The Culture of Connectivity

Student 9937153 Polly

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Week 11.  China is winning the War in internet censorship and limiting freedoms.

Google and China have had a chequered history.  Not the best of friends and certainly neither have the other on Christmas card lists. When Google stopped censoring search results in mainland China in 2010, seven years down the track the majority of its services are still blocked. It’s been a tug-of-war between tech companies, the government and Google.  Push me - block you, my way or no way, was the general modus operandi of communications.

Couldn’t get much worse?  Well yes, it did. The government began blocking the VPNs on which organisations relied on to bypass the Great Firewall of China. With a touch of a button, businesses that had spent years on circumnavigating the firewall had to go back to the drawing board to find new ways.

Charlie Smith co-founder of GreatFire.org who monitors the Chinese internet freedoms and promotes ways around the fire wall. Smith says that sites rarely get unblocked or uncensored in China, its just an ever increasing list of blocked content.

Even stranger still, the Chinese government is aware that thousands of internet users in China are using VPNs to bypass the great firewall and they could block them all if they wanted to, however the government realises that some internationals still need to do business in China. Irrespective, China still wants to hold a tight reign over its citizens viewing content.

Besides the obvious human right issues, there must be an upside somewhere. Well yes, there is, in a way.  Because China has blocked Google, its own search engine Baidu is going gangbusters.  In the absence of Facebook and WhatsApp its domestic messaging service WeChat – has boomed and their own Weibo has replaced Twitter.  The western world has seen this sort of governance before from China. Both China and Japan treat globalisation nuances completely different to the rest of the world.  Its all about getting through the locked gate of negotiations and it might be easier than the government thinks.  Its just all about perspective and maybe a little more of a ‘can do’ attitude.

China much prefers the ‘glocalisation’ trends in their high context culture (Gruing, 1989). China has forged itself as a leader in the global economy by taking what they like from the west, very selectively, while doing their best on their own.  But don’t tweet China I said that…..  Oh that’s right, you can’t.  Anyhow, the citizens of China have had enough of the old school. China’s citizens are upset as they believe they should be able to enjoy basic freedoms in internet access.   There are only 618,000,000 internet users in China – but the government can take their time.. I’m sure they will be patient...

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Week 10. The Other Living Universe > ONLINE SOCIAL GAMING

Move over World of Warcraft, enter EVE by developers CCP.

We are about to embark to another parallel universe to our own and that is the world of social online gaming. Please secure your seatbelt and make sure your tray is in an upright position for take-off - it’s that real.  

EVE Online boasts some 500,000 playing pilots in starships.  That’s a lot of pilots (de Wartz & Humphries, 2014). The megaships are like the Death Star from Star Wars and the largest ships in the game are worth about $3,000 each in real-world money.  Players send over 200 million message per day.  There are over 3500 active war declarations between player groups at any given time.   Good deals in the market places get hit with 600 transactions every minute and 700 ships are destroyed every hour, and there are 1700 jumps between star systems every minute.  That’s a great place, who doesn’t want to be there…!!   Our own lives seem dull and boring by comparison.

Players can trade goods and engage in sci-fi espionage in some huge battles. These MMORPG’s, for the none-gamers this means, massive multiplayer online roll playing games, have had conflicts that have known to go for some 14 hours (Gentry, 2012).  It involves more than 4,000 totally invested players.  There is also in-game currency, that can be calculated in real-world cash and a 14 hour conflict was estimated to have cost $300,000 in real world money.  Why you ask? Well apparently the whole thing was bought down by an earthly error of judgement. A virtual bill was not paid, to ensure that an area in the galaxy in EVE was fortified, and a surprise attack ensued. They didn’t pay the bill…!!  Seems real…. There is even a Council of Stellor Management that can liaise with CCP game makers to cut better deals for online gamers.

I fear if I delve into this world, I’d be lost to it forever!  This leads us to explore the darker side of online gaming and the people who have the propensity to get addicted to it.  When you read the stats, there is no doubt that people are 100% invested in this virtual reality and having the time of their ‘virtual’ lives. 

