The Almost Perfect Student

A blog for the purpose of completing Digital Communities MDA20009: My Final Unit!

[memoirsofaunistudent-blog]

Click that petition!

Are you a digital citizen? Have you subscribed to a cause for good or for bad?

The term digital citizenship used to describe the relationship that social medial allows for users to participate in the potential benefit for society (Mossberger et al. 2008, p. 1).

Before the dawn of the internet social movements had to communicated though slower methods such as newspaper publications, snail mail or word of mouth. However, since the internet has now become readily available the way that social movement communicate has evolved to digital activists. Sites like Change.org, have emerged specifically as a result of digital communities.

In 2011, we saw the rise of the Occupy movement which highlighted the disproportionately wealthy and the other 99% of the population (Occupy Wall St 2019). The way in which the world protest has changed, traditional methods of protesting has now evolved with advances in technology and mass communication has allowed for causes to spread globally.

At the same time that people are now mobilizing their social agenda to social media and spreading the word faster than before. It has become so easy on Facebook to click like or share a post to show your support for whatever cause you want to public to know that you are supporting. You no longer have to even leave your house to support the cause. The digital age has given birth the new much lazier sibling to activism which has many names such as clicktivism or subactivism (Bakardjieva, 2009, p. 103). For everyone who is too busy but still wants change or too lazy, you now don’t even need to leave the comfort of your own home. Whilst reading this blog, on another tab you could sign as many petitions as your heart desires.

Social media has become an amazing platform for change and to notify the world of your movement (Gerbaudo 2012, p. 17). Facebook is a great platform for recruitment, people can form groups and pages, together they can set movements and share ideas and content. Twitter has become a great platform for live updates and YouTube is the platform to upload your videos to then share to the world. No movement is complete now without the use of social media to push your agenda to the world.

I do personally think some clicktivism is stupid, like when everyone changed their profile pictures to a certain colour to support some cause. I’m unsure how that changed anything, but I guess awareness, is still better than nothing.

References Bakardjieva, M 2009, ‘Subactivism: Lifeworld and Politics in the Age of the Internet’, Information Society, vol. 25, no. 2, pp. 91-104

Clicktivist 2018, Clicktivism, [image], viewed 12 January, 2019,<http://www.clicktivist.org/what-is-clicktivism/>.

Mossberger, K., Tolbert, C., & McNeal, R 2008, Digital Citizenship: The Internet, Society, and Participation, MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass.

Occupy Wall St 2019, Occupy Wall Street | NYC Protest for World Revolution, viewed 20 January, 2019, <http://occupywallst.org/>.

[thealmostperfectstudent]

Hi Memoirsofaunistudent,

I really like how you called out the silly change your profile picture to this colour to support this cause phenomenon. I agree with your idea that the internet is great at getting people on board to support a cause and spread the word to the public. But it is not enough to make a change. Changing your profile picture to support a cause will not change anything if people really want to help they need to actually leave their house and start making some noise so that the relevant bodies can hear them. 

[williamcolvin-blog]

Politics & Civic Cultures

[thealmostperfectstudent]

Hi William,

Obama did a great job at being the people’s president and connecting with the young voters of the nation. I like how you say that anyone who attempts to follow in Obama’s social media footsteps would be extremely hard-pressed to outdo him simply because he is the best of the best. Unfortunately American and even Australian politics is still an old boys club. With social media constantly adapting and changing, as you have mentioned, it would be far more beneficial for these older politicians to stick to what they know rather than try their hand at something new. 

[captainhannahuniverse-deactivat]

Crowdsourcing spreads awareness, but is it effective enough in times of crisis?

Week 8- Crowdsourcing in times of crisis

Before talking about the topic of crowdsourcing, it must be defined first, well what is crowdsourcing? 

Crowdsourcing focuses on work, opinions and information being obtained from a group of people who sometime work as freelanced or through a voluntary basis. They submit data through the big wide world of the internet including, smartphone applications and social media platforms. It is believed that social media is seen as one of the most effective components of crowdsourcing because it reaches a bigger audience, resulting in a more efficient and fast way of crowdsourcing. However, in times of a crisis, is crowdsourcing still as effective? i refer this to Bruns article about the 2011 Queensland floods as he makes valid points about the effectiveness of social media platforms, in this case, Twitter and how it allowed the community to help. 

In 2011, South East Queensland was hit with floods. The floods crisis went on from the 10th to the 16th of January. Through the time of the flood crisis, social media platforms were seen as effective ways of communication as updates and information were being shared with the public and locals. 

Crowdsourcing through twitter was a very effective role that was played during the time of the crisis. For example, many users of Twitter tweeted a hashtag “qldfloods” to mark a message that was relating to the topic to further the awareness of the crisis towards the users of Twitter. From the 10th to the 16th of January, 35,000 tweets were hashtagged, resulting in 50 to 60% of users retweeting the hashtag and around 40% of them users containing further information about the floods (Brun et, al, 2012, pp. 7-10). 

In my opinion, i believe that crowdsourcing through the use of the internet, especially through social media platforms is one of the most effective ways to get information across to the community. I even think it is more beneficial than the news providing this information through televisions as it is important to understand that many individuals may be at work and do not have access to a television at their worksite, however, the use of smartphones throughout the twenty first century gives crowdsourcing an effective element to raising awareness as it is a faster way to communicate to the audience of social media and can also result in raising donations to help the community that is affected much quicker. 

What do you all think about crowdsourcing being an effective element in times of a crisis? 

For further information, please refer to these links below. 

https://www.redcross.org.au/news-and-media/news/support-in-north-qld-floods 

https://goldcoastpets.com.au/2011/01/13/queensland-floods-ways-to-help-qldfloods/ 

References

Bruns, A , Burgers, J , Crawford, K & Shaw, F 2012, ‘Crisis communication on Twitter in the 2011 South East Queensland Floods’, viewed 14 January 2019, <https://eprints.qut.edu.au/48241/1/floodsreport.pdf> 

Salvation Army, ‘2011 Queensland Floods- update 30/1/2011′, [image], in Google, viewed 14 January 2019, <https://www.google.com.au/search?hl=en&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=932&bih=519&ei=EWQ8XJjxI5f3rQGDk6qIBg&q=2011+queensland+floods&oq=2011+queensland&gs_l=img.1.0.0j0i8i30j0i24l8.576.3529..4956…0.0..0.159.2336.0j16……0….1..gws-wiz-img…..0..0i5i30.aVTEYaydH_k#imgrc=hxEOJc8AQ4YEsM:> 

