Find the Fox

Blog created for Swinburne Online MDA20009 Digital Communities

[ajoeblogs]

A New Species Called Trolls

The Internet is known to be vast, fast and informative. But it’s also a dark place full of dangers… like ruthless online trolls – never heard of them? Unlike the trolls in the fairy tales, online trolls neither hide nor live in caves or deep down in a forest. No, online trolls lurk in public, in the suburbs and some in the city centres of the great capital cities around the world. Precisely where and when they smell the best opportunities to attract the public’s attention, they strike. Not to mention, online trolls are far less harmless and cause a lot of damage. Their repertoire ranges from verbal abuse and slander to serious threats (Boyd 2014, pp. 131-132).

Online trolls are easily one of the scariest inhabitants of the Internet and thrive on negativity and cyberbullying. They love to stir up and spread hatred (Rosewarne 2016, p. 94). But who are “online trolls” – and what should you do if you come into contact with such a shameless species?

According to McCosker (2014, pp. 206-209), online trolls are people who purposely provoke others on the Internet, typically through inflammatory, insulting or provocative comments. Trolls have one goal: to upset others and cause emotional, preferably provocative results (Rosewarne 2016, pp. 105-111). To achieve this goal, trolls will grumble wildly and often on an off-topic post and ride personal attacks, post simple hate speech and even post death threats (Rosewarne 2016, pp. 90-97)

But it’s important to differentiate between some trolls. According to Dowling (2014), some online trolls can be passionate about a topic or cause and simply intolerant to differing opinions – for example, some die-hard unsocial individual or young kids who make fun of something and others. Usually, however, online trolls are generally intelligent people who leave no gap behind the comma. For the sake of simplicity, this group is often referred to as online trolls. In fact, the Internet is full of people who want to share their opinions.

But unlike the angry users who share negative but sincere beliefs, trolls probably don’t believe a word of what they’re writing. They choose their words precisely to upset others (Arendholz 2013, pp. 121-124). In short, trolls are online bullies. They’re found on virtually any Internet platform that allows comments or interaction. One study found that a disproportionately large percentage of online verbal abuse occurs on Twitter. This may be due to the rather anonymous nature of the platform compared to other social networks, such as Facebook. Apart from that, trolls can lurk everywhere on the Internet.

What you should avoid in your response to trolls?

First, don’t fall into the online troll trap and feed the trolls. This is very important. However, it’s also easier said than done, especially if a troll posts personal attacks. Dowling (2014) sums it up in his article: “If they want to be funny, your willingness to swallow the bait is their punchline. If you do not bait, there is no joke at all.”

  Reference:

Arendholz, J 2013, Title:(In)Appropriate Online Behaviour: A Pragmatic Analysis of Message Board Relations, John Benjamins Publishing, EBSCOhost-Ebook, viewed 17 May 2018, <http://bit.ly/2J8ehpN>.

Boyd, D 2014, ‘Bullying: Is the Media Amplifying Meanness and Cruelty?’, Yale University Press, New Haven, pp. 128-52.

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

Rosewarne, L 2016, Cyberbullies, Cyberactivists, Cyberpredators: Film, TV, and Internet Stereotypes, ABC-CLIO, ProQuest-Ebook, viewed 17 May 2018, <http://bit.ly/2JjyI6x>.

Image Reference:

‘Seven Tips for Dealing with Online Trolls’ [image], in SPINSUCKS 2013., viewed 17 May 2018, <http://bit.ly/2JlsJy0>.

[marnyaw-blog]

“trolls probably don’t believe a word of what they’re writing. They choose their words precisely to upset others”

I will be interested to read Arendholz work.  Is this a case study that makes contact and discusses the motives behind their posts.  That would be fascinating! I couldn’t find anything of value when I was researching.

[itssuzblog-blog]

Crowdsourcing in times of crisis

With all the negativity surrounding social media now, I think we forget how, in times of crisis, society can come together and help fellow human beings. From earthquakes, to floods, to war ravaged countries like Syria. Social media allows people around the globe to be able to donate funds and goods, to check that friends and family are safe and to keep up with the latest news out of an area that would otherwise be silent.

Ushahidi:

Born out of an idea by software developer, David Kobi, in 2007. It garnered international attention and around 20 developers joined together to help code. The necessity for a large-scale crowd mapping site like this came from a government media ban in Kenya during their elections. They were declared as rigged by the Kenyans and violent protests followed. As these protests were often happening in rural and remote areas, the media could not get access to what was happening on the ground. Ushahidi had people texting and emailing their stories and then uploading them to a Google map to keep everyone informed of what was happening and where. It was able to compile a complete picture of the crisis, the only organisation to be able to do this.

But this was just the beginning. Because they used open source coding, anyone could use it to create crowd maps. “It was Ushahidi’s use in a fast-moving crisis situation, mapping what journalists call hard news, provided inspiration to many others.” (Jeffery, 2011). In fact, it has been used many times since from a wildlife charity using it to map animals, to Al-Jazeera using it during the 2009 Gaza war, in Haiti in 2010, to map the BP oil spill, during the Nigerian elections, during the Japan earthquake and tsunami, and as recently as the 2016 US presidential elections. These, of course, are just a few of the higher profile examples of crowd maps that were created.

