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The Great Wall of China

Picture a world with no Instagram, no YouTube, not Snapchat, and no Facebook. Now I bet you’re thinking this place wouldn’t exist, it must be an imaginary thing, well, you’re wrong. This is China. It’s similar to when you were in High school, and you wanted to play Cool Maths Games on the computer, so you typed it in and it was blocked, except you knew a way around this by hotspotting off your phone. Unfortunately, you simply cannot do that in China. What we consider a part of your everyday lives, is something people who are just as, if not more technologically advanced than us, cannot do. 

Now it may seem illogical to some that these sites are banned, however, the Chinese government claim to have good reasoning. In 2009, Urumqi riots in Xinjiang were the main reason for Facebook banning. The Chinese believed that the activists who were causing the riots were using Facebook as their main source for communication. As a result of this Facebook was then banned immediately after this.

Now you could understand that to reduce any more attack on their country they, unfortunately, have to ban these communication sites. However, the reason for YouTube to be banned is because there were too many videos published that were slandering the government. As a result of this, instead of Youtube, the Chinese get Youku. This site is the same as Youtube, however, it is still monitored by the government and any videos that criticise them are removed.

Despite all of this, there are still ways to access these sites within China. Users have to use a VPN, which is a Virtual Private network, which essentially hides the IP address and location and allows you to choose a server from anywhere in the world. Interestingly enough, China still contributes up to $5 billion for Facebook despite it being banned. According to a report by Pivotal Research,   “Nearly 10 percent of Facebook's global revenue... comes from China”, which is insane to think that there’s a total ban on this website, yet they’re still a main contributor to Facebook's revenue.

I’m just glad that I only had to use a VPN in high school and not for my everyday life, otherwise, I’d go crazy, being constantly watched for every online search I do, I’d be living in constant fear, I mean, more constant fear, you know being a University student with a crippling hex debt is already scary enough. 

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Social gaming since 2007

Since I was just a young child, I have been exposed to social gaming for pretty much my whole life past 2007. I have three brothers who are all significantly older than me, the least age difference being 9, so I was always watching him play his games. The first game that I played that had multiplayer was Halo 3. 

Being this game did not have too much blood and gore, for whatever reason I was allowed to play this game, with my brother and his friends, but also with players connected all over the world. 

Back in my day, there were not a plethora of online games that everyone across the world would play, there were a couple of games that were miles ahead of the others. Those include Call of Duty, World of Warcraft and halo. There have been only a few games that have cracked the one million concurrent player mark, one of them being Halo.

As you can see here in 2007, only one month after release there were over one million people online at the same time across the world. Now I don’t know about you guys, but playing an MMORPG game where you can visibly see a lot of other people in the same area as you, makes the games 10x more fun. 

In a game like World of Warcraft, which is a subscription-based MMORPG, players are able to choose from 10 different species which all have different starting areas, within these areas you can find other players and befriend them and progress through the game together. In it’s prime, WoW had 12 million subscribers, which for a game that costs $15 per month, is quite a large player base, as not everyone can justify spending that on top of the base price for the game.

For me, some of my fondest memories are from playing games with friends, whether it was from when I was at the age of 10 playing Halo with my brother and his friends, or when I was 14 playing Call of Duty with friends from school, gaming had brought me closer to people I otherwise wouldn’t have a reason to consistently talk with.

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Importance of health via Social Media.

Recently, it has become widely accepted for users to share images, posts or videos regarding their mental health. Personally I have not partaken in any social media posts about my health, however, I find it wholesome to see my peers who were previously struggling, proving to the world that they can overcome their problems.

For example, Kanye West became vocal about his Bipolar disorder on twitter. He expressed the importance of having ‘Open conversations about mental health’. 

Kanye is infamous for his crazy and lengthy tweets, sometimes very controversial, however, he wanted to let the world know about his mental state, and bring light to a more serious topic, by creating an album titled ‘ye’ with the album cover stating ‘I hate being Bi-Polar, it's awesome’. 

Along with this, a recent hashtag has been introduced which invites men to talk about their mental issues. #ItsOkToTalk is a campaign that aims to raise awareness for suicide amongst men. Men will post a photo with their hands raised with an ‘okay’ hand sign, with a paragraph giving information about suicide amongst young men. 

Not only are their campaign’s expressing a progressive change towards mental health, but other people you may follow on social media’s who post about their healthy lifestyles may inspire you to change for the better. There’s nothing more gratifying than seeing someone’s before and after photos of someone who wanted to change for the better, and seeing how much happier and stable they look, whether its weight loss or mental state, it all acts as motivators for others to achieve the same goals these people have done.