Twitter, ‘Twitter (@Twitter) | Twitter’, [image] in Google, viewed 14 January 2019, <https://www.google.com/search?biw=932&bih=470&tbm=isch&sa=1&ei=3mQ8XL-GFMeH9QOg2KWgBQ&q=twitter+&oq=twitter+&gs_l=img.3..0i67j0l9.11323.11323..11707…0.0..0.152.152.0j1……0….1..gws-wiz-img.II_JhAlhHMg#imgrc=gUUd1zMCwaxvPM:> 

Youtube, ‘The Best Smartphones to Buy’, [image] in Google, viewed 14 January 2019, <https://www.google.com/search?biw=932&bih=470&tbm=isch&sa=1&ei=xGU8XNacAonfrQG1-ojQDw&q=smartphones&oq=smartphones&gs_l=img.3..0i67j0j0i67j0j0i67l2j0j0i67l2j0.5342.7980..8070…0.0..0.238.1841.0j10j1……0….1..gws-wiz-img…..0.M5k-NVRRmvI#imgrc=hYszvUXes6JBSM:> 

[thealmostperfectstudent]

Hi Hannah,

I think crowdsourcing is a great resource to use and we’ve seen how beneficial it can be when it was used during the 2011 QLD floods. In terms of getting information out to the public crowdsourcing does an amazing job. However, with anything social, you will always get the people who want to take advantage of the situation. With the use of the internet, you never know if you are getting the correct information and that’s just a risk you can’t afford to take in times of crisis. If crowdsourcing is going to be used in times of crisis I think there need to be serious measures put in place to ensure that the information is relevant, accurate and helpful to the people who need it. 

[captainhannahuniverse-deactivat]

Trolls and Technology- How to handle trolls on social media platforms

Week 7 - Trolling and Social Media Conflict. 

After reading Danah Boyd’s article of whether social media is amplifying bullying, i believe that it is important to understand that the use of technology and platforms is not the blame for the use of drama that arises between peers, however, to understand and focus on the use of media platforms and technology, that have enhanced personal conflicts and made dynamics of bullying visible. (Boyd 2014) 

Anyone who uses social media platforms throughout their life has most probably either experienced trolling, trolled another individual or witnessed trolling of others. Trolls are full of negativity. So, how do we handle trolls on social media platforms? 

Well first, what is a troll? 

Trolls are individuals who try and put people down. This is seen as a form of bullying as they get pleasure of seeing how many feelings they can hurt by writing negative information towards people or about people to get a response. To keep a reputation online and thrive with positivity. Follow these 5 steps to accomplish just that. 

Step 1 - Establish a Policy 

Establishing a policy will help detail what comments will be allowed on your media platforms. This helps trolls disappear and create a more friendly and engaging environment in the social media world. 

Step 2- Kill them with Kindness

With the use of humour, lightness and kindness, turn the tables around and respond to the troll with a positive comment. This can be seen as a great way to bring in positive attention as well kill the troll with kindness!

Step 3- Choose a path that is positive

It is important to learn to laugh at many trolls. Ignore their nasty comments and do not let them get to you, because the troll will then think they have won. It is important to remember you are the better person as you do not bring people down. 

Step 4- Unmask them 

Many trolls thrive on being anonyms, if you take away that power, it can result in that troll to think twice about what they may post on your platform. 

Step 5- Create your own community

My last and most favourite step is to create your own community. This means deleting negative people, blocking them and having no contact with them at all. By doing this, you are creating a positive community within your social media platforms and you will also see less of trolling of others and even yourself as the use of negative people on your media platforms have now disappeared. 

remember, “ Sometimes you just have to take a step back and realise what’s important in your life, what you can live with, but more importantly what you can’t live without” - Lauren Conrad 

References

arabiangazette.com, ‘ Is Online Identity To The Youth In A Contemporary Society? [image] in Google, viewed 3 January 2019, <https://www.google.com.au/search?hl=en&biw=932&bih=470&tbm=isch&sa=1&ei=DlItXNOVIIOA8wXooYP4Cw&q=media+platforms+friendly&oq=media+platforms+friendly&gs_l=img.3…3225.9524..9835…0.0..0.305.4808.0j17j6j1……0….1..gws-wiz-img…..0..0j0i67j0i30j0i5i30j0i24.Gg6hzh6_mG8#imgdii=jftdv6fYFjBgrM:&imgrc=5Ei2kLGnorBAzM:> 

Boyd, D 2014, It’s complicated: the social lives of networked teens

Daily Mail, ‘Cheerleaders sassy expression’ [image] in Google, viewed 3 January 2019, <https://www.google.com/search?q=sassy+face&tbm=isch&source=iu&ictx=1&fir=0NLLvkLkKfNxeM%253A%252C2wa-1A9ec1cY2M%252C_&usg=AI4_-kTadicelHOXA37h8BOqNHvwebpoYg&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwixgquKqtDfAhXBgLwKHUNKCgkQ9QEwA3oECAUQCg#imgrc=0NLLvkLkKfNxeM:> 

MIT Sloan School of Management, ‘ Probing the origins of happiness [image] in Google, viewed 3 January 2019, <https://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&sa=1&ei=cFQtXMK7E8GE8wWtubW4Ag&q=happiness&oq=happiness&gs_l=img.3..0j0i67l4j0l3j0i67j0.1596.3012..3096…0.0..0.295.1833.0j4j4……0….1..gws-wiz-img…..0.HuaICj7lN0E#imgrc=g8qq0_6z8bInGM:> 

Tara Leesher, ‘ 6 Ways Photographers Can Deal With Online Trolls’ [image], in Google, viewed 3 January 2019, <https://www.google.com.au/search?hl=en&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=932&bih=519&ei=flEtXNTZG8f28QWx5K1w&q=online+trolls&oq=online+trolls&gs_l=img.3..0l6j0i30j0i8i30l3.487.2994..3226…2.0..0.257.2428.0j7j5……0….1..gws-wiz-img…..0.CHtaHh0yEpU#imgrc=6_rBpqEbXhvUXM:> 

[thealmostperfectstudent]

Hi Hannah,

I think your approach to trolling is really insightful. I like how you have used a set of guidelines for the purpose of defeating trolls. It is interesting how you have set the guidelines to show that people are in control of how they react to trolls. The reality of trolling is that they are pretty much online bullies, as long as there is an audience and a platform for them to access they will always be around no matter what we do 

[unclewez]

Game On!

Ass. 1b. Week 10.  Social Gaming: Playing the Crowd.

Social gaming. What is it? Social gaming is how we describe games that are predominantly made for playing on social media sites (O’Neil 2008). Though that may be the case, it would become clear that it has long since outgrown that description. Massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPG) have grown to the point that within themselves they have created a social network or social group. People do not just play the game, they team up, make plans, and execute them as if they were in the real world. Sure, going alone is an option, but enduring success is unlikely (Williams 2016 p.665).

Understanding the overall picture of the gaming world takes a lot more attention than a surface glance. When we mention online gaming, people automatically seem to think of violence or gambling. However, there are games out there that carry a far more positive aspect. Yes, games like Fortnite, War Thunder, Call of duty, and World of WarCraft call us to arms, to kill or be killed. However, it appears the hype of negative media forget the likes of Farmville, Words with Friends, and Pop Quiz entirely. All of these are social, and all stimulate our capacity to learn. Add Pokémon Go, that got people of their seats and out into the streets, and the benefits of online games become apparent.  

Okay, so we can justify the personal social side of gaming, but what about the issues? Like anything that involves human beings, there is always an issue. For example, online games usually involve an in-game currency. Fortnite had a case where it was accused of being used to launder money (Gershgorn 2019). Likewise, Eve Online has had a couple of scandals that saw players lose $300,000 worth of purchases over a simple in-game deal that went wrong (Thornhill 2014). Eve also encountered an issue when one player from the in-game council (the Council of Stellar Management), failed to step out of his game role and into reality during an online video post. The player, known as ‘The Mittani’, and for his violent and ruthless actions, made statements and threats that are not acceptable in the real world (De Zwart & Humphreys 2014 p.93). While the Mittani apologised, the damage was already done. 

Of course, this poses the question, are people able to distinguish between the virtual world and the real world? That will need to be thrown over to the psychologists and anthropologists of the world, while I go back to my game to fight an air battle over Great Britain.

References

De Zwart, M & Humphreys, S 2014, “The Lawless Frontier of Deep Space: Code as Law in EVE Online”, Cultural Studies Review, vol. 20, no. 1, pp. 77-99, viewed 17 January, 2019, <https://search-informit-com-au.ezproxy.lib.swin.edu.au/documentSummary;dn=225934593111540;res=IELLCC>.

Forbes 2019, Mew, [image], viewed 29 January, 2019, <https://www.forbes.com/sites/olliebarder/2018/06/15/you-wont-be-able-to-transfer-mew-from-pokemon-go-to-pokemon-lets-go/#48c8044f22e6>.

Fortnite 2017, Fortnite Battle Royale - Gameplay Trailer, viewed 29 January, 2019, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gUtfBmw86Y>.

Game On 2019, GameOn, [image], viewed 29 January, 2019, <http://www.gameonlu.com/>.

GameSpot 2014, This is Eve Online - Gameplay Trailer, viewed 29 January, 2019, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqoxRcP5kbo>.

Gershgorn, D 2019, The “Fortnite” economy now has its own black market, viewed 28 January, 2019, <https://qz.com/1528941/fortnite-is-reportedly-a-money-laundering-hotbed/>.

O’Neil, N 2008, What Exactly are social Games?, viewed 13 January, 2019, https://www.adweek.com/digital/social-games/

Thornhill, T 2014, EVE Online sees biggest ever battle involving more than 4,000 players, viewed 28 January, 2019, <https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2547908/EVE-online-sees-biggest-battle.html>.

Williams, D 2009, “Groups and goblins: The Social and civic Impact of an Online Game”. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, vol. 50, no. 4, pp 651-670.

[thealmostperfectstudent]

Hi Unclewez,

First just let me say how much I really enjoy your posts.

I’m not a gamer myself, In fact, I really struggle to find the appeal in any type of gaming. Through researching this topic I have really come to understand gaming a little better and I enjoy how this platform of virtual reality can really be a positive thing for some people. 

What I find interesting about your post, is that you’ve made mention of some gaming company’s getting themselves into a bit of hot water. I think these companies know that the content they are producing is important to people and that many have formed a relationship with the games that they have made. What I believe is that these companies are taking advantage of their consumers and trying to swindle them. I feel that this issue has a lot to do with people’s dependency on some games. It is clear, however, that when these companies attempt to play games with their users they never get very far. Despite this, the companies are creating a negative effect on the social aspect of their games.

[memoirsofaunistudent-blog]

But first, Let me take a selfie

Selfies and social media seem to go hand in hand, like a match made in heaven. Snapchat and Instagram seem to be flooded with selfies. So much so there is even a song about taking selfies and using Instagram filters by the Chainsmokers appropriately called #selfie (The Chainsmokers 2015). The dominance of social media can be regarded as narcissistic (Murray 2015, p. 490). I admit I have taken my fair share of selfies and share them to social media. Events like my birthday, achievements like buying my first home and even on my wedding day; these moments were documented by me taking a selfie.

These days we connect to each other by sharing moments of our lives in photos on social media or videos. These photos have become an essential part of communication especially online with each other. Almost everyone has access to a camera from your phone, your computer or an actual camera.

Something that I learnt this week is an app called The French Girls App. I think the name comes from Titanic. However, it has become such a meme, even I have taken a photo of my friend whilst he was lying on a hospital bed waiting to be seen by a doctor for his torn achilles, blowing on a green whistle using the snapchat app outlining him and captioning it “draw me like one of your French girls.” However, I digress. The French Girls App is about posting your selfie an having complete strangers draw a portrait of you (frenchgirlsapp 2014) but you get to keep your clothes on unlike Kate Winslet.

Tenor 2017

Highsnobiety 2019

Just like that Snapchat was dead. Snapchat has over 186 million daily users, generating over 10 billion views per day (Statista 2018), however Kylie Jenner is no longer one of them.

It was unavoidable that an app like Snapchat would be created with the release of mobile phones with inbuilt cameras and readily available internet access. It became so normal to take a photo of every moment and share them instantly on your chosen social network. This method of story telling has become a staple in the way we communicate with each other.

The appeal of Snapchat was that images we posted only visible to other users for a short time, but it’s gone (Tillman & Betters 2018). Perfect for creeps to send photos of their unwanted genitalia. I joke but it is a serious issue. But just like Snapchat’s photo disappearing so is its popularity with one tweet from Kylie Jenner. Yes, we live in a world where one tweet from Kylie Jenner can cost your company $1.3 billion dollars (Highsnobiety 2019). Its scary to say but this is reality.

References

Frenchgirlsapp, 2014, viewed 27 27 January, 2019, <https://www.frenchgirlsapp.com/>.

Murray, D. C. (2015). Notes to self: the visual culture of selfies in the age of social media. Consumption Markets & Culture, 18(6), 490-516.

Highsnobiety 2019, Kylie Jenner’s Tweet Did Not Cost Snapchat $1.3 Billion, viewed 27 January, 2019, <https://www.highsnobiety.com/p/kylie-jenner-snapchat-tweet/>.

Statista 2018, Number of daily active Snapchat users from 1st quarter 2014 to 3rd quarter 2018 (in millions), Statista, viewed 6 January 2018, <https://www.statista.com/statistics/545967/snapchat-app-dau/>.

