Just another uni blog @joelblogshere-blog - Tumblr Blog

Social Media users use memes to respond to Donald Trump retweeting Kanye West

‘Dragon Energy’ [image] viewed 28 April 2018 <https://www.facebook.com/TheGoodLordAbove/photos/a.608095492611491.1073741834.157750900979288/2440637212690634/?type=3&theater>

Twitter 2018, @realDonaldTrump [Online], Twitter, viewed 28 April 2018, <https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump>

#MDA20009 #Trump #Trolls #Social Media #Digital Communities #MAGA

It started with a #hashtag

(above) Political cartoon. Source: Pinterest

On Twitter, the general discussion around politics in Australia can be followed, or participated in, by searching the hashtag #auspol (Rambukka, 2015 pp. 18). The Australian community has become proficient in using different hashtags for following different political issues:

- #qt to follow Question Time – the publicly broadcasted hour of debate during Parliament sitting days;

- #qanda for commenting on the weekly politics show on the ABC;

- and each state and territory has their own politics tag, for example NSW has #nswpol, Victoria has #SpringSt (an odd one out which represents that Parliament is on Spring Street in Melbourne), #taspol, etc.

News: #auspol – The Twitter hashtag Australia can’t live without – Mashable

B&T Weekly, (2017), writes by mid 2017 #auspol had been tweeted 3.5million times by political followers. Whilst that might seem a lot, in comparison, Australian Boy Band 5 Seconds of Summer have been tweeted about almost half a billion times using the hashtag #5SOS.

Jericho, (2017 pp. 113) describes the importance of journalists covering politics needing to be on Twitter, and suggests that if a journalist is not active on Twitter, they’re giving themselves an automatic handicap. Announcements and news is appearing quicker and quicker on Twitter, before making it onto news websites, leaving journalists to fight out who gets the best clicks through to their sites after people have already found they key information through the social media site.

Now let’s leave Australia and do the dive to the most talked about person on Twitter, Donald Trump.

Sigh.

I can’t believe how much we’re talking about him based on what he tweets!

Related news article: How Trump Wins Twitter – Slate

It’s important to note that Trump has been a regular user of Twitter since 2009 (Osborne & Roberts, 2017). From 2009 and pushing his empirical products such as golf courses and beauty pageants, to him tweeting about seeing Lada Gaga in 2010, starting to find his political voice in 2011, through to the post-Presidency win FAKE NEWS tweets, Trump really can claim to be an avid user of Twitter, and How Trump Thinks: His Tweets and the Birth of a new Political Language is a great read as it shows all his tweets with explanations as to what they’re about, so you can try get inside his head and understand what he’s trying to share.

Do you follow politics on social media?

Jericho, G 2013, The Rise of the Fifth Estate : Social Media and Blogging in Australian Politics, Scribe Publications, Brunswick, Victoria.

Oborne, P, & Roberts, T 2017, How Trump Thinks : His Tweets and the Birth of a New Political Language, Head of Zeus, London.

Twitter celebrates 10 years of the #hashtag, 2017, B & T Weekly.

Rambukkana, N 2015, Hashtag Publics : The Power and Politics of Discursive Networks, Peter Lang Inc., International Academic Publishers, New York.

#MDA20009 #Politics #Auspol #Trump #hashtags

On a scale of accessibility, how inaccessible is Tumblr?

#MDA20009

frangolive

A name by any other rose ….

MDA20009: Digital Communities Blog

Well, now that we’ve established I am a node on a new platform of a Tumblr blog site, I have loads of new names that define me as part of all the publics out in the digital networks of social media (Warner 2002). I‘m typical of the US statistic, that of the major platforms of Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin and Twitter, I’m part of the 74 % of women over 62% of men, that populate Facebook (PewResearch 2014). However, I live in a rural area, so I don’t reflect the denser publics of urban areas that have higher usage of this platform (PewResearch 2014). This also categorizes me as a member of multiple constituencies that platforms serve through their affordances, via my gender and nodal demographic (Gillespie 2010, p.347).

https://medium.com/@jamesallworth/what-the-f-was-facebook-thinking-a1c49dbf29c2 3.4.18

