hamachi11

[hamachi11]

Social Media's role in crowdsourcing

(Snopek 2024)

Welcome back to my blog!

In this week, let's talk about how social media plays a role in crowdsourcing in times of crisis.

But before we dive into the main topic, let's talk about crowdsourcing.

First, what is crowdsourcing?

Greengard (2024) describe crowdsourcing as a framework that brings together a large and decentralized group of people for gathering data, solving an issue, or handle a challenge

Basically, crowdsourcing is the practice of obtaining data or solving a task involving large number of people, either paid or unpaid.

Take Wikipedia as an example.

Wikipedia is a free online encyclopedia for users, like you, to gain information on topics like wars, disasters, celebrities, countries, politics etc. Now why would I pick Wikipedia as an example? It's because Wikipedia allows anyone to contribute and edit Wikipedia information based on reliable sources, providing a massive and ever-growing supply of information for the masses.

Social Media's role in crowdsourcing during times of crisis

Crises, whether it is man-made or natural disasters, would usually disrupts local traditional communication channels. During this time, social media becomes the most crucial platform for users to crowdsource by raising awareness of the crisis.

Internationally recognised organisations such as United Nations and UNICEF uses social media platforms as a way to raise awareness about natural or man-made disasters and providing a link for audiences to donate for humanitarian aids.

Since then, social media sites are now seen as an integral part of crowdsourcing as a way for organisations and content creators to distribute real-time information of current events happening of countries in crisis.

Additionally, social media platforms also acts as a multi-directional communication for social media users who are experiencing man-made or natural disasters, communicating with others by providing an answer about the situation, voicing concerns about it and seek help from authorities and relief organisations.

To illustrate, let's take Russo-Ukrainian war in 2022 as an example.

(Defense Policy & Posture 2024)

Since Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, social media has played a prominent role for Ukrainians to document the war on platforms such as Telegram, X and Instagram. The war has become one of the most "meticulously documented" in modern history (Bergengruen 2022).

As shown in the images below, Ukrainians and organisations has been documenting the war on mainstream social media platforms like Twitter and YouTube by uploading real-time footage of the conflict. These uploads, often geotagged by users, serves as a crucial information for social media users to learn more about the current situations in Ukraine, damages to the country's infrastructure and civilian's experiences.

Besides documenting the war, social media platforms also gives organisations an opportunity to raise awareness about the fundraising campaign which can be used for Ukrainian's war efforts and humanitarian aid.

As mentioned previously from my earlier blog posts, hashtags isn't just a tag that brings netizens together to discover and discuss topics, it's also a powerful tool that raises on specific topics such as politics and activism (Bruns & Burgess 2015). Hashtags such as #StandWithUkraine and #SlavaUkraini allows social media users to unite people around the world in condemnation of the Russian invasion.

In conclusion, social media plays a huge role in crowdsourcing during times of crisis, encouraging individuals, like you, to take part on an active role in crisis response.

So what are your thoughts about crowdsourcing? Be sure to let me know by dropping your comments down below!

As always, stay safe!

References

Bergengruen, V 2022, ‘Telegram Becomes a Digital Battlefield in Russia-Ukraine War’, Time, viewed 17 June 2024, <https://time.com/6158437/telegram-russia-ukraine-information-war/>.

Bruns, A & Burgess, J 2015, Twitter Hashtags from Ad Hoc to Calculated Publics 1.

Defense Policy & Posture 2024, ‘A Grim Anniversary: Marking Two Years of the Russo-Ukraine War • Stimson Center’, Stimson Center, viewed 17 June 2024, <https://www.stimson.org/2024/war-in-ukraine-two-years-later/>.

Greengard, S 2024, 'Crowdsourcing', Britannica Money, viewed 16 June 2024, <https://www.britannica.com/money/crowdsourcing>

Snopek, N 2024, ‘Crowdsourcing Platform World Map Millennial Professionals Stock Vector (Royalty Free) 1200415783’, Shutterstock, viewed 16 June 2024, <https://www.shutterstock.com/image-vector/crowdsourcing-platform-world-map-millennial-professionals-1200415783>.

[hamachi11]

Online harassment and the need of governance in social media.

(Securlyblog 2023)

Welcome to my blog again!

Up until now, I have discussed the good side of online communities. While online communities breeds positivity and connection for the global world, it also brings it's share of conflict. In this week, we will discuss the reasons of online harassment in the digital community and what did we do to curb such harassment.

Online Harassment

If you aren't aware already, online harassment is defined as the use of information and communication technologies by an individual or group to repeatedly cause harm to another person (University of Durham 2024). Unlike physical bullying, online harassment takes advantage of anonymity. From a harasser perspective, the anonymity creates a sense of "get away easily" after harassing a person digitally.

So why do people harass others online? Some say that seek a sense of superiority and believe they are the "social justice warrior" in the digital space, wanted to get the feel of satisfaction after inflicting a person's emotional distress. As mentioned previously, people who harass others digitally takes advantage of anonymity, meaning that they won't face the real-life consequences.

It doesn't matter if the other person is mentally scarred or bullied to the point of suicide, as long as it makes themselves satisfied, who cares?

Online harassment typically happens when a person is engaging in an ongoing debate of politics and activism. Sometimes, online harassment also happens when a person accuses an innocent person of disturbing action without any evidence or engaging in a foolish debate to the point of harassing one and others.

Online harassment manifests in various forms. The most blatant examples include hate speech against another one's race or gender, deliberate threat to inflict physical harm and insults. But these are just small fries in comparison to the extreme actions from a few. Doxxing, which involves in publishing a person's private information online, can have a dire consequences for the victim. Social exclusion through online shaming and spreading rumors. Cyberstalking, where someone is persistently harassed online, no matter where they go. These forms of online harassments can cause a detrimental effect to the victims who are targeted by the perpetrator.

Social media self-governance

One of the prominent examples of social media governance is the legalisation against bullying or online abuse, for example, Australia's Online Safety Act 2021.