Tenor 2017, I Want You To Draw Me Like One Of Your French Girls GIF, viewed 27 January, 2019, <https://tenor.com/view/titanic-kate-winslet-leonardo-di-caprio-voglio-gif-8627264>.

Tillman, M & Betters, E 2018, ‘What is Snapchat, how does it work and what is it used for?’, Pocket-Lint, 27 September, viewed 6 January 2018, <https://www.pocket-lint.com/apps/news/snapchat/131313-what-is-snapchat-how-does-it-work-and-what-is-it-used-for>.

The Chainsmokers 2015, #selfie, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC.

[thealmostperfectstudent]

Hi memoirsofaunistudent,

It's interesting how you bring up the influence celebrities have on social media. Particularly, Kylie Jenner whos half-sister Kim Kardashian almost single handily pioneered the age of the selfie and had a hand in creating social media as what it is to us today. 

I personally don’t understand the point of selfies, I actually think they are a bit lame. I’m not someone who enjoys posting my life for all to see even though I have dabbled in the medium. However, I love following celebs on social media and It’s obvious that a lot of the world does too. I think what social media has enabled us to do is get the one step closer to rubbing elbows with the rich and famous. And these celebs make tonnes of $ off this idea. I also believe a good chunk of why we love posting our lives on a public platform is because we want to be like our favourite celebs. As you’ve made mention in regards to Kylie Jenner making Snapchat unpopular simply from one tweet, I think that shows just how much celebs influence how we use social media. 

[thealmostperfectstudent]

Games Doing Wonders For Health

Week 10: Social gaming 

The world of online gaming is a fascinating one at that and it’s not necessarily a world I understand personally. When I think of online gaming, I think of people creating virtual realities that in some form mimic the real world. I question why people prefer the online gaming world to that of the real world and I believe it has a lot to do with anonymity. Like a lot of the other topics I have explored in regard to digital communities, anonymity seems to be the recurring reason why people enjoy accessing the online world. My belief is that people use online gaming as a means of escape from the real world. They use online games to create a persona and a sense of power for themselves that they have been unable to obtain in their physical life. But, it seems that online gaming has given people so much more than that.

We see that anonymity is one of the reasons people misbehave in online games, however, anonymity is not always actually a negative thing (Crecente 2014).  There are heaps of online games out there, such as World Of Warcraft and Fortnite that present players with the opportunity to create avatars to navigate the game as. These particular types of games contain a strong element of social interaction that is highly encouraged in order to progress through the game. Fortnite has more than 200 million players worldwide (Stuart 2018) so you can see why it’s hard to escape the social aspect. In a study conducted on the “Social Interactions in Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Gamers” by H. Cole and M. Griffiths in 2007, they found that players felt “more themselves” during gameplay. The study suggests that reason players felt more themselves was because they were not being judged by their appearance, gender, age, or other personal information. So, in turn, players felt more relaxed and open to when communicating with other players. 

Online gaming has also done wonders for gamers mental and physical health. In 2010 Associate Professor Dr Christopher J. Ferguson found that men and women who played violent games had developed the mental ability to handle stress, become less depressed and get less hostile during stressful tasks (Dube 2015). Players also have been found to use gaming as a de-stressor, because it allows them the opportunity to work through their real-world frustrations (Dube 2015). So some people have a glass of wine or two to de-stress and then some people play Fortnite.

In terms of physical health, games like Pokemon Go have changed the way players play online games. Usually, you think of someone sitting in a recliner, headset on while yelling at the television when it comes to gaming. However, with Pokemon go, players actually have to get up out of the chair in order to catch the Pokemon. A 2016 study of Pokemon Go found that players significantly increased their physical activity over a period of 30 days. This translates to an average of 1473 steps per day and an overall increase in activity by 25% for regular players (Altoff, White, Horvitz 2016).

There you go, online gaming is doing wonders for our health!    

References: 

Althoff, T, White, R & Horvitz, E 2016, "Influence of Pokémon Go on Physical Activity: Study and Implications", Journal of Medical Internet Research, vol. 18, no. 12, p. e315, viewed 4 February, 2019 <https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5174727/>

Cole, H & Griffiths, M 2007, "Social Interactions in Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Gamers", CyberPsychology & Behavior, vol. 10, no. 4, pp. 575-583, viewed 4 February , 2019, <http://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/20265/1/187439_5081%20Griffiths%20Publisher.pdf>

Crecente, B, 2014, Study: Why anonymity makes players cheat, but can still be a good thing, Viewed February 4 2019 <https://www.polygon.com/2014/1/13/5303684/study-why-anonymity-makes-players-cheat-but-can-still-be-good-thing>

Dube, R 2015, Science Proves that Playing Video Games Reduces Your Stress, viewed 4 February, 2019 <https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/video-game-stress-reduction-need-start-playing-right-now/>

Limelight 2018, THE STATE OF ONLINE GAMING – 2018, viewed 4 February, 2019 <https://www.limelight.com/resources/white-paper/state-of-online-gaming-2018/>

Stuart, K 2018, Fortnite: a parents' guide to the most popular video game in schools, viewed 4 February, 2019, <https://www.theguardian.com/games/2018/mar/07/fortnite-battle-royale-parents-guide-video-game-multiplayer-shooter>

[thealmostperfectstudent]

The Ephemeral Self

Week 9: Visual communities and social imaging

Images have been a part of our social lives for many decades. The idea of pictures is that “life should be captured, preserved, and put behind glass” (Jergenson 2013). Pictures are to create memories of our lives so that we can share them with ourselves and others.

With the introduction of social media, we have been able to alter the way we create memories. It is obvious that we love to document our lives through the lens of a camera and then share these experiences for all to see. But, why do we do it this way? According to writer and sociologist, Nathan Jurgenson, posting to social media platforms creates a discussion about our lives and it allows us to control how people see us. “When we start communicating through media, we light up. It’s fun” (Herman 2014).

Personally, I’ve never quite understood our obsession with selfies or documenting your life on screen. But through researching Nathan Jurgenson’s ideas about ‘The Liquid Self’ I'm beginning to see why the selfie is so important to our society.

The thing about the internet is that nobody knows you’re a dog (Steiner 1993). An interesting concept when you think about it. Of course, through the use of images people can see defining features about ourselves and even the type of species we are. However, the idea is that we get to create an avatar of ourselves and portray the person we want to be in our own way. This is where the ephemeral self comes into play. Ephemeral is Greek for lasting only one day or a very short time (Webster 2019). With the development of the social media app, Snapchat we have been able to explore this concept of ourselves further. Snapchats premise is to provide a means of communication between parties through photographs. The users of Snapchat can determine how long the other person or people get to view their ‘snap’ before any proof of the image is deleted.

