‘narcissists regulate themselves during virtual communications in a manner that may draw attention to themselves’ (Bonsera et al 2011 p.61), suggests these oversharing users are more interested in the response they receive from their large audience than they are of fostering friendships. Typically these photos can be observed capturing highly sexualised self-portraits, expensive purchases or good deeds.

Source: Bikini photos, 2015. This theory of self-promotion is also further supported by social media user who accompanies their photos with hashtags. Particularly so, when hashtags boost visibility to reach a much wider audience - indeed, an audience well beyond their online friend network. While photo-sharing platforms like Instagram encourage the use hashtags to achieve vitality, it also offers a series of filters to improve the appearance of photos to increase their appeal and likability. Ironically, while many criticise magazine for retouching and editing photos, 57% of women have admitted to editing their photos before posting to social media (Noble 2015).

Source: Selfie per hour, 2014. While sharing personal photos can certainly strengthen friendships, it’s hard to not look past the growing number of users who post photos for self-promotion. Where these users thrive off the ‘easy-to-obtain social media endorsements such as likes, shares, or new followers’ (Atanasova 2016), is ultimately fueling a shallow and superficial ethos that focuses less on the social aspect and more on stroking their egos.

References:

Atanasova, A 2015, How to Spot a Narcissist on Social Media, Social media today, viewed 8 February 2018 <https://www.socialmediatoday.com/social-networks/how-spot-narcissist-social-media>.

‘Bikini photos’ [image], 2014, Four ways social media can be toxic to your relationship, Chatterblast, viewed 9 February 2018 <http://chatterblast.com/four-ways-social-media-can-be-toxic-to-your-relationship/>.

‘B.O.F.F’ [image], n.d, Friendship memes, Someecards, viewed 9 February 2018<https://www.someecards.com/usercards/viewcard/MjAxMi1kZmEzODI5ZGNkZmUwMTli>.

Bonsera, I, Buffardi, L, Campbell, K, DeWalla, N 2011, ‘Narcissism and implicit attention seeking: Evidence from linguistic analyses of social networking and online presentation’, Personality and Individual Differences, vol.51, no. 1, pp.57-62.

Dunbar, R 2016, ‘Do online social media cut through the constraints that limit the size of offline social networks?’, Royal Society Open Science, vol.3, no. 1.

Gackenbach, J 2017, Boundaries of Self and Reality Online : Implications of Digitally Constructed Realities, San Diego:Elsevier Science, Ebook Central (ProQuest).

Noble, F 2015, Double standards? More than half of women admit to editing their social media photos before posting despite over two thirds thinking it's wrong for magazines to do it, Daily Mail, viewed 8 February 2018 <http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2948410/More-half-women-admit-editing-social-media-photos-posting-despite-two-thirds-thinking-s-wrong-magazines-it.html>.

‘Selfie per hour’ [image], 2014, Are Selfies A Sign Of Narcissism? Or Is Society Far Too Self-Righteous?, This is your conscience, viewed 9 February 2018 <http://www.thisisyourconscience.com/2014/04/are-selfies-a-sign-of-narcissism-or-is-society-far-too-self-righteous/>.

‘Self-obsessed’ [image], 2014, The Identity Crisis: The Story of a Social Media Disaster, Slide Share, viewed 9 February 2018 <https://www.slideshare.net/JenniferDong95/the-identity-crisis-the-story-of-a-social-media-disaster>.

Sullivan, T 2015, More from the masters, IM Light Publishing (eBook).

When crowdsourcing turns into vigilantism

Source: Mobile caravan, 2018? Law enforcement has long appealed to the public for information to help solve crimes, from the Crime Stoppers hotline to information vans. This practice of acquiring information or assistance by recruiting services from a large number of people is known as crowdsourcing (Oxford Dictionary 2018?). Although, as technology has advanced, crowdsourcing has now become more commonly conducted via the internet and social media. This phenomenon proved highly successful in capturing the 2011 Boston Marathon Bombers. But when the police departments request for crowdsourced information can spur on crowdsourced crime solving, the outcome could have been very different.

In the moments just after the Bombings occurred, a popular social news website, reddit, where content is ‘curated and promoted by site members’ (Rouse 2012), became a crisis hub that worked to support the affected. This real-time support on reddit was used to inform visitors of what streets were open and closed, assistance in finding accommodation for the stranded to organising food for hospital and emergency workers (Leopold 2013). However, when the police put a call out for public captured footage or intelligence that would assist in finding the perpetrators, overly eager reddit users determined to help police took this a crowdsourcing request a step further by creating the subreddit, findbostonbombers.

Source: Is this the Boston bomber?, 2013. The subreddit quickly grew out of hand, where content was rife ‘with racial and religious bias, incorrect information paraded as facts, and, tragically, horrendous witch-hunts of innocent bystanders’ (Bansi 2017). With the media’s hunger for fresh information, two wrongly accused men has their identities broadcasted publicly, with one of the men, Salah Eddin Barhoum, a 17-year-old high school student explained that he feared for his life upon seeing pictured and identified on the front page of the New York Post (Miller 2013).

Source: Bag men, 2014. Indeed, crowdsourced information played a significant role in the real-time search for the Boston Marathon bombers. However, despite the public’s best intentions to assist the investigation, this army of amateur armchair detectives that pooled information and resources online, instead of feeding information directly to authorities, caused more harm than help. Not only putting innocent lives at risk or potentially perverting the course of justice, but also by placing a greater strain on valuable police resources with needing to quash uncredible speculations by both the public and media. In fact, it is also believed the FBI was forced to release the true suspect's identity early to overturn the public headhunt (Simpson 2013).

While crowdsourced information is an invaluable tool for assisting police to solve crimes, this incident is also the very reason why this received information is kept confidential. All of this does beg the question: How can we stop that very information also being spread online?

Reference:

‘Bag men’ [image], 2014, NY Post Settles Lawsuit Over Infamous Boston Bombing "Bag Men" Cover, viewed 2 February 2018, <https://www.mediamatters.org/blog/2014/10/01/ny-post-settles-lawsuit-over-infamous-boston-bo/200974>. Bansi, 2017, Solving Crime the Crowdsourced Way, Digital innovation and transformation, viewed 2 February 2018 <https://digit.hbs.org/submission/solving-crime-the-crowdsourced-way/>. ‘Is this the Boston bomber?’ [image], 2013, Reddit Apologizes For Leading Boston Bomber 'Witch Hunt', viewed 3 February 2018, <http://gawker.com/reddit-apologizes-for-leading-boston-bomber-witch-hunt-477141847>. Leopold, T 2013, Should criminal investigations be crowdsourced?, CNN, viewed 2 February 2018 <https://edition.cnn.com/2013/04/22/tech/web/boston-suspects-reddit-sleuthing/index.html>.