When thinking about social gaming, you would think it would be a safe place and no harm would come to anyone by simply having ‘fun’.  Not so,Gentry (2012 p.51) talks about the addictive players, like a 12 year old boy who jumped to his death because his parents had taken his video games away, so he could focus on other things.  Or, in 2009 when a man collapsed and died after 50 hour marathon at his ‘console’.  While these are extreme cases normal overuse in gaming world can be noticed quite easily, as there is a disconnect, between real life and reality (McQuade et. al 2012).

The alluring pastime and entertainment associated with many online games can lead to overuse. If you don’t hold a firm grip on reality than obsession can overtake, and if you have an addictive personality than best treat with extreme caution... have fun...!

Gentry, SEMSC 2012, Internet Addiction and Online Gaming, Infobase Publishing, . Available from: ProQuest Ebook Central.  viewed online 3 February, 2017. 

http://ebookcentral.proquest.com.ezproxy.lib.swin.edu.au/lib/swin/detail.action?docID=902995

De Zwart, M. and Humphreys, S., 2014. The lawless frontier of deep space: Code as law in EVE online. Cultural Studies Review, 20(1), p.77. viewed online 3 January, 2017

http://search.informit.com.au.ezproxy.lib.swin.edu.au/documentSummary;dn=225934593111540;res=IELAPA

McQuade, S., Rogers, M.K., Gentry, S.E. and Colt, J.P., 2012. Internet Addiction and Online Gaming. Chelsea House Pub (Library).

http://ebookcentral.proquest.com.ezproxy.lib.swin.edu.au/lib/swin/reader.action?docID=902995

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Week 9 Digital Self-Representations. The ‘Selfie’

There are three modes of self-representation in digital media: written, visual and quantitative (Rettberg, 2016 p. 1). Blogs and written status updates pay homage to the conventional diary, memoir and autobiography. Digital cameras, smart phones and social media have replaced the need for keeping diaries, scrapbooks and photo albums (Rettberg, 2016 p. 5).  Because online interactions often involve images especially human faces that grab our attention, we are going to explore the culture of SELFIES and its personal branding powers.  

Once upon a time, people were content with the outward capture of a picturesque scene in photography.  Today, we have the camera turned inwards, we must have our faces in the foreground to make sure other people know we are capturing the awe inspiring beauty or the precarious situation, one can get ‘into’ with a selfie.  It’s highly recommended that you spin around at height, like so?

Source; http://feedfad.com/womans-death-defying-selfies-deeply-viscerally-terrifying/

From the death defying to the macabre, it does not matter really, get that selfie!  Or, should there be a selfie user guide with an exam at the end and if you fail the ethical test, your mobile phone is collected by the police and crushed?

Source: http://blognews.am/arm/news/387009/21-rd-dar-kam-selfineri-darashrjany.html

In 2015, more people died from selfies than shark attacks and sharks have been around for years.  Now, lets us set the record straight here, sharks have always been unpopular to swim with, yet mobile phones are never been out of some people’s hands.  Go figure.

Next thing you know someone will come up with a way to do a selfie, while being eaten by a shark.  In fake photography, I hope (The Blast 2016).  U-huh and here it is.  Bitten off more than she can chew here… Doh.   Well anyway, her hand is up and out, so at least she’ll save her beer….!!  Dang wrong again, I mean her camera.....

Source: http://theblast.info/content/selfies-and-death

The reader can tell I am a bit of a cynic of the Selfie.  Why?  This can be directly related to my vintage.  Interactions involving selfies have variations in homophily scores, in terms of age and gender (Souza et. al 2015).  

Youth today embrace the power of the selfie and they are doing well at it. Beware the pesky photobomber they are out there too.

There are some highly skilled, personal branding marketers out there and they just don’t know how good they are, or do they? (Youth branding themselves using social media to achieve, 2014).   Youth of today have learned the more you reveal about yourself personally, the more controversial your post, the more you hashtag.  If that is the ying, the yang would be that too much personal information can be counterproductive and your digital footprint can follow you for a very long time. 