On the surface, the governments do recognize the online harassment issues and has taken some steps to curb it. However, most of the laws enacted by different countries frequently struggle to keep up with the changing strategies of internet harassers. Contributing to the fact that some of the citizens are concerned that such laws may damage the freedom of expression.

Besides the legal approach of social media governance, social media platforms has it's own community guidelines and regulations in order to curb online harassers on their platform.

Take Facebook's Community Standards as an example.

Meta recognises the importance of Facebook to be a place where people are empowered to communicate, taking their role seriously in keeping online harassers off the service (Meta 2024). In exchange of limiting the freedom of expression, Meta does it in service for the following values:

(Meta 2024)

One of the examples that Meta has implemented to curb against online harassers is that Facebook users can help by reporting the perpetrator's comment when they comment on a post.

In conclusion,

Online harassment is the use of information and communication technologies to repeatedly cause harm to another person, often seeking a sense of superiority or satisfaction. It can manifest in various forms, such as hate speech, threats, insults, doxxing, social exclusion, and cyberstalking.

Understanding the causes and addressing the concerns of online harassers can help to make the digital space healthier and more inclusive.

Remember, it's our part to make the digital space a better and safe place for you and I.

Reference

Meta 2024, ‘Facebook Community Standard’, Meta, viewed 14 June 2024, <https://transparency.meta.com/en-gb/policies/community-standards/>.

Securlyblog 2023, 'The 10 Types of Cyberbullying', Securlyblog, viewed 13 June 2024, <https://blog.securly.com/the-10-types-of-cyberbullying/>

University of Durham 2024, 'What is online harassment?', University of Durham, viewed 14 June 2024, <https://reportandsupport.durham.ac.uk/support/what-is-online-harassment#:~:text=Definition,humiliation%20in%20an%20online%20setting.>

[hamachi11]

The world of gaming community

Welcome back to my blog again!

Introduction

In recent decades, video games has exploded in popularity. It's no longer just a niche hobby or a toy for kids, gaming has became a mainstream form of entertainment enjoyed by billions and billions of people worldwide. Moreover, gaming isn't just about entertainment on a screen; it's about connection. The introduction of online gaming has allow players from all over the globe to team up, compete, and forge friendships in the virtual worlds. In this week, we will explore the world of gaming communities.

Game Communities

(Zhou 2013)

Gaming communities are the cornerstone of modern gaming culture. At it's core, it is a social community that assembles gamers across the globe connect over their love of gaming, particular over a game or a genre.

In contrast to exclusive groups, gaming communities are open to all who demonstrates a sincere interest. They offer an environment for gamers that fosters community, passion and lifelong learning. Although seasoned players with vast expertise are highly respected, novices are welcome to take part.

Of course it's not just about hanging out, it is also fueled by the share of love in learning, pushing boundaries and the competitiveness. We, the gamers, are obsessed over mastering new skills, perfecting strategies and coming up solutions to in-game challenges, like puzzles or fighting against difficult boss fights. It's like a constant quest of finding the solution, taking the time of finding a solution to a difficult challenges while at the same time learning from it.

Video game platforms

Just like gamers themselves, the world of video games is extremely diverse. There are so many games you can choose from, whether you prefer to play casual games that fills your time or full-fledged game with different set of genres that will fully immerse you, there will always be one game that will suit you well.

The video game industry has experienced digitisation in recent decades, with video games started to transition from physical to digital distribution (Jahromi 2024). This creates a need for a digital distribution platforms for convenience to gamers.

In short, digital distribution platform is an online store for digital content. In this case, it's the video games that will be digitally distributed through online platforms. Whether they own a smartphone, PC or consoles, there will always be a digital platform for gamers to buy video games.

Examples of digital distribution platform include:

PC:

Steam

Epic Games Store

GoG

itch.io

Console:

Xbox app

PlayStation Store

Nintendo eShop

Mobile:

Google Play Store

App Store

Besides being a distribution platform, some game stores offer features that allows gamers to engage and form communities with the product. Take Steam as an example.

(Valve 2024)

Steam is a digital distribution platform for PC video game. It is one of the most popular digital game store front with 35 million peak active concurrent Steam users worldwide (Valve 2024) and is a market leader in the PC gaming space.

Steam isn't just your typical digital game distribution platform, it also expanded from it's role as a digital game store into a thriving online gaming community.

Steam's strong community hub system is one of the main factors contributing to its success. Every games that are distributed on Steam has a community hub that serves as a dedicated hub for players to discuss, share guides, artwork and user-generated contents for "modding" existing games. This enables users to ask questions, give assistance, and discuss their experiences with the game.

Not only that, Steam is able to foster the online community through features like friend lists and in-game chat. Gamers can utilize such features to communicate with their friends virtually, discuss strategies, and even team up together to play multiplayer games. Due to this online engagement, players across the globe can connect and forge friendships through their shared passion of gaming.

Furthermore, Steam also implemented a trading card system for some games. These trading cards can be obtained either by in-game drops depending on the availability or buy them through Steam Marketplace and can be used to trade with others who has the cards they wanted, upgrade their Steam account page with cosmetics by combining them into badges to earn EXP for their accounts or even sell them to other users who wanted the card they don't have. Through interaction and collection building, this system fosters a sense of value and investment for Steam users and offers another level of engagement and strengthens the bond between users and the platform as a whole.

E-sports

(Collin, YW 2023)

Electronic sports, commonly known as Esports, has grown from a niche hobby into a global phenomenon. To put it simply, esports are competitive video games that are played in a highly organized competitive environment (Leroux-Parra 2020).

Esports is a place for skilled gamers, who have clocked hours and hours of playing competitive multiplayer games such as Counter-Strike, Dota 2, VALORANT and Street Fighter games, come together and compete against each other. Usually, the eSports format for every games tend to stack gamers against each other in a battle of reflexes, strategy, and teamwork.

To be clear, Esports isn't a new concept. In fact, the earliest known video game competition was held in 1972 at Stanford University where students compete to win an annual subscription for "Rolling Stone" magazine (Hernández 2024). Even though e-sports are not a completely new concept, their popularity has skyrocketed in recent years, attracting thousands and thousands of viewers tuning in to watch gamers compete against each other.