As humans we change, we grow, we adapt and we test things out. But the thing is if we make a mistake or get taken as someone we don’t want to be seen as we don’t want it to be how people define us. This is where Snapchat enables us to “play with who we are and not be categorised by that person” (Jurgenson 2013). We are free to be fluid with ourselves and explore who we are and be unapologetic about it. This is because at the end of the day, who’s going to remember it if there is no evidence?

References: 

Cavna, M, 2013, ‘NOBODY KNOWS YOU’RE A DOG’: As iconic Internet cartoon turns 20, creator Peter Steiner knows the joke rings as relevant as ever, Viewed February 3, 2019, <https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/comic-riffs/post/nobody-knows-youre-a-dog-as-iconic-internet-cartoon-turns-20-creator-peter-steiner-knows-the-joke-rings-as-relevant-as-ever/2013/07/31/73372600-f98d-11e2-8e84-c56731a202fb_blog.html?utm_term=.800cd8b92110>

Herman, J, 2014, Meet The Man Who Got Into Snapchats Head, Viewed February 3, 2019, <https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/jwherrman/meet-the-unlikely-academic-behind-snapchats-new-pitch#3dlvjg2>

Jurgenson, N, 2013, The Liquid Self, viewed February 3, 2019, <https://www.snap.com/en-US/news/post/the-liquid-self/>

Webster, M, 2019, Definition: Ephemeral, viewed February 3, 2019, <https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ephemeral>

[thealmostperfectstudent]

Corwdsourcing in times of crisis

Week 8: Crowdsourcing

The practise Crowdsourcing is used to obtain needed services, ideas, or content by soliciting contributions from a large group of people and the online community (Merriam Webster 2014).

In recent years, the world has been hit with a tirade of natural and human-inflicted disasters. Take for instance the 2011 South East Queensland floods, Black Saturday 2009 and the earthquakes in Christchurch. When these disasters occur, information and communication become paramount to all involved. This is when the expertise of social media comes into play.

My own encounter with crowdsourcing came about during the 2009 Black Saturday Fires. I live in Gippsland and we are predominantly a farming area. This means that we are at high risk for bushfires. During the Fires council, CFA, police and even radio stations online profiles were constantly used to update the community with fire information. The information was shared around social media and it was used as a means of tracking affected areas as well as ensuring loved ones were safe. The CFA also had an app that allowed people to create watch zones for particular areas so they would be notified if danger came within a certain distance to that area. Every single fire season, we have at least one area in Gippsland go up in flames. So the need for accessible information in times of crisis is extremely important to the people in the area.

(This is a snapshot of the CFA fire app on Black Saturday, the area circled is my part of Gippsland)

Let’s take a look at the 2011 South East Queensland floods crisis where social media platforms Facebook and Twitter were detrimental in keeping people updated with information (Burns et al. 2012 p. 7). The twitter hashtag #qldfloods became the key coordinating mechanism for flood-related user activity (Burns et al. 2012 p. 7). The hashtag quickly became a viral topic as people were constantly retweeting any and all information that was being posted on Twitter. The constant retweeting and hashtagging enabled the information to increase its reach and allowed for easy access to relevant messages. The messages provided by emergency services were amongst the most visible due to the constant retweeting of their posts (Burns et al. 2012 p. 7). The great thing about crowdsourcing in this situation was the ability for people to stay updated on the crisis situation. When natural disasters like this occur, traditional forms of communication such as television and radio broadcasting can become non-existent due to connections being shut off. Whereas, social media can still provide a ground to share important information.

References:

Burns, A, Burgess, J, Crawford, K & Shaw, F 2012, #qldfloods and @QPSMedia: Crisis Communication on Twitter in the 2011 South East Queensland Floods, Brisbane, pp.https://eprints.qut.edu.au/48241/1/floodsreport.pdf, viewed 2 February 2019 <https://eprints.qut.edu.au/48241/1/floodsreport.pdf>.

Webster, M 2014, Definition of CROWDSOURCING, viewed 2 February 2019 <https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/crowdsourcing>

[thealmostperfectstudent]

Good Troll, Bad Troll

>Week 7: Tolling and Social Media Conflict

Trolling has become common practice in the digital age. But, what defines a troll? There are many definitions of for trolls and trolling as it’s not a one size fits all category. Essentially, trolling is the deliberate act of making random unsolicited and/or controversial comments on internet forums with the intent to provoke an emotional knee-jerk reaction from unsuspecting readers to engage in a fight or argument (Urban Dictionary). However, trolls aren’t always out to cause harm.

Journalist, Ginger Gorman has heavily researched trolls in order to understand their motives better after her own harrowing trolling experience. In Gingers article ‘Internet Trolls Are Not Who I thought, They’re Even Scarier’ for ABC News, Ginger interviews a number of trolls in order to debunk some of the myths surrounding trolling. In the article, Ginger makes mention of an organised trolling group president ‘Meepsheep’ who during the 2016 US presidential campaign defaced Hillary and Bill Clinton Wikipedia pages. His intent wasn’t to harm but to point out to the American public the issues surrounding Clinton’s potential election into office. In the article Meepsheep outlines how trolls are untrusting of mainstream media and they use their online presence to turn the news on its head.  

You can check out more of Gingers article here 

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-02-02/internet-trolls-arent-who-i-thought-ginger-gorman-troll-hunting/10767690

This particular type of troll is like our modern digital age antihero. I mean that loosely. Although I have to admit that It’s refreshing to see someone calling out mainstream media and journalism and presenting the flip side of the argument to the public. Or just generally taking the mickey out of them, while the rest of us sit back and watch.

Trolls can also be a means of entertainment. Have a look at personalities such as Trisha Paytas. Trisha basically jokes around with her audience about things like alien abductions, being turned into a fly at the age of 6 and general silly topics. What makes Trisha a troll is the fact that she does discuss topics that are going to gain a reaction, despite how silly they may be.

I don’t deem trolling to be a positive behaviour, but I do find it can have positive effects on the online community. Whether it be to show the public another side to an argument or to just have a bit of fun with an audience. The thing about trolls is that they aren’t born trolls, they are a product of our society (Gorman 2019). As long as the internet exists, so will they.   

References:

DROG65, 2014, Top Definition: Trolling, UrbanDictionary, viewed 2 February 2019 <https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=trolling>

Gorman, G, 2019, Internet Trolls Are Not Who I thought- They’re Even Scarier, viewed 2 February 2019 <https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-02-02/internet-trolls-arent-who-i-thought-ginger-gorman-troll-hunting/10767690>

Paytas, T, 2017, Video: Trisha Paytas Being A Troll: A Compilation // 2, viewed 2 February 2019 <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-Zkog0UFuI>

[thealmostperfectstudent]

The Social Activist

Week 6: Activism & Protest

Back before the time of the internet, activists such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X relied on their voice to bring like-minded people together and effect change in their society. They didn’t get to have a trending hashtag or a youtube channel to post their speeches on for the world to view. Luckily enough they didn’t need the benefits of social media to change the world.

