Digital Communities Blog

Hi I'm Kyle and I'm in my second year of my Bachelor of Media and Communications (Professional) degree, studying Digital Communities (MDA20009) this semester! 

[kyleoleary11]

Understanding Social Media Conflict

There is always positive and negative to most things in life, and that is not different to social media. We have discussed in previous weeks how being a good digital citizen leads to a better world with the goal of being respectful and being able to have appropriate discussions online and the importance of a good digital community. This would all be ideal in a perfect world but we do not live in a perfect world and the internet is full of bullying, online harassment, trolls, hackers, haters and various other sorts of negative behaviour. 

While individuals may be the ones commenting various types of hate or harassment, specifically about women in this case, often are done by those who are members of a loose online network known as the manosphere (Marwick, 543, 2018), a negative movement that is a masculine dominated culture that involves blogs, podcasts, forums that are full of right winged men who are anti-feminist. While particular beliefs may differ from group to group, the misogyny and harassment remain constant in referring to feminists as a man hating movement which is not true but recruits young boys into thinking so, giving them a very biased view on the whole situation and further destroys an overall goal towards equality.

Often the comments by these uneducated men involve things like slurs, sexually violent language and death threats. Because of the internet this type of language has been thrown around much more than what it would in real life as I’d imagine majority of these men wouldn’t dare have the courage to say those types of words to a woman face to face, but this being said there is an extreme lack of policy behind these comments and most of the time absolutely no consequences are handed to the ones posting these types of comments which has to change.

References

Marwick, A. & Caplan, R. 2018, Drinking male tears: language, the manosphere, and networked harassment, Feminist Media Studies, Vol. 18, Iss. 4, pp. 543-559

Milne, E. 2020, Week 11: Gaming Communities and Trolls, MDA20009 Digital Communities, Canvas Modules Week 11, Swinburne University of Technology, 27 May 2020, viewed on the 28th of May 2020.

Richter, F. 2014, Young People Are More At Risk To Be Harassed Online, Statista, 23 October 2014, viewed on the 28th of May 2020 <https://www.statista.com/chart/2866/online-harassment/>

[kyleoleary11]

Gamers, who are they?!

A gamer is simply someone who owns any sort of console and plays video games, but there is obviously a difference to being a casual gamer in which most people are and being a hardcore gamer where people have the potential to make a living out of playing video games, which is made possible by streaming apps like Twitch, YouTube, Facebook gaming and Microsoft Mixer where gamers can gain a crowd following and interact with them through these services.

There has always been an issue of video game addiction, especially towards young children as parents might want them to be a bit more productive and one of the most recent games that has added to this controversial debate is Fortnite. The topic is being debated on morning shows like Good Morning America where “one parent spoke of their child becoming more aggressive and socialising less as they played more” (Sinha, 2018) with the adaption of the game being able to be played on iOS as well as console, making it all the more accessible and with its trends on social media made playing in school times in class a problem which saw plenty of teachers complain about the game also.

The typical gamer is generally considered to be white or East Asian, young, middle class and a man with people who are labelled as ‘gamers’ are welcome into gaming communities with more open arms which has lead to a masculine dominated games culture (Hardwick, 2020). This is a problem in society as it often is where boys are disconnected from the real world and can feel the need to say whatever they want without having any consequences, with maybe the worst of them being banned for a short period of time which in reality is not a good way for them to learn or feel any guilt of what they say. 

References

Hardwick, T. 2020, Gaming Communities, Social Gaming and Live Streaming, Week 10 Lecture, Digital Communities, MDA20009, Swinburne University of Technology, delivered on the 20th of May 2020

The above video is a funny way of looking at how stupid the masculine dominated games culture idea is.

[kyleoleary11]

Political Engagement & Activism Online

Building on a few weeks ago when we talked about the importance of digital citizenship due to the increase in significance that the internet has on society, one of the main things associated with digital citizens is being politically engaged and activism. We will talk about how these things are important online. 