Not only that, Esports tournaments boasts lucrative prizes for first-place winners ranging from thousands to millions of dollars. For instance, Dota 2's The International 2021 gave away a total of $40 Million US dollars for participants who reached from 18th to 1st place winners (ESPORTS EARNINGS 2024).

This aspects of esports fuels the online community. Skilled players from all across the globe are drawn to the game by the promise of wealth and glory, creating an environment of fierce competition and devotion.

Live-Streaming

Live-streaming has revolutionized the way we consume and interact with media, it provides a real-time interactive experience for spectators to engage directly with broadcasters. This creates a unique online community around real-time broadcasters. Take Twitch as an example.

Twitch is the leading live-streaming platform for content creators to , boasting 241.7 million visitors to the platform (Dean 2024). Most viewers tune in to watch a wide range of content produced by organizations and content creators, from video games and esports to game shows and informal chatting.

Prominant streamers such as Asmongold, Emirichu, xQc are a prime example of personality in the live-streaming platform. These streamers are more than just entertainers; they are also community leaders. Streamers often engage with their audiences by responding the chat messages sent by the audience, playing video games with the audience or even host community events to come together. Such parasocial interaction between viewers and streamers fosters the sense of community and keeps viewer engaged.

The Modding Scene

When you are looking for a video to watch on YouTube, often or not you will see videos like this:

These kinds of videos often has contents that does not exist in-games, but rather user-generated contents for existing games.

Mods, short term for modification, is essentially user-created alterations to an existing game's code, graphics, or sound. These alterations can range from simple quality-of-life tweaks to a complete overhauls to the gameplay itself.

For instance, Left 4 Dead 2, a popular cooperative zombie shooter from 2009, boasts a thriving modding scene for community to create and freely access mods from other creators through the Steam Workshop. Players can freely download mods that can replace game contents like replacing game characters from the game to iconic figures from other games such as Marie Rose from Dead or Alive series, Doom Slayer from DOOM or even the astronauts from Among Us, giving the zombie apocalypse a comical twist.

Another prime example is the fan project, Silent Hill 2: Enhanced Edition. This unofficial remaster remakes a beloved 2001 psychological survival horror classic by updating the compatibility to modern PCs and enhancing visuals through high-resolution textures, widescreen compatibility and improved lighting effects.

This YouTube video will help you reinforce an idea of how gamers develop mods for existing games.

(SMii7Y 2023)

The modding scene is more than simply fiddling with the game code; it's also a thriving online gaming community where gamers congregate to share their creations, collaboration on fan projects, and share their love of video games. It's possible for popular mods to go beyond their initial intent and gain independent fan fervor.

Conclusion

Video game platform, e-Sports, live-streaming and the modding scene are the cornerstone of modern gaming communities. Gaming culture is more than just playing games, rather, it's a world built on connection, collaboration and shared love for the entertainment.

So what are your thoughts about gaming community? Be sure to let me know by dropping a comment down below!

As always, stay safe and see you in my next blog!

References

Collin, YW 2023, ‘World Champs #VALORANTChampions’, X, viewed 11 June 2024, <https://x.com/colinyoungwolff/status/1695618335885738144/photo/2>.

Dean, B 2024, ‘Twitch Usage and Growth Statistics: How Many People Use Twitch in 2022?’, Backlinko, viewed 12 June 2024, <https://backlinko.com/twitch-users#monthly-active-users>.

ESPORTS EARNINGS 2024, ‘Largest Overall Prize Pools in Esports - Esports Tournament Rankings :: Esports Earnings’, Esportsearnings.com, viewed 11 June 2024, <https://www.esportsearnings.com/tournaments>.

Hernández, M 2024, ‘History of eSports: how did video game competitions begin?’, Telefónica, viewed 11 June 2024, <https://www.telefonica.com/en/communication-room/blog/history-of-esports-how-did-video-game-competitions-begin/>.

Leroux-Parra, M 2020, ‘Esports Part 1: What are Esports?’, Harvard International Review, viewed <https://hir.harvard.edu/esports-part-1-what-are-esports/>.

Jahromi, S 2024, ‘Level Up or Game Over? The Impacts of Digital Disruption on Video Games’, www.linkedin.com, viewed 31 May 2024, <https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/level-up-game-over-impacts-digital-disruption-video-shawn-hbzxe#:~:text=Shift%20to%20Digital%20Distribution>.

SMii7Y 2023, ‘We Ruined Left 4 Dead 2 with Mods’, YouTube, viewed 12 June 2024, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASjOgkvyXgs>.

Valve 2024, ‘Steam Charts’, store.steampowered.com, viewed 11 June 2024, <https://store.steampowered.com/charts/>.

Valve 2024, ‘Steam, The Ultimate Online Game Platform’, Steam, viewed 10 June 2024, <https://store.steampowered.com/about/>.

Zhou, D 2013, ‘Evo 2013 in Photos’, Polygon, viewed 12 June 2024, <https://www.polygon.com/2013/7/17/4527534/evo-2013-in-photos>.

[hamachi11]

Instagram Filters

(Panchenko 2023)

Welcome back to my blog!

This week, we will explore Instagram filters and why do people use them?

Instagram filters has completely changed the way we interact on social media, it can be said that the filters influences on how we present ourselves and perceive others. All of these was thanks to the invention of augmented reality, or AR for short.

For those who don't know, augmented reality, or AR, is an interactive experience that blends both physical environment with virtual computer-generated 3D content. In the context of face filters, it is an interactive computer-generated overlay adding affects to your photos or videos in-real time, only by using your smartphone. The face filter works by responding your camera movement and facial expression, creating an overlay on your smartphone.

Now that you know the basics of face filters, let's start off by asking...

What are Instagram filters?

Instagram filters are basically the same thing as face filter but it is a feature within a social media platform, that is Instagram, that allows users to edit and apply their photos with pre-set filters that Instagram has created for users (Whitney 2023).

(Fowler 2022)

So why do people use Instagram filters?