Who doesn’t want to have the bank accounts of Kim Kardashian, Miley Cyrus, Kendall Jenner and Tylor Oakely with strategies such as #followforfollow and #spamforspam to create some extra pay days for themselves from Google.  Now that’s clever and money for jam.  

So, I don’t mind a selfie, as long as I’m not in it.  They can be beneficial when used in a manner that is respectful.  A danger to yourself, if that what floats your boat then go for it, but please remember a human life is not worth just one frame, stay alive and take heaps.  

I will conclude with this.  I stumbled on this video that was posted online in the last couple of days.  Certainly don’t be a ‘douche’ when partaking in the selfie culture.  Rule of thumb, if you think you may have to apologise for a picture, please don’t press the button. Respect.

Rettberg, Jill W. Seeing ourselves through technology: How we use selfies, blogs and wearable devices to see and shape ourselves. Springer, 2016.

http://download.springer.com.ezproxy.lib.swin.edu.au/static/pdf/324/bok%253A978-1-137-47666-1.pdf?originUrl=http%3A%2F%2Flink.springer.com%2Fbook%2F10.1057%2F9781137476661&token2=exp=1486034370~acl=%2Fstatic%2Fpdf%2F324%2Fbok%25253A978-1-137-47666-1.pdf%3ForiginUrl%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Flink.springer.com%252Fbook%252F10.1057%252F9781137476661*~hmac=f9b2b076068084f2ad0d20ba1aaa6194a411e42d2bcd17a046610ab58c34b502

The Blast 2016, By Stephanie ‘SELFIES AND DEATH’ viewed online 03 February, 2017

http://theblast.info/content/selfies-and-death

Youth branding themselves using social media to achieve #instafame: Research report. (2014, Nov 12). Canada NewsWire viewed online 3 January, 2017 https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.lib.swin.edu.au/docview/1622592917?accountid=14205

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Week 8 Crowdsourcing

Where is society going with all this information we have accumulated on the web?  Exciting times just ahead…!

We are now entering into a new web environment, the 3.0 era of globalisation. The notion of ‘crowdsourcing’ or ‘outsourcing’ in web 3.0 is advancing at lightning speed pace and is already having positive impacts on how we collaborate on important issues, in connectivity (Gaarigos, Pechuan & Estelles, 2015).  Crowdsourcing is like a ‘shout out’ for all relevant information, marketing and business ideas, crisis interventions or social need remedies via content contributions linked to software, from large and mostly amateur audiences.  

From Outsourcing to Crowdsourcing, from Crowdsourcing to Masscapital.

This new framework translates into capturing the ‘management’ of ‘masscapital’ relative to; an organisation, a business or cause, or new technologies or natural crisis interventions, and I could go on ...  So, the conventional time consuming activity of ‘company network management’ is becoming obsolete in this new era of online globalization.  

As an example, business and corporations know what they know, because they know their core business competences and activities and they can reduce costs by outsourcing non-core aspects of their business. This then gives them time to commit their entire resources to their own core competencies, while outsourcing the rest of their functions to specialised entities. Confused yet?

Well get excited, the possibilities are endless!  To explain in simpler terms, it does not matter what you don’t know, because what you don’t know, you will know with very little effort, in the finding out of the ‘knowing’ (Gaarigos, Pechuan & Estelles, 2015). Dang, I’m confused now…  but you catch my drift...

Already there are groups that are actively pursuing the ability to crowdsource ‘the truth’ which will revolutionise our daily news. (Journalists have just fainted….everywhere) Begs the question, will crowdsourcing the truth make the group Anonymous obsolete too?  Anyhow, that’s a question that could be revisited in about five years, let’s wait and see.

This new form of collective collaboration, has created power to the user, on information that can be transferred along non-conventional channels of communications, in advantageous ways.