Miller, J 2013, Revere teen scared after New York Post splashes him on front page, Bostone Globe, viewed 2 February 2018 <https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2013/04/18/revere-teen-scared-after-new-york-post-splashes-him-front-page/giJVM9AiOfmnQKEJ2SBS5M/story.html>.

‘Mobile caravan’ [image], 2011, Victoria Police station a mobile caravan, viewed 3 February 2018, <http://www.abc.net.au/news/2010-01-07/victoria-police-station-a-mobile-caravan/1201332>.

Oxford Dictionary, 2018?, Crowdsource, Oxford University Press, viewed 2 Februrary 2018 <https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/crowdsourcing>. Rouse, M 2016, Reddit, TechTarget, viewed 2 February 2018 <http://searchcio.techtarget.com/definition/Reddit>.

Simpson, C 2013, F.B.I. Released the Tsarnaevs' Photos Because of Reddit and the Post, The Atlantic, viewed 3 February 2018 <https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/04/fbi-released-tsarnaev-brothers-photos-because-reddit-and-post/316075/>.

alookintodigicom-blog

Leaving Traces: Trolling and social media conflict

Although I don’t have kids of my own yet, I couldn’t bear to think of my child coming home in tears from school at the hands of a bully. In my mind, when I think of the word bully, I think of a big ogre-like kid who is always older (and most of the time less intelligent) staring down at the younger kid/s trying to assert some sort of power or authority. Usually he (or she) is name calling, teasing or making fun of someone else. Whether I have developed this image through various movies and teenage television shows I just can’t help but to think of this type of scenario. Perhaps it’s movies like Mean Girls, where a bunch of stuck up popular high school girls poke fun at other kids because they aren’t ‘cool’ enough, or dress differently. This is how I imagine and first handily remember bullying at school, but for kids these days the emergence of social networking and social media sites means bullying can take place not only in the school grounds, but at home as well from behind a screen. It’s a little more complicated than I first thought and had me wondering is social media making bullying worse?

A Swedish psychologist by the name of Dan Olewus, explains that the act of bullying involves 3 components which are: aggression, repetition and an imbalance in power (Boyd 2014) His definition suggests that bullying involves someone of a differential social or physical power subjecting another to repeated and frequent physical, social and psychological aggression which matches my initial though of a bully (Boyd 2014). Social media sites such as Facebook however, break down barriers such as physical aggression for example allowing anyone with an internet connection to facelessly cyber bully others from the comfort of their home.

Boyd (2014) explains that the visibility of bullying on social media and networked publics adds a new depth as to how bullying is understood and constructed. But is it getting more complex because it’s right there in our face? Even though a victim may not want to talk about it, it’s there for everyone to see. Boyd (2014) also argues that the traditional view of the perpetrator and the victim fails to understand the complexity of online conflicts. Anything posted on a public forum leaves traces enabling more and more people to witness these acts of bullying. At the same time, these forums create opportunities for others to intervene (Boyd 2014).

Sites such as Facebook and YouTube play significant roles in creating spaces for ongoing interaction and creating content communities, however the visibility of these conversations can cause emotional stress to the victim of bullying (McCosker 2013).

Boyd, D 2014, ‘Bullying: is social media amplifying meanness and cruelty?’, ‘It’s Complicated: the social lives of networked teens’, Yale University Press, USA pp. 128-152. McCosker, A 2013, ‘Trolling as Provocation: YouTube’s agonistic publics’, ‘Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies’, vol. 20, no. 2.

itcamefromtheonlinespace-blog

You immediately hooked me in with the Mean Girls image. I love that movie! lol

You’ve certainly raised a good point about bullying becoming inescapable through social media.

While social networking sites like Facebook and Snapchat wasn’t around during my teens, we still had mobile phones, MSN chat and ICQ (god that makes me feel old! lol), any form of conflict at school was generally over when the last bell rung. If we had an issue with another student, we just simply excluded them from our chat list. Although I was never really bullied at school, there was still the odd occasion where normal banter would turn nasty. But growing up, it was my understanding that this was a just natural way to exercise and strengthen our resilience. As Boyd (2014 p. 131) suggests 'Journalists latch onto and publicize data that suggest that the majority of youth are bullied’ and naturally the public will responds with mass hysteria. As Boyd also mentions though, mothers use ‘bullying’ as an umbrella term to describe any form of harassment and, in my opinion, this can result in overparenting, where these mothers are often too quick to intervene. Admittedly, with the media repeatably reporting cases of teen suicide as a result of bullying, these parents’ need for immediate intervention is understandable.

As a mum to be, I can’t stand the thought of my child experiencing any form of harassment or bullying - However, I also see it as a necessary evil, because harassment doesn’t just end after high school. So, a child learning to be strong in knowing who they are and their values is essential to developing the kind of healthy self-esteem that will also benefit them in their adult life. What are your thoughts on parents intervening too soon? Do you think that empowering children and facilitating strong personal development, could reduce the number of victims? :) Reference: Boyd, D 2014, ‘Bullying: is social media amplifying meanness and cruelty?, It’s Complicated: the social lives of networked teens’, Yale University Press, USA pp. 128-152.

benjiswinburneme-blog

Politics and Civic Cultures

Okay before we begin I want to play a game of “Who Said that?” Politics and social media edition 2018! Where I’ll read out some tweets and you can guess who it might be.

1. “I have never seen a thin person drinking Diet Coke”.

2. “Arianna Huffingpost is unattractive both inside and out. I finally understand why her former husband left her for a man – he made a good decision”

3. “The Media is spending more time doing a forensic analysis of Melania’s speech than the FBI spent on Hillary’s emails

4. “Sorry losers and haters, but my I.Q. is one of the highest -and you all know it! Please don’t feel so stupid or insecure, it’s not your fault”

5. “Just heard Foreign Minister of North Korea speak at U.N. If he echoes thoughts of Little Rocket Man, they won’t be around much longer!”

6. Haiti, El Salvador and parts of Africa are all shithole countries

That’s correct these are quotes from the 45th and current President of the United States, the man of the hour Donald Trump! In week 5 we looked at the ever-growing relationship between Politician’s and social media and the effectiveness of these platforms when used as part of a political campaign. Can you name a more iconic politician who goes hand in hand with social media then Trump and his twitter account? “Facebook and Twitter were the reason we won this thing” (Lapowsky 2016) a quote from Trumps digital director Brad Parscale on how they won the election, shows just how powerful social media as a tool can be in the 21st century.