But it drew some criticism, the site needed to be updated to make it more user friendly. It was deemed to be hard to use and too techy. In 2010, it was, and it is now super easy to create a map and get real time updates to it.

Christchurch Earthquake:

New Zealand is directly on a fault line. Growing up in Auckland, we had regular earthquake drills and were used to the tremors. However, in February 2011, still reeling from another major earthquake, the country watched as Christchurch was all but razed to the ground. My family, like many others, had family and friends down there and could not contact them. We were glued to social media, to find out live updates from the area. Finally, we got messages that everyone we knew, at least, was safe. With the internet, as soon as there was a signal, they could update their profiles to let their loved ones know they were safe. People were saved through crowd mapping. “With institutionalization, information from crowdsourcing could conceivably be available within hours after imagery is acquired, making it a feasible resource for response teams.” (Barrington et all, 2011) Disaster relief teams were able to use these sites to find out where to look for buried victims.

It’s also being used in the rebuilding efforts. Users can upload locations and pictures of collapsed and damaged buildings, and Disaster Mapper allows people to annotate maps of disaster areas. With new technology, we can use drones etc to map out the safe and unsafe places, so lives are not needed to be put at risk.

These are a couple of positives to come out of our new, technology obsessed, world.

References:

Barrington, L, Ghosh, S, Greene, M, Har-Noy, S, Berger, J, Gill, S, Lin, AYM, and Huyck, C 2011, ‘Crowdsourcing earthquake damage assessment using remote sensing imagery’, Annals of Geophysics, viewed 21 May 2018, <https://www.annalsofgeophysics.eu/index.php/annals/article/view/5324>

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

Halliday, J 2010, ‘Ushahidi launches simplified crisis-mapping service’, The Guardian, viewed 21 May 2018, <https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2010/aug/11/ushahidi-crowdmap-crisis-mapping>

Jeffery, S 2011, ‘Ushahidi: crowd mapping collective that exposed Kenyan election killings’, The Guardian, viewed 21 May 2018, <https://www.theguardian.com/news/blog/2011/apr/07/ushahidi-crowdmap-kenya-violence-hague>

Kuo, L 2016, ‘A Kenyan crisis-tracking team has deployed to monitor US election violence and voter suppression’, Quartz media, viewed 21 May 2018, <https://qz.com/825442/kenyas-crisis-mapping-startup-ushahidi-will-monitor-the-us-presidential-election/>

Images:

‘Oil spill crisis map’ 2010 [image], viewed 21 May 2018, <https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2010/aug/11/ushahidi-crowdmap-crisis-mapping>

[ajoeblogs]

What a great read. 

I found also a variation of crowdfunding and crowdsourcing is, in my opinion, the best bit of social media. 

There are apps such as “iCoyote”, which is fed with information from drivers about accidents, construction sites, traffic jams and even lightning. 

OpenStreetMap is the basis for a navigation system, such as “Skobbler”. Here, too, thousands of users share the task of keeping a global online navigation system up to date. Skobbler is much cheaper than offers that are otherwise found on the market. 

Now, crowdtesting, in turn, embraces the intelligence of an unlimited number of people who evaluate products, such as software (see TestCloud.com). The idea of open software is based on the principle of sharing intelligent solutions. It is very exciting how crowdsourcing replaces governments and international corporations. 

But I bet it is just a question of time before a giant corporation will take over or protect entire industries against crowdsourced products and services.

I can’t stress enough about the algorithms and the technology behind social bots.

[marnyaw-blog]

Thanks for a great post. It was a bit depressing all these negative blog posts and it is nice to look for a silver lining before losing our mind.  I think society generally wants to come together and help but also feels a sense of hopelessness in finding how. Crowdsourcing is, while perhaps imperfect, a great way to feel a meaningful contribution occurred.  

[gem-vs-ba-mcmns-blog]

1B: Week 9 - Visual communities and social imaging

The selfie.

(Source: https://giphy.com/gifs/superbowl-commercials-2016-butterfinger-xT0BKmiSjvaBgCh13G)

It’s certainly not a new concept.

(Source: https://gifer.com/en/AA2L)

From carving our own likenesses into cave walls 20,000 years ago (Vallencourt & Poolos 2015, p. viii) to artists painting self-portraits over the centuries, we’ve been selfie…ing since long before photography was invented in 1839 (Vallencourt & Poolos 2015, p. x).

That same year, the first recorded photographic selfie was taken (Dinius 2015, p. 446).

(Source: http://roonby.com/2016/03/16/robert-cornelius-the-first-person-that-perform-selfie-photo/)

It’s only since the advent of the internet and the subsequent ease with which images can be posted and shared via social media, that the selfie has become the epidemic it is today (Dinius 2015, p. 448).

Now it’s 2018 and there’s no escaping the selfie.

Five years ago, ‘selfie’ was even the Oxford Dictionary’s word of the year (Dinius 2015, p. 445) and we’re now all used to posting our (very carefully constructed) photos without even giving it a second thought.

But should we think twice? After all, not everyone limits their selfie-taking to photos of their face.

