cdarcyswin-blog
cdarcyswin-blog
The Unwanted Connection?
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cdarcyswin-blog · 6 years ago
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Back at it again!
I did my post on something similar but it was the Balck Friday bushfires and the importance of that crowdsourcing to give reliable information to save lives and homes. But you did bring up the concept of the crowdsourceing not only during the idsaster but afterwards as well. This can certianly get bring a community back togther faster to get rebuilt and for life to continue as normal again. I think once a disaster really hit close to home is when we really see that the uses for social media in times of needs is essential.
The power of crowdsourcing and social media in times of crisis
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Social media and crowdsourcing have played a critical role during times of natural disaster or crisis acting as a two-way street for the dissemination of information by emergency services to the public and for members of the public alerting emergency services to unfolding events as they happen (Anikeeva, Steenkamp & Arbon 2015; Gao, Barbier & Goolsby 2011). A perfect example was the recent fires in Queensland. The QFES were actively providing updates and warnings on social media. 
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Another example was the 2011 Queensland floods when over 35,000 tweets with the #qldfloods hashtag were posted in six days (Bruns et al. 2012).
Living in North Queensland for most of my life, I’ve experienced numerous cyclones, bushfires and floods. Before social media, we only had the television and radio for information. Nowadays, I find that I turn to social media as I can access up to date information and alerts straight from the emergency services/bureau of meteorology faster than through television or radio. I’ve also followed sites such a Higgins Storm Chasing, run by enthusiasts who keep the community updated with weather events as they unfold and are a reliable source of information. According to Anikeeva, Steenkamp & Arbon (2015), people are moving away from traditional media towards social media networks and are seeking “eyewitness accounts, and reports from other users”.  As Adam Lisberg says in the video ‘Covering Our Own Crisis: Superstorm Sandy, Social Media, and the MTA’, it’s the immediacy of communication that makes social media so valuable in times of crisis (mtainfo 2014).
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It was boyd (2012) who said that humans are curious by nature and we have an inherent desire to be kept informed. This is especially true in times of crisis. We want to be aware of what is happening, even when we are not directly impacted, we like to know how we can help. That is another area in which crowdsourcing is helpful in times of crisis - relief, rescue and support. As Saleem (2015) says, social media helps to improve rescue and relief operations and provides a way for people all over the world to show support through kind messages and donations. During the recent drought in Australia, the power of crowdsourcing was used for the relief appeals. Organisations such as the RedCross used online sites shared via their social media to raise funds for farmers (McBey 2018).
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Similarly, during the Queensland fires, the Red Cross had a page which allowed people to ensure their family and friends were safe (Australia Red Cross 2018).
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Whilst there is still the risk that false, irrelevant or out of date information is shared via social media, in my opinion, when reliable sources are used to get information, social media is a very powerful tool during times of crisis.
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cdarcyswin-blog · 6 years ago
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Once I started reading this I was instantly hooked. You have certainly brought a new light to the general definition of an internet troll. I do see where your friend is coming from, using his trolling abilities for good, not evil! (Who knew this would be a heroic story eh?). What I did grasp from this is that when certain opinions or misinformed facts come to the surface especially in the world of social media there must be those trolls that keep that in line. Its those people that come to the surface with new perspectives or knowledge that another may not and I think it's quote refreshing!
Until next time.
Keyboard Warriors
I have a friend who is a keyboard warrior. He is polite, articulated and writes considered grammar refraining from obscenities.  He does not target an individual; he does not bully. He posts true facts and attempts to pique the interest and raise awareness of the groups in which he posts. He welcomes opinions, which he then chooses to challenge.  Whilst rallying for those who are seldom heard, today he realised he is an internet troll.
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Internet trolls are often given a bad name, due to the controversial, backhanded comments which are oftentimes accompanying their posts (Cook et al. 2017). Trolls are sensation seeking and interaction seeking.  But what if the troll was an individual looking to hold a church group accountable for the predatory behaviour of its pastor, trying to assist in liberating female victims who had previously been silenced?
Let me explain.  I’ll aim to keep it brief.
The Willow Creek Community Church, one of the 10 largest churches in America was founded by Bill Hybels in 1975, with a new approach to religious teachings.  Hybels then formed the Willow Creek Association to link like-minded churches, which hosts an Annual Global Leadership Summit  to assist other churches with development and resources to help direct and manage their congregations more effectively.
