Jenna Mastronardi

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Week 13/14 Part 2

With the continuing theme of Anonymity this week, I find it very ironic due to the fact that Rutgers University wifi was hacked earlier this week and since then it has been a struggle to return back to normal. The hacker has made it clear that he is not a super advanced hacker, but that the university has low quality security for a server that holds all of the students’ information. The hacker has been taunting the university while making a point to have higher security. Perhaps, the hacker is doing the students’ a favor by making Rutgers realize there is a strong need for improved internet security. I wonder, “What is such a large school that relies greatly on the internet to perform daily scholastic tasks? Who are they going to call?” Anonymous. These high level hackers (which we shouldn’t even call them that because they are much more skilled and sophisticated than that) can enter almost any server without leaving a trace. With finals coming up and scheduling currently happening the need for internet is stronger than ever. Messages like the one below suggest that perhaps it is an inside job. Maybe it is a student, or even a professor. Perhaps this “genius” is one that we walk by everyday not even realizing he or she is having a huge impact on all of our daily lives.

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Week 13 Anonymity & Transparency

This generation has for the most part always had the internet at their disposal. Whenever someone has a question or hears a rumor in the media, the first thought to do is “Google it”. What our generation does not care to really think about is where that information comes from, or who is the reliable source. Almost anybody can make a claim on the internet so accuracy of information, something found to be a very pertinent problem in today’s journalism, is always a challenge to maintain. On the other side of the person looking for information, is the side with the person giving access to information usually not within public access. Today, almost anyone can be a hacker. It’s strange as I feel security and technology is advancing through the years, yet more problems seem to be occurring. Earlier in the year, many celebrities, like Jennifer Lawrence, were victims of a scandal in which a hacker accessed their very personal (if you know what I’m saying) pictures, and released them to the public. These photos were not received through a second party, but rather through the owner of the photos themselves. It’s scary to think that even in your possession, your information is not safe. This is just one of the minor yet highly publicized breaches in the internet. Everywhere you browse on the internet, is recorded as data and sold to businesses. So, even though the internet allows us to seclude ourselves from face to face communication, where information can most effectively be received, it has caused other people to get information on us more easily. Scary, isn’t it? Where will that barrier of privacy stand, if at all? I guess as Spongebob says, “At least I’m safe inside my mind.” For now, at least, because we all know how that scene ends, and if you don’t, well, just watch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iN7luZZ4mxY

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Week 12

Crowd Psychology reminds me a bit of a bandwagon tactic in advertising. The strength is in numbers. So when it comes to raising awareness, it is just the same. Standing alone, there’s one voice and no one tends to listen to one person truthfully, unless they hold a lot of power (or money). When this comes to social media, even though it’s not physically people standing together, it is through social media that we can virtually stand together. Through Twitter, the hashtag and trending tool is definitely a powerful one. Usually it isn’t used for many vital issues, more so for topics in pop culture or television. However, there are times when a serious issue can be addressed on Twitter. When celebrities start supporting the hashtag, the more popularity it has. Trending topics have become more relevant in pop culture. At many awards shows (typically targeted at a teen/young adult audience), they monitor trending topics or popularity of guests as the show goes on. Or more importantly how could anyone forget #kony2012 or #stopkony2012. Through Youtube and Twitter, everyone was believing in a cause (which oh-so quickly vanished out of the media shortly after it reached its peak). On Facebook, there is the sharing tool and pages that you can like to support a cause. The importance here is that to gain the numbers in your cause, you need notable people on your side. Like I said before someone with power, can help spread your word. Someone with money, can help promote your cause. Alone, you may not have much say, but once these factors are thrown into the mix, your cause could be a trending topic or article shared on Twitter, eventually making its way to the news, and eventually starting a worldwide movement.