Well...it is easy to use and there are hundreds and hundreds of filters users can use to change the context of the image. But that's not what you come and read my blogs right?

There are several theories as to why people use Instagram Filters, but there is no denying that people use it for their unrealistic beauty standards and the insecurity we felt when we see other users are more handsome or beautiful that you.

One thing's for sure is that people tends to have an unrealistic beauty standards when they are comparing themselves to influencers on social media. The term "unrealistic beauty standards" refers to the societal expectations and ideals placed on individuals regarding their physical appearance (Blue Ridge 2024). Since social media thrives on curated image, showcasting a person's best angle and moments. Filters act as a digital brush, altering facial features to conform to trending beauty standards. This creates a pressure within a person to present a flawless image with the desire of social approval and validation.

Here is a video that shows a person goes for a plastic surgery just to look like her selfies from Snapchat and FaceTune.

Furthermore, such question can also be easily explained through Social Comparison Theory. In short, the social comparison theory suggests that people value their personal and social worth by assessing how they compare to others (Cherry 2023).

In this case, people tends to compare themselves to others, essentially playing a huge role in the filter frenzy. I am sure that many of you looooooooves to scroll through endless of endless feeds with content creators having flawless faces that can make anyone feel a little insecure like why can't I have the same face as him or why is he or she more beautiful than me? As a solution, face filters serves as an equalizer, achieving that picture-perfect look from the content creators you discovered and feel more confident about yourself.

Conclusion

Instagram filters are often used by people due to their ease of use and the vast array of filters available to alter the context of images. However, the primary reason for using Instagram filters is to meet unrealistic beauty standards and to feel insecure when others are more attractive or handsome. These unrealistic beauty standards are influenced by societal expectations and ideals placed on individuals' physical appearance. Social media platforms like Snapchat and FaceTune often use filters to present a person's best angles and moments, creating pressure to present flawless images for social approval and validation. The social comparison theory suggests that people value their personal and social worth by comparing themselves to others, leading to the filter frenzy.

So....maybe you should just stop compare yourself to others and embrace yourself instead.

What are your thoughts about Instagram Filters? Be sure to let me know by dropping a comment down below!

As always, stay safe and stay tuned for my next blog!

References

Blue Ridge 2024, 'Unrealistic Beauty Standards And Mental Health,' Blue Ridge, viewed June 13 2024, <https://www.blueridgetreatment.com/post/unrealistic-beauty-standards-and-mental-health>

Cherry, K 2024, 'Social Comparison Theory in Psychology,' Verywell Mind, viewed 13 June 2024, <https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-the-social-comparison-process-2795872>.

Fowler, K 2022, 'How To Get the Sad Face Filter Taking Over TikTok by Using Snapchat', Newsweek, viewed 13 June 2024, <https://www.newsweek.com/crying-sad-face-filter-tiktok-instagram-snapchat-1706026>

Panchenko, A 2023, ‘How to Use Instagram Filters | Nektony’, nektony.com, viewed 13 June 2024, <https://nektony.com/how-to/use-instagram-filters>.

Whitney, M 2023, 'The Complete Guide to Instagram Filters', WordStream, viewed 13 June 2024, <https://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2020/06/26/instagram-filters#:~:text=What%20is%20an%20Instagram%20filter,Instagram%20has%20created%20for%20you.>

[hamachi11]

Body Modification on Visual Social Media

Whenever you go on to social media platforms, especially Instagram, you will definitely came across multiple micro-celebrities that has like beautiful faces, slim bodies, masculine, nicer skin tones...well you get the idea. In this week's topic, we will be covering the basics of body modification in the context of social media as well as impact of audience's wellbeing.

Body Modification

In short, body modification is where a person intentionally alter it's human anatomy or physical appearance (Hawkes 2024). This process includes piercings, tattooing, cutting, binding or even inserting implants (Hawkes 2024).

The idea of body modification has actually been trending in recent years, which can be attributed to influences from micro-celebrities who advertises their transformations to their millions of followers to follow suite to show the ideal body image of a human being.

Take James Charles as an example.

James Charles is an American influencer known for his beauty makeups as shown in the pictures above. These influencers creates an online identity that resembles the ideal beauty of a human being in order to gain an online status through social media platforms such as Instagram.

Furthermore, most influencers, including James Charles himself, adheres to the aesthetic templates that are endorsed by microcelebrities through product campaigns.

What are these aesthetic templates you may ask?

Well aesthetic templates in the microcelebrity culture covers the research of an individual's poses and body work, ranging from behaviours that changes a person's physical appearance, which can be achieved through online image editing or physically through body modification.

Here is an example of how aesthetic templates would look like:

(Jenner 2024)

The Consequences of Body Modification in Social Media

Unfortunately, online aesthetic templates from influencers does have a significant impact on those who are dissatisfied with their physical body image. Sure, the visibility of body modification on social media can contribute to a more diverse representation of bodies, helping audiences to be confident and embrace their body. But it doesn't excuse the fact that some audiences will always be dissonance with their body image thus seeking cosmetics to "beautify" or even modify their body to seek an ideal version of themselves.

(n3rmin 2023)

This sort of unrealistic beauty standards can be traced from the curated nature of social media, where influencers often post masculine and feminine ideal of body image. These body images are often unattainable even with body modifications. Such constant exposure would contribute to an individual's hatred and dissatisfaction to their body image, particularly among young people.

Speaking of which, this unrealistic beauty standards can also be explained through a form of mental disorder known as Body Dysmorphic Disorder, or BDD for short.

To summarize, Body Dysmorphic Disorder is a mental illness of which an individual constant worrying over a perceived or slight defect in appearance (Better Health 2024).

To be clear, an individual who suffers from Body Dysmorphic Disorder doesn't have a dissatisfaction of their body size, like their body height. But rather, they believe part of their physical attributes has a serious defect.

For example,

Why can't I have a muscular body?

Why can't I have a slim body?

Why can't I have a whiter skin compare to others?

Why can't I have a perfect nose?

The constant focus on their "flaws" causes severe emotional distress, it can be so extreme that they would have trouble functioning at work, school or in social situations (Better Health 2024). In an attempt to fix this, the affected person would apply makeups or has an excessive exercise. Though these actions are just short-term relief and would eventually worsen their anxiety.

