Digital Communities

Hey, I'm Steph! I am a Media and Communications student at Swinburne University of Technology. Content here is created for participation in unit of study MDA20009 Digital Communities.

[thediaryofinspiration]

[takeastepbackandlove-deactivate]

And fuck those who did.

[stephanieatha]

This is a vital statement to consider in reference to the many cases of online harassment, as it emphasises the importance of friendship to help us get through difficult times in our lives. 

[stephanieatha]

Conflict Among Digital Communities

Digital citizenship is a topic that I have already covered in previous posts but today I will expand on these ideas. It is important to note that people do not always present good citizenship and that the power these citizens hold can be used for the wrong reason (McCosker 2016). Platforms allow for several interactions and communications to take place, ranging from buying, to researching, to viewing and to creating new relationships (Poell et al. 2019). Linked to this, Platformisation is another concept that should be covered here on my page. It refers to social media sites that operate as a neutral place where anyone can come and share whatever is on their mind, allowing users to engage with each other, without the platform interfering.

These platforms allow for issues of online harassment due to bad digital citizenship and the freedom for individuals to express themselves as a result of platformisation. There are a number of issues that are counted as online harassment including name calling, embarrassment, receiving threats, sexual harassment, impersonation or spreading of rumours (McCosker 2016). Individuals often choose to commit these forms of harassment for their own entertainment and satisfaction after seeing the visible embarrassment and trouble they have caused. Although sometimes these contributions are serious and the user is unaware of the trouble they have caused, often too stubborn to recognise that they are in the wrong.

Online conflicts can occur to anyone, no matter how well known they are or whether they have done anything to upset others. Linking to my post regarding the implementation of aesthetic labour by individuals and brands on Instagram, we must acknowledge how influences are often easy targets for harassment. This is due to the constant social media updates that they post publicly giving predators several opportunities to strike. Their commitment to the aesthetic template’s use of pornification provides users to make sexually inappropriate comments such as “love to spank and kiss your gorgeous ass” or even more hostile comments such as “Turn around before I take out my dick and beat you…” (Drenten et al. 2019).

References

Drenten, J, Gurrieri, L & Tyler, M 2019, How highly sexualised imagery is shaping 'influence' on Instagram - and harassment is rife, viewed 7 June, 2020, <https://theconversation.com/how-highly-sexualised-imagery-is-shaping-influence-on-instagram-and-harassment-is-rife-113030>.

McCosker, A 2016, ‘Managing Digital Citizenship: Cyber Safety as Three Layers of Control’, in A McCosker, S Vivienne & A Johns (eds), Negotiating Digital Citizenship: Control, Contest and Culture, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, London, pp. 1-15.

Poell, T, Nieborg, D & van Dijck, J 2019, "Platformisation", Internet Policy Review, vol. 8, no. 4.

[stephanieatha]

The History Of Gaming: An Evolving Community – TechCrunch

Since its commercial birth in the 1950s as a technological oddity at a science fair, gaming has blossomed into one of the most profitable entertainment industries in the world. The mobile technology boom in recent years has revolutionized the industry and opened the doors to a new generation of gam…

This article successfully elaborates on a number of points I have previously discussed regarding the gaming industry and communities. Riad Chikhani expands on these ideas in his own way. 

[stephanieatha]

Then vs now: Video games through the decades

A wonderful vision of just how far games have gone. We've collected a gallery of images to show you how amazing video games are and just how far they've come.

Here is a great article that compares games, then and now. It shows us how specific games have evolved overtime with improvements in graphics being a major difference. This relates well to my last post as it expresses the more recent implementation of games that allow an expansion of social communication with other gamers in the gaming community. 

[stephanieatha]

Gaming Communities and Live Streaming

The state and culture of gaming has changed significantly over the years with transitions from original arcade games, to local multiplayer, online multiplayer, mobile games and now has finally led to online streaming platforms for people to watch others play. This transition has created empowering gaming communities for those who often feel left out or easily judged (Stuart 2013). This is because many online games connect people based off a character to represent the user, stopping other players from making any judgments. It also provides gamers with an opportunity to make friendships off a joint interest of specific games or characters.