Although some people may get tired of seeing the same acai bowl snapcjat, or Instagram post, alongside a boomerang of someone taking a walk an hour after to promote their lifestyle every second day, it is good for the overall culture of promoting a healthier lifestyle and may benefit those who face similar everyday struggles. 

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How Crowdsourcing helped in a dire time of need.

As technology has developed we as users of the internet have become more and more connected to people across the entire globe. Not only are we able to communicate with people around the world, but we are able to virtually anywhere as long as you’ve got a phone and an internet connection.

Crowdsourcing is hands down one of the best platforms for success that has come from social media, it can really change lives for those who are stuck in a horrible situation. Crowdsourcing ‘involves obtaining work, information or opinions from a large group of people who submit their data via the Internet, social media and smartphone apps’.

Natural Disasters are by no means anything to take lightly, their consequences have been fatal and horrifically affected the lives of millions, however through all of these disasters, social media has done its fair share to aid and assist all of those who seek help in these rough times. 

An example in which crowdsourcing had heavily aided those in danger was during the Haiti earthquake in 2010. In January of 2010, Haiti was hit was an enormous earthquake that had affected roughly five million people. It is estimated that 250,000 people died, with 300,000 injured. This also left five million people homeless. 

These people who were left stranded were in dire need of help, so during the time of crisis, a corporation called Crowdflower, co-operated with Digicel and Comcel, two of the largest mobile carriers in Haiti. They set up a number 4636 that any victims could message for free and transmit their location as well as any urgencies they had. Because of this broadcasting, the volunteers were receiving a new text every couple of seconds. The text messages were sent to a team of volunteers across the globe who would translate the messages and process the location of the messages for those who were working on the ground in Haiti. This allowed the Red Cross to respond to any emergency situations as quickly as possible.

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To Troll on not to Troll.

Social media for many has become a space for those who like to just browse through their feeds without much interaction, maybe a ‘like’ here or there, then there are others who like to post about their Saturday nights out and anything in-between, and then there are those people who like to lurk and comment to purposely get a rise out of the people viewing it. “Trolling is defined as creating discord on the Internet by starting quarrels or upsetting people by posting inflammatory or off-topic messages in an online community” (Hanson, 2015).

In my experience of social media, I have come across the most trolls deep within the YouTube comment section (mainly because I don’t use twitter). Currently there is a tier list to a comment troll. Tier One Is someone who will see multiple people comment the same thing, generally with playful intent, and then copy them,  Tier Two  Is someone who will come up with an original comment with similar intent to tier one, however, this is where the hateful intent starts to develop. Tier Three This is where people will intentionally write hateful messages to the content creators with the intent to hurt them mentally.

Lets find some examples of each tier. 

Tier One

As you can see here, there are numerous people all commenting on similar things with no bad intent to the content creator. 

Tier Two

This comment was in regards to Beyonce’s music video “7/11″ in which this commenter seems to believe that there was a hidden message within the music video. As you can see there is no direct ill intent towards the content creator so these types of comments are still classified as tier two.

Tier Three 

This tier list is strictly for those trolls who are beyond furious with a particular content creator and rather than turning their video off or disliking the video, they feel the need to attack the creator directly. 

I bring this tier list to prove to you all that trolling can be fun for some, and for others, can be a way to express their anger. Tier one trolling is where all troll should be, commenting pointless remarks with no ill intent to anyone. 

For the group of trolls in tier 3 however, they have the power to “hurt, deeply and profoundly” (William 2018).

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How the # changed the #World

The infamous Hashtag, introduced in August 23rd 2007 on Twitter, has shaken up the world of social media. Since its introduction, it has revolutionised how users interact and develop posts that they express to the whole social world. Starting on Twitter it had eventually traversed onto almost all other forms of social media, mainly Instagram, Facebook and Tumblr. 

 As social media become more and more influential it is becoming evident that it can be used for developing positive agenda’s. “One of the most interesting developments in digital activism in recent years is the rise of hashtag activism” (Yang 2016), which aims to push an agenda or political change via ‘hashtagging’ a phrase or word.

Black Lives Matter

One of the originators of hashtag activism is Black lives matter. The activist movement started in July of 2013, which campaigns against violence and racism against black people. The hashtag started as a response to the clearing of George Zimmerman, a police officer who shot and killed an African American teen. Within the first month, the hashtag had been shared 52,000 times on Twitter, and by June of next year, it had reached 41 million. It is clear that an online community can unite against an issue and create a movement that, offline would not be possible. 