Activist movements are everywhere on social media these days. With the onslaught of hashtags such as #blacklivesmatter, #heforshe and #ASLicebucketchallange (Calderwood, Hitchings-Hales 2017), activism seems to be a daily activity. The internet has rapidly become the basic tool for movement organisers (Tarrow 2011, p. 137) to create awareness about a cause. 

All people need to do to be actively involved in a social movement is like share, post about and hashtag the movement. Then BOOM! You‘re an activist without having to leave your house.

I’m not saying that the use of social media in bringing about change is ineffective, what I’m saying is society has gotten lazy. Clicktivism (Slacktivism) is a new term that has been coined since the birth of the social media activist. Clicktivism is defined by the Oxford Dictionary as the practice of supporting political or social cause via the internet and is typically characterized as involving little effort or commitment. It basically creates a false sense of accomplishment and overshadows actual effective engagement (Harvey, 2014). Take the online petition platform change.org for example. Activist and supporters of causes can use this site to put forward petitions to gain signatures in support of the change they are fighting for. Users can share the petitions on their social media pages to further increase the awareness and support of the cause. In theory, it's a great platform, but if society is not physically out actively fighting for change does it ever actually happen?

One particular online movement comes to mind in this situation. Does anyone remember Kony 2012? If not, here is the half-hour long video that generated over 100 million views in less than a week (Shepherd 2013).

Kony 2012 was probably the first activist movement that I wanted to get involved in. I liked the video, I shared it, I passed it onto my friends and I even asked my mum if I could go to Melbourne to paint the town red (remember that part?). But, when the day came to put my activist foot forward Kony 2012 had already become a distant memory. Kony 2012 was one of the most successful social media campaigns of the 21st century. But the interesting thing about this campaign is nothing really came of it.

If you want to find out what happened after the campaign, check out the news.com article below.

https://www.news.com.au/world/remember-kony-2012-well-its-2013-what-happened/news-story/a5de07eca7c15e69ff216b096b13d079

The thing is, social media is great at getting the word out there but people need to realise we need more than just a share of a post to create any real change. I think Journalist Malcolm Gladwell sums up the situation best when he said in 2010 “activists were once defined by their causes, they are now defined by their tools”.

References:

Bakardjieva, M 2009, ‘Subactivism: Lifeworld and politics in the Age of the internet,’ The Information Society, vol.25, Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group

Mossberger, K, Tolbert, C & McNeal, R 2008, Digital Citizenship: The Internet, Society, and Participation, MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass

Calderwood, I, Hitchings-Hales, J, 2017, 8 Massive moments Hashtag Activism Really, Really Worked, viewed january 30 2019

<https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/hashtag-activism-hashtag10-twitter-trends-dresslik/>

Cassano, O, 2016, Why You Should Think Twice Before Signing A change.org Petition Viewed January 2019 <https://www.konbini.com/en/lifestyle/change-org-data-mining/>

Chenoweth, E, 2016, Why Social Media Isn’t The Revolutionary Tool It Appears To be, viewed January 30 2019

<https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/politics/social-media-revolution-tech-activists-arab-spring-dictators-a7433476.html>

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

Ghobadi, S, 2018, Going Viral: What Social Media Activists Need To know, Viewed January 30 2019

<https://theconversation.com/going-viral-what-social-media-activists-need-to-know-96043>

Oxford Dictionary, Definition: Clicktivism, Viewed January 30 2019 <https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/clicktivism>

Shephard, T, 2014 Remember Kony 2012? Well, Its 2013. What Happened? Viewed January 30 2019 <https://www.news.com.au/world/remember-kony-2012-well-its-2013-what-happened/news-story/a5de07eca7c15e69ff216b096b13d079>

Youmans, W, & York, J 2012, ‘Social Media and the Activist Toolkit: User Agreements, Corporate Interests, and the Information Infrastructure of Modern Social Movements’, Journal Of Communication, vol. 62, no. 2, pp. 315-329

[thealmostperfectstudent]

Politics and Social Media: Friends or Foes?

Week 5: Politics & Civic cultures

The early 1990s sparked the rise in population for the internet. Since then, the world’s networked population has increased from the low millions to the low billions (Shirky 2011). With so many people gathered into one place, It seems only natural that our politicians want to get in on the action. But is that really the best idea?

Look, there are good and bad sides to every decision particularly one that involves social media and um *cough* politics, so in the spirit of the topic, let me make a little for and against argument.

For: 👍🏼

Social media has rapidly become one of the heavy hitters for news and information. Particularly Facebook which has over 30% of the U.S. population accessing the site for up to date news and information (Anderson, Caumont 2014). Many popular and not so popular politicians have already taken advantage of these stats and made themselves a profile and in turn, changed the way campaigns are run (Murse 2019).

In the  2008 U.S. election, over 74% of internet users went online to “take part in, or get information about the 2008 campaign” (Smith 2009). This is because politicians have made themselves and their information/policies/messages/views/day-to-day activities more accessible and approachable to their publics. They are able to get messages out faster and respond to matters in a far more timely manner. This has opened the door to more and more interaction and discussion about political matters online. People are more willing and more interested in educating themselves about political matters now that the information has been placed on their level.

And of course, politicians (or their hired personnel) can track their popularity (likelihood to win an election) online.

Against: 👎🏻

There are few politicians who use social media to their advantage and they use it well.

And then there are the politicians (most) who really need to step away from the post button.

For some politicians, it seems that they are trying their hand at a form of communication that they really don’t understand. Unfortunately, It’s all in the delivery of the message, which some still struggle within normal political conditions. Take for instance Kevin Rudd’s obsession with a selfie. Some may have liked it, but he just turned into the dad trying too hard to be cool.

Another issue is that social media is an interactive platform, whatever is posted can and will generate a response from the public. This is where politicians come unstuck. Trolling and negative feedback is a part of everyday social media life and politicians are well known for not being great at responding to it.

Social media isn’t for everyone and it has the ability to make or break a politician. At least if it doesn’t work out we gain a heap of memorable memes from it.

References:

Anderson, M, Caumont, A 2014, How Social Media is Reshaping News, viewed 15 January 2019 <http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/09/24/how-social-media-is-reshaping-news/>

Murse, T 2019, How Social Media Has Changed Politics: 10 Ways How Twitter and Facebook Have Altered Campaigns, Viewed 30 January 2019  <https://www.thoughtco.com/how-social-media-has-changed-politics-3367534>

news.com, 2013, The ‘Selfie’ PM: Kevin Rudd’s Many Many Faces on Social Media, viewed 15 January 15 <https://www.news.com.au/technology/the-8216selfie8217-pm-kevin-rudd8217s-many-many-faces-on-social-media/news-story/abbcf8cfa7eca74f737de1c0298120b5>

Shirky, C 2011, The Political Power of Social Media, viewed 15 January 2019, <https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/2010-12-20/political-power-social-media>

Smith, A 2009, The Internet’s Role in Campaign 2008, viewed 15 January 2019, <http://www.pewinternet.org/2009/04/15/the-internets-role-in-campaign-2008/>.