No doubt you yourself have already seen the impacts of this activity. Wikipedia is probably the most recognisable application created by crowdsourcing . The low-cost online survey tools like Survey Monkey is an easy way for small businesses to afford and conduct survey research to assist their business in growth (King 2009). 

Even cheaper still, is the use of social media sites and tools to ask questions. The Small Business Trends blog does this quite often. All the time we are building big data, and we can all have a hand in it. However crowdsourcing is in the relms of ‘growing up’ big time with the endless possibilities.  Mind you, there is always a negative to the positive of our crowdsourcing capabilites. As Cox (2011) argues, we should not to get too caught up in crowdsourcing, as crowdsourcing systems can become targets for mischief, malice and lies, which muddys the data.    

One thing is for use, Web 3.0 is here.  Its about building endless communication streams that will revolutionise the way we go about our business and translate meaningful information.  We just need to make sure it is for growth and prosperity and positive globilised intellect.  Now, where are those rules and regulations about online content....

Cox, L.P., 2011. Truth in crowdsourcing. IEEE Security & Privacy, 9(5), pp.74-76. viewed online 29 January, 2017 http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.ezproxy.lib.swin.edu.au/document/6029362/?reload=true

Garrigos-Simon, F.J., Gil-Pechuán, I. and Estelles-Miguel, S., 2015. Advances in Crowdsourcing. Springer. viewed online 29 January, 2016 http://link.springer.com.ezproxy.lib.swin.edu.au/book/10.1007%2F978-3-319-18341-1

Top 10 movers & shakers in Australian crowdsourcing, 2014 viewed online 29 January, 2017 http://www.businessreviewaustralia.com/top10/1172/Top-10-movers-shakers-in-Australian-crowdsourcing

US News 2009 ‘Using Social Media and Crowd-Sourcing for Quick and Simple Market Research’ King S, viewed online 29 January, 2017 http://money.usnews.com/money/blogs/outside-voices-small-business/2009/01/27/using-social-media-and-crowd-sourcing-for-quick-and-simple-market-research

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Week 7. Trolling and Social Media conflict

Warning. The referenced material and hyperlinks in this post contains offensive language, sexual references and content that may offend. Viewer discretion is advised.

As we delve deeper into the concepts of today’s culture of connectivity we come to the ‘dark’ side of social media conflict, trolling.  Trolling takes the face of peer abuse, online bullying and harassment, hateful statements or stalking via social media platforms.  The people who partake in such activity are also called ‘keyboard warriors’ who let’s face it, are very boring, tired people who have serious mental health issues if they think that this sort of ‘dark unloading’ on some unsuspecting person, is ‘fun’.  They somehow believe their keyboard allows them to be judge, jury and executioner, to all they read and hear.

McCosker (2014) argues that digital citizenship, should have allowances for ethical online behaviour. Trolling activity has regrettably enjoyed a seepage of acceptance by the general public.  We all tend to think it’s just there and there is nothing we can do about it. Maybe the other side of the argument is, - ‘we must do something about it’.  This is especially important for our youth and other marginalised or disadvantaged groups in our community.  

We also see vigilante actions of a brave few, who have tried to highlight the ugly action of others.  The story about Kaitlin Jackson who took it upon herself, to do good Samaritan work because of the lack of laws and invested over 6000 hours by reporting and disabling some 500 hateful people online, was great!  But poor Kaitlin, her work in digital activism as a troll hunter, was soon turned against her and the hunter became the hunted. The below link highlights the alarming lengths these ‘haters’ will go, so they can continue to wield their unfettered pure evil.

Playing devils advocate now, I would like to ask you about the self-proclaimed trolling group of anonymous.  Good or evil?  Yes, for the most part I consider them evil, and good.  So conflicted....  Anonymous did manage to shut down a internet pedophilia group via their hacktivism.  