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Week 11

With this week being about fans, I personally got excited. I would classify myself as a fan girl from time to time. I am obsessed with certain celebrities (Nick Jonas, Demi Lovato). What do I mean by this? I follow them on every social media outlet, know a lot of background information, and follow their news in the media as well. When this is done, as fans we put this famous person on a pedestal and they define us. We adopt their tendencies, likes, dislikes, ideas and even sometimes their personalities. It is kind of strange how we basically are imitating them through a different body form. The most important part to me is the adopting of ideals. If a celebrity feels a certain way about a conflict, their fans will back them up 100%. We lose the aspect of originality and individuality through becoming so caught up in this celebrity. In a fan’s eyes, their role model can do know wrong. Every action, whether right or wrong, can be justified to the fan. This brings me to a very important question to contemplate: Do we attract to celebrities with similar ideals to us or do we attract to celebrities through superficial things like looks and just go along with what they say and believe in? You can see how powerful fans are. When One Direction lost Zayn Malik, the fans went NUTS and even had set up a GoFund Me to buy One Direction. When a celebrity gets in a public social media brawl, you will have their fans making serious threats at the opponent of the fight. Is this because they believe so strongly in their celeb or because they are just so caught up and infatuated that they will change their personal opinions to match with theirs? I think fans are a little bit too mesmerized by celebrities. It’s like a cult, some fan bases are fierce. On the other hand, some celebrities truly are inspirational and put out positivity in which a fan base can be proud to adopt such ideals. When it crosses the line into violence and serious issues, I think fans go a bit too far and exceed how a typical fan should act. 

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Forgot to upload this, but still want the extra credit for putting this crap on my face 👍

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Week 10: Gaming

Gaming has been a very popular hobby for those who are young, to even those who are adults. Gaming is very addictive, and at times it can be unclear as to why. Growing up, I feel there were always those concerned mothers, who would try to monitor the video games their child played and made sure the content was not too violent. Inevitably, their child would be playing bloody, gory, and very visual games. A video game, Super Columbine RPG was a very controversial game. This game depicts a real life event in which there were shootings at Columbine High School in 1999. Real people, and real families were traumatized and affected by such a devastating event. Why would anyone create a game where people could find entertainment in the real life loss of innocent people?  In “A Casual Revolution” by Jesper Juul a possible explanation for that addiction is identified. He writes how, the “experience, of being a gamer, can be described as the simple feeling of a pull, of looking at a game and wanting to play it”. That pull and attraction is the desire for someone to want to live out the situation the game offers. By this, it makes me question the human mind. Do we see this game that depicts a high school shooting, and desire to live that fantasy out? It’s kind of sick to think about. On the other side of things, it is a better outlet to be taking violence or stress out through a virtual game rather than in real life. I personally think the human mind strives to seek a thrill or adrenaline rush and this game can provide a synthetic feeling of such. I obviously think it is wrong to put a sad, real-life event into a video game. Once the addiction of violent, possible-to-be-played-out-in-real-life situations in video games start to occur in the real world, we will have a tremendous problem on our hands.

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Week 9

With the whole talk of Jenna Marbles’ youtube account and her success in Performing Gender on Youtube by Lindsey Wotanis & Laurie McMillan, I thought of something similar. With media, we tend to watch and enjoy things we can identify with. The article states how the “attention to gender performance and parody is rooted” in society. I think the fact that Jenna Marbles is an attractive person helps her notariety. If someone ugly had made funny videos like that, I don’t think she’d be as popular. On a different social media outlet, Vine, people make 6 second videos. Personally, my favorite vines are the ones that are funny and relatable. There is a user named SelfieC. Her vines mostly consist of her lip syncing to songs and dancing to them. This is something that involves almost no talent whatsoever, yet she receives millions of views. Why? Because she is a pretty girl. This connects to Rape Culture and the Feminist Politics of Social Media in a way that it talks about how woman are glamorized in a sexual way. Many people comment about her appearance (because what else could they really comment on). Maybe ultimately, this is what she strives to achieve, but she feeds into the common sexualizing of woman. Why put time into lip synching music while looking pretty instead of something that is a more sophisticated talent? 

https://vine.co/SelfieC

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Week 8

With this week’s topic being labor, a lot can come to mind. There’s the whole idea of virtual work, or the companies running social media themselves or even the way users find being on social media a necessity or like a chore by how addicting it may be. In Learning to Immaterial Labour 2.0: Facebook and Social Networks by Mark Coté and Jennifer Pybus the idea of Labour 2.0 is describes as “the ‘free’ labour that subjects engage in on a cultural and biopolitical level when they participate on a site such as Facebook.” (Cote, Pybus). Social media is extremely time consuming (something we can especially identify with as students when trying to construct a paper). The time put in to say your opinions or share links or simply just browse is work. It takes energy or mental stimulation to be able to consciously observe and interact with the material we see. This is like Martens point in Transmedia teens: Affect,immaterial labor, and user-generated content. She writes about users and how “their participation commodifies and brands them”(Martens) when it comes to products or companies. So, when we’re tweeting about a movie, whether it be a positive or negative review, it is still publicity. We are working basically as promotors on social media without realizing it or more importantly, getting paid for it. This is especially evident on twitter as the more you talk about something, the more popular it gets and then it will start trending. Regardless of whether the topic is good or bad, it is out there and more and more people will see. It’s interesting because as average users no one expects one tweet to mean so much but collectively it can really boost a cause, company, or product.

