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10 points to Gryffindor

What is a social credit system? according to an article, social credit system is a set of databases and initiatives that monitor and assess the trustworthiness of individuals, companies and government entities. In China, It is where a good rating could offer priority health care or deposit-free renting of public housing, while a negative rating could see individuals banned from flights and trains. The real question leads to, does this only applies in China or that this system has far existed beforehand?

I remember growing up as a Malaysian in high school that credit system are also implemented. Where good behavior are credited with positive point while bad behavior are credited with negative points. This points leads up to what marks your behavior performance and are given in a certificate after graduation. This system is known as Merit/Demerit system and it is commonly use nationally in educational sphere. The purpose behind this system is that student will maintain a high level of discipline and that they will comply to the rules and regulations of the schools. We can also notice this in movies like Harry Potter where the principle would reward points to group of students. In the end, some student were able to maintain a high level of merits and some fail to do so.

Does social credit system ever had a way to instill good behavior and provide safety to citizen? I think social credit system can be viewed as a law system. Having an offence against the law leads to punishment. The only difference is that the credit system goes into two ways, credited for good and punish for bad. On the other hand, does this system provide safety for the citizen? Just as how that laws are there to protect our general safety, and ensure our rights as citizens against abuses by other people, organizations and even by the government itself, so it is with this system. The system is not bias but applies to all individual including bodies of the government. The system may somehow also look scary especially of how that the data collected can lead to governmental control such as to determine a person outcome. Still, does control ever stop a person to do what they wish? In the end, I believe a person behavior is not determine upon the system but to what they choose to act.

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Do you have a health potion? I could use one.

Social gaming is the activity or practice of playing an online game on a social media platform. It is when individuals are connected on the internet to play video games together. Examples of game such as Dota, League of Legend, CS go and many other. But it wasn't so back then before the internet.

According to a research, video game was mostly used by scientist, military and individuals back in the days. Along the years trough technological advancement, the appearance of video games starts to transit from arcades to computers, console, smartphone and devices such as the tablets. It is interesting to know the history and the transitional phase since that video games are more solitary back then compare to now. This transitional phase is known as Paida to Ludus. Paida is the concept where play is built around freedom and Ludus is when play is built around rules. Games like GTA can be considered as Paida and competitive game such as league of legends are Ludus. I believe that with the existence of competitive games, eSports is made possible today.

According to Wagner eSports is known as an area of sport activities in which people develop and train mental or physical abilities in the use of information and communication technologies. The term communication technologies was emphasize more. As how that any sports there is an equipment. So it is with eSports, that the technological devices use it in is the equipment.

With the growth of eSports and gaming. are gaming communities becoming less about play and more about monetization? What is monetization? According to Oxford dictionary, is the network that supports the distribution and monetization of online content to any type of site or device. Which means that someone can earn cash from posting content online. I would say that it truly depends on a person perspective, either if they wish to play game as a job or for fun. When it comes to perspective, it would rather be put down as. Since I love playing video games, why not earn a few cash out of it? To be on livestream is also a decision. I believe there are also game streamer who plays offline with their friends at times when they chose not to go live. In the end, it depends on the choices a person makes.

[brainblogshelp]

Are you feeling hot? we might need to turn up the fan in here!

Ever since I was young, I have always been a huge fan of music and from time to time I would find myself listening to different kind of genre. From pop, rock, indie to EDM and many other. This music has shaped my younger days. I guess I would be considered as being a fan of pop culture. But what is fandom? According to Cambridge dictionary, fandom is the state of being a fan of someone or something, especially a very enthusiastic one. In a book called fandom: identities and communities in a mediated world opens by asserting in its introduction: "Most people are a fans of something." In my opinion what this statement meant is that we are all a fan of something in one point of our lives. Let me show you how the process work.

According to Rachel, she wrote there are 5 steps that what makes a person become a fan. although her article stated fangirl, I have rewrite it to fans, since that I have come to found that fan does not confine in the perspective of gender but rather the interest of an individual. Nonetheless, the first step is when you find yourself introduced to things whether be it on social media, friend, billboard, television or any other form of medium. Second is that when you start to get more interested in them, so you start buying their books, music, following and searching up their social media. For instance if this is related to a YouTuber, you will find yourself watching more of their video. Step 3 is when you have decide the person to be part of your fandom. This is when you you probably start getting interested in who you are following as people. No matter what it is, you are all in and completely invested in the person personality even when there just characters in the book. Now in step 4, you start seeing yourself wanting to know every detail of about them. Including their personal lives, who are their friends, what food or drink do they like. Last but not least, this is where you are trap and in need of help. You have fallen in a deep end that lead to an outrages obsession, even to the point if they cannot do any wrong in your eyes (Buchanan).