As Murse (2017) notes, the prevalence of social media in politics has made elected officials and candidates more accountable and accessible to voters, and he’s right, in real time 24/7, if you want to voice your opinion to Australian Prime Minister Malcom Turnbull feel free to send him a tweet @TurnbullMalcom while you’re there you may as well say hello to @JulieBishopMP or even former US president @BarackObama. It’s become increasingly easy for voters to interact with politicians elect, and vice versa, they have “the ability to publish content and broadcast it to millions of people instantaneously allowing campaigns to carefully manage their candidates image” (Murse 2027) all at the click of a few buttons. Carrying on from this idea of campaigning using social media, if we cast our gaze back to the 2016 US political campaign (I know, I’m sorry we had to go back #GrabHerByThePussy) “Facebook proved to be a powerful way for Trump’s team to hone the campaign’s message with the enormous sample sizes you can’t get with traditional polling” (Lapowsky 2016). Meaning Trump had the advantage of a platform where we as the audience are already conditioned to click, comment, share, which in doing so created feedback so he could figure out what works and what doesn’t.

Ultimately social media isn’t going anywhere fast, so if anything, we can probably expect to see a rise in political activity on Facebook and Twitter, as they pretend to be “real” and post selfies out and about to sway over potential voters for upcoming elections.

Let the digital games begin!

Reference:

Murse, T 2017, “How social media has changed politics” ThoughtCo, viewed 28th January 18< https://www.thoughtco.com/how-social-media-has-changed-politics-3367534

Lapowsky, I 2016, “Here’s how Facebook actually won Trump the Presidency” WIRED, viewed 28th January 18 < https://www.wired.com/2016/11/facebook-won-trump-election-not-just-fake-news/>

itcamefromtheonlinespace-blog

Haha... your post is written so beautifully. It’s engaging AND witty! Loved it, well done!

In touching on Donald Trump’s infamous tweets - I find his use of social media concerning. Particularly where politics is just as much about popularity, as it is about their policies. With social media, Politicians can now bypass their previous misrepresentation by traditional media to convey a new type of credibility. Actually, this is something that Tony Abbott does well, posting images of him painting his house and helping his mum cook Sunday dinner. Abbott is certainly using his Instagram to effectively connect and engage with the public on an emotional and relatable level. In putting aside his political career, he brands himself as a typical Australian family man.

Source: Tony Abbott Instagram post June 26, 2016.

Source: Tony Abbott Instagram post July 30, 2017.

But there is nothing relatable about Donald Trump and this is why I believe Trump’s use of social media to be counter-productive. In fact, a study was conducted on how politicians can effectively use social media and it revealed that 'voters value personable content over trustworthiness and general electability’ (Hellweg 2011, p.22).

With Trump’s low popularity and talks of impeachment, I think it’s time Trump and his media manager think about a different approach for his social media accounts - because his really not doing his brand image any favours.

Source: Best tweet no.8, n.d.

References:

‘Best tweet no.8’ [image], in Crowd babble n.d, Donald Trump’s 11 best tweets (and 7,000 losers), viewed 2 February 2018, <https://www.crowdbabble.com/blog/the-11-best-tweets-of-all-time-by-donald-trump/>.

Hellweg, A 2011, ‘Social Media Sites of Politicians Influence Their Perception by Constituents’, The Elon Journal of Undergraduate Research in Communications, vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 22-36.

'Tony Abbott Instagram post June 26’ [image], in Instagram 2016, Tony Abbott Instagram post, viewed 2 February 2018, <https://www.instagram.com/p/BXKXQrwA8HZ/?hl=en&taken-by=tonyabbottmhr>.

'Tony Abbott Instagram post July 30’ [image], in Instagram 2017, Tony Abbott Instagram post, viewed 2 February 2018, <https://www.instagram.com/p/BHHJ5gghHD1/?hl=en&taken-by=tonyabbottmhr>.

Is cyberbullying really the problem?

There is no denying that social media has afforded seemingly unavoidable interconnectivity. While this interconnectivity has provided easy and exciting new ways to maintain with friendships, it has also been criticised for facilitating a rise in online bullying, where victims find this mode of harassment to be relentless and inescapable. With social media now blamed for the increase in cyberbullying-related suicides amongst teens, anti-bullying organisations have called for the Federal Government to implement a cybersecurity initiative (Kempton 2018). But is this the solution that will really save lives and is cyberbullying really the cause of these suicides?

A push for a Federal Government initiatives comes after the recent suicide of NT teen, Amy ‘Dolly’ Everett, who’s her father explained she was overcome the ‘constant bullying and harassment’ (Everett 2018).

Although, the Chair of Paediatric Medicine at Bond University, Professor Jones agrees that highlighting the issue of bullying is important, but adds it is more important to acknowledge that realistically, Amy died of depression (Cleary 2018). Prof. Jones also goes on say that while “We might identify cyber-bullying, toxic workplaces and racism as causes for the suicide, these are risk factors, … let’s work on depression, like if someone died of a heart attack” (Hansen 2018). Whilst, in no way, does this excuses a bullies’ behaviour, it does suggest that the cause issue of teen suicide is indeed, much deeper than cyberbullying.

Source: Cyberbully, n.d. Research insights by the Australian Government’s Children’s eSafety Commissioner office (2016) revealed that during 2016, 19% of teens reported being cyberbullied. Furthermore, 49% indicated that they struggle with their self-esteem. For a generation that has grown up with the internet and social networking, it worth considering how traditional development good self-esteem has since been compromised. Where social media also affords instant gratification, it has never been easier for teens to look outwardly, into this superficial ethos to build their self-worth.

Source: ‘No-tification’, 2016. Indeed, this notion is well supported by the growing body of evidence that emotional investment in social media is strongly linked with lowered self-esteem, leading to an increased risk of depression (Cleland Woods & Scott 2016). Particularly, when lowered self-esteem reduces a teens ability to cope with challenging emotional situations (Reach out 2018?), such as cyberbullying. As technology will continue to progress, online communication will always be a part of these teens lives and the future generations. Therefore, it would appear helping teens to build resilience to establish stronger mental health to ultimately reduce bullying-related suicides would be more beneficial in saving lives, than implementing a band-aid solution, such as a cybersecurity initiative.

References:

Cleary, B, 2018, Doctor says Dolly’s suicide was 'the result of depression' and not playground taunts - and her bullies Shouldn’t be blamed for her death, The Daily Mail Australia, viewed 28 January 2018, <http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5320597/Doctor-claims-Dolly-died-depression-not-bullying.html>.

Cleland Woods, H, & Scott, H 2016, #Sleepyteens: Social media use in adolescence is associated with poor sleep quality, anxiety, depression and low self-esteem, Journal of Adolescence, vol. 51, pp. 41-49.

‘Cyberbullying [image], n.d, Why do people cyber bully?, Cyberbullying, viewed 30 January 2018, <https://sites.google.com/site/cyberbullyingcomsci/why-do-people-cyber-bully>.