What can we do about it?

Well for starters, social media platforms plays a significant role in combating unrealistic beauty standards among audiences similarly to influencers advertising their "ideal body". This can be done by promoting contents, like influencers sharing their actual body image and hashtag campaigns, that embraces body positivity and challenges the beauty ideals. In doing so, social media users are encouraged to accept and love themselves.

Another way we can combat such unrealistic beauty standards is by offering an explanation of dissatisfaction with cultural perspective. For example, in western societies, they often emphasize on thinness, while in eastern societies, they often emphasize on lighter skin or specific body proportions.

Last but not least, equipping social media users, especially teenagers, with media literacy skills will allow them to easily evaluate the images they see on social media. Highlighting that most of the social media posts they see are usually manipulated through online software such as face filters to construct portrayals of beauty.

Conclusion

In conclusion, body modification on visual social media can have a impact on audiences, especially teenagers, viewing their body images negatively. As such, venturing on unrealistic beauty standards to crave their desires to find their "ideal body image". Solutions such as media literacy, promoting contents that promotes body positivity and offering an explanation based on cultural perspective should be utilized in retaliation to the idea of unrealistic beauty standards.

What are your thoughts about body modification on visual social media?

Be sure to let me know by dropping your comments down below!

As always, stay safe and see you in my next blog!

References

Better Health 2024, 'Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD)', Better Health Channel, viewed 17 June 2024, <https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/conditionsandtreatments/body-dysmorphic-disorder-bdd>

Hawkes, J 2024, 'Defining Body Modification', University of Oregon, viewed 17 June 2024, <https://blogs.uoregon.edu/jhawkesw14/>

Jenner, K 2024, '@sam_edelman #ad', Instagram, viewed 17 June 2024, <https://www.instagram.com/p/C4qg_mbpU3x/?img_index=1>

n3rmin 2023, 'unrealisitic beauty standards', YouTube, viewed 17 June 2024, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHx7ZPzNkkY>

[hamachi11]

Fast and Slow Fashion and how social media played a role in slow fashion movement.

"Sustainable fashion is not a trend, it's a responsibility." -Livia Firth

Welcome back to my blog again!

The rapid development of society comes with the rapid trend of fashion. Fashion reshapes our identity as a person but at the same time, it also has a consequential effect on our environment.

This week, we will be exploring the fast and slow fashion industry and how social media influencers play a role in the slow fashion movement.

Fast Fashion

In the fashion industry, fast fashion has become the norm among fashion companies due to it's emphasis on speedy production and rock-bottom prices, making them affordable for consumers who are looking for cheap clothes. The intention of fast fashion is to drive up consumer spending on more clothing that is worn for shorter periods (Crumbie 2019).

What most of the fast fashion industry did not account for is the environmental impact and workers exploitation.

The fashion industry is perhaps among the world's most polluting industries in the world. According to the Environmental Audit Committee (2019, p.28), the production of textiles, which is thought to emit 1.2 billion tons of CO2 equivalent (CO2e) annually, is a substantial contributor to climate change. That's more than international flights and maritime shipping carbon footprint combined! Furthermore, most of the low-quality fast fashion clothes tend to use cheap synthetic fabrics which contain, you guessed it, microplastics. Those tiny plastic particles are nearly impossible to remove once in the ocean thus polluting the ocean (The Conscious Insider 2024).

The emergence of manufacturing powerhouses such as China, India and Indonesia has seen lower manufacturing costs for our daily necessities, which led to reducing prices so that general consumers can afford their necessities at a cheaper price. The lower manufacturing costs have attracted fast-fashion companies such as H&M and ZARA to outsource their clothing line by setting up factories in those countries. However, such attraction has led to an increase in awareness that companies are exploiting their workers in social media.

Fast fashion is almost completely dependent on low-cost labour as a means to generate enormous profits from consumers. One such example of this is that most companies do not offer lucrative wages for their factory workers. Fashion Checkers (2020) has found out that 93% of surveyed brands are not paying their garment workers a living wage. Not only that, to manufacture goods swiftly and affordably, most of the factory workers have to work in cruel working conditions. Additional exploitation includes forced labour, excessive working hours, absence of social security and contracts, mistreatment of female employees, breach of freedom of association and child labour (The Green Side of Pink 2024).

(OffWomen Friperie 2023)

SHEIN, a fast-fashion retailer based in Nanjing, China, serves as a prime example of the exploitation of factory workers. An investigation by Timo Kollbrunner (2021), one of the members of the Swiss advocacy group Public Eye has found that SHEIN workers are still working 75 hours a week, violating China's labour law.

That's an excessive amount of time a worker has to work just to satisfy SHEIN's expectations!

Not to mention there are reports that "help me" messages by factory workers were reportedly found on labels of SHEIN's clothing tags (Clark 2022).

(Condon 2022)

Although SHEIN has attempted to debunk such allegations, social media users in TikTok are not convinced and have accused the company of lying and asked to see the working conditions at their facilities (Schroeder 2022).

As time went on, more and more consumers started to see the horrible consequences of fast-fashion industries and slow fashion has started to become a trend in the social media landscape.

So, what is slow fashion?

Slow fashion is the direct opposite of fast fashion. Rather than making low-quality clothes to make a quick buck out of consumers, slow fashion takes an ethical and sustainable approach to produce new clothing lines (Symons 2023).

In short, slow fashion encourages consumers to buy products that are longer lasting and environmentally friendly compared to their counterparts. It can be said that slow fashion is a movement that tries to clean up fast fashion's mess.

In response to the slow fashion movement, some fast-fashion companies attempts to "greenwash" consumers to make their brand as a sustainable company. But do companies that paint themselves as a sustainable company REALLY sustainable?

For example, despite UNIQLO adopting sustainable materials as part of its clothing lines, they are still very much part of the unsustainable fast-fashion brand due to its promotion of "disposable" fashion and constant rotations of new trends and products (Hymann 2023).