Digital campaigning is the perfect way to run campaigns in today’s day and age, there are so many examples of ones out there that promote positive changes such as the Australian government’s campaign to stop violence against women and Movember to spread awareness about men’s health, specifically mental health, and then there is political campaigning which was done to perfection by Donald Trump and is the reason that he is the president of the United States.

As mentioned in the lecture by Luke Stickels, Trump’s campaign was able to “segment their audiences and find the people most willing to come out and vote” despite not winning the popular vote. If being the reason for who is in charge of arguably the most powerful or influential country in the world isn’t enough to convince you of the importance and effectiveness of digital campaigning I’m not sure what else will.

Like we mentioned before, digital campaigning has the potential for so much positive change that this world desperately needs and is one of the most important reasons for the digital world in my opinion, with the same example listed before of the Australian government’s anti-domestic violence campaign titled ‘Stop It At The Start’. With the campaign’s focus to stop violence against women, Green mentions that the campaign states “violence against women doesn’t just start - it grows from a young age” (2016) and that “this campaign seeks to get all Australians to recognise how their day-to-day behaviour could enable future violence to grow”.

References

Green, R. 2016, Australian Government Launches New Campaign To Break The Cycle Of Domestic Violence Via BMF, Campaign Brief, 21 April 2016, viewed on the 17th of May 2020 <https://campaignbrief.com/australian-government-launches/>

Stickels, L. 2020, Digital Communities, political engagement and activism, Week 9 Lecture, Digital Communities, MDA20009, Swinburne University of Technology, delivered on the 13th of May 2020

[kyleoleary11]

Public Health Campaigns and Social Media Influence

Social media influencers are having a negative impact on public health campaigns as well as body image whilst promoting their own health campaigns or just self-branding.

More and more these days when you scroll through Instagram it’s almost impossible not to be exposed to people presenting themselves as an idealised branded version of themselves in order to gain or maintain influencer status and become profitable on social media. These ideal situations where influencers post images of themselves in tropical places with water that is just about as blue as can get, wearing bikinis with so-called perfect bodies promoting either the bikinis they’re wearing or their skin cream have a negative impact on body image as these types of images and self-branding that focus more on the aesthetics than anything else have led to an increase in demand for cosmetic procedures. In Dorfman’s study he states that “42% of surgeons report that their patients are seeking aesthetic surgery to improve their appearance on Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook and other social media channels” (332, 2018).

With the demand for cosmetic surgeries increasing there is still a large percentage of people who find themselves unsatisfied with the results of their surgeries, making it important for the education to be available to the public that are the risks involved with undertaking these surgeries. The Health Minister of Victoria states that “all cosmetic procedures carry risks, including disfigurement and infection. In some cases, it can be deadly” (2019) and that there are plenty of unlicensed facilities targeting vulnerable customers with cheap prices due to the large increase in social media influencers out there promoting expectations of perfect or ideal body shapes which are not healthy as there as every woman is different and not everyone can achieve those unrealistic expectations naturally. 

There need to be more campaigns out there that educate people about the risks in undertaking these cosmetic surgeries, and promoting both men and women to love their bodies no matter what.

References

Dorfman, R., Vaca, E., Mahmood, E., Fine, N. & Schierle, C., Plastic Surgery-Related Hashtag Utilisation on Instagram: Implications for Eduction and Marketing, Aesthetic Surgery Journal, Vol. 38, Iss. 3, March 2018, pp. 332-338

Victorian Government, Health Minister, Protecting Victorians From Dodgy Cosmetic Surgery, 2019, viewed on the 11th of May 2020 <https://www.premier.vic.gov.au/protecting-victorians-from-dodgy-cosmetic-surgery/>

[kyleoleary11]

Instagram, Influencers & the Slow Fashion movement

Fast fashion is the typical type of fashion in the twenty-first century as clothes are produced mainly in mass production for cheaper prices and higher turnover rates as most things are done in this day and age. In the market now there has been an increasing trend towards slow fashion however, which obviously is the exact opposite to fast fashion as production takes more time, materials are sourced locally and there is more of an effort to make the clothes better quality and more sustainable for the long run which is a much more positive way of looking to supply and purchase clothes for a number of reasons.