I’m a constant ‘googler’ and ‘youtuber’ and in my adoption of these platforms I’m part of social media publics that have sanctioned established protocols that platforms use in the balancing act of selecting terms of reference that can define and capture audience attention and adoption (Gillespie 2010, p.349). I’m quite ‘computational’ in that the modern competition for my engagement, creates a kind of tension between usage of differing platforms – which site do I check first (Gillespie 2010, p.349)? In creating a Tumblr blog I could be characterised as ‘architectural’ in that I want to make it distinct from other sites and attract followers (Gillespie 2010, p.349). My own blog platform could be called distinctly ‘political’ in its ideology, only instead of reflecting the 1648 governance of church publication, ‘The Cambridge Platform’, I’m reposting and reblogging the 2018 ‘The Cambridge Analytics Scandal’, that has occurred on an entirely different platform of ‘figurative’ ideology 370 years later (Gillespie 2010, p.350).

https://www.digitaltrends.com/opinion/reddit-worlds-best-anonymous-social-network/

My interaction with other nodes of the Tumblr platform will allow me to position myself to find something of value, that although carried out on a platform of seeming neutrality, affords a distinct digital product with a desired outcome of public(s) engagement (Gillespie 2010, p.350). I am now also a ‘cyber- political libertarian and an info-business opportunist’ in that I have freedom to post and publish my point of view and then if it feels counterproductive, I can simply delete it from the discourse (Gillespie 2010, p.352). In this way I can be quite ‘ephemeral’ 😉 (van der Negal 2013)

http://www.briansolis.com/2017/11/digital-futurist-says-technology-behind-psychographic-marketing-can-used-good-evil-advertising/

Now that the Moonage Daydreams blog has launched from the platform and headed out into the public discourse space, I’m part of a guided form of ‘weak ties’ that have strong potential to structure flows of contented learning (Gillespie 2010, p.352). These flows can become a matter of policy, whereby my Tumblr blog as an agent of an information distribution arrangement can further the shaping of how we relate to each other and how our cultural societal norms become part of public vernacular via my ‘likes, replies, comments and reblogs’ (Gillespie 2010, p.355).

As a faceless activist avatar it remains to be seen if I succeed ….

REFERENCES:

Assignment 1: Blog Weeks 1 - 4, Part 2

Gillespie, T 2010, 'The politics of platforms’, New Media & Society, vol. 12, no. 3, Sage, viewed 30.3.18,

PewResearch, 2014, Social networking fact sheet, viewed 22.3.18, <http://www.pewinternet.org/fact-sheets/social-networking-fact-sheet/>.

TEDx 2014, The Power & Science of Social Connection: Emma Seppälä, [video], viewed 12.4.18, <https://youtu.be/WZvUppaDfNs>

van der Negal 2013, ‘Faceless Bodies: Negotiating Technological and Cultural Codes on reddit gonewild’, Scan Journal of Media Arts Culture, vol. 10, no. 2, Macquarie University

Warner, M 2002, ‘Publics and Counterpublics’, Public Culture, vol. 14, no. 1, pp. 49-90

joelblogshere-blog

All the stats!! I also live in a rural area, having moved to regional Victoria from Perth a little over two years ago. The mention of affordances definitely plays a big part in staying connected, especially when one relocates across the country!

Loving all the Tumblr stats, did you know Tumblr was inspired by two other projects?

#MDA20009 #History Of Tumblr #I wish I was that clever when I was 20

joelblogshere-blog

Post 1A (1) - Are we connected but alone - further analysis

I’m going to start this blog journey by reflecting on week one “Are we connected but alone”.

Above video: Professor Tracy Alloway says that “social media has changed our attention, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing” (TEDx, 2016)

Sherry Turkle, a Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology believes that whilst Facebook helps us keep in touch with friends, it is also used too much to substitute spending face to face time with them (New York Times Upfront, 2014 p. 23). Sherry continues to suggest that due to people feeling the need to keep up with their friends’ online activities, people have forgotten how to disconnect and enjoy alone time. In the same article, Sree Sreenivasan believes that it is ridiculous to blame Facebook for people being lonely, and that social media only amplifies who you are in real life – if you’re a lonely person in general, social media will only make you more lonely.

There is a lot of interesting studies about the link between connectedness and loneliness. A study on older adults found that technology can be an enabler (Ballantyne et al 2010 p. 30), and that the internet and social media sites can help bring long distance family members together. It’s also important to note that this particular study was conducted on a one on one basis in the individuals own homes, creating a supportive environment, and that without that support older individuals may not understand the technology well enough to be able to participate. Melbourne University philosopher Damon Young suggests that older people who haven’t been saturated with information may be more able to enjoy their own company compared to Generation Y who grew up in a connected world (Griffin, 2011).

Above image: It’s interesting to note that whilst different sources suggest the birthdates of Generations are different, that the understanding of generation beliefs is pretty much the same. (Consultancy UK 2015)

What does all this mean though? Are Generation Y – those of us who were born from the late 1970’s-1994 and went through their teen years as the world wide web started to develop, and Generation Z – those born from 1995-2012 and even more internet savvy than Gen Y (WJSchroer, n.d.), are we too much connected via the internet and social media than Gen X and the Boomers who have been around longer than us and weren’t exposed to online environments until they were much older? Is wanting to communicate through a computer or a mobile device because people are more comfortable something that needs to be dealt with, a condition that needs to be labelled, and a fix/cure found for? Personally I don’t think there’s one single answer to this. We all come from different backgrounds – different life experiences, different cultures, different medical conditions that may affect how we communicate. Our backgrounds also affect how we manage social conflict too.

I think most people wish they had more friendships, and face to face encounters. Do you agree?

Above image: “Social Media is like Ancient Egypt, writing things on walls and worshipping cats” - George Takei (Sahakians 2016)

References

Ballantyne, A., Trenwith, L. Zubrinich, S. and Corlis, M. 2010, ‘I feel less lonely’: what older people are saying about participating in a social media website”, Quality in Ageing and Older Adults, vol. 11, no 3., pp. 25-35, viewed April 2 2018 <https://doi-org.ezproxy.lib.swin.edu.au/10.5042/qiaoa.2010.0526>.

Consultancy UK 2015, ‘So who are the different Generations?’ [image], in Consultancy UK – Generation Y less satisfied than other Generations, Consultancy Network, viewed 2 April 2018, < https://www.consultancy.uk/news/2061/generation-y-less-satisfied-than-other-generations>.

Griffin, M 2011, ‘Generation Y is so connected, but oh so lonely: survey”’, The Age, 20 July, p.8, viewed 2 April 2018 <http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A278112330/AONE?u=swinburne1&sid=AONE&xid=0f2042de>.

New York Times Upfront, 2014, Is Facebook making us lonely? Some say social media keeps us connected. Others argue that it breeds loneliness., New York Times Upfront, 17 March, viewed April 2 2018 <http://link.galegroup.com.ezproxy.lib.swin.edu.au/apps/doc/A361711282/AONE?u=swinburne1&sid=AONE&xid=232f82ea>.

Sahakians, S 2016, ‘…like ancient Egypt’ [image], in Buffer Social - 20 Metaphors That Explain Social Media Perfectly, Buffer Blog, viewed 2 April 2018, <https://blog.bufferapp.com/what-is-social-media>.

TEDx Talks 2016, Facebook Fearless: How social media can be good for you: Tracy Alloway, 12 December, viewed 2April 2018 <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkqaQ-0bCpM>.

itssuzblog-blog

Firstly, I love the reference to Ancient Egypt! George Takei is usually spot on with his social media posts. In regards to the question you’ve posed, as a millennial, someone who grew up in the 1990′s, I remember the time before the internet (it does exist Gen Z’ers!) I appreciated being able to go my friends houses and call them on the phone. I still have a few childhood friends, who I don’t see very often, but I also don’t really talk to them on social media either. When we catch up, it’s like no time has passed. But I would like more RL friends. I have a couple of really good friends, but we seem communicate a lot via messaging, I would prefer to see them more often, online chat seems so impersonal.

joelblogshere-blog

Are we in denial about over-usage though? ;)

gem-vs-ba-mcmns-blog

You can lead a horse to water: understanding the shifts and changes in sociality associated with ‘new media.’

Growing up, I socialised as I was expected to. I spent time with school friends, family and my fellow drama club or piano class students. Likewise, my older sister spent time with our family, with her friends from school, and with her netball team. As we both reached working age, that community extended to our workmates. But that was it. Until the internet came along.

(Source: What you should never Google 2016)

Suddenly our traditional social arrangements were turned on their head. Instead of connecting or networking in our socially accepted – and expected – groups, we now had the ability to form new friendships and communities online. No longer did we need to be in the same place at the same time to form ties with people; now the whole world was right at our fingertips, and with it, networked individualism – or the ability to form relationships as an individual rather than as part of a group as defined by society (Siapera 2012, p. 199).

Historically, we’d always known community to be the joining together of people with similar interests or beliefs, with the goal of mutual fulfilment. Society, while similar, was slightly different; a society to us consisted of people brought together by geography or through political or cultural beliefs and expectations (Comparison between Society and Community 2016). In both cases – in a time before the internet – ours had been defined by geography, expectation and circumstance. Now, my sister and I had access to the whole world, not just our insular neighbourhood. How did this redefine our ideas of community and society?

In my case, it completely changed the way I viewed and interacted with my world. I had never quite felt as though I “fit” with those I was expected to associate with. I was living in a society and was part of various communities within that society, but it always felt as though I was doing so out of obligation rather than because I had fundamental thoughts and beliefs in common with the people around me - I also felt like there were perspectives and opinions I was missing out on. Social anxiety and other physical, psychological and neurological disorders also made interpersonal relationships difficult for me. Then I got online and all of that changed.

In her TED Talk “Connected, but alone?” professor and author, Sherry Turkle, says:

“Human relationships are rich and they’re messy and they’re demanding. And we clean them up with technology.”

(Connected, but alone? 2012).

Turkle presents this as a negative concept; the idea that, online, we only present a façade and not who we really are. That we fail to form deep connections with others. While I’m compelled to agree with Turkle’s intimation that we clean up our relationships (and ourselves) online, I have to disagree with her presenting this as A Bad Thing. In person, I am shy and awkward and out of place. Online, I can speak freely and articulate my thoughts and feelings without the fear of a judgemental look or an impatient shuffle of feet or clearing of the throat by the person I’m speaking to. The ability to build a “virtual community” (Calhoun 1998, p. 373) allowed me the courage to also meet these online friends in person and extend my socialisation far beyond the internet.

^ Me

(Source: Social Lives Online versus Offline: Finding the Right Balance 2018?)

And my sister? Well…as I was escaping my socially awkward suburban bubble, she was choosing to subscribe to Negroponte’s “Daily Me” (cited in Sunstein 2007, p. 3); filtering everything she came across, reading about only what she wanted to know about, and creating “a perfectly egocentric, atomized world” (Siapera 2012, p. 195). My sister has built exactly the community and society we grew up with…just through a computer screen. Socially accepted and socially expected.

^ My sister

(Source: # proverb: ‘You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink' 2017).

References

# proverb: 'You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink’ 2017, Steemit, viewed 8 April 2018, <https://steemit.com/proverbs/@thoots/proverb-you-can-lead-a-horse-to-water-but-you-can-t-make-him-drink>.

Calhoun, C 1998, ‘Community without Propinquity Revisited: Communications Technology and the Transformation of the Urban Public Sphere’, Sociological Inquiry, vol. 68, no. 3, pp. 373-397, viewed 8 April 2018, <https://onlinelibrary-wiley-com.ezproxy.lib.swin.edu.au/doi/full/10.1111/j.1475-682X.1998.tb00474.x>.

Comparison between Society and Community 2016, Sociology Guide, viewed 8 April 2018, <http://www.sociologyguide.com/basic-concepts/society-and-community.php>.

Connected, but alone? – Sherry Turkle 2012, TED Ideas Worth Sharing, viewed 8 April 2018, <https://www.ted.com/talks/sherry_turkle_alone_together/transcript?language=en#t-435204>.

Poh, M 2018? Social Lives Online versus Offline: Finding the Right Balance, Hongkiat, viewed 8 April 2018, <https://www.hongkiat.com/blog/online-vs-offline-social-life/>.

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

joelblogshere-blog

Gemma,

Isn’t it interesting how this unit is making us look at our own social interactions?

I’ve been looking more into the advantages of autistic people being able to communicate via the internet, and the below table in Gillespie-Lynch et al (2014 pp. 461) has some interesting statistics, especially the differences between autistics and non autistics when looking at benefits ‘express true self, practice interaction, time to think, choose who to talk to, find people like you’ and the biggest difference being written down communication.