[unclewez]

- Digital Junkie -

Week 1-2

Social media, social networks, and digital communities; we are all so consumed by them, and yet we know so little about them. Is it possible we are all guilty of losing ourselves to our mobile devices, checking Facebook, sending tweets, or reading someone’s blog, all the while ignoring the people right in front of us? Recently I discovered I might be an addict - a digital junkie! The question is, why does this medium so consume us, and how is it impacting on our need for community and relationships?

To understand the effects of digital communities on society we first need to understand what they are. The most basic explanation of social media is it is a medium or platform by which users can create content, share content, modify content and comment on another person’s content (Kaplan & Haenlein 2010, p. 60-64). They can include collaborative works, blogs, content communities, social networking sites, gaming sites, and virtual worlds (Kaplan & Haenlein 2010, p. 62-64). Add mobile devices like smartphones and tablets into the mix, and we can email and text whenever and wherever we want. We become permanently contactable and permanently connected. This constant connection to the digital world poses an important question, what impact is it having on our society?

In a speech on Ted-Ed (2013), Sherry Turkle suggests that we are ‘connected, but alone’. My initial reaction was one of doubt. However, further research found her opinions are widely shared. danah boyd [sic] collaborated Turkles sentiment when she wrote: “Like many others around me, I am perpetually connected to people and information through a series of devices and social media channels.” (danah boyd 2012 p. 72). I soon found myself not only agreeing, but also feeling an upward surge of dread as I realised I had become dependent on both my phone and my social networks. The question I fail to answer is to what and why am I addicted to being connected.

Siapera (2012) claims the way we commune has changed from being based on location and person-to-person or face-to-face interactions to interactions where network individualism has removed barriers and opened broader opportunities to connect. Since the individual can now control the information they share, the willingness to connect more broadly has increased (Siapera 2012). Likewise, the ability to limit information has also given us the ability to construct and display whom we wish to be (cited in Wilken & McCosker 2014 p. 292).

Like it or not, many people are displaying themselves to the world. As danah boyd (2012, p. 75) writes “publicness is one of the strange and yet powerful aspects of this new world”, but to what extent is this new publicness true? Is what we see the real world, or is the world about to implode as the self-created filter bubble collapses? After all, people are people, and the truth seems to have a way of making itself found.

References

 Ahkuoi, D 2018, Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody Parody (Opinion Rhapsody), viewed 1 December, 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IABRgZH12YA .

 Boyd, D 2012, ‘Participating in the always-on lifestyle’, in Mandiberg, M 2012, The social media reader, New York University Press, New York, pp. 71-76.

 HANUKA, A 2018, Likeholic, viewed 1 December, 2018, https://www.architecturendesign.net/satirical-illustrations-show-our-addiction-to-technology/.

 Kaplan, A & Haenlein, M 2010, “Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of Social Media”, Business Horizons, vol. 53, no. 1, pp. 59-68, viewed 29 November, 2018, https://ac-els-cdn-com.ezproxy.lib.swin.edu.au/S0007681309001232/1-s2.0-S0007681309001232-main.pdf?_tid=68fefca4-8562-4cc1-a6ea-82f4130d8b83&acdnat=1543497919_7b97a11a105f088cdb0dd2e0ee6a88bc.

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

 TED-Ed 2013, Connected, but alone?- Sherry Turkle, 19 April, viewed 26 September 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rv0g8TsnA6c

 Anon 2018, Cant Escape, viewed 1 December, 2018, https://www.architecturendesign.net/satirical-illustrations-show-our-addiction-to-technology/.

 Wilken, R & McCosker, A 2014, 'Social Selves’, in Cunningham & Turnbull (eds), The Media & Communications in Australia, Allen and Unwin pp. 291-295.

[thealmostperfectstudent]

Hi, unclewez!

I’ve got to say that I have really enjoyed that posts you have done so far. Your insight and connections are really thought-provoking and I think it’s great! 

The idea you have explored here of being a social media addict is really interesting. I’ve never considered myself to be addicted to social media or a digital junkie in any aspect because I am someone who enjoys face-to-face interaction. But it appears I might be a junkie! I always have my phone on me and I like the way it makes me feel. Even when I’m in a social setting my phone brings me the comfort of knowing I am connected to others at any given time. My phone is my security blanket, It keeps me company while at the doctor's waiting to be called in, on the couch with my partner when he’s in a mood with me or when I’m out with my girlfriends and we run out things to talk about. Scary thought that we have given such a little device so much psychological power! 

[adigitalworldstudent-blog]

Affordances of Social Media

A friend of mine had a conversation with someone in a chat forum for 8 hours……. 8 HOURS! I have no idea what they were talking about, and I did not ask for sheer worry that I might still be there 8 hours later listening to the story. But what he did say was that he never thought he would be the kind of person to form a bond with someone he hardly knew over the internet. And yet we see this all the time.

Thanks to the emergence of social media and Mark Zuckerberg’s mission to “Give people the power to build community and bring the world closer together” (Chaykowski 2017), the way in which we communicate has changed.  Some believe we have become disconnected from the real world and social media has made us go from a time of close bonds, sharing family recipes and cookbooks to uploading a picture of your apple pie to a mass audience on Instagram.

Instagram’s online community is not the only space growing. Blogging is a growing space where people talk about food, art, film, sports and any subject that interests them and their audience. As a powerful communication tool with over 1 million blogs posted every 24 hours, bloggers are popping up everywhere with personal expression and a chance to describe their own experiences the main reason people start blogging (Cross 2011, pp. 37-40).

These communities see the digital world is shifting from ‘neighbourhood communities’ to ‘communities’ which consist of networked households and individuals. These online communities feel like home for many who submerge themselves into the world of social media. People are turning to social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook to socialise with peers and mark their identity known as ‘networked publics’.

The three central dynamics that shape networked publics and those interactions that take place are the invisible audiences, collapsed contexts and the blurring of public and private (boyd 2010, pp. 39-58)

These three central dynamics bring up various questions about how people communicate, and the affordances of social media. Unlike traditional methods of communication where you know who you are talking to and your message is subject to the audience, you are with. In this context when people post content online, they don’t always know who is present or who they are sharing their story with and this is causing people to craft content for specific audiences. Some would say that this is lying about who you are and that people do not show their true self on social media. However, the affordance of social media “is the possibilities for action that it offers” (Graves 2007, p.336). The point is the affordance of social media is what it allows people to do and this affordance is certainly making us rethink the meaning of sociability, neighbourhood and community.