The slow fashion movement has its roots in the late 1960s and 70s from the hippies and punks, though the term "sustainable fashion" first emerged in the 1990s (Hoopes 2024).

It came as a surprise that not all consumers are willing to switch to slow fashion brands as they would have to fork out large sums of their incomes to be spent on clothing that is not "trendy" (Pookulangara & Shephard 2013, pp. 205).

Should we just give up on slow fashion and just go all-in on fast fashion?

No!

Instead of submitting to the rapid pace of fashion, celebrities and micro-celebrities in the social media space have started to play a huge role in spreading awareness of the slow fashion movement to encourage consumers to buy sustainable clothes.

In fact, some researchers believe that celebrities have the leverage to address such issues because they tend to draw attention to environmental, human, and animal rights (Pookulangara & Shephard 2013, pp. 205)

For example, Emma Charlotte Duerre Watson is undoubtedly one of the key drivers of the slow fashion movement. 

(Klerk 2017)

As an actress and activist, Emma Charlotte Duerre Watson has committed to supporting the slow fashion movement by utilizing social media platforms as the communication channel to spread awareness about the movement to her millions of fans. Through Emma's Instagram, she shares multiple photos about environmental messages and behind the scenes for some PRADA advertisements that she appears in.

Emma Charlotte Duerre Watson is also an avid supporter of an organisation called "Good On You" and has collaborated with numerous ethical brands such as People Tree (McClymont 2019). Naturally, her influence has garnered lots of attention from her fans to show their support for slow fashion by purchasing clothes from ethical brands approved by "Good On You".

Well, that concludes our today's blog! I hope you will be able to gain some knowledge about fast and slow fashion and how social media plays a huge role in the slow fashion movement!

What are your thoughts about this topic?

Be sure to drop your comments below to let me know about your thoughts!

As always, stay safe and I will see you in my next blog!

Reference

Clark, M 2022, ‘Shein responds to viral claim workers are hiding “Help Me” messages in clothes’, The Independent, viewed 19 May 2024, <https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/fashion/shein-help-me-messages-tags-b2102095.html>.

Condon, A 2022, ‘Shein Responds to Claims About “Help” Messages on Clothes Tags by Factory Workers’, Tyla, viewed 19 May 2024, <https://www.tyla.com/news/shein-responds-claims-help-messages-clothes-tags-20220617>.

Crumbie, A 2019, ‘What is fast fashion and why is it a problem? | Ethical Consumer’, www.ethicalconsumer.org, viewed 19 May 2024, <https://www.ethicalconsumer.org/fashion-clothing/what-fast-fashion-why-it-problem#:~:text=Fast%20fashion%20is%20widely%20considered>.

Environmental Audit Committee 2019, ‘Fixing fashion: clothing consumption and sustainability Sixteenth Report of Session 2017-19 Fashion: it shouldn’t cost the earth’, UK Parliament, House of Commons, p. 28, viewed 19 May 2024, <https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201719/cmselect/cmenvaud/1952/report-summary.html>.

Fashion Checker 2020, ‘FashionChecker: wages and transparency in the garment industry’, fashionchecker.org, viewed 19 May 2024, <https://fashionchecker.org/>.

Hoopes, J 2024, ‘A Comprehensive History of Sustainable Fashion’, State of Matter Apparel, viewed 19 May 2024, <https://stateofmatterapparel.com/blogs/som-blog/a-comprehensive-history-of-sustainable-fashion>.

Hymann, Y 2023, ‘How Ethical Is Uniqlo?’, Good On You, Good On You, viewed 19 May 2024, <https://goodonyou.eco/how-ethical-is-uniqlo/>.

Klerk, A de 2017, ‘10 of Emma Watson’s favourite sustainable brands’, Harper’s BAZAAR, viewed 19 May 2024, <https://www.harpersbazaar.com/uk/fashion/what-to-wear/g37897/emma-watson-favourite-sustainable-conscious-brands/>.

Kollbrunner, T 2021, ‘Toiling away for Shein’, Public Eye, viewed 19 May 2024, <https://stories.publiceye.ch/en/shein/>.

McClymont, M 2019, ‘Introducing Our No.1 Supporter, Emma Watson’, Good On You, Good On You, viewed 19 May 2024, <https://goodonyou.eco/emma-watson-good-on-you-supporter/>.

OffWomen Friperie 2023, ‘Working conditions in fast fashion’, OffWomen, viewed 19 May 2024, <https://offwomen-friperie.com/en/blogs/infos/les-conditions-de-travail-de-la-fast-fashion>.

Pookulangara, S & Shephard, A 2013, ‘Slow fashion movement: Understanding consumer perceptions—An exploratory study’, Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, vol. 20, no. 2, pp. 205, viewed 19 May 2024, <https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0969698912001506?via%3Dihub>.

Schroeder, A 2022, ‘Shein debunks claim that workers wrote “help” on clothing tags after TikTok conspiracy theory takes off’, The Daily Dot, viewed 19 May 2024, <https://www.dailydot.com/irl/shein-help-tags-tiktok/>.

Symons, F 2023, ‘Oxfam GB | What is slow fashion?’, Oxfam GB, viewed 19 May 2024, <https://www.oxfam.org.uk/oxfam-in-action/oxfam-blog/what-is-slow-fashion/#:~:text=Slow%20fashion%20is%20the%20opposite>.

The Conscious Insider 2024, ‘Why Is Fast Fashion Bad? And What To Do About It? (2024)’, theconsciousinsider.com, viewed 19 May 2024, <https://theconsciousinsider.com/why-is-fast-fashion-bad/#how-did-fast-fashion-happen>.

The Green Side of Pink 2024, ‘Exploitation of human rights in the fashion industry’, The Green Side of Pink, viewed 19 May 2024, <https://www.thegreensideofpink.com/style-en/fashion/2024/exploitation-of-human-rights-in-the-fashion-industry/?lang=en>.

[hamachi11]

Digital Citizenship and it's connection of activism in the social media landscape.

Welcome back to my blog!

This week, we will be taking a look into what digital citizenship is and how hashtags help digital citizens engage in politics and activism in today's digital age.