I know I struggle with how to communicate, usually I’m better when its a one on one situation, but even then it can be really hard. I know on the internet I’m less likely to fake emotions because I don’t have physical stares or people verbally yelling at me for being honest.

References

Gillespie-Lynch, K, Kapp, SK, Shane-Simpson, C, Shane Smith, D, & Hutman, T 2014, 'Intersections Between the Autism Spectrum and the Internet: Perceived Benefits and Preferred Functions of Computer-Mediated Communication', [Intersecciones Entre el Espectro Autista y el Internet: Beneficios Percibidos y Funciones Preferidas de la Comunicación Mediada por Computador], Intellectual & Developmental Disabilities, vol. 52, no. 6, pp. 456-46.

itssuzblog-blog

1A: Is the internet redefining human interaction?

In our ever-connected world, do we really know our ‘friends’. Their real hopes, dreams and fears. What most people post on social media, is a glossed over version of their lives. But we are increasingly swapping real, human contact for a Facebook message, or a like on Instagram.

So, let’s take a look at this dilemma, is the internet redefining human interaction?

There are conflicting views as to whether our dependence on technology is a good or bad thing. Professor and author, Sherry Turkle, says in the beginning of her TED talk, that in 1995, she wrote a book that got her on the cover of Wired magazine, about how people interact with computers. She says she was excited about virtual communities, and the positive impact on our real life these would have. Now, she says, 20 years later, we have forgotten how to talk to each other in real life.

So, on the negative side, we now have a generation that has technology ingrained in them from day one. According to Jean Twange, a Professor of Psychology from San Diego State University, they’re spending less time in social settings than their predecessors, the Millennials, did, and their mental health is declining at a faster rate.

On a positive side, the anonymity of the internet can be used in various ways, such as being able to talk about difficult subjects, like abortion, gender issues and illnesses. danah boyd writes about an HIV positive man who began blogging as a coping mechanism, and as a way to navigate social situations more easily. His blog was anonymous, but it helped him when his friends found it and were able to read about how he was feeling and what he was thinking, instead of having an awkward and difficult conversation.

From the book, Dimensions of Leisure for Life, the author writes about how when they were doing their dissertation, they cam across a chat room of WW2 veterans. The veterans said that there was no one around where they lived that understood what they had been through, and that in the chat room, they fit in again.

Time and time again I read about people who feel isolated in the real world, finding their space online, finding their people, their community. Is this a bad thing? What are your thoughts on the online space? And what do you think the future of communication will look like?

References:

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

Human Kinetics 2010, ‘Technology can have positive and negative impact on social interactions’, Dimensions of Leisure for Life, viewed 10 April 2018, <http://www.humankinetics.com/excerpts/excerpts/technology-can-have-positive-and-negative-impact-on-social-interactions>

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

Twenge, J 2017, ‘How the smartphone affected an entire generation of kids’, The Conversation, viewed 10 April 2018, <https://theconversation.com/how-the-smartphone-affected-an-entire-generation-of-kids-82477>

gem-vs-ba-mcmns-blog

I really enjoyed reading this and in my own blog, I’ve taken the stance that if it wasn’t for social media, my own social interactions would be seriously limited.

I wonder, though, if that’s because of my age? I’m 35 so I spent a large portion of my childhood and teenage years without the internet or social media. I learned to develop friendships in person; to find common ground and negotiate the obligations and rights that come with being part of a community. The same obligations and rights - and social niceties - that are perhaps lost when forming communities online.

I often think about how differently I may have turned out or how different my high school experience would have been had social media been as big then as it is now. I wonder if social media would have been an escape back then (as I was bullied at school) or whether it would have given the bullies greater and more constant access to me…on platforms where common courtesy and politeness don’t seem to be as much of a priority as they are in interpersonal interactions.

And maybe that’s the issue…that the youth of today (I feel like I should be yelling at kids to get off my lawn as I’m typing this) is developing the bulk of their social skills online rather than face-to-face. So maybe it isn’t that social media that’s isolating us or “bad” but rather the lack of social niceties that are expected and developed in person and are almost non-existent online?

joelblogshere-blog

Adding to what Gemma said, I didn’t have access to the internet until high school, and this assignment has given me the opportunity to reflect on how my life would have been different if:

a) I had the internet since I was a child;

b) The internet never developed?

I also was bullied at school, and really struggled to fit in - I was really shy and had (still have) really bad anxiety. Would being able to communicate with students and friends via online helped or hindered me? I’m really not sure.

Pretty much all of my friendships now originated from the internet, so I try not to think about b).

#mda20009

florenciablogs-blog

Make of it what You[Tube] will

If I told you that bubble wrap was initially designed with the intention of being a wallpaper, what would you say?

You see, products are designed and unleashed on the market to fulfill a consumer need or desire but how that consumer chooses to use this can, many a time, change. This flexibility refers to its ‘affordances’. The malleable nature of the structure and overall versatility of social media has enabled these platforms to serve a range of purposes, many of which were unforeseen.

In 2005 the most important public video sharing platform in the world, YouTube was created by Steve Chen, Jawed Karim and Chad Hurley. They initially founded the platform after attending a dinner and finding it difficult to share the videos taken from the night.

Unbeknown to them, this platform would, over time become an evolutionary television network whose affordances have become endless, thanks to what Wellman calls their ability to “create social relationships and social structure”.

Youtube was one of the most important platforms that enabled the Obama campaign to reach the difficult young voters segment. It was where many artists like Justin Bieber and The Weeknd have been discovered. It has been a space where cyber revolutionaries like Anonymous have cemented their messages of vigilantism and where social consciousness has been awakened with videos like Kony 2012. Youtube has also become the launch pad of new careers – vloggers, where innovative individuals like Casey Neistat have been provided a space to share visual perspectives of the world around us. What’s more, this vocation has become a paid lucrative profession for some, sponsored by a range of different companies to represent or collaborate with them.

Youtube consists of virtual subcommunities of subscribers who interact and deliberate on the contents that is shared within the network. This success is largely due to the growth of what Mizuko Ito has coined Network Publics “the ways in which people are networked and mobilize with and through media”. This new online audience now “communicates through more complex networks that are bottom-up, top-down as well as side-to side”. Every week there seems to be a new ‘viral’ video being circulated that can come from a mobile recording, a student project or an independent organisation. Its virtual quality does not discriminate, becoming a cybernetic soap box for the global community.

Today we consider Youtube to be a broad platform of videos because of the evolutive affordances it has shown. Its consumers have marked and pushed the barriers of its uses allowing for its longevity in the market. As we evolve, so too will the affordances we find for the platforms like Youtube. Others like MySpace, who have not adapted to fulfill consumer requirements or become ‘stale’ have quickly been forgotten.

Wondering if Mark Z can help us find Tom..

References

Lange, P 2009, ‘Videos of Affinity on YouTube’, in P, Snickars & P, Vonderau (eds), The YouTube Reader, National Library of Sweden, Stockholm, pp. 70-88

Mizuko, I 2008 ‘Introduction’, in K, Vamelis, ed. Networked Publics, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, pp. 1-14

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

Wasserman, T. (2018). The revolution wasn’t televised: The early days of YouTube. [online] Mashable. Available at: https://mashable.com/2015/02/14/youtube-history/#NyA.6CifWPqE [Accessed 8 April 2018]

Wellman, B. and Berkowitz, S. (2008). Social structures, A Network Approach. 2nd ed. Bingley: JAI Press, pp.123-130

Youtube.com. (2018). About YouTube - YouTube. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/yt/about/ [Accessed 8 April 2018]

joelblogshere-blog

(image above) Tom is actually on Twitter (saying that he hasn’t been active since late last year. He says he’s enjoying retirement and taken photography as a hobby (Twitter 2018)

On the topic of affordances, YouTube has had it’s own league issues to deal with, it’s interesting learning now about affordances and being able to associate them to previous events. More recently, the Logan Paul Japan video was really controversial and YouTube responded appropriately by removing the ability for big brands to advertise on his channel, which was one of the top 5% of content creators. (BBC 2018)

I wonder whether YouTube needs to do more to protect its brand and make users understand what is and isn’t appropriate, or if User Generated Content creators need to think before they post?

Thanks for the interesting read, Flo!

BBC 2018, ‘Youtube punishes Logan Paul over Japan suicide video’, BBC News, viewed 8th April 2018, http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-42644321

Twitter 2018, @myspacetom [Online], Twitter, viewed 8th April 2018, <https://twitter.com/myspacetom>.