References

Cross, M 2011, Bloggerati, twitterati, Praeger, Santa Barbara, Calif., pp. 37-40.

Boyd, d 2010, ‘Social Network Sites as Networked Publics’, in Papacharissi, Z, A Networked Self: Identity, Community, and Culture on Social Network Sites, Routledge, Hoboken, pp. 39-58.

Chaykowski, K 2017, Mark Zuckerberg: 2 Billion Users Means Facebook’s ‘Responsibility Is Expanding’, viewed 5 December 2018, <https://www.forbes.com/sites/kathleenchaykowski/2017/06/27/facebook-officially-hits-2-billion-users/#5a6a30643708>.

Cross, M 2011, Bloggerati, twitterati, Praeger, Santa Barbara, Calif., pp. 37-40.

Graves, L 2007, ‘The Affordances of Blogging’, Journal of Communication Inquiry, vol. 31, no. 4, pp. 331-346, viewed 5 December 2018, <https://journals-sagepub-com.ezproxy.lib.swin.edu.au/doi/abs/10.1177/0196859907305446>.

INSTAGRAM IS DOWN just describe your food to me [IMAGE], Quickmeme 2018, viewed 5 December 2018, <http://www.quickmeme.com/meme/3pxlfe>.

Interaction-Design.org 2011, Affordances (Don Norman, 1994), 15 February, viewed 26 September 2018, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NK1Zb_5VxuM>.

[thealmostperfectstudent]

adigitalworldstudent, the emergence of social media has 100% changed the way we communicate with one another. Social media has allowed us to create different sides of ourselves that we are only comfortable sharing in the safety of the online world. We have been able to explore our own characteristic on a deeper level and find out who we are in different dimensions. Some good and some not so good. I like that you have mentioned that some people would say that we are not our true selves on social media. But what if with the all the affordances social media has allowed has meant that who we are face-to-face with someone is no longer the real us?

[thealmostperfectstudent]

Character Assassination.

I had a friend in high school who had struck up a friendship with a girl she had met online. They talked about everything together and shared their deepest darkest secrets with each other without any concern. Then suddenly, this online girl disappeared. After about a week of no contact, my friend came running into our year 12 common room shaking her phone at me saying “she’s dead”. The online girls had “Mum” posted on to her Facebook page stating she had passed away in a car accident. Then at the bottom of this post, I had noticed that a boy from our school had commented, how did he know her? This all felt very strange. Then not 2 days later my girlfriend had gotten a message from this boy. The message outlined that for the past year he had essentially taken his cousins identity and used it to befriend girls he had a crush on at school. Naturally so, my girlfriend was mortified.

As dramatic and as far-fetched as that story may seem, its 100% true and this type of occurrence is happening more and more thanks to the anonymity of the online world.

In Emily Van Der Nagel’s, Faceless Bodies: Negotiating Technological and Cultural Codes on reddit gonewild she explores the issues around online anonymity. In the article, Emily explains how the world of reddit gonewild encourages users to make their profiles, posts and comments as anonymous as possible as it will enhance their experience while still protecting them from the real world. In this sense, anonymity is a remarkable ability as it lets us explore ourselves on a deeper level as we don’t have the worry about what people are going to think. Basically, anonymity “is the digital equivalent of wearing a condom. You don’t have to stop having fun, but you really ought to be safe about it” (upvotesforgw 2012).

Although anonymity allows us a positive release from our normal day to day lives it can also open up the darker, more sinister sides of ourselves. “Anonymity frees people from traditionally constraining pressures of society, conscience, morality and ethics to behave in a normative manner” (P.H. 2014). Behaviours that we would normally deem unacceptable in the real world have somehow become socially acceptable in the online world. The online world is rife with bullies, pretenders, con artists and criminals who hide behind the anonymity and the safety of their screens. 

All caution and ethics have been thrown to the wind once we are behind a screen, we can be what and who want however we want to do it. Which begs the question, are we only our true selves when we are hiding behind the safety of a screen?  

References:

upvotesforgw (2012) “[META] With 300,000 subscribers, let’s talk about safe, anonymous posting”, reddit, viewed 9 December 2018, <http://en.reddit.com/r/gonewild/comments/13fd1o/meta_with_300000_subscribers_lets_talk_about_safe/>

Van der Nagel, E 2013, “Faceless bodies: Negotiating technological and cultural codes on reddit gonewild”, Journal of Media Arts Culture, vol. 10, no. 2, viewed 9 December, 2018, <http://scan.net.au/scn/journal/vol10number2/Emily-van-der-Nagel.html>.

P.H., 2014, “Anonymous social networking: Secrets and lies”, The Economist, viewed 9 December 2018 <https://www.economist.com/schumpeter/2014/03/22/secrets-and-lies>

[thealmostperfectstudent]

One day, I want to learn to have a conversation.

Social interaction is something that we as humans have always craved. At heart, we are lonely creatures who require the ability to communicate with someone other than ourselves. The introduction of the virtual world has allowed us the ability to connect with billions of people at any given point in time. We are a world of people who are constantly “plugged in” to one another and the world around us. But does this extensive virtual connection come at a price to our social abilities?

In a 2012 TED Talk (Connected, But alone.), Sherry Turkle explores the idea of how the virtual world has impacted humans ability to interact with others and ourselves. The talk is an insightful view of how we use the virtual world with platforms such as social media, text and email and the consequences that come with this seemingly excessive use. In the video, Sherry shares a comment from an 18-year-old boy, that I believe sums up the negative social impact virtual technologies have had on us. “Someday, someday, but certainly not now, I’d like to learn how to have a conversation”. A worrying thought.

I think the internet and the virtual world is an amazing thing. It has given us so much access to each other and the world around us at a simple click of a button. As Danah Boyd’s suggests in her article ‘Participating in the always-on lifestyle’, living a public life through virtual platforms at times may be complicated but has “[enriched] the tapestry of life”. Our lives have definitely been enriched by the internet but I feel that we have relied on it too heavily for connection to one another. We have become a world where we are more comfortable talking to each other through a screen and the thought of any face-to-face interaction is daunting. We have lost our ability to connect and communicate in real time.

In my group of friends, I see this reality every time we are together. We will sit a restaurant together, all of us with our phones in arms reach checking them consistently every minute. Even if in the middle of a conversation. We will be on the couch together, all on our phones. Even while we are physically together we are still desperate for the artificial connection we have created in the online world and we prefer that over a face-to-face connection.

References:

TED-Ed 2013, Connected, but alone?- Sherry Turkle, 19 April, viewed 28 November 2018, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rv0g8TsnA6c>.

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