Live streaming is one of the most recent additions to the gaming community in recent years, allowing individuals to broadcast their gaming talents to their followers and other general users of the chosen streaming service. Popular gaming streaming services include Twitch, Mixer, Facebook gaming and YouTube gaming (Shanley 2020). Gaming live streaming has altered traditional media production, introducing a new future where producers share gaming content to entertain audiences. This new form of digital media communications has linked previous private gaming entertainment to the wider public for greater involvement and enjoyment (Taylor 2018).

Twitch is the most popular streaming service for gamers, that has seen a rise in users in the first quarter of 2020 due to the Covid-19 global pandemic where people were forced to stay home. Even though Twitch has seen a decrease in their market share since 2018, they still hold the greatest market share of 65% as of the first quarter of 2020 (Shanley 2020). As such a large company they have held a number of TwitchCon’s (gaming conventions) for streamers to see their digital world come to life as a community. These communities allow everyone to learn from each other and network with individuals similar to themselves, allowing for potential gaming collaborations in the future, exploring new friendships and introducing gaming fans to potential new content (Taylor 2018).

References

Shanley, P 2020, Twitch Breaks Various Viewership Records Amid Coronavirus Quarantine, Hollywood Reporter, viewed 5 June, 2020, <https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/twitch-breaks-viewership-records-coronavirus-quarantine-1287894>.

Stuart, K 2013, Gamer communities: the positive side, the Guardian, viewed 5 June, 2020, <https://www.theguardian.com/technology/gamesblog/2013/jul/31/gamer-communities-positive-side-twitter>.

Taylor, T 2018, Watch me play, Princeton University Press, pp. 1-22.

[stephanieatha]

Clicktivism: The New Activism

In the last decade we have experienced an extreme rise in the use and popularity of social media, for the general public, politicians, businesses and more. Of the 7.7 billion people on earth, on-in-three of them frequently use social media platforms. A fact that is even more staggering is that of all internet users in the world, more than two-thirds are also linked to social media (Ortiz-Ospina 2019). This growth in popularity has allowed for people to communicate their ideas more widely, possibly representing a group or vocalising their thoughts independently. Social media has also provided extended platforms for activism, where users are able to promote political or social change.

Activism, being a traditional concept for change, has recently watched clicktivism enter society with the use of the internet and social media networks to campaign for a specific cause. It’s rapid rise in the mid-2000s has digitised political and non-political movements, with views, likes and shares online coming from all over the world (Deverell 2019). Both clicktivism and activism are seen by users as honest and open with all topics as opinions cannot be hidden from the world, especially on social media. Social media platforms do not take responsibility for what their users post on their sites as they simply are there to provide the platform for others to communicate rather then communicating the companies own thoughts.

Crowdfunding, where a large number of individuals come together to donate a small amount to a given cause, is closely linked with this concept of clicktivism. The creation of a crowdfunding page online often brings thousands of people together to support a cause and encourages them to express their thoughts. Once all the donations come together to create a large amount of money, for example, people will see their efforts as a group begin to make changes for the better. The #blacklivesmatter movement, is an example of something that has brought people together through clicktivism to make a change.

References

Ortiz-Ospina, E 2019, The rise of social media, Our World In Data, viewed 3 June, 2020, <https://ourworldindata.org/rise-of-social-media>.

Deverell, S 2019, Is Clicktivism The New Activism?, Minute Hack, viewed 3 June, 2020, <https://minutehack.com/opinions/is-clicktivism-the-new-activism>.

[modernmarcy]

Just in case any of you guys ever feel ashamed of your own body or like there’s something"wrong" with you for not looking like Instagram models…

It’s an illusion. Made up. Not real, but instead carefully cultivated to make women feel bad about themselves so they’ll spend $$$ trying to achieve unattainable looks.

People underestimate the extent of Photoshop used on seemingly amateur Instagram models- for more about that, check out the subreddit Instagram vs. Reality. It completely shattered my perception of beauty, and I regretted the wasted time- all those years I spent thinking I was shameful or wrong for not measuring up to these unrealistic standards, wasting money on junk science beauty and weight loss products, beating myself up because I’d been so expertly shown a reality designed to lead me to just that behavior.

But it wasn’t reality. It was a multi-billion dollar industry trying to present a false reality for profit, manipulating the young, vulnerable, and extremely impressionable. Targeting them on purpose. There’s a reason Instagram modeling is lucrative- that’s where they reach young women, young girls still trying to understand their role and expectations in this world. And as a bonus, these young women are likely perceiving the model’s product “recommendations” as made in good faith, not realizing the model doesn’t use the product, not realizing the product won’t change anything about them- except maybe make them feel more broken that the supposed “fix” didn’t work for them.

It’s gross our society continues to do this to impressionable young women. You guys are seriously beautiful and perfect as you are, and I know it’s hard to believe that through all the bullshit messaging thrown at you by advertisers, and all the toxic attitudes and ideas your family and peers normalize, but you are not shameful or ugly for not looking like people who don’t even look like themselves. We are just being manipulated to feel that way in hopes we will squander away our hard earned money trying to chase the impossible, spending our whole lives without truly accepting & loving ourselves.

I don’t know about you guys, but I refuse to buy into it, and I sure as hell refuse to go along pretending like it’s normal instead of predatory and deceptive and outright emotionally abusive. I don’t accept the beauty industry using emotional abuse and manipulation for profit, and I won’t let them pretend that these actions haven’t had massive negative implications for entire generations’ mental health and emotional stability. I won’t pretend that a generation of mother’s more obsessed with their own all-consuming shame of “inadequacy” than presenting a healthy relationship with body image for their daughters, than noticing the toxic patterns and ideas that they are reinforcing for her, isn’t going to have a long-term impact on society. I won’t pretend that they don’t continue to profit off exactly this fact, the fact that their abuse perpetuates itself and primes more women to buy into their lie, the fact that they lead women to do such a huge disservice to the daughters they no doubt love & want better for. The fact that peers and media and even advertisements are participating in this false reality, inflating it to a level that can’t be easily dismissed, because the fact is it’s alienating to live in a different reality than the people around you.

Actions and words matter, even those made by advertising agencies, and they impact our society for decades. It’s not a single drop in the ocean, it’s a ripple effect that turns tsunami. I’m done pretending otherwise just because that’s what the people with money want us to think. I think it’s about time we started holding them accountable.

[stephanieatha]

This is an extremely important post in pointing out how what we see online greatly affects our perception of self. It relates closely to my last post as it explores the misleading “toxic attitudes” presented on social media that we “normalize” and wrongly embed into our brains. 

[stephanieatha]

Digital Health Campaigns and Pornification on Social Media

With the extensive growth of social media in the last decade, there has been a rising issue of highly sexualised content posted online, often in response to digital health campaigns. Public health campaigns refer to an aspect of life communicated through various technologies, more frequently social media platforms, that inform a wide audience of a particular issue, ideal or product. This can have a negative impact on social media users, with influences constantly posting images promoting products that endorse an unhealthy praised body image.

Influences often involve themselves with aesthetic labour, where they brand themselves (Drenten et al. 2019), focussing on poses, editing or the alteration of their appearance in their social media posts. Instagram, being image based, is one of the most popular platforms for seeing this kind of imagery, with one in three Australians having an account and over 9 million monthly active users (Drenten et al. 2019). Instagram’s aesthetic template (idealised image) for women, focuses on accentuating their most feminine characteristics such as their breasts, butt, large lips and high cheekbones.

Anastasia Karanikolaou (8.1M followers) is an example of an influencer who takes Instagram’s aesthetic template to the next level, demonstrating pornification in her everyday posts to the site. In this respect, pornification is referring to a person, predominately women, who present themselves in an overly sexualised way in order to gain attention. In the specific post shown above, Anastasia is leaning forward seductively (tying in with her suggestive comment), wearing little clothing and creating a focus on her feminine assets. This grabs the attention of the male audience, as well as making other women feel as though they need to do the same in order to also gain the attention and validation, they need to be happy in their own bodies. It is also worth noting that this post is sponsored by Revolve, a women’s clothing brand, that it clearly benefiting off this influencer’s use of pornification.

References

Drenten, J, Gurrieri, L & Tyler, M 2019, "Sexualized labour in digital culture: Instagram influencers, porn chic and the monetization of attention", Gender, Work & Organization, vol. 27, no. 1, pp. 41-66.

Drenten, J, Gurrieri, L & Tyler, M 2019, How highly sexualised imagery is shaping 'influence' on Instagram - and harassment is rife, viewed 26 May, 2020, <https://theconversation.com/how-highly-sexualised-imagery-is-shaping-influence-on-instagram-and-harassment-is-rife-113030>.

[sustainable-fashion-rm]

moodboard ~

// sustainable fashion //

[stephanieatha]

This aesthetic cluster of images is a discrete yet effective way to bring attention to to the issues of slow fashion and get viewer thinking of how they are involved and what they can do to start acting sustainably themselves. This Tumblr page clearly and simply informs us of the sustainable fashion designers assisting in the movement, how to practice sustainable fashion and describes what sustainable fashion is. 

[stephanieatha]

Digital Citizenship and the Slow Fashion Movement

My past post relating to digital citizenship focused on the political and voting side of the topic but this time I want to focus on the behaviours of activism and sustainability throughout various social media platforms. The slow fashion movement relates closely to the concept of digital citizenship, with the idea of respecting others online and acting responsibly relates to the movement’s respect for factory workers and the concept of sustainability. The notion of being a good digital citizen, or in this case corporate citizen, is expressed through our growing concern of factory practices.

The slow fashion movement focuses on improving environmental, social and economic factors of fashion production. In order to lessen the environmental impact, it encourages production techniques such as upcycling and recycling so that there is less waste and harm to resources from unnecessary production. Any potential negative social impacts can be avoided by provide safe and fair conditions for workers, particularly those in production factories, including workers being paid fairly which can also improve economic aspects of the process (Zhen et al. 2017, p. 83).

Retailers have begun to launch sustainable clothing lines that, in doing so, improves the company’s reputation and commitment to a positive corporate social responsibility. An interesting yet controversial example is H&M’s introduction of ‘the Conscious Line’, a sustainable line of clothing that shows their positive commitments to the slow fashion movement (Zhen et al. 2017, p. 82). On the other hand, when fashion brands would release an average of five collections a year in 2011, H&M released around 12 to 16 (Mcfall-Johnsen 2019), proving the damage they have caused to the environment in the past by contributing to fast fashion.

While fast fashion negatively impacts the environment, slow fashion aims to do the opposite providing “sustainable fashion” (Zhen et al. 2017, p. 83) that ensures consumers basic needs are met and their lives are benefited, in turn, the movement reduces the impact on our natural resources.

References

Lai, Z, Henninger, C & Alevizou, P 2017, "An Exploration of Consumers’ Perceptions Towards Sustainable Fashion – A Qualitative Study in the UK", Sustainability in Fashion A Cradle to Upcycle Approach, pp. 81-101.

Mcfall-Johnsen, M 2019, The fashion industry emits more carbon than international flights and maritime shipping combined. Here are the biggest ways it impacts the planet., Business Insider, viewed 14 April, 2020, <https://www.businessinsider.com.au/fast-fashionenvironmental-impact-pollution-emissions-waste-water-2019-10?r=US&IR=T>.

[stephanieatha]

What is digital citizenship? How social media is changing the election process

In exploring the many digital communities that our word offers through social media and other platforms, we must first be able to grasp this concept of digital citizenship. Digital citizenship refers to the actions, behaviours, thoughts and commitments by a person to a digital community within our society today. A good digital citizen can be defined by the Office of the eSafety Commissioner as “a person with the skills and knowledge to effectively use digital technologies in a positive way to participate in society, communicate with others, and create and consume digital content” (NSW Department of Education 2020).

Digital citizenship can often relate the political sphere and the power people can have over the voting process. The spread of political news can occur on any platform although Twitter is generally the most concentrated, due to its focus on text posts with a 280-character limit allowing for quick sharing of announcements and opinions. The limit is enough for people to be “satisfied with how they [express] themselves” (DMI Blog 2020) and allows for a lot of trending issues in society to be discussed and can efficiently reach a widespread global audience.

Social media can assist politicians to connect directly to the community as they please without the filtration that occurs through traditional media channels. Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump used this idea to assist their campaigns in the US 2016 presidential election, with Clinton consistently uploading videos as a part of her social media message (Enli 2017, p. 52). Trump publicly criticised the legitimacy of traditional media such as the New York Times accusing them of lying and never fact checking (Enli 2017, p. 53), influencing users to ignore traditional media and only trust what Trump himself posts publicly, gaining Trump trust in the community and in turn creating campaign success.

Digital citizenship, being where people come together to bring about a change in society, is demonstrated in Get Up’s video titled “2017: The year people took back politics” (2017). The video emphasises the strength that ordinary people can attain just by working together and having their voices heard by politicians attempting to make changes that worsen our community. These communities of digital citizens are often brought together via hashtags, that create a public sphere for sharing and extended reach. Hashtags such as #auspol, being the most “visible and active” (Bogle 2016) hashtag in Australia, has become a home for political debate among Australians, with hashtags bringing two times the engagement to a tweet compared to those without any (DMI Blog 2020).

References

NSW Department of Education 2020, About Digital Citizenship, Digital Citizenship, viewed 28 April, 2020, <https://www.digitalcitizenship.nsw.edu.au/about>.

Enli, G 2017, 'Twitter as an arena for the authentic outsider: Exploring the social media campaigns of Trump and Clinton in the 2016 presidential election', European Journal of Communication, vol 32, no 1, pp. 50-61.

GetUp! 2017, 2017: The year people took back politics, 21 December, viewed 28 April 2020, <https://www.ourcommunity.com.au/general/general_article.jsp?articleId=7364>.

Bogle, A 2016, #auspol: The Twitter tag that Australia can't do without, Mashable Australia, viewed 28, April 2020, <https://mashable.com/2016/03/21/twitter-australia-auspol/#4tvfXtsZUEqV>.

DMI Blog 2020, What Does Twitter’s 280-Character Limit Mean for Marketers?, Digital Marketing Institute, viewed 28 April, 2020, <https://digitalmarketinginstitute.com/en-au/blog/what-does-twitters-280-character-limit-mean-for-marketers>.

[gracelesstars]

Monday, Friday, The Weekend, huh? time really is just a social construct

[stephanieatha]

This Tumblr post ties in closely with my last post regarding how Tumblr functions as a digital community. It is a great example of how the community within the hashtag, #Covid_19, can still joke around in light of such a serious situation that people around the world are facing. Memes like this are vital in helping people cope with the struggles of self isolation. 

[stephanieatha]

Hey, I’m Steph and this is my blog where I will be posting various thoughts and inspirations regarding the several digital communities spread throughout the social space around us.

First, how does Tumblr function as a digital community?

The “microblogging platform” (Burns 2017, p. 207), was founded by David Karp to provide “website services” (Burns 2017, p. 208) for who was first his own business customers and now has been widened to the broader public sphere. The public sphere refers to a space where anyone can come together and are provided with unrestricted information, equal expression and recognition (Kruse et al. 2018, p. 62). Tumblr can be identified as an “online community platform” (Bruns 2016, p. 109), where each day it acts as a central location for interactions between those with social, cultural, political and economic differences. The sharing and communicating aspects of various social media platforms, including Tumblr, have assisted in the distribution of these differences as communal messages that are often related to awareness raising themes, to a broader audience. Being a part of an online community as described, has meant that those involved feel that they are positively apart of a larger influential group and in turn, this intensified their dedication to the topic (Burns 2017, p. 183).

There are endless ‘digital publics’ in the form of hashtags, that are commonly used within Tumblr and other social media discussions. They collate various posts that have been uploaded using the same hashtag in order to make a unique space for the community that share the related common interests. This hashtag acts as a specific public where opinions and facts can be shared and discussed among those with a vested interest in the topic. An example of a digital public that is currently trending on Tumblr is #Covid_19. Here anyone is free to express their thoughts on related political stances, personal struggles or are even free to post fun, relatable content to cheer those up that are self-isolating.

References:

Kruse, L Norris, D & Flinchum, J 2018, Social media as a public sphere? Politics on social media, vol. 59, no. 1, pp. 62-84.

Burns, K 2017, Social Media: a Reference Handbook, ABC-CLIO, LLC, Santa Barbara.

Bruns, A & Highfield, T 2016, Is Habermas on Twitter? Social media and the public sphere, The Routledge Companion to Social Media and Politics, New York, pp. 56-73