WARNING – SEXUAL CONTENT 

We all know what a dick pic is. Some of you will have sent them with the receiver’s consent. Some of you will have asked for them. More often than not, the (dreaded) dick pic is unsolicited and unwelcome.

(Source: https://giphy.com/gifs/tipsyelves-halloween-text-l1J9LpewY0ZzIt692)

Listen.

As a general rule, if someone wants to see it, they’ll ask.

Otherwise what you’re doing is known as a little thing called SEXUAL HARASSMENT (Waling & Pym 2017, p. 2). A far too common form of harassment now synonymous with dick pics, as Whitney Bell discovered when putting together her exhibition “I Didn’t Ask For This: A Lifetime of Dick Pics” (Stevenson 2016).

(Source: https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/ppxjem/this-woman-turned-her-collection-of-unsolicited-dick-pics-into-an-art-show)

So…what happens when the protest against dick pics gets (*cough*) out of hand?

In 2013, feminist artist collective Future Femme (O’Connor 2013), staged a similar exhibition to Bell’s. On the surface, “Show Me More: A Collection of DickPix” seemed like a warranted expose of online harassment.

There was just one catch – none of the images in Future Femme’s exhibition was unsolicited. In fact, members of the collective set out to collect dick pics, openly asking men on online forums and dating sites to send them (Knibbs 2013).

These were then exhibited publicly without the senders’ consent or knowledge.

Which raises questions.

If the tables were turned and this was a non-consensual exhibition of female genitalia or revenge porn, would there have been more outrage?

Have men brought this upon themselves by engaging in this unwanted behaviour at other times?

Was Future Femme’s approach actually detrimental to their cause and protest?

Is the selfie culture to blame?

Let me know your thoughts…

References:

Dinius, M 2015, ‘The Long History of the “Selfie”’, Technologies of the Visible World, vol. 3, no. 2, pp. 441-451, 454, viewed 16 May 2018, <https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.lib.swin.edu.au/docview/1716697848/fulltextPDF/F15418B08E1442E3PQ/1?accountid=14205>. Knibbs, K 2013, This intimate picture exhibition isn’t art or a statement, it’s exploitation, Digital Trends, viewed 16 May 2018, <https://www.digitaltrends.com/social-media/dick-pic-art-show/>. O’Connor, M 2013, Art Gallery to Show Unknowing Men’s Dick Pics, The Cut, viewed 16 May 2018, <https://www.thecut.com/2013/08/art-gallery-to-show-unknowing-mens-dick-pics.html>. Stevenson, A 2016, This Woman Turned Her Collection of Unsolicited Dick Pics into an Art Show, VICE, viewed 16 May 2018, <https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/ppxjem/this-woman-turned-her-collection-of-unsolicited-dick-pics-into-an-art-show>. Vallencourt, M & Poolos, C 2015, History of Photography, Britannica Educational Publishing, New York, viewed 16 May 2018, <https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/swin/reader.action?docID=2101666&query=>. Waling, A & Pym, T 2017, ‘‘C’mon, No One Wants a Dick Pic’: exploring the cultural framings of the ‘Dick Pic’ in contemporary online publics’, Journal of Gender Studies, viewed 16 May 2018, <https://www-tandfonline-com.ezproxy.lib.swin.edu.au/doi/citedby/10.1080/09589236.2017.1394821?scroll=top&needAccess=true>.

[ajoeblogs]

What an interesting post!

You are definitely thinking outside the box, and I never really thought about dick pics when it came to this particular topic. 

As Flo already mentioned, this seems to be a phenomenon of modern culture. However, I would like to add to this that, actually, it is solely a Western phenomenon. I doubt that young men in Africa, Asia or even in Muslim countries share pictures of their bits with others. 

Just the act of taking a pic of your private parts is a bit odd. “We live in a weird time with no boundaries”, as Turkle mentioned in her TED lecture (Turkle 2013, cited in TED 2013). 

I remember my history teacher at school saying that television is the new anti-Christ, especially TV productions from Hollywood. 

Now, I am pretty sure my former history teacher is telling his current pupils that the anti-Christ is the Internet and ultimately social media. 

I found this very interesting video of Alison Graham on TEDx – about how social media makes us unsocial, and it is gobsmacking how simple the solution is. 

Delete your social media profiles and switch off your device. 😊

[marnyaw-blog]

Great discussion. 

You're absolutely right don’t send unsolicited dick pics...it’s so simple!  In response to the question would there be an outrage from females sending their genitalia pictures.  I doubt it. But I also strongly doubt that within traditional gender roles this type of action would occur large scale as it is in reverse.  

[dotcomwriteon-blog]

I predict a riot! I predict a riot!

Activist social media use today is what newspapers, posters and leaflets were to the labour movement (Gerbaudo 2012, p. 4). A way of spreading a message and garnering support to affect change. By utilising Facebook groups, tweets, and even Instagram posts, activist leaders are able to easily create groups of likeminded individuals who can participate across geographical boundaries and coordinate them to undertake collective action (Shirky 2011). 

But is it actually achieving change?