With that, thanks to technological innovation. Fandom has been made ever more accessible. Technological innovation such as the internet, social media and fans website. According to Henry Jenkins, he shares that this form of innovation is considered as participatory culture. Where audience has no longer become just viewer but participant of a content. Examples are like transmedia storytelling, where a franchise or content appears on multiple media platform and this platform has created media affordances for them to do so. My final thought before ending is that fandom can be complex. Because being a fan of something or someone can be inconsistent at time. Example is the cancer culture, celebrities or influencer being canceled for saying or believing in something that does not add up to a fan value. Needless to say, being a fan of someone can be fun but most importantly we cannot people too dependent on them because in the end people still has flaw and bound to make mistake.

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Crowdsourcing!

What is crowdsourcing. Well for me, when I think of this word. I think of information being widespread. According to Merriam webster, crowdsourcing is when the practice of obtaining needed service, ideas or content by soliciting contributions from a large group of people and especially from the online community rather than from traditional employees or suppliers. Ever notice the share button on social media or even other websites? Well, when a person share something either it could be a blog, articles, post, pictures. They are already being part of a crowdsourcing.

Another way one can see crowdsourcing are Utorrent. Ever notice websites that enables torrent download. Websites such as Piratebay, IGGGames. This websites provides free download of items to users on the internet. Not only that, but it relies on a user to upload the item on the platform. After download from Piratebay, one will realize that a seeding process is taken place and seeding files basically means that you are making your file available for other users to download on your computer. Boom, Crowdsourcing!

In my opinion, crowdsourcing can be very helpful. There this one time during the pandemic as I recall. Social media platform was curating content about the pandemic. There were information being posted here and there. Useful information such as, How to wash your hands, Wear your mask, Keeping a distance, How to stay sane or healthy. According to a research on How can crowdsourcing can help tackle the COVID‐19 pandemic? An explorative overview of innovative collaborative practices. It is stated that "Thanks to its variety of approaches and flexibility, crowdsourcing has been recognized as a useful tool during crises for crisis monitoring, emergency planning, and crisis management, social cohesion, and research (Conrad et al., 2020; Desai et al., 2020)." It means that where there are sources on the internet, researches can collect this data and process it for better understanding. Sometime this information can be misleading as being mentioned in the previous blog. Either way, one can conclude that information is gold.

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Is social media helpful when it comes to spreading information on Covid-19 in Malaysia?

It was only 2 years ago that the corona virus pandemic started. Due to the incident, many people were required to stay at home and a global lock down was being implemented. The only way to get any information and staying connected was the internet. Platform such as social media and video conferencing tool was most used during those period.

Is not that this tools were new because of the pandemic, but people were already on it even before. Nonetheless, information about the virus was already spreading like wildfire on social media. Even so, the government was also using social media as a platform to share information in regarding the virus. Useful information such as how to wash your hands, hygiene or precaution needed to be taken in better prevention to the virus.

There were many other legitimate sources that were shared online in regarding to the virus. The only problem was, as information was spread so vastly that cases such as fake news starts to become a problem. Fake news is what we know as misleading information. News that are not accurate and has not been proven with accuracy.

Nonetheless, measures were take in countering the problem. Website such as knowing which information are identified as legitimate and which are not. One of the given example is sebenarnya.my. This website helps in showing which news are accurate and which are not.

In the end, I believe social media is helpful when it comes to sharing information about the virus since that we are connected on our mobile devices 24/7 hours. Even so, there were creative measure taken in curating this information. It is also up to our responsibility in identifying what information is accurate and which are not. Just as how gold is refine in fire, so does our search needs to be refined before making any conclusion.

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online activism and its impact

What is activism? According to Mariam Webster, "Activism is a doctrine or practice that emphasizes direct vigorous action especially in support of or opposition to one side of a controversial issue." it is understandable that activism is when a community or an individual is not satisfied with a particular incident that happens in the moment hence thereby an action is taken. Action such as protest or voicing out the issue that it may be heard by an audience.

Before going any further, one must also ask what is difference when it comes to online activism and street protest. The difference is quite obvious and can be viewed by the word online. Where as how before there was an existence of the internet, activism was already a thing but instead of posting it on online platform such as social media, it is taken out on a podium by the streets. In the current time we are living in where we are constantly connected to our phone. This begs to differ the question of how we are also so connected globally.

In previous time, when an issue happens in an area it would take weeks or months before reaching to the another side of the world compare to now when something happens, it only take 5 minutes for the whole world to know about the matter. it can be said that Internet has broken the boundaries of distance and leaving us more connected than ever before. this leads to my next question, Does online activism eliminates street protest? Definitely not but on the contrary it enhances each other.

After pondering its definition and a deeper understanding, I asked myself this question. Is online activism really a bad thing after all? I come to conclude it truly depends on how one views it. Afterall, we must take into consideration movements such as the injustice that were cause on the African American, racisms upon the Asians living in America, the Arab Spring incident, Malaysia General election and many other that has not been named that has brought change and help improve the course of nations and society. Acts that has left a history in time to come.

But to what extend that activism and protest can eventually lead to a bloody riot and chaos. That what start out to be a peaceful protest becomes a blood bath. It is believe that peaceful protest can turn out to be a bad thing after all when individuals who are involved in it has a different agenda than what the community or group has intended it's movement to be.

In conclusion, I believe that since activism can be view as something which is good and bad at the same time. So does the law. Where one can view the law as a protection that enhances the safety of a protest. I am grateful that there are such laws in country that allows peaceful protest. Nonetheless, maybe in time when things get a little out of hand on social media, that the nation can come together to work on cyber laws to eliminate threads or riots that might lead to a public violence. That what we do on social media has a significance in the physical public sphere we living in.

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How has Malaysian been engaging with politics trough social media?

It can be said that majority of malaysian are engaged when it comes to politics on social media. But study also shows that younger generation are more disconnected when it comes to politics in the country.

When we think of the word politics, the first thing that comes to mind is the drama and competition of one political party going against the another. Leaving behind a picture of how chaotic and ugly it looks.

Part of this is true but another part of it is also of how that politics is a position where activities of governance and law making are given. When come to think of it, everything of where our country is today comes from the decision and choices that has been made by those who are in leadership.

Social media on the other hand, had played this important role in providing information for people to be updated in what's going on in their favourite party and also ongoing interaction between the politician and follower giving a sense of community.

I believe in the end of the day it is part of our responsibility as citizen to uphold the leaders we are rooting for and be part of sharing information on social media platforms, either through memes or gifs that every each of our voice does matter and how we can make Malaysia a better place.

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Is blogging still relevant in the age of TikTok and Instagram?

What is blogging?

In 1994, blogging has been seen as more of a personal diary that people shares online. They share their activities or things that they were doing in the moment. I notice that there were an evolution process behind it.

Previously in past history, the internet age only existed in the late 90's. Therefore, before there was the internet. Articles, diary and journals are more written down on booklets and paper. I believe trough the evolution of technology, sharing information has also came along side with it and leads us to where we are today which is the social media age.

When come into comparison between Blog and Vlog, that not much can be compare but that Vlog is Video log and Blog more towards writing. The big question is, is blogging still relevant today? Well, just the other day, me and my friends we had a discussion of this question. Most of us said that when we use Instagram or TikTok, we find ourself more likely to scroll trough it reacting to videos and pictures by giving likes or dislikes. I find this to be interesting and came to realize that probably the platform are different. like how we are different and unique in our own ways. This platform serves different communities and individuals.

Community who are on blog sites and tumblr would find it more expressive in their emotion and writing trough their thought process. It could mean that they would love to have a voice being heard by others or even share the struggles or pain that others are expressing on the platform itself. You would also probably find that community on Instagram and TikTok are more individualistic finding what do people think about the picture or video that they have posted 10 minutes ago? in terms, reactions are more valued.

I believe that the platform does not contradict each other but rather enhanced. Well, as being mentioned in the previous statement. That both plays a different role and how that even in today where there are people or organization that uses Instagram to post and share snippets of a story that followed linking in blog sites that tells the whole story. In the end, what can be seen is platforms that enables individuals such as you and me where we belong to a community that contributes in creating contents.