So they aren’t that bad after all?  Or are they?  If we just knew who they were, but I suppose that would defeat their purpose!   I wouldn’t mind them, if they weren’t so...let me find the word.... Anonymous.  So yes, while they, it, them, he or she may have done good things does that mean they will do good things all the time? I don’t think so.  We simply don’t have sufficient information to truly make an opinion about them?  One thing working against them is anonymity is being shunned more and more in online commentary and this is a condition of membership with Anonymous.

While we have touched on Politicians being easy targets to such trolling, from their political platform and we know that it is a prerequisite for a politician to have a thick skin or a steel jaw, but aren’t these attributes a learned behaviour that comes with maturity?  Yes.  So, politicians often take a more pragmatic view of haters and threatening comments online, because they can ‘expect’ negative commentary, depending on the popularity of their political party compared to others.

Source: http://weknowmemes.com/tag/what-are-you-gonna-do-caps-lock-me-to-death/

However the impacts of cyber-bullying on our youth, who have young minds, not yet developed into maturity, often suffer in silence.  They are also totally unsuspecting victims of what is about to come.  Most have not learned not to feed the trolls or even how to handle them. They are lost in the ugliness of other people’s small demented minds.  Our youth, need firmer laws today.  Where’s Anonymous....!!?  Get UP.....!!?  Oh that’s right, they are too busy vilifying people and groups as well......mmmm.

In Australia, innovative computer-based social learning tools for assessing student perceptions of bullying for an intervention program is called the P.E.A.C.E. Pack (Mental Health Weekly Digest, 2014). However, the hurt in online bullying has caused the suicides of children in Australia.  And for those who are lucky enough to make it through, if they have been a victim - have we truly realised the impact of such activity on our youth (Hase, et al. 2015) as they transition into adulthood?

Many politicians have been talking about the need for e-safety for children for a long time.  In this proposed plan the commissioner is able to apply a statutory test and they have rules and regulations as indicators of cyber bullying and what could likely cause an Australian child harm. This is the designated website, where complaints can be lodged. 

For the general public, the very same tools that provide these hater-trolls a voice, has given rise to anti-trolling anecdotal evidence like the youtube below,  back at those who do things for evil..! But we are not there yet.

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Meanwhile In Australia...

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Week 6.  Global protest, activism, resistance or uprising.

Social media platforms have played an important role in global protests, activism, resistance and uprisings throughout the world in recent years. While the platforms have played a part in message efficiency, it’s important to note that we should not get caught up in the euphoric optimism of early achievements in digital democracy around the world, especially in political related matter (Loader & Mercea, 2011).  Networking democracy in some countries is fraught with its own limitations and dare I say….. dangers.

It would be unimaginable for Australian’s not having the right to vote, nor to be able to have a look at government policy or most importantly, hold their leaders to account for their actions and deeds.  So, as much as we complain about the situations that affect us, such as political agendas and policies at least we ‘can’ express ourselves via freedom of speech, in any forum we may choose. This is the way we truly celebrate our democracy.  

Yet, in countries like Turkey, who wanted to celebrate the potential of disruptive moments and counter opinions on networks and platforms where vital political information could be played out… well, it was shut down, swiftly.  Therefore the public's degree of inclusion of authoritative meaning and the opportunities that they may have provided for competitive advantage over other groups and interests, was left in tatters (Loader & Mercia, 2011).

Turkey’s concentrated efforts in censoring social media information, goes back to Gezi Uprising. This strict control regime also had the social media companies, ‘jumping out’ of hot water (Bulut, 2016).  The over-ought regulations regarding social media can be attributed to the then Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan.  Why all the fuss?  Well, he was caught up in a corruption scandal, 10 days out from the local election, which apparently cited his possible illegal involvement in interfering with State monies, inference with media (hard to believe...) and court cases, no less….  Erdogan then stated;

‘If necessary, we will shut down Facebook and Youtube.... (Hurriyet, 2014) and ended up declaring;

‘We’ll eradicate Twitter. I don’t care what the international community says...’ 

…and that’s exactly what he did.  Within hours of this statement Twitter was forced to shut down and Facebook folded earlier than that.  In following days, Twitter was more resistant to the pressure and sort legal advice.

 Source: France 24

Although Twitter did not issue an official statement on the issue, it advised its users via its official @policy feed, that Turks could get around the block by tweeting through mobile telephone text services (France 24, 2014).   No win there for the PM.

Therefore to operate in Turkey now, under the new internet market laws, to be a web hosting provider one needs to be a member of the Union for Service Providers (Bulut, 2016). FB and Twitter have now acted within the boundaries of these new national policies, in cultural assimilation as ‘certificate’ holders even though Twitter was slightly more resistant to cooperation.  Therefore, the government provide approvals of what can be provided online in terms of content and they have the power to ‘shut it down’.  So, there is direct state intervention in content supervision within a supposedly ‘free-market’ democracy. 

While this may seem a bit strange and somewhat stifling, this model shows that Turkey as a secular democracy, where Islam and liberal democracy can coexist within some guarded boundaries at least. This also appeals to Western media, especially after 9/11 and the rise of Islamophobia.  Turkey also provides evidence and antidotes of how both authoritarianism and radical Islam can be associated with the Middle East. 

References;

Bulut, E., 2016. Social media and the nation state: of revolution and collaboration. Media, Culture & Society, 38(4), pp.606-618. Viewed online 12 January, 2017 http://journals.sagepub.com.ezproxy.lib.swin.edu.au/doi/abs/10.1177/0163443716643013

France 24 Web. ‘Turkey turns off Twitter ahead of key local elections’ viewed onlne 12 January, 2017 http://www.france24.com/en/20140321-turkey-turns-off-twitter-erdogan-local-elections-censorship

Gürcan, E.C. and Peker, E., 2014. Turkey's Gezi Park demonstrations of 2013: A Marxian analysis of the political moment. Socialism and Democracy, 28(1), pp.70-89. viewed online 12 January, 2017 http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/08854300.2013.869872?journalCode=csad20

Loader, B.D. and Mercea, D., 2011. Networking democracy? Social media innovations and participatory politics. Information, Communication & Society, 14(6), pp.757-769 viewed online 12 January, 2017 http://www-tandfonline-com.ezproxy.lib.swin.edu.au/doi/full/10.1080/1369118X.2011.592648?scroll=top&needAccess=true

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Week 5. Politicians & New Media

Politicians’ in Australia and all around the world are embracing social media platforms.  Yet most Pollies would tell you that they ‘would prefer to dig out their own heart, with a blunt spoon’, then partake in commentary on Twitter or Facebook. Why is this so?   Politicians must converse in the convergence of new media, that is the 5th Estate, to reach their audiences - it’s just not that simple, doing it. 

Social media has an increasingly important place in people’s lives, and the audiences ability to expand their reach in individual networks, on matter’s they care about is attractive in message efficiency. The resistance in the partaking, is because these new social media platforms has given rise to citizen journalism and opinion and more often than not, trolls or opposition political parties and their ‘covert correspondents’.   These correspondents provide ‘negative commentary’ to any post, or in this week’s case, what the politician’s may have to say.  

Also ‘real journalists’ are scrambling to find out where they fit into the new equation of the 5th estate. We should give a minutes silence, to the hard-headed journalistic reporting that is slowly being eroded and replaced by a 140 characters in five minute news cycles.  

Characteristics of citizen journalism appear to present interesting possibilities for a reinvigorated public culture, however Jodi Dean (2013) mounts a strong argument that media platforms today, are not so conducive to a democratic society and if anything, it further suppresses already marginalised groups.  Liberating communities, with totalitarianism undertones, is like fighting for peace.  It’s an oxymoron. 

Our own study group is differentiated by our life experiences, cultural literacy, perception and knowledge, which is epistemology.  I just know that ‘I am’ and I’m not sure about much else.   Just add this analogy of epistemology to social media and its individualism of opinions and talk back with no 'real’ knowledge about a political topic and we have problems.  On the flip-side it’s beholden on a politician to know everything! 