The 2012 Kony movement certainly didn’t. It cleverly used a post akin to a music video to create a sense of social norming, and incite a call to action to have Kony captured and stop the Lord’s Resistance Army. Additionally, it placed deadlines on participation, fostering a culture to ‘act now or miss out’ (Burrowes 2012). This pressure resulted in both slacktivists liking or commenting to demonstrate support for the cause with minimal effort, and clicktivists who despite their supportive stance, could do little more than like and share the post. Neither party could contribute anything toward actually capturing Kony besides funding the movement through donations and purchasing merchandise. I myself fell into the clicktivist category. I experienced the intended shocked response. I did feel bad about Kony’s exploitation and endangering children. I wanted to help and make it all stop. But I didn’t see how giving money to an organisation I had never heard of just so I could wear a red t-shirt was going to help.

This was the central problem. Invisible Children had done a terrific job viralising the issue and gaining support, but they left supporters like myself with absolutely no practical avenue to effect change and facilitate Kony’s capture. Despite raising $28 million nothing was achieved and no progress was made as Kony remains at large and the LRA is still in operation (Taylor 2014). 

Unfortunately the failure of the movement was not enough to stop new slacktivist trends immerging. Plastering Facebook filters over profile pictures quickly became the next wave of slacktivist participation, with the practice going viral after many terrorist attacks like the 2015 Paris attacks. Whilst this did much to create a global sense of unity and afford bystanders the sense of having ‘done their bit’, it did nothing to change the victims’ reality. In fact, the filters recieved much backlash with many accusing Facebook of ranking human suffering as no filters were created for victims of the attacks in Lebanon and Syria (Bondarenko 2017).

This year, Greek activists successfully harnessed social media’s power to organise protests against compromising with Macedonia over naming rights. Whilst police officials and protest organisers disagree on attendance numbers, what stands out is organisers’ success in bringing citizens from all over Greece together in Athens to show their support. In response to the pressure from protesters, the government has remained strong and knocked back Macedonian proposals deemed to be appropriating Greek heritage (ABC News 2018). 

So, can social media activism achieve lasting change? I think so. But only if those truly motivated to effect change are given a viable avenue to do so.  

References

ABC News 2018, ‘Greek hold massive rally in Athens to protest over Macedonia name dispute’, ABC News, 5 February, viewed 18 May 2018, <http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-02-05/greeks-rally-in-athens-to-protest-use-of-the-name-macedonia/9395502>.

Bondarenko, V 2017, ‘Facebook has quietly stopped offering flag profile picture filters after terrorist attacks’, Business Insider, 8 June, viewed 18 May 2018, <https://www.businessinsider.com.au/facebook-stops-offering-flag-profile-picture-filters-after-terrorist-attacks-2017-5?r=UK&IR=T>.

Burrowes, T 2012, ‘Kony 2012: The biggest social media experiment in history ends in failure - so why is no one talking about it?’, Mumbrella, 23 April, viewed 18 May 2018, <https://mumbrella.com.au/kony-2012-the-biggest-social-media-experiment-in-history-ends-in-failure-so-why-is-nobody-talking-about-it-86939>.

Gerbaudo, P 2012, Tweets and the streets : Social Media and Contemporary Activism, Pluto, London. 

Taylor, A 2014, ‘Was #Kony2012 a failure?’, The Washington Post, 16 December, viewed 18 May 2018, <https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2014/12/16/was-kony2012-a-failure/?utm_term=.caf370d6127f>. 

[kengalvin-blog]

Great post,

I must admit that I am guilty of slacktivism as are most social media users but you raise a great point. We connect on a global scale through digital networks that give us access to numerous tragic news stories from across the globe which are out of our physical reach, what real power does that leave us with besides showing solidarity through retweets, or the addition of the French flag to our profile pic?

Much like your study of Greek citizens using social media to organise protests over naming rights with Macedonia one of my blogs touched on how Cambodians choose to use social media to mobilise physical protest and enact their rights as democratic citizens of Cambodia.

Both these cases show that the true affordance of digital networks is in connecting citizens to organise and protest in cities and streets around the world.

Just a quick link to my blog entry if you’re interested: An activist holiday in Cambodia

[marnyaw-blog]

Hi 

Thaks for a great post. Even with this knowledge we all still feel so powerless. I remember my parents talking to my siblings and me about the Rwandan genocide when we were little and how hopeless we felt at that situation. 

After all these years we still don’t have answers to these hugely complex situations...

[bradarnoldt-deactivated20180705]

Week 8: Crowdsourcing in times of crisis

As a traffic reporter, I use crowdsourcing every day.  Twitter, Google maps, Facebook, texts, radio and tv reports, phone calls to and from emergency services all combine to build a story that I can use as part of my reports.

It’s live and dynamic.  The situation is constantly changing at every incident.  A simple breakdown in an emergency lane can turn into multi vehicle collision very quickly if someone is not looking where they’re going.  Add the factor of that multi vehicle collision happening inbound on the Monash Freeway at 8am and all of a sudden you’ve got 2+ hour delays on the freeway and major congestion on all the surrounding roads.  All because someone forgot to fuel up that morning and thought they’d make it to work with the last litre of fuel they had in the tank.