Everret, T 2018, Facebook update, 7 January, viewed 28 January 2018, <https://www.facebook.com/mrsconstancehall/posts/1069319443112880:0>.

Hansen, J 2018, Top doctor calls for suicide to be classified as death by depression following Dolly Everett’s passing, The Daily Telegraph, viewed 28 January 2018, <https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/top-doctor-calls-for-suicide-to-be-classified-as-death-by-depression-following-dolly-everetts-passing/news-story/e9b6249a6ab307f1bb517aea8e837a78>.

Kempton, H 2018, Angels Hope calls to tighten social media rules to reduce cyber bullying, News.com.au, viewed 28 January 2018, <http://www.news.com.au/national/tasmania/angles-hope-calls-to-tighten-social-media-rules-to-reduce-cyber-bullying/news-story/e1a104a8e799bf5230bd9ec1feab5063>.

‘No-tification’ [image], 2016, Product, Marketing, and the Art of Managing Expectations, Hackernoon, viewed 29 January 2018, <https://hackernoon.com/product-marketing-is-managing-expectations-da963d36abea/>.

Office of the eSafety Commissioner 2016, Research, Australian Government, viewed 29 January 2018, <https://www.esafety.gov.au/about-the-office/research-library>.

Reach Out Australia 2018, Self-esteem and teenagers, Reach Out Australia, viewed 29 January 2018, <https://parents.au.reachout.com/common-concerns/everyday-issues/self-esteem-and-teenagers>.

Clicktivism: Lazy or life changing?

Source: Facebook filters, 2013. From profile filters, trending hashtags and sharing articles, is social media fuelling change or enabling lazy activism? Coined Digital activism, the internet and social media platforms have fast become a new channel where activist can digitally achieve mass mobilisation to call for social and political change (Fuentes 2014). Indeed, social media can be praised for its ability to rapidly reach a global audience and easy entry point for engagement. In fact, it is widely considered the success of Arab Spring, the Occupy Wall Street and UK Uncut movements are attributed to the power of social media. However, it cannot be ignored that slacktivism or clicktivism, a process where online participation is oversimplified into online petitions, liking and sharing content (Halupka 2014) can be criticised for not only being lazy but ineffective and destructive. What’s more, critics have also claimed that social media users are shifting their discourse to safer topics for fear of being ostracised by their friends.

Source: Click to save the world!, 2016. Undeniably clicktivism is a legitimate social and political act, although critics do argue that such participation alone is inadequate. In a recent study that observes this illusion of activism versus the facilitation of real change, it revealed that of the 1 million+ people who ‘liked’ the Save Darfur Facebook page - which rallies to end genocide in Sudan, less than 3000 of those people donated much-needed funds (Gray, Lewis & Meierhenrich 2014). While this important cause gained worldwide awareness, the lack of financial traction would suggest that it is just as easy to click ‘like’ on a social or political cause, as it is to feel as though one has done their part and disengage. To which, some have also claimed this behaviour can actually be harmful to ‘the social and political causes people are attempting to support by conferring a false sense of accomplishment that forestalls more effective engagement’ (Bell 2014, p. 282). Putting aside the theory that armchair activist is achieving very little more than moral point scoring, it is worth exploring the idea that perhaps this lack of useful participation beyond clicktivism is a result of peer pressure.

Source: I’m helping, 2017? According to Pew Research (Goulet et al 2011), most users overall social media networks contain a much larger number of weak ties with only a handful of close socials ties – such as family or close friends. In considering that weaker ties can be broken more easily (Dempster-McClain, Moen & Walker 1999), an opposing opinion can be silenced feared for public shame and ostracism. Conversely, there is also reason to believe social media users are pressured into participating in clicktivism for further fear of being judged for not exhibiting human empathy and taking action.

Source: Just pretend, 2017?

Certainly, the act of digital activism and clicktivism is indeed the precursor to social and political change, particularly in rapidly raising worldwide awareness. However, with the continuous compounding evidence, it is also difficult to deny that clicktivism alone, will never achieve social and political revolution.

References: Bell, C 2013, ‘Clicktivism’, in K Harvey (eds), The Encyclopedia of Social Media and Politics, CQ Press, California, pp. 282. ‘Click here to save the world’ [image], 2016, I’ve added the hashtag, now what?, viewed 26 January 2018 <http://wpmu.mah.se/nmict162group5/category/slacktivismclicktivism/>. Dempster-McClain, D, Moen, P & Walker, H 1999, A Nation Divided: Diversity, Inequality, and Community in American Society, Cornwell University Press, London. ‘Facebook Filters [image], 2017, Baby Steps, viewed 26 January 2018, <http://submergemag.com/opinion/baby-steps/8272/>. Fuentes, M 2014, Digital Activism, Encyclopædia Britannica, viewed 25 January 2018, <https://www.britannica.com/topic/digital-activism>. Goulet, L, Hampton, K, Purcell, K & Raine, L 2011, Social networking site and our lives, Pew Research Centre, viewed 25 January 2018, <http://www.pewinternet.org/2011/06/16/part-3-social-networking-site-users-have-more-friends-and-more-close-friends/>. Gray, K, Lewis, K & Meierhenrich, J 2014, ‘The Structure of Online Activism’, Sociological Science, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 1-9. Halupka, M 2014, ‘Clicktivism: A Systematic Heuristic’, Policy & Internet, vol. 6, no. 2, pp. 115-132. ‘I’m helping [image], 2017?, Pray for Paris – Your Facebook feed right now, viewed 26 January 2018, <http://knowyourmeme.com/photos/1044351-pray-for-paris>. ‘Just pretend [image], 2017?, Meme Generator, viewed 26 January 2018, <https://memegenerator.net/instance/73347617>.

A new age: The social election

During 2017, social networking was recorded as being one of the most popular online activities and with 2.46 billion social media users worldwide (Statista 2018), it is no surprise that political parties and politicians have taken to social media to broadcast and connect with the public. But this shift has also been met by citizens who are not only seeking more unfiltered and accurate information but are also looking to be more actively involved in civic culture by voicing their opinions online.

Source: Facebook politics, 2017

While Australians still regard TV, print and radio as their main source of news (Watkins 2016), when it comes to politics, Australians are now turning to social media to receive information directly from the politicians they follow. With these Australians citing that news media fails to report fairly and prefer to bypass media gatekeepers for direct politician feeds to provide more detailed and precise information (Watkins 2017). Although this would suggest politicians are merely preaching to the converted, social media, unlike any other traditional medium, affords micro-targeted advertising through setting up strict demographic parameters based on user profiles to reach specific audiences. This capability also allows politicians and political parties to tailor their message according to their audience, which is particularly useful when campaigning for new votes and to continue boosting their political profile.