There is no wonder that many people think that politicians talk in circles, but it can also provide some comedy, when we drill down to have a look at how politics works, behind the scenes…..  

We, as a society believe that it’s a pollies ‘right of passage’  to cop a roasting and let’s face it, some of them deserve it.  However was Barnaby Joyce wrong when he perused Johnny Depp for allowing his dogs to come into Australia, without quarantine approval, completely ignoring our Australian laws?  Anyone who has ever owned or loved a dog knows that Barnaby did his job in Australia’s interests, by telling Johnny, Pistol and Boo to bugger off back to the United States.   So, does Barnaby look the fool or the hero in this parody?  Hero I say...!!  However this highlights the constant pressure our politicians are under with the risk of being made a fool of, in a very ‘public viral parody’, just because they wanted to do the job they were elected to do.

There is no doubt that politicians have had to smarten up and be more strategic and ‘honest’ than ever before. Even with reputation landmines everywhere, there is no avoiding that the younger demographic actually ‘live’ in the new media channel of communication and most everyone else is coming online.  

Politician’s are also dealing with more astute fact finding audiences, who they ‘wish’ to deliver positive messages to. The addressees can become the addressers, via blogs and other channels like facebook or twitter to provide acumen and information to things they like or believe, to support a policy.  So will positive government policy get a real go online? ...maybe one day....

 One thing is for certain, the typical punter is slowly moving away from the xenophobic, imperialistic fear campaigns wagered by politicians like Trump, Lambie and Hanson.  There are laws in Australia that would not allow Sharia Law, in the manner in which Lambie tries to convey here.....Roast Away....!

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Week 1-3

When Tim Berners-Lee managed to give birth to the World Wide Web in 1991, I wonder if he imagined just how much it would actually impact our lives some 25 years later (Dijck 2013, p. 5).   It started with simply connecting hypertext technology to the Internet, which forms the basis of the new type of networked communications we enjoy today. When it morphed into Web 2.0 at the turn of the millennium, online services became interactive and a much sort after globally shared communications infrastructure.  While of course Tim believed in digital communities for the growth in business and globalised intellect, he himself is not a true believer in facebook as a social communications media platform.  Social media platforms...bah hum bug!  The irony is, Tim got on Twitter to have his say about facebook and its founder.  Nailed it...!

Now, it seems we are asking ourselves the same question, what really holds our society together?  Online content providers have provided platforms, by positioning themselves as the website, company, service, forum and community nurturers.  We have become the users, clients, advertisers, the citizen journalists and the social media junkie, in response (Gillespie 2010). Has the traditional Sunday family roast been ditched for the self-impulsive urge to see how many friends we have accumulated in the last week?  How many likes, like us and who didn’t like it?  Well, the jury is out.  As we pander to the insatiable desire to discover our ‘social selves’ (Ted ED 2013) it’s like trying to discover what strange urge of nature would make a snail want to go across sandpaper…. and who are those agents that live in the matrix....and how easy was that equation to figure out... but I don’t feel like a virus...today.  Its enough to make you dizzy.

However the jury is ‘in’ and always ‘on’ (Boyd 2012) when it comes to our ability as a social online community to use self-reflexivity in public forums to reinvent ourselves as to how we would like to be seen and it really does not matter who we really are.  We negotiate and directly implement interpretations of ourselves that may draw a long bow to the reality in our lives.  As we re-invent the mutated form of ourselves….. now hang on a minute…. mutated form of ourselves... so are we a virus…?  Not likely.

So, the question could be, what is the price we are willing to pay for a multifaceted digital community in exchange for people not knowing who we really are?

It’s not all bad though, the revolution in the culture of connectivity has bought about the ability to inexpensively make many connections via electronic tools, with up to date information in collaboration in communal relationships, which builds a stronger world.  ‘Like’ tends to stick with ‘like’ and the people who are always ‘on’ they need for other people to always be ‘on’ too and this reflexive modernity beacons many, especially in the business ‘platform’ world.  We just need to find the balance and keep it real....