Slow fashion is not only the opposite to fast fashion, but with it also comes a concept of greater understanding about the fashion industry and how it works as people who support the slow fashion movement are supporting all the local workers as their produce is used as well as the consumer who are now getting clothes that have a far superior longevity and the eco-system which isn’t required to have to supply as much material and deal with as much waste from slow fashion as it would from fast fashion.

Pookulangara makes the argument that “fast fashion’s emphasis on reduced lead time often leads to social and environmental sacrifices” (2013) which is a large reason to look at the benefits of slow fashion compared to just the convenience of fast fashion. It is tough with the social pressures on Instagram with influencers posting photos daily and never wearing the same clothes twice, but there are some positives as there are plenty of pages out there that offer clothes to be rented for things like music festivals and other events, which promotes the slow fashion movement.

It’s a good time to look at how much clothes you have and how much you actually need.

References

Hall, J. 2018, Digital Kimono: Fast Fashion, Slow Fashion?, Fashion Theory, May 2018, vol. 22, pp. 283-307

Pookulangara, S. 2013, Slow fashion movement: Understanding consumer perceptions - An exploratory study, Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, March 2013, vol. 20, pp. 200-206

[kyleoleary11]

What is Digital Citizenship? How social media is changing the election process.

What is digital citizenship? Citizenship means that an individual is recognised under the law of being a member of society, and due to the increase of relevance that new technology has in society these day, digital citizenship is seen as just as important. It is defined by Karen Mossberger, the author of one of the most influential book on digital citizenship, as “the ability to benefit society online” (1, 2007) as the internet is thought to have the ability to benefit society and encourage more participation from members of society in debates or discussions about politics and a number of various topics as Mossberger describes this is the ability to “facilitate the membership and participation of individuals within a society” (1, 2007).

Social media has changed for a lot of people how they vote or view political parties and is one of or if not the biggest factor in the election process as Nelimarkka states it offers an “effective channel for voter activation, discussions with constituents, sharing of information and political views, and fundraising” (1, 2020). With all of that being said it’s not hard to see why social media is used so much in political campaigning as it is also proven to increase the efficiency of a number of campaigns, which can be “directly reflected in election results” (Nelimarkka, 1, 2020).

A good digital citizen is someone who possesses the ability to use digital technologies in an effective way and are able to participate in society through these technologies in a positive way by communicating with others and consuming and creating various digital content. If everyone was a good digital citizen and went about communicating with others about topics in a positive manner the world would be a better place for it, and people could have more discussions that could change their perspectives and create opportunities for them to learn and expand their thoughts on topics they thought they already knew plenty about. This could be the same for political campaigns and how people view them, opposing and neutral parties to them.

References

Mossberger, K. 2007, Digital Citizenship: The Internet, Society, and Participation, Cambridge: MIT Press, pp. 1-19

Nelimarkka, M. 2020, Platformed Interactions: ‘How Social Media Platforms Relate to Candidate-Constituent Interaction During Finnish 2015 Election Campaigning’, Social Media and Society, pp. 1-17

[lucamignuoli2000]

How does Tumblr function as a Digital Community?

Social media’s primary benefit for users around the world is that it “alter[s] the nature of our connections, creations, and interactions” (Van Dijck 2013, p. 18) with others who we would know personally or not at all.  Social media platforms have created a safe space for “niche communities to form” (Kruse, Norris, Flinchum 2018, p. 65) and to express their ideas, opinions and values without judgement. Tumblr allows for groups of people to create online communities that are based around significant ideas or values in which they all share and thus makes it easy to block those who you do not want to associate/communicate with.

Furthermore, the idea that “social identity among members is an essential condition for considering a social group to be a community (Mousavi, Roper, Keeling 2017, p. 377) is relevant in this case, as Tumblr also enables users to create their own profiles and create an online identity and represent their opinions on a worldwide platform.