Source: Daniel Andrew, 2017

Such an advertising strategy that proved to be successful for Victorian Premier, Daniel Andrews. During 2017, Andrews was considered the most ‘liked’ Australian Politician on Facebook (Dowling 2017), with his targeted posts to increase followers was unquestionably an effective way to also communicate his messages and build popularity. Through building popularity and large followings, stronger virality of a post can be achieved when followers share the posted content. However, this online popularity can quickly lose credibility and dramatically decrease its beneficial reach, when social media networks users can purchase artificial followers for a small cost (Maheshwari 2017).

Source: Cash under the table, 2017 But using social media to just broadcast messages or canvass votes is not enough. Social networking platforms also offer the capabilities to operate as a mass-scale public forum where politicians and political parties can also participate in open discussions. Since then, civic engagement has been reinvigorated and democratic accountability can be strengthened (Uldam & Vestergaard 2015). What’s more, with social media’s low barrier to entry it has never been easier for ordinary citizens to easily ‘share information about wrongdoings’ (Enikolopv, Petrova & Sonin 2016), which can quickly become viral and impact public opinion. A recent example of this was a video posted by a Melbourne mother voicing her concerns about the hyper-sexual content in the Government’s ‘Safe School’ program.

Although, it’s worth noting that the credibility and motives behind a citizen’s information on social media can still be questionable. Whilst the anti-safe school mother achieved 4.8m Facebook views (You’re teaching our children what? 2017), it was then later revealed that the mother is not only a Christian but a lobbyist for the Liberal party (Cook & Tomazin 2017) who now works as an electorate officer for a Victorian Liberal MP (Hore 2017).

While social media is being praised for quickly becoming a tool that can trigger political change, it indeed possesses shortcomings that can also hinder this change.

References: ‘Cash under the table’ [image], 2017, Watchdog warns populism can boost corruption, viewed 22 January 2018, <http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/premier-daniel-andrews-blows-280k-of-taxpayers-money-promoting-himself-on-facebook/news-story/56cd70c7bbf9fc7e09edc7eeae93c90e>. Cook, H & Tomazin, F 2017, Who's behind the Safe School videos? The concerned mums' political connections, The Age, viewed 21 January 2018, <http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/whos-behind-the-safe-school-videos-the-concerned-mums-political-connections-20170811-gxukuu.html>. ‘Daniel Andrews’ [image], 2017, Premier Daniel Andrews blows $280k of taxpayers’ money promoting himself on Facebook, viewed 21 January 2018, <http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/premier-daniel-andrews-blows-280k-of-taxpayers-money-promoting-himself-on-facebook/news-story/56cd70c7bbf9fc7e09edc7eeae93c90e>. Enikolopv, R, Petrova, M & Sonin, K 2016, Social media and corruption: Evidence from a Russian blog, VOX CEPR's Policy Portal, viewed 21 January 2018, <https://voxeu.org/article/social-media-and-corruption>. ‘Facebook politics’ [image], LinkedIN, Know your meme! Exploring and evaluating media theories, viewed 22 January 2018, <https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/know-your-meme-exploring-evaluating-media-theories-taylor-martin-1>. Hore, M 2017, Politicalpostingmumma’s Marijke Rancie takes up electoral officer job with Liberal MP Michael Gidley, The Herald Sun, viewed 21 January 2018, <http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/politicalpostingmummas-marijke-rancie-takes-up-electoral-officer-job-with-liberal-mp-michael-gidley/news-story/32d0daf322c7a0503fcec0b9a1777b4d>. Maheshwari, S 2017, How Bots Are Inflating Instagram Egos, The New York Times, viewed 21 January 2018, <https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/06/business/media/instagram-bots.html>.

Statista 2018, Number of social media users worldwide from 2010 to 2021 (in billions), viewed 20 January 2018, <https://www.statista.com/statistics/278414/number-of-worldwide-social-network-users/>.

Uldam, J & Vestergaard, A 2015, Introduction: Social Media and Civic Engagement. In: Uldam J, Vestergaard A. (eds) Civic Engagement and Social Media, Palgrave Macmillan, London

Watkins, J 2016, Digital News Report: Australia 2016, Press Council, viewed 20 January 2018, <http://www.presscouncil.org.au/uploads/52321/ufiles/Fact_Sheets/digital-news-report-australia-2016.pdf>.

Watkins, J 2017, Digital News Report: Australia 2017, Analysis & policy observatory, viewed 20 January 2018, <http://apo.org.au/system/files/95161/apo-nid95161-346236.pdf>.

You’re teaching our children what? 2017, Facebook post, 27 June, viewed 21 January 2018, <https://www.facebook.com/youreteachingourchildrenwhat/videos/482857788738980/>.

benjiswinburneme-blog

Is technology redefining human connection? #1

Well, is it? Of course, it is. Since the launch of technology, we as humans have gradually changed the way we interact and connect with one another, that’s a no brainer. Gone are the days of Pen Pals (what were they again?) nowadays we spend most of our time looking like this.

In Week 1 we looked at the brilliant internet research pioneer and psychologist Sherry Turkle’s “Connected but alone” (TED-Ed 2013) presentation which explored the idea that people who are only connected through technology are ultimately becoming disconnected from their inner and outer lives AKA the real world. As Asano (2017) notes, as the years have gone past the amount of time people spend on social media increases, on average teens now spend up to 9 hours a day on social platforms, that nearly 64 hours a week browsing the likes of Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube, Twitter, Pinterest. It’s kind of scary to think that some teens only know this digital age we live in, what was there to do before the internet and social media?

For those baby boomers, social media is often defined to as “the many relatively inexpensive and widely accessible electronic tools that enables anyone to publish and access information, collaborate on a common effort, or build relationships” (Murthy 2013, p. 7-8). Networks like Facebook and YouTube exceed billions of monthly active users, however as Newman (2014) notes, there is only a very small percentage of people who physically see their social connections on a regular basis. This is where the issues come in and what Sherry Turkles presentation highlights, have we lost touch of reality? It’s become seemingly too easy to just send a text or a “wave” in Facebook messenger to check in on a friend rather than physically see them in person (as that would take effort). In doing so as Taylor (2009) suggest, are we substituting real relationships for virtual ones? People can now fulfil many of their needs for connection through online communities without the fear of rejection, as they can present their best faces to their digital circles.

Digital or Online Communities is defined as “a group of people who regularly interact with each online, especially to share information and opinions on a common interest, with users of the internet” (Oxford Dictionary 2017). If you are a part of any of the social media networking sites mentioned above, you are a part of a digital community. Digital communities can be seen as a positive as you can interact with likeminded individuals anytime anywhere 24/7 or as Danah Boyd (2012) puts it, being “always-on”. The downside to being “always-on” is you lack physical stimulation, “there is no substitute for the depth and breadth of real, flesh-and-blood relationships where you can see, hear, smell, touch and sense the other person” (Taylor 2009).