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Analytical Response 1

Friends or Fans?

Social media has a strong effect on many different aspects in life. In today’s day and age, social media can act as a more important or relied on role than face-to-face communication, even though at times it is not as effective. With modern day having a great amount of social media in it, people today are dealing with new surfacing conflicts surrounding their use of social media.

In my personal use with social media, I tend to have a problem that many other users of outlets such as Twitter can identify with. Twitter has a range of diverse users. Some use it for promotional use for a company, others use it at leisure, and others use it to promote their celebrity status. Personally, my use is generally reach out to my favorite celebrities. Daily, I will be constantly checking my feed to see what the celebrities highly admire, are doing. Whenever I come across their tweets I will interact in some way whether it be with a favorite, retweet, or reply. The tweet could be about something I absolutely hate, yet when I see it, I will still interact in a positive way. I undergo this similar process with my best friends on twitter. I will constantly interact with them whether it be a mention or just a favorite. The problem here, is that I act the same way with famous people, in which I have never had that face-to-face interaction with, as I do with my best friends. From this habit, I feel an emotional attachment to these celebrities. With the way I interact with these celebrities, I feel as if I know them really well as a person. I find the way they present themselves on social media authentic and buy into the personality they sell.

In “To See and to Be Seen: Celebrity Practice on Twitter” by Alice Marwick and Danah Boyd, the article mentions about the general public and our role on social media. Through outlets like Youtube, Twitter, etc, we try to make ourselves a micro-celebrity on our own. Followers are our fan base that we constantly are trying to satisfy. The whole term of a micro-celebrity is “a mindset and set of practices in which audience is viewed as a fan base; popularity is maintained through ongoing fan management; and self-presentation is carefully constructed to be consumed by others” (Marwick, Boyd). Famous people maintain their image through micro-celebrity. Image is everything in Hollywood or in the limelight. On the other side of things, the general public strives to achieve this micro-celebrity mindset. Why am I constantly tweeting my celebrities even though it may have a negative response from my followers? In my opinion, the normal average users strive to reach some sort of notoriety. The general public will reply and reply and tweet and show all of this admiration in hopes of that one in a million chance the famous person will reply. That would provide a sense of emotional fulfillment.

In “Faux Friendship”, by William Deresiewicz, the topic of friendship in an internet setting is discussed. Right off the bat, the title can relate to the situation. This synthetic friendship is one sided as much as the celebrity can boast about their love for their fans. Deresiewicz makes a point that “Friendships, unlike blood ties, are elective”(Deresiewicz). It is up to the person themselves to choose who is a friend and who is not. By saying they are elective brings up something questionable: Does the friendship have to necessarily be a replicated relationship? If someone is content in what they think is a friendship, than what exactly the opposite person thinks should not really make a difference. This relates back to famous people as the friendship is not reflected, however, the fan feels such adoration and contentment with the status of the relationship. For all anyone knows, the celebrity could completely dislike their fans and find all the overwhelming attention uncomfortable and strange. The fan will never know that because the friendship is not a two-way street. This pre-meditated idea of friendship has adapted overtime with the addition of numerous outlets of social media.

Human beings choose to neglect the possibility that a friendship is not authentic. The two articles intertwine on what exactly defines a friendship with achieving celebrity or attention from a famous figure. One would rather have the quantity of friends, not knowing where exactly they stand with the other person, than to not have them at all. Consequently, an aspect of average everyday people is revealed with their desire for attention and micro-celebrity mindset. Just like the celebrities they follow, they strive to keep what they think are their fans satisfied and ultimately trying to boost their image. By the sound of all of this, humans are very selfish. It is more so about their satisfaction with having numerous people admire them. On the other hand, the satisfaction of others is necessary in order to grow in hopes of one day being a well known celebrity. For both the celebrity and the average human being one thing is for sure; you’re nothing without your audience and fans.