Tumblr has multiple features that many other social media platforms obtain in order to appeal to those audiences who “use social media to share personal experiences” (Keller 2019, p. 4). This is demonstrated by the idea that, similar to popular social media platforms such as YouTube, Facebook and Instagram, Tumblr allows anyone to post or comment on someone else’s blog. This is because it is built around seven post types, being text, photo, quote, link, chat, audio and video, which allows users to easily share different forms of media on the same platform. Consequently, Tumblr makes it possible for people to “foster a new sense of community and a new level of awareness” (Cross 2011, p. 7) in regard to serious subjects, such as social issues and politics, or even fun-loving things such as memes and gaming. An example of this is that there is a wide range of very small to very large sized political comments made regarding particular politicians, such as Donald Trump, either praising him or memes being made about him. Moreover, less serious subjects such as the game series ‘Call of Duty’ is quite popular on Tumblr with memes being made, as well as short videos of gameplay, with thousands of people commenting on these posts and showing support for others. Therefore, Tumblr allows users to join groups and blogs that would personally identify with them and make them feel part of a real community on a digital format.

References:

Cross, M, 2011,Bloggerati, Twitterati: how blogs and twitter are transforming popular culture, 1stedn, ABC-CLIO, Ebook Central (ProQuest)

Keller, J, 2019, ‘”Oh, She’s a Tumblr Feminist”: Exploring the platform Vernacular of girls social media feminists’, Social Media + Society, vol. 5, no. 1, pp. 4

Kruse, LM, Norris, DR, Flinchum, JR, 2018, ‘Social Media as a Public sphere? Politics on Social Media’, The Sociological Quarterly, vol. 38, no. 1, pp. 65

Mousavi, S, Roper, S, Keeling, KA, 2017, ‘Interpreting social identity in online brand communities: Considering posters and lurkers’, Psychology and Marketing, vol. 13, no. 1, pp. 377

Van Dijck, J, 2013, The culture of connectivity: a critical history of social media, 1stedn, Oxford University Press, Ebook Central (ProQuest)

[kyleoleary11]

Hey Luca,

You’ve done a great job in breaking down and going into depth with how Tumblr serves as a digital community here! I like how you’ve talked about how people can share their personal interests and represent their opinions on a worldwide platform, I think that’s one of the best things about Tumblr, how people can share their ideas in a safe space and like you mentioned if for any reason there is someone that is not wanted for you to associate with or has nasty things to be said they can be blocked, even though it would be more effective in having a mature discussion about whatever the issue is.

[kyleoleary11]

How does Tumblr function as a digital community?

Digital communities are one of the main forms in how society connects with one another in this day and age, and people often find themselves in those virtual communities that have content that relates to them like on Facebook groups or Instagram and Tumblr pages. The main role of Tumblr is to serve as a platform where millions of people can share their own personal content in the form of blogs, memes, GIFs and quotes like any other social media platform but it is seen as more of an alternative and more popular for the youth where Allison McCracken states “for many youth, Tumblr has become an alternative, tuition-free classroom” (152, 2017) due to its ability to distribute political awareness and be a powerful source of “youth media literacy”.

Subcultures are formed on social media where the youth can express themselves in the virtual communities in their own way where there is no judgement from their parents and they have more of an opportunity perhaps to grow by using their own voice in social spaces with their friends or random people about issues or concepts that they’re passionate about and want to engage in conversation with. A prime example is the LGBTQ teenage community, having this online pace to be connected to one another and being able to have a stronger support network has been “vital” to them according to McCracken (153, 2017).

Through the use of blogging and tagging formats on Tumblr, it allows subcultures “to not only form but also thrive” (Oakley, 2016) as they can easily be connected by just using hashtags that relates to the issue they’re blogging about or the group of people that would relate to a specific meme. Tumblr offers people in these groups the crucial space to be able to express “social critique” (McCracken, 161, 2017) in a way that it can resonate with others and be seen mostly by people who are interested and engaged with the relevant topics.

References

McCracken, A. 2017, Tumblr Youth Subcultures and Media Engagement, Cinema Journal, vol. 57, pp. 151-161

Oakley, A, Disturbing Hegemonic Discourse: Nonbinary Gender and Sexual Orientation Labelling on Tumblr, vol. 2, August 17 2016, viewed 13 April 2020

[kyleoleary11]

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