First of all, What is Digital Citizenship?

Digital Citizenship can be described as people using digital tools to produce, consume, communicate, and interact with others positively and responsibly (Council of Europe n.d.). It can also mean being a citizen of government portals, social media sites, and online commerce as if these platforms were their own nations or empires with multiple duties for their citizens (Pangrazio & Sefton-Green 2024, p.17).

So who are these so-called "Digital Citizens"?

Well, everyone is a digital citizen!

Ever since the introduction of the internet, it brought us so many ways to produce, consume, communicate and interact with others easier than ever!

Apps like Facebook, YouTube and Instagram gave us a new way of consuming media other than just TV shows and News. Furthermore, it also breeds new generations of micro-celebrities like content creators such as Mr.Beast, PewDiePie, Mike Chen etc.

I am sure readers are familiar with the term "hashtags (#)" whenever you scroll through social media apps like TikTok, YouTube or Instagram.

What are these hashtags (#) for?

This symbol (#), or as we love to call it "Hashtag", is used to categorize material on all major social media platforms (Buffer n.d.). Basically, it's a categorization of content for users to discover topics they are interested in.

HASHTAGS. ARE. EVERYWHERE.

From the likes of #cats, #school, #shoes, #illustration etc. on every single post on social media.

Hashtags aren't just a tag that brings netizens together to discover and discuss topics they are interested in, they also aid the formation of ad hoc publics around specific themes and topics such as politics and activism (Bruns & Burgess 2015). These hashtags that raise awareness about issues such as racial discrimination are known as "Hashtag Activism".

Hashtag Activism can garner loads of media attention and the involvement of digital citizens to raise awareness of issues such as violations of human rights, victim justice, environmental and natural disaster awareness, opposition to government policies that harm people, fund-raising, encouraging the introduction of laws or regulations to reduce crime or promote human rights, etc. (Goswami 2018)

For example, do you remember when the Black Lives Matter movement was trending on social media platforms under the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter in 2020?

(King 2020)

Despite the hashtag #BlackLiveMatters was created in 2013 following the acquittal of George Zimmerman, the murder of George Floyd marked the catalyst that led to massive protest and widespread use of #BlackLivesMatter in social media platforms in 2020.

Netizens share this news with their friends, families and even audiences that are not aware of the movement to raise awareness about the racial discrimination among blacks and other minorities in the United States of America, creating a public sphere for digital citizens to show their support in the movement and bring racial equality in the American society.

(Capatides 2020)

Coincidentally, after the widespread #BlackLivesMatter use in social media, #AllLivesMatter popped up out of nowhere in the protest and social media too.

Although the motivation for the hashtag #AllLivesMatter is unclear and may vary for different individuals, we can agree that it is considered a countermeasure against #BlackLivesMatter to deny acknowledgement of ethnic violence and police brutality and its intent to divert attention away from the #BlackLivesMatter movement in 2020.

This shows that sometimes, digital citizens can create hashtags that can be used for unethical reasons, primarily for malicious intent.

In conclusion, digital citizenship is a concept that describes people using digital tools to consume, produce, communicate and interact with each other. With the rise of social media, comes the rise of hashtag usage, especially in the activist movement such as #BlackLivesMatter.

What are your thoughts about "Digital Citizenship" and hashtag activism in the digital age?

Feel free to comment down below to let me know about your thoughts about this topic!

As always, stay safe and I'll see you in my next blog!

Reference

Bruns, A & Burgess, J 2015, Twitter Hashtags from Ad Hoc to Calculated Publics 1.

Buffer n.d., ‘What Is a Hashtag? | Social Media Definitions by Buffer’, Buffer: All-you-need social media toolkit for small businesses, viewed 18 May 2024, <https://buffer.com/social-media-terms/hashtag>.

Capatides, C 2020, ‘Why saying “all lives matter” communicates to Black people that their lives don’t’, www.cbsnews.com, CBS News, viewed 18 May 2024, <https://www.cbsnews.com/news/all-lives-matter-black-lives-matter/>.

Council of Europe n.d., ‘The Concept - Digital Citizenship Education (DCE) - www.coe.int’, Digital Citizenship Education (DCE), viewed 18 May 2024, <https://www.coe.int/en/web/digital-citizenship-education/the-concept#:~:text=Digital%20citizens%20can%20be%20described>.

Goswami, M 2018, ‘Social Media and Hashtag Activism’, ResearchGate, Kanishka Publisher, viewed 18 May 2024, <https://www.researchgate.net/publication/326655352_Social_Media_and_Hashtag_Activism>.

King, M 2020, ‘Black Lives Matter goes big on policy agenda’, POLITICO, viewed 18 May 2024, <https://www.politico.com/news/2020/08/28/black-lives-matter-breathe-act-403905>.

Pangrazio, L & Sefton-Green, J 2021, ‘Digital Rights, Digital Citizenship and Digital Literacy: What’s the Difference?’, Journal of New Approaches in Educational Research, vol. 10, no. 1, p. 17.

[hamachi11]

Digital Communities and Fandom around reality TV shows

Hey everyone. Before we dive into our main topic of the week, I would like to ask a simple question to you, the reader.

What is your favourite reality TV show?

How do you feel about this show?

Why do you love watching this reality TV show?

Did you ever interact with the community surrounding this reality TV show?

I am going to confess to you, that I am not a TV guy. In fact, I don't even watch any reality TV show at all! 

Except one......

The only time I knew and watched any shows related to a reality TV show is one of my favourite shows of all time......more on that later.

You get the picture right? That's right, for today's topic, I will be diving into the topic of "Digital Communities and Fandom" surrounding the reality TV show.

Let's start off with the definition of a reality TV show.

Reality television is a hybrid genre combining fly-on-the-wall documentaries, quiz shows, and popularity contests which involves television broadcasts supported by internet content such as webpages and streamed media in which selected members of the public spend time together in the same location. (Chandler & Munday 2011)

Some examples of Reality TV Shows include Catfish, Pawn Stars, The Great British Bake Off and American Idol.