A recent example surrounding the idea of social media and Turkle’s idea of people connected through technology becoming disconnected from their inner and outer lives can see through this interview with Ryan “Fitzy” Fitzgerald – who reveals his dependence on social media is having serious effects on his relationships.

http://www.bodyandsoul.com.au/mind-body/wellbeing/i-have-an-addiction-i-know-i-do/news-story/6cb35c809993e0ea40e49b41fabab9b6

Reference:

Artotem 2008, “IHOP Cell Phone Meal Family” [image], Flickr, viewed 9th December 17

< https://www.flickr.com/photos/artotemsco/2857720047>

Assano, E 2017, “How much time do people spend on Social Media”, Social Media Today, viewed 09th December 17

https://www.socialmediatoday.com/marketing/how-much-time-do-people-spend-social-media-infographic

BodyAndSoul 2017, “Ryan Fitzy I have an addiction” BodyAndSoul, viewed 9th December 17

< http://www.bodyandsoul.com.au/mind-body/wellbeing/i-have-an-addiction-i-know-i-do/news-story/6cb35c809993e0ea40e49b41fabab9b6>

Ellison, Nicole and Danah Boyd. (2013). “Sociality through Social Network Sites.” In the Oxford Handbook of Internet Studies (Ed. William H. Dutton). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Murthy, D 2013, Twitter: Social Communication in the Twitter Age, Wiley, pp. 1-13.

Newman, D 2014, “4 Technology Trends Disrupting How we Communicate” FORBES, viewed 9th December 17 https://www.forbes.com/sites/danielnewman/2014/05/13/4-technology-trends-disrupting-how-we-communicate/

Oxford Living Dictionaries 2017, “Online Community” Oxford Dictionaries, viewed 09th December 17 < https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/online_community>

Social Media Today, “How much time do I Spend on Social Media” [image], Social Media Today, viewed 9th December 17 https://www.socialmediatoday.com/marketing/how-much-time-do-people-spend-social-media-infographic>

TED-Ed 2013, Connected, but alone? - Sherry Turkle, 19 April, viewed 3 August 2016, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rv0g8TsnA6c>.

itcamefromtheonlinespace-blog

You made a really good point that people are seeking to form relationships and connections on online to avoid rejection and present their best selves.

Although, the irony here is that people do use social media to outwardly seeking confidence and validation, for example: when someone does a good deed or gets a new hairdo, the first thing they often do is let everyone on social media know.

In my opinion, because these digital communities’ ties are so weak, people are frightened to be honest because the relationship and rapport are not strong enough to handle constructive criticism. Instead, these online members aim to build each other up with untruthful compliments and feedback to achieve those same close-knit relationships that traditional face-to-face communities have. This really feels like a band-aid attempt to recreate the qualities that are lost in digital communities.

Furthermore, I also wonder how these behaviours of avoiding rejection or disapproval and being ‘built up’ by others are impacting the true development a person’s resilience and self-confidence??

Social media vs. personal inhibitions

The concept of affordance can be defined as ‘action potential’, whereby the mutuality of intentions and the object's capabilities can facilitate the potential for a given action (Azad et al. 2013, p.39). For example, where fire affords light, heat and cooking, it can also afford injury as a burn. Therefore, affordance is not just a matter of its physical properties, but also its relation to us as human (Bucher & Helmond 2017). Within the context of social media, we can observe an endless list of affordances from global networking, socialising to entertainment. However, in my opinion, one of the most significant affordances has been personal inhibitions, more specifically, how users experience and engagement on Snapchat and Facebook alter inhibition levels.

Source: Social media 2017.

SNAPCHAT

While it has been forever drummed into our heads that what you post on the internet you can rarely take back, Snapchat provides a refreshing change where photos and short videos are only view-able twice before they disappear completely (ConnectSafely 2013). Although Snapchat content can be screenshot by others, user are informed of who and when screenshots were taken, which provides a much strong perception of security. While this affordance can indeed minimize the risk of damage to the user’s presentation or reputation, it can be the catalyst for lowered inhibitions, particularly where Snapchat users are more likely to engage in sending sexually explicit content of themselves (Yeung et al. 2014). Additionally, Snapchat has also been criticized for bullying, based on the same premise that content will disappear and erase any evidence of the harassment taking place. Moreover, ‘these stealthier attacks leave targets mentally and emotionally taxed, carrying around a terrible secret, out of adult view’ (Handyside, S & Ringrose 2017).

Source: WFLA News Channel 8 2016.

FACEBOOK

Unlike Snapchat, Facebook users are more aware of self-presentation and reputation. Particularly, where Facebook can publicly display your posts on your profile page, such as status updates, conversations and photos/videos upload. While Facebook offers customisable privacy setting, users are still more likely to exhibit higher personal inhibitions over Snapchat. Although, there is much debate around whether users really understand the privacy settings, in order to apply them effectively (Child & Starcher, 2016). Moreover, this increased reputation awareness may also be linked to the knowledge that while Facebook users can delete their content, the terms of service declares that deleted content ‘may persist in back[ed]up copies’ (Facebook 2015). Although Facebook states that none of your deleted content will be available to others, there is no telling who may have a screenshot or saved the content before the deletion. With such concerns as potential employee screening your Facebook page before considering your candidacy (Guohua & Tao 2012) or current employees terminating your employment for poor behaviour, the need to be conservative online has never felt so important.

Source: Remember Who Your Visitors Are 2009

Indeed, the perceived security of Snapchat and the fear of Facebook content being accessed dramatically alters a user personal inhibitions and how they engage with the platform. However, with the ever-evolving technology and continuing risks associated with online security, one can never be too careful in how they alter their inhibitions with social media.

What are your thoughts?

References:

Azad, B, Faraj, S, Majchrzak, A & Kane, G 2013, ‘The Contradictory Influence of Social Media Affordances on Online Communal Knowledge Sharing’, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, vol. 19, pp. 38-55.

Bucher, T, & Helmond, A. 2017. ‘The Affordances of Social Media Platforms.’, In The SAGE Handbook of Social Media, edited by Jean Burgess, Thomas Poell, and Alice Marwick. London and New York: SAGE Publications Ltd.

Child, J & Starcher, S 2016, ‘Fuzzy Facebook privacy boundaries: Exploring mediated lurking, vague-booking, and Facebook privacy management’, Computers in Human Behavior, vol. 54, pp. 483-490.