#MDA20009 #Youtube #MySpace Tom #SwinburneOnline

Blog 1A (2) Social media, User Generated Content, Affordances....and Privacy

What exactly is social media? The simple answer to this is a bunch of internet apps that allow for User Generated Content (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010). So now you’re asking ‘what is User Generated Content’, right? It’s exactly how it’s described – using different forms of media content created by end users, aka you or me, rather than professional content creators.

Mayo (2014) suggests that social media can then be broken down into four main groups:

- Social networking tools like Skype, Facebook and Tumblr

- Social publishing and sharing tools – blogs; Twitter; YouTube; Flickr; Google Docs fit into this category

- Social and content management tools – Survey Monkey, Moodle and other web based tools used for tasks like calendars, surveys, polls and the like; and

- Gaming environments – Xbox Live, Playstation Network, Minecraft, World of Warcraft etc.

Above image: Survey Monkey website homepage - an example of social and content media management tools. (Zapier, 2015)

Because I haven’t dissected enough terminology and theories, let’s discuss affordances! Gibson (1979, p. 19) wrote that humans, along with animals, orient to subjects in their world – rocks, rivers, buildings etc. The term affordances refers to the different ways these orientations are interpreted (Hutchby, 2001). Whilst a business may see Facebook as an advertising means to get clients, an individual may see Facebook as a tool to communicate with friends and families.

Above video: How Cambridge Analytica psychologically profiled Facebook Users (BBC News, 2018)

I think most people today find social media challenging because of privacy risks, especially with all the recent news about breaches. Trepte (2015) suggests that today’s social media has two types of affordances, or more simply, potential forms of use. There are affordances related to social media functions - these ask us to comment on statuses on platforms, upload pictures and videos, and tag friends or places we visit. Also termed ‘warm affordances’ they allow us to share content, keep in contact, and interact. The other kind are ‘cold affordances’ - the legal jargon, the stuff that implies an agreement about privacy. For example: the picture I shared of my cat on my Facebook yesterday now belongs to Facebook, as is set out in their terms of service. Yet, my ability to share which friends see that picture is an example of warm affordances.

Recent news: Facebook is rewriting it’s Terms of Service and Data Policy, focusing on easy to read language and making things clearer https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2018/04/terms-and-data-policy/

Deciding what to share, and what audiences to let access them, can be very challenging. There’s some pictures I’m happy to share with some friends, but not others, because unfortunately humans can be very judgemental….

Then there’s the external links where we go to fill out a “when will we die” survey. Whilst we believed these external permissions were secure, as we now know, there is potential for data breaches.

Related news: Australia’s Privacy Commissioner to Investigate if Facebook breached Australia’s Privacy Act: https://www.sbs.com.au/news/australia-s-privacy-commissioner-opens-facebook-probe-over-data-breach

This has actually led to me making some changes on how I access Facebook, and how I share User Generated Content. I revoked app permissions, and have started again, and am very careful with what I click on and give permissions for now. Are you bunkering down on your privacy settings, or are you just letting whatever happens, happen?

Update: I’ve embedded some non-referenced articles in this post, and there’s also an Easter Egg ;)

References

BBC News 2018, How Cambridge Analytica psychologically profiled Facebook Users, BBC News, 4 April, viewed 7th April 2018, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84gTofMPz1k>.

Gibson, JJ 2014, The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception: Classic Edition, Taylor and Francis Group, London.

Hutchby, I 2001, Technologies, texts and affordances, Sociology, 35 (2), p. 441-456.

Kaplan, A. M., & Haenlein, M, ‘Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of Social Media’, Business Horizons, 53(1), 59–68.

Mao, J 2014, ‘Social media for learning: A mixed methods study on high school students’ technology affordances and perspectives’, Computers in Human Behavior, 34, p. 213-223.

Zapier 2015, ‘Survey Monkey [image], in Zapier - Survey Moneky – Features, Pricing, Alternatives and More, viewed April 2018, <https://zapier.com/apps/surveymonkey>.

#mda20009 #Swinburne Online #TP1-2018 #Social Media Privacy

How are our social experiences bound up with social media platforms and their affordances, and how we make use of them?

I’ll answer that question in the next few days.

#stay tuned #mda20009 #Swinburne Online #TP1-2018