(Reader's Digest 2024)

As highlighted by the definition of Reality Television, the genre's main attraction involves documentaries of unscripted real-life situations, often starring unfamiliar people rather than celebrities. However, the authenticity of reality television is rather......questionable. Critics contend that reality television broadcasts misrepresent reality in both implicit and deceptive ways.

This week, I will be focusing on the connections between reality TV shows and the public sphere in the digital landscape.

So..... what is a public sphere?

In short, public sphere is an unrestricted place for individuals to come together as public to share their knowledge, or even make political change. Typically, the public sphere demands unrestricted access to knowledge, equal and protected participation, and the lack of institutional power (Norealyna 2024).

Throughout this week's lecture, I became aware that the public sphere also had a deep connection on reality TV shows and the digital communities besides politics, micro-celebrities etc.

The best case study related to this topic is chef Gordon Ramsay's reality TV show "Kitchen Nightmares". My favourite reality TV show of all time.

(IMDb n.d.)

Not to be confused with Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares, the original version from UK. I am talking about the American adaptation of Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares.

Here's a quick synopsis of Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmare.

The show is about chef Gordon Ramsay goes on the road to assist struggling restaurants across the United States in hopes of turning things around.

Kitchen Nightmare was originally a UK show as "Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmare" in 2004 before its eventual adaptation in the US and first aired in 2007. Since then, the show would later spawn multiple seasons until 2014. In 2023, the show was revived by FOX and premiered on September 25th after nine years (Cobb 2023).

The most exciting part about this show is the dramatic tension between Gordon Ramsay and restaurant owners, empathetic characters and the success or fail life stories after heeding Gordon Ramsay's guidance.

I remembered there is a scene on the episode "Mill Bill Bistro" where Gordon Ramsay criticizes the owner's cooking after he tried his dishes which caused a heated argument between him and the restaurant owner.

There is no doubt that Kitchen Nightmares garnered a massive fanbase across the globe. In fact, Kitchen Nightmare Season 8 had garnered a mean viewership of 1.5 million as of 2024 (Riddell 2024).

Moreover, the ease of access and convenience of social media convinces me that Kitchen Nightmare is one of the prime examples of how reality TV shows created a public sphere, or as we call it digital space, for its fanbase to engage with each other through social media platforms.

For example, audiences can discuss, critique and criticize while watching the clip or a whole episode uploaded by the official Kitchen Nightmare's social media team in the comments section.

Another example would be Redditors, users of Reddit, post screenshots of their favourite moments or engage discussion on specific episodes.

There is also a dedicated Fandom page for the fans of the show to add articles and extra contexts such as what happened after Gordon Ramsay's visit for each episodes of Kitchen Nightmares.

Besides interaction between audiences, fans of Kitchen Nightmares created memes for certain scenes in some episodes of the show due to it's relatability with the audience. This demonstrates that memes emphasize how meme language provides a sense of connection among internet users; it also allows users to express their opinions on certain subjects or to heighten their obsession with renowned individuals (Petrova et al. 2024, pp.2).

To illustrate, here is an example of how fans create memes based on a certain scene in the show.

This is one of the scenes that was embraced by the community due to its relatability......

......and here are some of the examples of how fans make memes based on either another meme or in a different scenario.

I love how Kitchen Nightmare's social media team even acknowledged the meme culture about Kitchen Nightmares through its fandom and has fully embraced it by publishing videos with informal and funny titles and video thumbnails......

......and they even make memes related to the show or Gordon Ramsay under the "Community" tab on their YouTube Channel.

Back to the main topic, the examples shown above illustrate how the meme culture plays a huge role in the Kitchen Nightmare's community. While memes about Gordon Ramsay aren't new, the relationship between the community and the official channel demonstrates the show's ongoing popularity and meme potential (Inizian 2021).

In conclusion, Kitchen Nightmare highlights the close relationship between the reality TV show and digital communities in the social media space. In essence, the show also highlights how reality TV can create a sense of community among viewers who share enjoyment in watching the show.

If you are in a hunt for another reality TV show into your bucket list, be sure to check out Kitchen Nightmares!

Feel free to share your thoughts by commenting on this post!

Reference

Chandler, D & Munday, R 2011, ‘Reality Television’, A Dictionary of Media and Communication, Oxford University Press, viewed 16 May 2024, <https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/acref/9780199568758.001.0001/acref-9780199568758-e-2250?rskey=tR1Va9&result=1>.

Cobb, K 2023, ‘“The Masked Singer,” “Kitchen Nightmares” and “Krapopolis” Lead Fox’s 2023 Fall Schedule’, TheWrap, viewed 16 May 2024, <https://www.thewrap.com/fox-2023-fall-schedule/>.

IMDb n.d., ‘Kitchen Nightmares’, IMDb, viewed 16 May 2024, <https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0983514/>.

Inizian, S 2021, ‘Hungry for More: The Enduring Appeal of Kitchen Nightmares’, Arcadia, viewed 16 May 2024, <https://www.byarcadia.org/post/hungry-for-more-the-enduring-appeal-of-kitchen-nightmares>.

Norealyna Misman, 2024, ‘MDA20009 Week 5 Reality Tv Case Study’, MDA20009 Digital Communities, Learning materials via Canvas, Swinburne University of Technology, 18 April, viewed 15 May 2024,

Petrova, Y, D Rudoy, A Olshevskaya & N Ugrekhelidze 2021, ‘Meme language, its impact on digital culture and collective thinking’, (eds), E3S Web of Conferences, vol. 273, pp. 2.

Reader's Digest 2024, ‘29 Best Reality TV Shows of All Time’, Reader’s Digest, viewed 16 May 2024, <https://www.rd.com/list/reality-tv-shows/>.

Riddell, A 2024, ‘Kitchen Nightmares Vs Next Level Chef: Which Gordon Ramsay Show Gets Better Ratings?’, Yahoo Life, viewed 16 May 2024, <https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/kitchen-nightmares-vs-next-level-161524767.html?guccounter=1#:~:text=%22Kitchen%20Nightmares%22%20Season%208%20had>.