Sources:

Marwick, Alice, and Danah Boyd. "To See and Be Seen: Celebrity Practice on Twitter." To See and Be Seen: Celebrity Practice on Twitter. Sage Publications. Web. 9 Mar. 2015. <http://con.sagepub.com/content/17/2/139>.

Deresiewicz, WIlliam. "Faux Friendship." The Chronicle. The Chronicle of Higher Education, 6 Dec. 2009. Web.

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Week 7

In Posting Racism and Sexism: Authenticity, Agency and Self Reflexivity in Social Media by Rachel E. Dubrofsky and Megan M. Wood, the idea of self-reflexivity is emphasized. In previous years I had learned about self-reflexivity in a psychology class. It included the idea that you use your own past experiences to learn and apply to new experiences. The article uses Miley Cyrus to prove their point. By using a celebrity the authors are trying to make the point of the importance of one's image. In Hollywood, a bad image can blacklist you and end your career. Something that caught my eye was when they wrote, "Does Cyrus fashion her own tweets?"(Dubrofsky,Wood). This is something average twitter users struggle to identify. With social media like Twitter, it allows you a somewhat close bond with a celebrity. Celebrities sometimes reach out on tweeting sprees tweeting to their followers but other times they have promotional tweets for themselves or for sponsors. By tweeting at their followers and fans, this gives them a good image with the general public. By tweeting the promotional products and companies, that gives them a good image in business. This makes one question is it really the celebrity tweeting? Maybe it's a publicist, or generated. With the internet there is no face to face communication, in other words we don't see the celebrity tweeting. So why do we put faith in them and just go on believing that it is truly them, without proof? I think it's because it is all we have. We don't know the celebrity personally and don't have the opportunity to see them on a daily basis but Twitter gives you a synthetic feeling that you do. We feel better having this one-sided internet friendship, than having nothing at all. 

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Week 6

In one of the reading's the topic of "self-branding" is very relevant. In my past media class, my professor was big on this. The article also mentions how self-expression and self-presentation go along with this idea of self branding. My understanding of self-branding has two parts of it. It has an aspect of creating this reputation of yourself and also having brands define you. Through advertisements on television or people you know that wear or use certain items, one can determine whether they identify with that type of product. So, yes you are choosing the brands however there's an aspect of the branding choosing a part of you. For example, I feel like everyone went through that Abercrombie & Fitch phase in middle school where they purchased their clothes to be "cool" or wear clothes like someone from cool beach towns in California. The article goes on to mention Youtube which is a prime example of self-branders. Within this decade, Youtubers have taken over and become an important aspect of social media. The only product they are trying to "sell" is themselves. What they think will sell is being relatable to their viewers. Being on an outlet like Youtube which is free to join, viewers can easily connect to these normal people that are just like them. This becomes a fascinating concept as the vloggers gain advertisement deals with the rise of their popularity. In a way, it brings self-branding full circle. Now these products define their channel and give them a reputation based on the brands reputation.

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Week 5 "Talking"

In Dating on the Net by Lynn Schofield Clark, teenage dating and its relation to cyberspace are the basis of her talking points. Her research follows “intense experimentation in the chat rooms”(Clark 697). Basically following this girl’s activity in chatrooms with those of the opposite sex. In today’s society, I feel this research would be mostly visible through text messages. I feel like everyone in our generation, has had some sort of relationship that started from technology. Whether it be through Facebook or texting or whatever, that has been the location to start friendships or maybe more. Personally, I had met a male friend briefly through a mutual friend and he would constantly contact me through texting. When it came to school, it was as if I was invisible. He was unable to hold conversation and any face to face social aspect was unbelievably awkward. I think we are a bit confused as to where exactly a relationship stands when you do not communicate face to face. We can say things in person, and text things over the phone, leading on two different personas. Personally, until I have that public, direct communication, I would not consider someone a friend or anything more. A relationship built through technology loses the human aspects we find so significant. Facial expressions and body gestures definitely can say a lot about a conversation, but that is not an aspect of communication online. A lot of intimate relationships have a stage today’s generation calls, “talking”. I have no idea how this happened or why it exists, but it is basically the equivalent of what it was like to be in a relationship 10 years ago. The basis of “talking” is that major aspect of texting or chatting everyday, and through the use of social media to see if you are really compatible without that direct commitment. It’s very strange how two people must overcome a technological barrier before they are deemed ready to be each other’s significant other. The increase in technology has added another stage and aspect in building a relationship.