What Bill Hybels has achieved for his church is profound, however his work is soured by the accusations of multiple women who state Bill Hybels groomed and sexually assaulted them.  With an accusation being just that, an accusation, there is usually due process to determine the truth of the matter. However in this instance, Bill Hybels denied the matter which drew an applause from the congregation.  There was no independent investigation.
In the age of the #metoo movement, my friend, the Keyboard Warrior took it upon himself and other Americans of similar view to troll and demand answers for the women whose voices have been silenced.  He targeted church groups, their congregation often engaging in the conversation.
My friend uses his keyboard  to ask via social media platforms Twitter and Facebook why members of the Global Leadership Summit are not demanding an independent investigation.  My friend will question those who blindly believe what they have been told without seeking further truth.  My friend will point out to people that the victims could have been their mother, their child.
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My friend has found people retaliate in shocking ways, with some people likening his stance to that of the devil.  Another told him his words upset her because she was sexually assaulted as a young woman, and she didn’t want to think about it. My friend apologised for bringing back painful memories, and said he would always side with the victims. She told him to leave her church alone, and that God will make everything right. 
I’m not convinced God is able to make right all the wrongs. The truth is, if we don’t talk about the accusations and have the independent investigation which is so desperately needed, we are potentially left with another man in a position of power taking advantage of young women who have no voice.
My friend is a keyboard warrior, an internet troll and I couldn’t be more proud to call him my friend.
#InternetTrolls #MeToo #ChurchToo #MDA20009
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cdarcyswin-blog · 6 years ago
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Hey!
This was my topic of the week and I could not agree with you more from what you have brought to the table with this blog post. Having social media and politics mix is almost like a double-edged sword, like how church and state have never been two separate entities (but we can go into that later). 
Personally, I love the interactions the younger generation is having with the serious issues being debated in our democratic system, being able to see the morals and ideas of our current and future politicians and what they will do for our country. On the other can that can spark a lot of ill-educated comments coming from those who wish not to be educated of the topic but have put on their suit if armour to be a keyboard warrior and post unsolicited comments on demanding issues of our community.
I think its very interesting but none the less it will develop along with our technology!  
Politics and Civic Culture
This week’s ideas around politics and civil culture showed a broad insight into how politics, more closely politicians, have adapted and utilised sites like Facebook and Twitter to broaden their scope and connection with audiences.   Social media has proven to be both useful and detrimental to their campaigns and public image.   Our week 6 group presentation brought some extremely important points to note regarding politics and how their campaigns have shifted from using traditional media to reach a more fragmented online audience;  
Access to voters & potential voters
Enables direct contact
Engages young voters
The presentation also highlighted the ever-impending downfall of politicians using social media
Amateur political comments and criticism
Failure to listen and respond appropriately
On January 16, 2019 Clive Palmer received a huge backlash online after his party sent out unsolicited text messages to voters urging them to vote for the United Australia party.  
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Unimpressed recipients took to Facebook and Twitter, using screen shots with their own commentary to display their dismay, most commenting about a breach of privacy. They used the #auspol and #ClivePalmer to follow the uproar. 
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However, the text messages worked somewhat in favour of Palmer’s United Australia party as their website received over 160,000 visits since the messages were sent out (Truu, 2019).   This is just one of many examples where politicians can find themselves confronting an online onslaught due to their campaigns, comments or personal lives. It’s like social media plays devil’s advocate for the Australian audience that was once not able to share their thoughts. Social media has opened a two-way communication which can make or break a person in the limelight.  
It’s important to note that online audiences are far more fragmented than the audiences of traditional media over 20 years ago. The audience now makes up of general users who come from many diverse, educated and geographically located backgrounds. This includes the media, amateur blog users, everyday users, academics, intellectuals and passionate political followers. This is something that Young (2010) points out in the 2004 elections the internet leveraged not only electoral updates but online polls, satire sites, university lead commentaries and independent political blogs. Not only was the internet used to promote campaigns yet it also had an uprising of platforms that were used to critique the candidates.  
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I still can’t wrap my head around the fact that politicians lack the foresight to see, when they do something somewhat silly in the public eye, they will be ridiculed on social media. I guess I have to remember that are usually from a generation that was not brought up around the internet and social media from an early age. I guess they will have to hire a better PR team. 😏
References
Licht, M, [image] ