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[anti-social-meida]

Nanny state

China is the most populated country on the planet. Similarly they are the largest internet-using population in the world with a stunning 513 million internet users nation wide (Chiu, C, Lin, D and Silverman, A 2012). With internet arriving in 1994 the digital landscape shaped by Chinas firewall is very different to how we here is Australia know it. So you’ve probably heard of WeChat, but have you ever heard of Qzone, Tencent QQ, Douban? Probably not! But since Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are banned theses are the alternatives. It would seem strange to live in a place with non of these familiar sites since they are essentially what bring us together whilst online. 

 This disconnect form the rest of the world is called the golden shield project and it was set up to protect Chinas citizens from politically sensitive information and give the government the ability to filter any incoming information via the internet.  Personally I believe this is a breach of freedom of knowledge however this nanny state has been in effect since 2012 and seems like its going know where fast. 

[anti-social-meida]

A poem to my friends who Game

Personally I am not a gamer, I lack the hand eye coordination and attention span, however I do envy my friends who have found a community around and among  gamers. They are able to be in contact with their friends from all around the world and share a common interest and enjoyment of playing video games. But However great as it may be to connect with people online my friends often forget about their actual social lives, with people who are not behind a screen. They justify it as they are still interacting with other because “they chat and talk and stuff” but in my opinion there is no such thing as social gaming if it consists of people sitting in their bedroom alone. 

With the rise of interconnectivity between people through the use of the internet, it was just a matter of time before we would connect over entertainment and impractically gaming. With consoles such as x-box 360 creating in game communication systems allowing  inter player contact, users can now talk to each other in real time making a sense of community.  I am an avid outdoors-ist. I love walking and going to the beach there is nothing I would dislike more than to be in a dark room on a compute for hours on end harvesting my farmville.  So to express how "social gaming" is in fact not social at all in my eyes I have written a haiku poem, a sort of open letter to my friends who game: 

You love to game yeah?

That’s cool

But how about the world around

All day long you game

Sitting

Staring at a screen for hours

There's a big wide world

Explore

Spend your days in the sunshine  

Its good to have friends

Everywhere

But what about those around you  

Come out of your room

Socialise

With the people who love you most

Its cool to be online

Sometimes

Just don’t ditch us for your games   

[anti-social-meida]

Self-Made

When someone is sick it is natural to want to help them, care for them and comfort them making their life easier and allowing them to rest and hopefully get well. Most people relish this time to relax and be cared for however there are some that take this time to bring change. Talia Castellano or Taliajoy18 as she was most popularly know as was a 13 year old girl from Orlando Florida . She was a self proclaimed beauty guru on YouTube and made makeup videos for her 1.4 million subscribers. 

Talia however was diagnosed with caner at age 7 and so YouTube gave her not only an escape from her illness but also a platform to spread her message of love and self acceptance. With her motto being "Makeup is my wig" Talia went on to share the message with the world though appearing on the Ellen DeGeneres Showand also as the face for Cover Girl cosmetics.  

Her message and campaign to find a cure for neuroblastomawas undertaken by this vibrant  young girl are now carried out by her mother and sister as well as many large companies such as YouTube joining forces to dedicate videos to  Talia, "For Talia Joy, who still inspires us". Talia was and still is an example of a single person camplining for change and awareness though social media. 

[anti-social-meida]

Begpackers are the new charity case

Crowd sourcing was once a method of funding in times of crisis. People would dentate money to a worthy cause such as the Haiti earthquake, Japan tsunami, Queensland floods. With the introduction of crowd sourcing platforms including gofundme.com the level of crisis worthy of crowd funding has been lowered. A once community act whereby people would give their hard earned dollars to others who were facing adversity has now evolved into a cash grab for may young people advertising themselves on line. A spotlight has recently been placed on aptly named "begpackers" (traveler.com).   

Adds have sprung up on all social media sites showcase the stories of people who supposedly need money to complete their life long dream of traveling. Crowd sourcing was an act created in response to times of crisis so it seems a kind of kick in the face that people would be willing to donate their money to someone who simply wants to travel instead of a legitimate cause.  Of course anyone is able to do anything with their own money but how do  these "begpackers" have the nerve to ask strangers for money? 

Such ignorance surely cannot go unnoticed by others. It brings us back to the point of although these social media platforms have adapted to facilitate crowd sourcing, is it doing more harm than good?. innovation is needed in times of crisis and these platforms have solved many problems however perhaps phone marathons were a better use of everyone's time and effort. Crowdsourcing is an important part of community rebuilding but where do we draw the line on what constitutes charity and what is simply people taking advance of other kindness.    

traveler.com,'Begpackers' - backpackers begging for money: Why travel's generation of entitlement is a disgrace” viewed 3 May 2018 

[anti-social-meida]

The Comprehensive guide to all Internet Trolls

The internet and social media more specifically is the perfect platform for “indirect bullying”, the spreading of drama and gossip to selected audience whilst remaining unbeknown to others (Boyd, 2014, pp.129).  The internet has not just changed the field of bulling but the whole game. Bulling is no longer just teasing in the playground and calling others petty names, its become an untraceable and difficult to detect conflict.  The issue with online bullying is that it doesn't look the same in every case. Boyd states that how we "experience and perceive conflict" determines out judgement on appropriate social behaviour hence why cyberbullying is so difficult to measure. What might upset someone may not phase another; and what might be a harmless comment by one has devastating effects on someone else. This isn't an exclusive problem to the internets however without the face to face confrontation that coincides with social interaction we can loose touch with the fact that we are all humans behind the keyboard. The skills of reading body language and voice tone developed over thousands of years are erased because we are separated by a screen.   

The Field Guide: 

As with any new environment, new species are discovered. The internet is no different. The online landscape gave the perfect opportunity for bullies to evolve into trolls. The sub species of trolls are as followed:

This guide will provide you will a comprehensive outline of the types of trolls that wander the internet. This list has been composed over time to include even the trolls who are cowardly and unimportant. 

i. The Grammar Nanny:

This troll is set upon its high horse of making everyone feel inferior to their own Wide knowledge of the English language. They make a point of embarrassing those who do not share their eye for detail and spelling prowess. Their main tactic is to distract from any  intelligence other species may possess in order for them to claim victory in a fight.   

ii. The Hawk Stalker

This species has no price on time. They value hard work in the face of pointless expedition. Stalker is their name and history is their game when it comes to providing the internet with ones darkest moments on the world wide web they are at the front of the pack.  No one is safe from their past when this guy is around. They are most commonly found living on sites such as Reddit where they live their days bringing up the past of users that anger them in a chat room.   

iii. Lame Jane

This troll has the mind of a six year old. The species as a whole has faced stunted growth due to lack of food found in their native land of Facebook causing their mind to wither. Their tactics are non refined and fairly unimpressive very rarely causing direct carnage. Their strength lies in the long game. Providing pointless comments such as "I know you are but what am I" angers others and creates a frustrated opponent that is more easily taken advantage of.   

iv. The Flame thrower

The master of destruction. No insult is to abrasive and no fight to unfair. Flame throwers act in a gang. Their close family ties make a group of flame thrown known as a burn  and they stick together in the face of an opponent. Their fowl mothed native tongueoften gets them banned from their habitat however they only come back stronger and more determined to drown out any voice of reason with their insults. 

v. Storm men

Closely related to the Grammar Nanny species, the Storm men otherwise knows as adept always meaning very able all the time, prides itself on the wider knowledge it posses about every topic ever to exist. No matter how specialised or well researched an opponent is the storm men will claim its pretentious stance of always knowing better. This stubborn creature often wins victor by exhausting its opponent. 

This guide has been curated with help of;

Hugan, P 2017,"13 Types of Annoying Internet Trolls You See Daily", Mens health, viewed 20 April 2018, <https://www.menshealth.com/trending-news/a19532145/worst-online-troll-types/>

Nicol, S 2012, Cyber-bullying and Trolling, ‘Youth Studies Australia’, Vol. 34, No. 4, viewed 20 April 2018

Boyd, D 2014, Bullying: Is the Media Amplifying Meanness and Cruelty?, ‘It’s Complicated:The Social Lives of Networked Teens’, pp.129

[anti-social-meida]

One for all and all for the insta likes

If you haven't already noticed social media activism has been all the rage. This new trend that utilizes hasgtags, photo challenges and viral photos and videos expects an audience. This new internet baby that screams for attention and cries for social advancement has been adopted by celebrities and insta-models world wide. 

The #MeToo campaign which highlights the widespread prevalence of sexual assault has become a kind of internet craze encouraged by the likes of big time Hollywood personalities Gwyneth Paltrow, Ashley Juddand Jennifer Lawrence. This hash-tag trended on twitter and got hundreds of thousands of tags and likes on Facebook and Instagram, ticking all the boxes of a successful internet protest.   

  The problem I have with these internet campaigns is although they raise awareness about important topics and issues within our society, what do they ultimately achieve? In the case of the #MeToo campaign the result of the hard work begun by woman wanting to bring to light assault in the workplace ended as a witch hunt of Harvey Winestine. These heavy hitter social media celebrities can change the course of a protest with one selfie. Such little thought can be given to a post that has such a widespread influence and importance. At the end of the day these campaigns are meant to give a voice to the masses not just to the people with the most Instagram followers.

Now there's nothing wrong with supporting what you believe strongly about  but how can these celebrity's motives be trusted. Its so easy to plaster your name against a whole social movement. The days are gone where you had to actually get out of bed to show the world what you believe in. Its just to easy in my opinion to post a photo or click a link to show your advocacy. Where is the passion and determination to change to world? 

[anti-social-meida]

Where do we draw the line with political freedom of speech?

It is an interesting fact about Australia that we do not have Constitutional law to protected freedom of speech. However through ruling of the high court we do have implied freedom of political communication. The case that made this high court ruling was over 30 years ago in the political campaign of Harold Holt however dose this freedom extend to affairs that don’t happen on our own soil?  

The 2016 US federal election was monumental for many different reasons, but a stand out factor of Donald Trumps campaign was the integrated use of social media in politics. Some will say it was the reason for his success because social media targeting was not used to such an extent before this election but perhaps it was just the suitability of himself to the online sphere. With the ever-increasing popularity and integration of social media in out life's it was a natural progression to utilize its reach in politics. Social media "has grown in scale and scope – new platforms and services have emerged, and established platforms have expanded " (Gunn Enli ) meaning social media campaigns have become just as important as television and newspaper.   But why was Donald Trumps campaign so effective.

Living in Australia I don’t think I've ever been so involved in a political race let alone one I cant even vote in, such as the case of the US 2016 presidency. Donald Trump covered the Tv news coverage and more so my Facebook and Instagram feed. Having a social presence that was unlike any other candidate was defiantly a defining characteristic of trump. He embarrassed his outlandish persona in a way that most politicians would never.

In the era where memes have become a legitimate form of communication, Donald trump was the almost perfect person if not borderline character to light the fire within the internet community.

With the effects of his campaign reaching well after the election through Instagram hashtags and Facebook pages, People from all around the world were getting involved. But where is the line drawn between being apart of the global community worried about the effects the US president has on the rest of the world and when we should get our noses out of Americas mess of an election?  

As part of the internet we are part of a global community. When a political campaign uses this platform to for their own means I believe they are opening the flood gates to that community that reaches world wide. Political freedom of speech should reach beyond the boarders of our own country if the results of the campaign are to be felt worldwide. Globalisation is making the world a smaller pace to live, not that we should have one world president but all citizens of the world should be able to express their concerns about the governance of a powerhouse country such as the US via the means of social media.  

[anti-social-meida]

Where is tumblr on the spectrum?

At its core Tumblr is a blogging site. Used primarily to "construct, interpret, negotiate and display who we are." (slater,1997,p.84) Communicated though the use of images, text posts and other forms of media, Tumblr is a dynamic site that can be customized, similar to a blog to create a personal aesthetic. Described as a "place to express yourself, discover yourself, and bond over the stuff you love" (Tumblr 2017)

Giving users  the ability to customize almost everything about a Tumblr blog though use of coding HTML. This is the essential difference between Tumblr and other social media sites such as Instagram or Facebook where similarly you can share multitudes of media with others. The ability to visually document ones interests in a specially made/personalised format is a point of difference from a traditional social media sites making it part of the blogging sphere In my opinion.

Conversely however, with the introduction of the dashboard system; a user-friendly way to follow other users, find and share content, Tumblr dose blur the lines between social media site and blogging platform depending on how an individual user utilizes the sites abilities. For example if you were to use Tumblr to simply "reblog" images off the dashboard, as a mood board creator, the site would be used similarly to a social media site whereby you follow and share content through the site. However if you were creating your own content, writing thoughts; articles or instructional information it may be considered more of a blog whereby you do not depend on the content made by others to "cobble together biographies" (Beck 1994, p13). A blog is described by Jill Walker Rettberg as "getting to know someone" with posts fitting "into a larger story". Therefore It can be said that the point at which a persons usage of Tumblr fits of the spectrum of blogging tool, to social media platform, is how well they tell a story though their choice of media.