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This was my classmate Kelly and I's selfie from class on Tuesday. We smile in this picture, however I wouldn't say being in class brings us this much joy. I think we put on this big smile to have people perceive us as being happy and content with life. If someone frowns, you question what is wrong or maybe what other problems may be going on. 

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Week 4

In Faux Friendship by William Deresiewicz a main idea mentioned talks about friendship in today's age with social media being such a great impact. Facebook has mutual users that know each other titled as friends. Constantly people boast about the thousands of friends on Facebook they have. The real question is: Do they know these people on a real intimate level? I am just as guilty of the next person as accepting a familiar face on Facebook that I wouldn't be able to tell you one interesting fact about them. Why do we do this? In my opinion, I feel that the more friends you have, the more fulfilled emotionally, we as humans, feel. We feel that sense of popularity and relevance without the physical interaction a true friendship needs. I also think this is due to the fact that we are so nosy. We constantly want to see what people are up to and how their lives compare to ours. This idea of the desire to maintain relevancy will constantly be apparent as everyone wants to be important and mean something in this world. By being in control of what we put on social media, outlets like Facebook, are the home of putting out our best selves. Therefore we mingle with others via this profile that we make of what we think is our true identity. 

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Week 3

In this week's readings, the perception of one's self in the media is a very prevalent topic. One of the readings state, "Some people use or manipulate copyrighted images for their profile picture." (Sarachan 59). More importantly, what I take from this reading is the deception. People putting cartoon characters as their avatar or something that is not them, makes me question, "What are they hiding? Why can't they show who they truly are?" This also makes me think of MTV's Catfish. 

Catfish is a television show that follows people who find a significant other through Facebook but they have never physically met. Most of the time, the person is not who they say they are and have stolen someone's identity or simply an attractive person's pictures. The reasoning behind this usually stems from self-esteem issues. That thereafter brings up the question to the victim of this deception, "Do you still have those feelings from that connection you built? Or do the looks really matter?" It kind of puts the victim in a bad position however a relationship built on lies would not have lasted anyways. This all is a result of us as humans wanting to put our best self on display. 

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Week 2

With today's numerous outlets of social media, the Spectacle 2.0 has expanded. In "Spectacle 2.0" by Rune Vejby and D.E. Wittkower, the term of détournement is emphasized. The basis is that it, "refers to the subversion of pre-existing artistic productions by altering them, giving them a new meaning and placing them within a new context"(Vejby,Wittkower, 104). I think the reasoning behind this is that we use satire to poke fun at society. I think today's generation finds most of their humor through détournement. Specifically in Pop Culture, I feel everyone always tries to display their best self to the world. People find humor when someone calls out something for being ridiculous or unreal. 

In this painting above, it exemplifies détournement. I know this painting is well-known as it definitely is hanging at my grandmother's house. However, the toxic waste is definitely not in the painting hanging at my grandmother's house. The essence is supposed to be the romantic dancing on the beach and the beauty of it. The point here points at our environment and the pollution in our oceans. The beauty is as great at the painting shows. The contrast of the painting is almost humorous as it presents to different tones. Media points out what's really wrong with our society. There is no holding back or sugar coating it. Social media adds humor to issues to make it more memorable and enjoyable to learn about. From a simple painting photoshopped like this, one could spark a passion in environmental issues. 

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Week 1

Hi, my name is Jenna Mastronardi. I am a first year student here at Rutgers University. I am currently undeclared but plan on majoring in Journalism and Media Studies with a possible DCIM minor. I'm not sure what exactly I want to do yet whether it be something like Public Relations or working in Television. In high school, I helped run my high school's TV channel and reported the morning announcements. I have a part time job working in the Involvement Office on College Ave. I hope to study abroad at some point in Australia. I have never been out of the country before so I am definitely looking forward to that. In this course, I hope to learn more about this generation's attachment to social media. I know I have probably looked at my phone at least 10 times throughout the construction of this post. That seems like just about it, I'm hoping for a fun semester!