ConnectSafely 2013, A Parents' Guide to Snapchat [pdf], ConnectSafely, viewed 10 December 2017, <https://www.connectsafely.org/wp-content/uploads/snapchat_guide.pdf>.

Facebook 2015, Terms of service, Facebook, viewed 11 December 2017, <https://www.facebook.com/terms.php>.

Guohua, W & Tao, S 2012, ‘Traits, Predictors, and Consequences of Facebook Self-Presentation’, Social Science Computer Review, vol. 30, no. 4, pp. 419-433.

Handyside, S & Ringrose, J. 2017. Snapchat memory and youth digital sexual cultures: mediated temporality, duration and affect, Journal of Gender Studies, vol 26, no. 3, pp. 347-360.

‘Remember Who Your Visitors Are’ [image], in Make Use Of 2009, The top 4 risks you face when you use facebook, viewed 10 December 2017, <http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/the-top-4-risks-you-face-when-you-use-facebook/>.

‘Social media’ [image], in Society for Human Resource Management 2017, Employers Are Using Snapchat to Reach Generation Z, viewed 8 December 2017, <https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/talent-acquisition/pages/employers-are-using-snapchat-to-reach-generation-z.aspx>.

WFLA News Channel 8 2016, Girl, 15, commits suicide after friends share nude Snapchat video, 8 Jun, viewed 10 December 2017, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBtMdSsVJCY>.

Yeung, T, Horyniak, D, Vella, A, Hellard, M & Lim, M 2014, ‘Prevalence, correlates and attitudes towards sexting among young people in Melbourne, Australia’, Sexual Health, vol. 11, no. 4, pp. 332-339.

insanjuniperowetrust-blog

Social Media: You can afford it!

Some time ago, I came across an interesting article which suggested that many people use Facebook because they want ‘to belong’ and because they feel the need to self-present themselves (Nadkarni & Hofmann 2012). While this made sense to me, I remember wondering if these people were aware that this social media platform, much like many others, enables you to do much more than just sharing photos or posting ‘happy birthdays’. As a matter of fact, over the last few years Facebook has been releasing a number innovative tools such as Facebook Video, Facebook Live, and several others that are really useful for businesses.

The many ways in which users interact with social media interfaces is known as ‘Affordances’. The term, which was invented decades before the arrival of the Internet, was coined by psychologist Gibson (Greeno 1994) and referred to the countless ways in which one can interact with their environment. Later, cognitive scientist Norman (1999) utilised the term to describe the potential uses that an object can have. Since social media somewhat involves these two definitions, it is not surprising that their platforms are now being analysed in terms of their affordances.

Social Behaviour Many scholars hold that social media influence our social behaviour (Butcher & Helmond 2016; Hughes, Rowe, Batey & Lee 2012). Specifically, that a user’s behaviour in any given digital community is the result of the affordances that the corresponding social media platform present. The following are two examples illustrating this scenario. Twitter Soon after its launch in 2006, this revolutionary platform quickly skyrocketed and positioned itself as one of the most popular social media sites. It was revolutionary because, while all sites encouraged users to post as much information as they wished, Twitter decided to limit each post to 140-characters. As a result of users being forced to write posts (or tweets) rather briefly, alternative ways of social interaction emerged. For example, facing the impossibility of elaborating on an idea, users often sought to convey a vehement message. Unfortunately, sometimes vehemency comes with a dose of antipathy, and when this occurs the original message can be misinterpreted.

YouTube There are enough examples to suggest that this social media platform also produced an unprecedented shift in terms of social behaviour. Among them, the possibility for users to access material that they had never seen before, such as interviews, documentaries, or even back stages of their favourite band. Likewise, it allowed users willing to share this material to express themselves through the videos they shared (as opposed to written communication). As such, by affording this salient aspect of YouTube people of this community developed an alternative way of interaction.

As it can be appreciated, each social media platform encourages a unique way of interaction, and this in turn generates certain social behaviours that are inherent to such community. If you want to learn more about this topic, I encourage you to watch the following Standford Seminar.

References

Bucher, T, & Helmond, A 2016. The Affordances of Social Media Platforms. In J. Burgess, T. Poell, & A.

Hancock, J 2016, ‘Affect, affordances and the psychology of social media’, Standford Seminar, viewed November 28 2017, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VklQ6NKlyPU>.

Hughes, DJ, Rowe, M., Batey, M, & Lee, A 2011, ‘A tale of two sites: Twitter vs. Facebook and the personality predictors of social media usage’, Computers in Human Behaviour, vol 28, no 2, pp. 561-569.

Greeno, J 1994, ‘Gibson’s affordances’, Psychological Review, vol 101, no 2, pp. 336-342.

Nadkami, A, & Hoffmann GF 2012, ‘Why do people use Facebook?’, Personality and individual differences, vol. 52, no 3, pp. 243-249.

itcamefromtheonlinespace-blog

This is a really great look at some changes in social behaviour afforded by social media. Great job!

I found your topic on YouTube interesting, particularly where you mentioned users have the ability to ‘access material that they had never seen before’. Social media and technology can indeed provide insights that would otherwise be impossible to obtain, like the example you mentioned ‘backstage [footage] of their favourite band’. Social media affords users a new way to explore the world. Although this generally occurs through another user’s experience, the introduction of live video streams has made it possible for viewers to interact with the streamer and assume elements of a first-hand experience. This could be instructing the streamer to investigate something or answer questions about what they are seeing and filming.

Below is a live feed of a trip around Disney Land. It’s a VERY long video, but a quick view of this stream does make you feel as though you are there walking amongst the crowds, experiencing the theme park first hand.

Source: ResortTV1 2017.

While this is an exciting social media development, is this only serving as a form of entertainment? How can we truly experience life through someone else’s eyes or lens? ....What’s your thoughts?

Reference: ResortTV1 2017, Magic Kingdom Live Stream - 7-28-17 - Walt Disney World, 28 Jul, viewed 10 December 2017, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgcFabokN9w>.

branuworld-blog

Blog #1

From community to society

The German sociologist Ferdinand Tönnies was struck by the dramatic changes that occurred to communities during the industrial revolution (Siapera 2012, p. 192). Leading up to the revolution, communities consisted of people who lived near to each other and knew much about each other’s lives, because of a natural will or desire to maintain close connection (Siapera 2012, p. 193). Tönnies referred to this as ‘Gemeinschaft’ (Siapera 2012, p. 193). However, the emergence of the industrial revolution drew people away from their communities and towards the opportunities offered by big towns and cities, where natural will gave way to a rational will to associate with strangers for the purpose of obtaining one’s goals (Siapera 2012, p. 193). Tönnies described this as ‘Gesellschaft’ and viewed this shift as a breaking down of community (Siapera 2012, p. 193).