Verification is always tough during a time sensitive reporting shift. As it was with Ushahidi back in 2007 when the public was given the platform to report human rights abuses,  “Verification can be relatively straightforward when a single team with similar views is working together.” (Ford 2012) If you’ve taken a call from a listener, spotted the accident via a camera on the VicRoads website and found a tweet from a driver complaining about it, you can be fairly confident the incident is valid.  When some are saying the incident is inbound and some outbound, you’d better verify that or you’re bound to cop the wrath of all of the above sources.

 If you’re not ready with a report when the station wants it, you run the danger of running old information, heresay and (for the sales team especially) missing finishing your traffic report with the correct sponsor on which you ultimately get paid to do!  Putting out the wrong information also can cause anger and frustration for the commuter and embarrassment for the broadcaster and yourself.  Of course, going off half cocked on one report of a major incident can leave you open to…

References:

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

[marnyaw-blog]

That’s really interesting account of how you use crowdsourcing in your everyday life.  I have never thought of Google Maps as crowdsourcing. 

[awwcutefuzzyanimals]

Beautiful Red Fox <3

[marnyaw-blog]

Social gaming

Gaming online while in communication and collaboration with other players and creating a socially networked community. Massively multiple online role-playing games (MMORPGs, or just MM), such as World of Warcraft create an immersive environment.  There are social etiquette and traditional societal rules in these communities.  Players are able to engage in a social structure within the context of the game.  

I’m not a gamer. Sorry, I’m not. My experience with these interactions has been one of sexism and misogyny.  I’m too emotive about such archaic ideals that it wasn’t worth my energy.

Fast forward to my current life with my 7 & 6-year-old sons and you will see us playing Minecraft and me winning at Mario Cart (only just!). 

But I will not let them online

Those early interactions in my online gaming experience have shaped how I let my children interact with social gaming.  They are not allowed social media accounts either but do manager to watch YouTube videos anyway.  

I can see, particularly with Minecraft that their ability to advance in the game and complete achievements are hindered by there lack of relation with other players.  I recognise this immersion and collaboration is a worthy endeavour to accomplish a common goal. 

How long can I continue this? I know they’ll end up online eventually. Am I missing opportunities for their online social development with this community? It is a mechanism to teach grit, perseverance, logically thinking and troubleshooting.  There is also the social aspect of helping others, giving and receiving support and revel in group achievements.  All these life lessons in a wrapped up pre motivated bundle calling out to my boys.  

Below is TED talk from game designer Mark Rein-Hagen sprouting all the virtues of online gaming.  I long for his utopian world.

The Watson household will be keeping a wide berth of online social gaming for the near future.  The negatives such as bullying, trolling and catfishing are too real a danger for me to risk. 

A funny story - often when I make a mistake in real life, for example, drop something, I have this immediate thought of Command+Z. Crazy, right! But I cannot stop having this flash every time I slip up. My fear is if this is my reaction to real life and I have trouble removing virtual from reality as an adult, should I expect that of my children? What if the gaming was of a violent nature. Not unrealistic when my boys are so drawn to this. Would this trigger a violent involuntary reaction?  Would this normalise violence in a real-world scenario that can have no benefit from aggression? 

For now, these are questions I cannot answer so I continue on a path many may consider helicopter parenting and keep my kids away.  

Does anyone have small children that engage in online gaming? What have been your experiences?

[marnyaw-blog]

Visual communities using Videos of Affinity

Visual communities are growing in popularity to communicate with peers and consumers.  Is it any wonder? Researchers estimate upwards of 90% of our communications is visual. 

With the increasing time poor lifestyle, our attention is a valued commodity that must increasingly be ‘won’ rather than ‘given’. 

In the case study from Lange (2009) Videos of Affinity are discussed in relation to a time economy where viewers give their attention for a perceived benefit.  Affinity is defined as a natural liking or understanding and feeling of connection.  Videos of Affinity are characterised, not by the inherent entertainment value of the content itself, but by the sense of community and connection between viewer and creator.  Shared interest and a sense of the audience identifying with a community, play a part.

Lange (2009) discusses YouTube specifically; how it allows easy use and enables the study of these social interactions. The YouTube social network is an established network that facilitates connection of people sharing affiliations.  Lange’s case study highlights some of the different affiliate groups from business-orientated networks to small personal factions.  Also discussed was the broad variance of “user-created” and professional content (2009 p. 83). The Videos of Affinity are not limited to any particular subset of these variations - posing the question of who merits attention and under what circumstances? We can think of attention as a type of economy where time is a finite resource and “everyday interactions are filled with constant micro-negotiations for attention” (Ibid p. 72).  Videos of Affinity reach success because of their ability to attract attention through the sense of connection managed through active and ongoing communication.  This seems to be at odds with what is generally thought of being the key to making successful content - being original.  Videos of Affinity may, to outsiders, seem uninteresting but those who identify with the community feel a vested interest in keeping up with the videos.

Social Networks are created between people with connections in some way that is important to them.  This social bonding is the key to affinity.  Videos of Affinity are normally not created for a general audience but a more narrowly defined, niche audience sharing an interest.  Across different social networks, a video may be personally meaningful in a way that provides viewer benefit, despite a lack of normatively valued content.  This can create interaction conflict when users are only given a binary thumbs-up or thumbs-down ability to rate the content.  