With the success of the hashtag online, it has traversed into a genuine movement with significant accomplishments. The Black lives matter leaders were able to meet with Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders to discuss “policing reform and racial injustice” (Workneh 2015). This has proven that an online movement with a strong message is able to push past the online boundaries of social media and form a real-life change for the better.

Another accomplishment for the activist group was the renaming of a street in honour of a Sandra Bland. Sandra Bland was a woman who had died in her jail cell after three days in custody. Her death was claimed to be suicide however her family and others of her community believe otherwise. As a result of this people had protested the street she was arrested on and demanded the street was renamed in her honour. This protest was met with an approval and the street name was changed to Sandra Bland Parkway.

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Politicians on Social Media

For me, Politics is a very very very dry and boring topic, however, for my parents, they can’t get enough of it. However, I do find it quite intriguing how politicians have weaselled their way into Social media norms and try to appeal to the millennials with posting political memes about their movement. 

As someone who tries to avoid politics like the plague, it has become increasingly difficult to do so online as politicians stay very active on their social media for a few reasons. Communication is the most prominent reason with the rapid success of online media, it is an easy way for a politician to reach out to its target audience. the four most prominent features of a social movement are:

1.Informal interaction networks; 2.Shared beliefs and solidarity; 3.Collective action; 4.Use of protest.

In conjunction with a ‘Filter Bubble’ Politicians utilise an ‘informal interaction’ to create a sense of connections with the users to promote themselves and either their campaign or agenda. 

Clive Palmer is one of the most renowned politicians on facebook with his frequent use of memes to push his political agenda. Palmer creates a sense of solidarity with his audience by posting memes about relevant concerns from the general public. 

This, in particular, resonates with me!

If I’m being honest I didn’t know who he was until all of his memes had surfaced my news feed, and look at me now blogging about him. 

But I digress, although social media can be a fantastic platform for politicians, it can also be costly to their image.

Who’s the first person that comes to mind... 

Of course, it's Donald Trump!

76% of Americans see, read or hear about Trump’s tweets meaning roughly 250 million are aware of the ruthlessness and ignorance of the most ‘powerful man’.

Here we have Donald Trump using anecdotal evidence to disprove any global warming research. This tweet depicts his ignorance perfectly.

And again Trump is making a bold claim further showing his ignorance and ruthlessness publicly. 

And one last one, even FURTHER displaying his ignorance and boldness online. 

It is important to note the number of likes and retweets these tweets received. It is clear that these claims did not go down well with the general public. 

Some quick maths, if 76% of Americans have seen these tweets, that means only 0.000012% of those that have viewed this agree with his tweets.

In conclusion Social media is a tool that can be utilised effectively to generate a new audience of followers who can agree with the politician.  However, you can also misuse the platform like Trump, and potentially ruin your online image. 

So if what I’m getting at isn’t clear enough... 

Don’t be like Trump. Be like good ol’ Clive

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1. Tumblr, Social network or blog?

At Tumblr’s core, it is a site that allows users to create posts with varying content, from photography to texts to videos, expressing their passions, beliefs, and thoughts. However Tumblr shares too many similarities to both a social network, and a blog, so I say, why can’t it be both? Founded in 2007 by David Karp it’s initial purpose was to create a ‘short-form blog’, in which users would write a short and concise paragraph and call it a blog post. However, Tumblr has evolved into its current form, where users can talk and write about any thought that crosses their mind. Although Tumblr is renowned as a ‘blogging’, it shares so many similarities to a social network. Users are able to respond to each other and encourage communication between the poster and their followers.

“Ten years ago blogs were the only source of content and communication for internet users. With the increase of social media use, social networking has emerged as a popular source of information.“ Unlike other social media such as Facebook and Instagram, Tumblr acts as a safe area where users can put on an online persona, in which they can post content that would perhaps be considered as too vulgar or inappropriate on their personal social media.

As it stands, the majority  of Tumblr users are aged between 18-24, because of this, the primary content on Tumblr is “Photos of young people’s daily lives”, or ‘entertaining memes and gifs’ which may explain the question as to why Tumblr could be considered as either a Blog or Social Network. The content that is posted on Tumblr resonates a social aspect in most young peoples lives, this connection makes users feel more comfortable, and not detached from the blogger. As it stands Tumblr is in a unique middle ground where aspects can be more defined as a blog site or a social networking site, however, I would personally consider it as a social network because of the connection it creates for the users.