Weak ties

So what does the industrial revolution have to do with our social media usage today? Well, some argue that new media is contributing to a further weakening of community. But not everyone agrees. Take for example, the theory of ‘weak ties’ proffered by Sociologist Mark Granovetter (1983, p. 202).

Granovetter suggests that everyone has a network of very close friends whom all know each other – they are called strong ties (Granovetter 1983, p. 202). Similarly, everyone also has acquaintances with whom they associate, and these acquaintances will not know each other – they are called weak ties (Granovetter 1983, p. 202). Our weak ties allow us to form connections with other networks, because these acquaintances have their own strong ties. What becomes apparent is the value of weak ties in providing gateways to other social networks that would otherwise be unobtainable. Nowhere is this more evident than on social media.

Networked sociality

Networked sociality is “the practices of creating interpersonal ties built on mobile communication.” (Liu 2015, p. 336). Social media allows us to connect with others that we may otherwise never encounter in our daily lives, because it is unbounded by geographical location and, to some extent, even socioeconomic status. Take Twitter for example. Anyone who has an account, regardless of where they are in the world, can tweet a message straight to their favourite celebrity. Something that would be impossible to do in their offline lives. Our horizons can be broadened by social media, as we use weak ties to access, for example, Facebook communities that we could not otherwise infiltrate in our offline lives. Through this networked sociality, community does still exist. The question is, would Tönnies approve of this new form of ‘community’?

References:

DSN strong weak cliques bridges, n.d., image, viewed 7 December 2017, < http://www.nils-diewald.de/images/dsn/dsn-strong-weak-cliques-bridges.png>

Granovetter, M 1983, ‘The strength of weak ties: A network theory revisited’, Sociological Theory, vol. 1, pp. 201-233, viewed 3 December 2017, via JSTOR database

Liu, T 2015, ‘Minority youth, mobile phones and language use: Wa migrant workers’ engagements with networked sociality and mobile communication in urban China’, Asian Ethnicity, vol. 16, no. 3, pp. 334-352, viewed 7 December 2017, via EBSCO Host database

Siapera, E 2012, Understanding new media, Sage London.

Social networks and getting a job: Mark Granovetter 2016, video recording, Stanford Centre on Poverty and Inequality, California

itcamefromtheonlinespace-blog

This is a really comprehensive look at the dilution of ‘Gemeinschaft’ communities through the industrial revolution. Excellent work!

Your blog raises a really interesting point about the value of weak ties providing gateways to expand networks. From a social perspective, weak ties in digital communities can be perceived the price to pay for a shift from traditional face-to-face communities.

Actually, it’s not too much of stretch to consider social media has lead communities to lean more towards being 'Gesellschaft’, particularly where social media encourage individuals to operates more out of self-interest. As Tönnies describes these societies are 'formed on the basis of rational will, and membership takes the form of an instrumental association, that leads to certain goals’ (Siapera 2012, p.193). An example of this would be networking to advance one’s career or social status.

Here is fun video that highlights the characteristics of ‘gemeinschaft' & ‘gessellschaft’ in a little more depth. To me, it would certainly appear that digital communities indeed lean more towards being ‘gessellschaft’. What’s your opinion? :)

Source: Tonnes 2012. References: Siapera, E 2012, ‘Socialities and Social Media’, in Understanding New Media, Sage, London.

‘Tonnes’ [image], in Facebook 2012, Andjelka Djukic Facebook post, viewed 10 December 2017, <https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=130055370463964&set=a.130051013797733.23644.100003785051508&type=3&theater>

Digital communities

Our survival as humans is based upon on our collective abilities (TEDx Talks 2013), therefore instinctively, we are hardwired to connect and belong. As social beings who not only crave the company of others, we depend upon it to form our identity and navigate the world (Gawande 2009). Whilst traditional face-to-face communities are being overshadowed by the ease and accessibility of the digital alternative, the fundamental human need of connectedness still appears to be the innate motive.

Source: Are we too obsessed with our technology?, 2017? Where communities were once based upon physical proximity, often operating in a conventional and traditionalist manner, digital communities are characterised by shared interests, beliefs and experiences (Siapera 2012). A shift marked by the emergence of technology, social media provides users with the ability to publish content online such as videos, photos, information or personal updates whilst also allowing users to interact with others through their content (Titangos 2013). Unlike local communities, these web-based platforms such as Wordpress, Youtube or Facebook offer a much wider audience, uniting the like-minded, where they can express their true selves and felt accepted (Siapera 2012).

Source: Reaching Out to the Online, 2012

This notion of self-expression and acceptance within a digital community can be observed through mummy blogger, Constance Hall. While Hall’s raw and polarising form of self-expression could otherwise be shunned by many within traditional communities for her controversy, she instead sought a digital community, building a network of over 1.1 million ‘queens’/followers on Facebook (Facebook 2017). This global hub has since become a community of support and empowerment for women who share the same beliefs and values in self-love, feminism and motherhood.

Source: Constance Hall, 2016

It is the personalisation and customisation of social media that has afforded users with the ability to self-select their networks and form these ‘personal communities’ (Chambers 2013 p. 147). Conversely, these very affordances have also been criticized for disconnecting communities and the splintering of identities (Chambers 2013). While it is considered that human identity assumes the ‘homogeneous characteristics which [we] share with other members of the group to which [we] belong’ (Masolo 2002, p.3), social media can fragment our lives and ultimately fragment the communities we connect with (Sze, 2017). Through the many diverse online communities we belong to, ‘each with its own worldview and system of knowledge’ (Sze, 2017), our personal identity can become complicated and confusing. Additionally, with social media offering greater control over our presentation, our ‘online identity’ can differ considerably from our offline identity (Marwick 2013) which can further exacerbate an identity crisis. This matter also raises the question of, how authentic and meaningful can a digital community be when member identities can be fabricated or highly modified?

Source: Feedback Loop, 2016

Digital communities undoubtedly fulfil our human desire to be social by offering new ways to achieve a sense of belonging and connectedness. However, it is difficult to deny the feelings that these communities are superficial and come at the cost of at a strong sense of self; a quality that I believe is an integral element to living a purposeful life.

References:

‘Are we too obsessed with technology’ [image], in Smart Fem Digital ND., Are we too obsessed with technology, viewed 8 December 2017, <http://www.smartfem.com/tech/are-we-too-obsessed-with-our-technology/>

Chambers, D 2013, Social Media and Personal Relationships: Online Intimacies and Networked Friendship, Palgrave Macmillan UK, 2013. Ebook Central (ProQuest).

‘Constance Hall’ [image], in Facebook 2016, Constance Hall Facebook update, viewed 7 December 2017, <https://www.facebook.com/mrsconstancehall/posts/1069319443112880:0>

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