These types of creators often walk a fine line of narcissism and creating meaningful human connections.  The benefit for viewers to give their limited resource of time may be different for different viewers.  These Videos of Affinity offer connection and interaction to attract the viewer's attention, but ongoing management is required to retain that connection. 

References

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

[marnyaw-blog]

Crowdsourcing & Crowdfunding

Crowdsourcing - bringing a group together to achieve a common goal, usually via the internet.  

Isn’t that the promise of all we hoped the internet to be!

Using the internet allows the whole world to be open to contribute ideas, resources, knowledge and experience where needed.  

Some great examples of using our connected world to co-create using crowdsourcing are:

Kickstarted & Indigogo

Developers can present ideas and raise funds needed to see an idea come to fruition.  Individuals pledge their money for the proposed product idea. Kickstarted and Indigogo provides platforms to bring the two groups together.  The Pebble Smartwatch was created using the Kickstarter platform and one of it’s biggest success stories to date.

Lego

Lego Ideas’ is a great example of well-managed crowdsourcing where users can submit ideas and Lego can gauge the demand as people vote on the submissions.  Lego offers successful creators 1% royalty payment and has produced popular products such as Tron Legacy Motorcycle, Women of NASA sets, Beatles Yellow Submarine and Laybrinth Marble maze using this crowdsourcing system. 

Wikipedia

An early form of internet crowdsourcing where the goal was to create a record of the sum of all human knowledge.  It enabled Wikipedia to become one of the most comprehensive encyclopedias however 

Greenpeace

A great source of crowdsourcing is for ideas and public interest, not just money.  in 2012 Greenpeace ran a competition for quotes to use in conjunction with Shell’s “Let’s Go” slogan.  The resulting sarcastic and satirical adverts were promoted targeting oil giant Shell to stop drilling in the Arctic.  Another result was toy giant Lego dropping Shell as a partner to sell Shell-branded Lego sets at their stations. 

#AirbnbShorts

Another successful example of crowdfunding for ideas is Airbnb’s call of Instagram videos promoting their destination of choice.  

A post shared by Scott Allen Perry (@scottallenperry) on Jan 27, 2014 at 2:48pm PST

A post shared by Fabrizio Vizzi (@mberegheno) on Jan 29, 2014 at 3:18am PST

We have never seen anything like this and the future implications are massive.  The internet has enables a melting pot in this human-centric now movement and equipped us with the tools to CREATE! Now, go forth...

[marnyaw-blog]

Trolling & social media conflict

I’m really at a loss for words this week.

Just be nice

Why is it so hard? How can we say horrible things to each other?

Just be nice

Trolling is posting inflammatory comments in an online forum with the intent of eliciting an emotional response often purely for the troll’s own amusement.  This issue has escalated to point that trolling is now equated to online harassment.  

In the interest of not spiralling myself down a very dark rabbit hole with further analysis of trolling, I have found examples of:

TROLLING FOR GOOD

Love, marriage & trolling

Blake Lively & Ryan Reynolds have often expressed publicly their joking natures with each other and that playful banter online is #relationshipgoals fodder for us all.

Paula Deen backlash

After well documented racist comments, trying to carry on in the social media forum was a tough call.  Paula Deen received some trolling responses to her social media engagement attempts

The 7 legged spider payment

Below begins one of my favourite interactions as David Thorne attempts to make payment on an overdue electricity account.  This hilarious correspondence is a legendary example of early trolling.  If you somehow missed the exchange it’s worth the read of the full interaction. 

Sticking it to Washington Redskins

The best part of South Park’s promo trailer for Season 18 is that it aired during a Redskins game.

Targeting the trolls

When US Target department store announced that it was trying to make some store sections less gender specific their social media pages were barraged with complaints.  However, the responses from a fake Target customer service account was trolling turned around. 

India’s censorship

The Indian government censored a number of websites for its citizens.  One of the banned websites CollegeHumor created a creative troll to return the favour, but they may never know.

#BetterBundoBook

Vice President of the United States, Mike Pence is known for his conservative views on marriage equality and other bigotry.  In a trolling twist to the “John Oliver effect,” a rival children’s book was released the day prior to Pence’s and sold considerable more copies.  To add to the troll nature of the stunt the book depicts the Vice President's rabbit falling in love with another boy and giving all profits from the book sale to LGBTQIA supporting charities.

Finally

A trolly comeback to a troll

[marnyaw-blog]

Week 6 - Activism & protest

More to come - Watch this space

[marnyaw-blog]

Politics & activism

[ajoeblogs]

Assignment 1A: Are We Connected but Alone in a Pressurized World?

Are We Connected but Alone in a Pressurized World?

It has never been so easy to get in contact with others, and many of us are constantly on social media. But despite our ever-increasing online connectiveness, more and more people feel lonely and pressured. Why is that? And why do some feel especially pressured on social media? So many questions, but perhaps not ones that have easy answers.

Nowadays, we click, write and share almost every detail of our lives thanks to social media. Interestingly, social media gives us a sense control over our interactions and offers the ability of synergy, independent of time and space (Turkle).

Connected, but alone? - Sherry Turkle cited in מיכל שמואל    <http://bit.ly/2HxK9UN>

However, according to Boyd (2012, pp. 74-75), social media makes us choose and prioritise our interests as well. And yet, increasingly more people feel alone through social media. In research conducted by Colditz and his colleagues (2017, pp. 46-48), young adults aged 19 to 32 years old were asked about when and how often they are active on social network sites. The results showed that participants who spent more than two hours a day on social media were twice as likely to feel socially excluded than those who spent less 30 minutes a day on Facebook and other social media sites (Colditz et al 2017, pp. 48-50). On the other hand, various social network platforms give users the opportunity to share insights from their lives. However, the constant exposure of content online leads us to compare our lives with those of other users. In a way, social media not only causes loneliness but also creates anxieties about failing. We painstakingly try to capture or mould the best images of ourselves, both actual images and imagined ones. But constantly selecting and editing images can lead social network users to become extremely self-critical.

Although these images may inspire some people, they can, for others, create a general dissatisfaction with one’s life. Therefore, many users tend to just spread positives and stay silent about the negative things in their lives. Success stories like, “Hey, I was just promoted!” or “Tadaa! My new sports car!” then shape how we evaluate whether we ourselves, in comparison, measure up to such success, which is problematic. Constant comparisons to others is one of the main causes of dissatisfaction. DeLong (2011, pp. 120-129) extensively discusses the psychological comparison trap. He argues that, no matter how successful we are and how many goals we achieve, this trap will cause us to re-classify our achievements and re-adjust our parameters of ‘success’, comparing our lives to success stories. This is how we set unattainable standards and feel more miserable than ever. With all that going on in the background, then, is it really surprising that social media can cause loneliness? Instead of asking whether we’re connected but alone in a pressurized world, perhaps we should instead be asking how – and whether – we can change that dynamic.

Reference:

Boyd, D 2012, ‘Participating in the always-on lifestyle’, in M Mandiberg (ed), The Social Media Reader, NYU Press, ProQuest-Ebook, viewed 07 April 2018, <http://bit.ly/2GZ5DJd>

Colditz, JB, Whaite, EO, Shensa, A, Sidania, JE & Primack, BA 2017, ‘Social media use, personality characteristics, and social isolation among young adults in the United States’, University of Pittsburgh – Elsevier Journal, vol. 124, pp. 45-50.

DeLong, T 2011, Flying Without a Net: Turn Fear of Change into Fuel for Success, Harvard Business Review Press, ProQuest-Ebook, viewed 07 April 2018

Phillips, A 2016, ‘Chapter 6: “That’s so unfair!” – Navigating the teenage online experience, in P Nixon, R Rawal & A Funk (eds), Digital Media Usage Across the Life Course, Taylor & Francis, ProQuest-Ebook, viewed 08 April 2018

TED-Ed 2013, Connected, but alone?- Sherry Turkle, 19 April 2013, viewed 10 April 2018, <http://bit.ly/2HxK9UN>.

Image Reference:

The social media identity vs. the reality [image], New Media and Identity Construction n.d., commfuture.blogspot.de, viewed 07 April 2018, < http://bit.ly/2ql1vgn>.

[themindofscottywmitch-blog]

Love this blog post! I for one am very selective about what I post on social media because I care about what others think. I don’t want people to know about the bad times in life, but care more about the good times. I’ll post photos of holidays and exciting events (like when I graduate soon) but that’s about it.

I always think of the meme ‘I’d delete you off Facebook but your trainwreck of a life is far too entertaining’ as a way of guiding social media behaviour. People don’t need to post absolutely everything they do on social media, but post the good things and we will be more connected. Do you agree?

[marnyaw-blog]

I completely agree...but to take it further I feel really awkward only posting “good times”. Like it is somehow staged.  I’m not sure where that comes from.  Our parents only filled our baby album with happy snaps but it takes on a superficial air for me when shared on social media.   Does anyone else feel that too?

[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>.

[ajoeblogs]

Thanks, Joel, for an interesting post…

Indeed, friends make you happy, make you healthy, and have the same effects as a natural painkiller – these are some findings of Grayling’s (2013, pp. 177-182) research on interpersonal relationships. One thing is clear: our friends are very important to us. Some people prefer friends over family because we cannot choose our parents and siblings. Friends, on the other hand, are the people who understand us and accept us as we are. These days, many people say that they only have a handful of good friends. The next moment you hear the same people saying they have 500 friends on Facebook. 

In my opinion, we need to more closely analyse the term “friend”. On Facebook (FB), being ‘friends’ only means that two independent people are connected to each other (Lambert 2013, p. 2-5). I do not consider just added strangers on FB as friends, so these unknown friends on FB are technically not friendship-relevant. 

That said, of course, a large number of contacts may be meaningful to some people, but in my opinion, it is more about seeking recognition or validation in a sense of, “I have a lot of friends, so I’m irresistible and cool.”

So what is friendship?

The answer to what makes a real friend can be very different. For some, it is important to meet regularly and do something together. Others do not like frequent appointments; instead, they value trust and intimacy. According to Vernon (2010, pp. 32-35), friendship is based on two people mutually confirming acceptance and respect. Furthermore, the definition of friendship is constantly changing (Vernon 2010, pp. 25-26). In my opinion, friendship changes as soon you get married and have children. Your perspective and priorities change overnight.

Reference:

Grayling, A 2013, Friendship, Yale Univerity Press, ProQuest-Ebook, viewed 11 April 2018, <http://bit.ly/2HlMkx1>

Lambert, A 2013, Intimacy and Friendship on Facebook, Palgrave Macmillan, ProQuest-Ebook, viewed 11 April 2018, <http://bit.ly/2GSQ21U>

Vernon, M 2010, The Meaning of Friendship, Palgrave Macmillan, ProQuest-Ebook, viewed 11 April 2018, <http://bit.ly/2INklmY>

[themindofscottywmitch-blog]

Such an interesting perspective on social media and its use Joel! I think that social media is such a powerful channel to connect people all around the world and can enable friendships and human connections to occur, thereby removing or lowering the ability to feel lonely.

Take a look at the business Meet Up, where someone can find a social group based on something they have in common. For example, there are groups for chess players, trivia nerds (self-titled), fitness enthusiasts and brunch enjoyers. It’s not hard to connect with others on social media and then develop an actual friendship. I have a great friend of mine who I met on Twitter and have also met many times when we are in each other’s respective states - I’m even invited to his wedding in a few months.

While I do agree that social media can make you feel more lonely at times, it’s up to the individual to put themselves out there and use social media and other online tools to not be as lonely.

[marnyaw-blog]

Interesting points here Joel. I enjoyed reading your blog post which surprised me because I usually get frustrated with this topic. I liked your comment...”I think most people wish they had more friendships, and face to face encounters”

I would agree but I don’t think I seek to replace that need with online connections.  Do you think others do?

[marnyaw-blog]

Pinterest affordance with my personality type

When a tool or platform gain popularity and proves to be effective, it is almost inevitable that it will begin to be used in different ways than originally designed (Interaction-Design.org 2011).  Pinterest has a plethora of affordances, the postmark of good design.

“[Pinterest] it’s basically like a mood board online, and you can build your dream life...and then, your life is sad because it doesn’t look like that.” - Emma Stone

Understanding platform affordances are the key to unlocking potential and a deeper understanding.  Pinterest is a visual platform similar to Instagram but has the capacity to allow users to “sort” saved images into folders.  

A place for everything and everything in its place

This suits a Type A personality type such as I am. It also appears, albeit anecdotally, that there is a high portion of INFJ personality types like myself.  INFJ is only around 1-2% of the populations making it the rarest of the Myers-Briggs personality types (16Personalitites 2018).  

So, is Pinterest...

frivolous or functional

Well, both.  It is easy to waste time on Pinterest.  It is a beautiful and visual platform that flows easily through idea after idea.  However, it is also proving a very useful marketing tool to promote and endorse products online. There is an element of connecting loosely associated users, known as “weak ties” (Siapera 2012, p. 203).  Users can “follow” other users or just a specific board.  These weak ties create “bridging capital” to a social network and endorse connectivity (Siapera 2012, p. 203).  This is potentially life-altering as isolated individuals living in a community without similar interests may have previously been marginalised.  Opportunities in global digital communities afford a chance to find a collective and use this to legitimise their place in their physical society.  This flows on the help society evolve and grow.  

I have strong connections with my family and friends that I share traditional community with.  Additionally, I share these weak connections within my online networks and I am exposed to new ideas that would have previously not penetrated my sphere.  Wellman (2009) describes our virtual communities as not limited by physical proximity.  These contrast to our traditional communities that are usually close to us or gravitate together on occasion.  

I’m so happy a platform like Pinterest exist for me to organise and file away ideas about so many aspects of my life.  I’m not as happy this blog took me 2 weeks to complete because I kept getting lost down the rabbit hole that is Pinterest.

[marnyaw-blog]

Pinterest & Me

Pinterest is my preferred social media platform...what does this say about me???

Tonnies describes rational will as “purposive and goal orientated” (Siapera 2012, p. 193). Pinterest is a platform for one’s self and connections are an auxiliary benefit able to grow on mutual interest.  This is in contrast to a platform such a Facebook where connections are made and then “broadcast” to.  The Gesellschaft is formed using rational will through the social media platform.

As I said, Pinterest is “for me” rather “to others”.  I don't like the idea of engaging in an “Instagram Life” where I'm concerned with the optics instead of sharing a joy-filled moment. I would sometime feel conscious on other platforms that a post would look too “posed” or would look too “basic”.  Urgh, who needs it.  When my parents created my baby album it was filled with happy special milestones but that replication felt “faked” in my new social media age.  I didn’t want my special moments minimised or sensationalised by “weak ties” comments (Siapear 2012 p. 203).  I started to feel protective of my life experiences and didn’t want an outside audience.  

Isn’t that such an amazing part of our new digital communities? We can each find a platform that gives a voice that suits us...Pinterest is mine. 

Digital communities are a diverse as humankind

There is a different online network for different needs that can create connections not limited to geographical location.

What about you guys? What’s the best platform for your voice? Do you consider the optics before you share? Does that sound bonkers to you? Lemme know...

[nature-porn]

@karencantuq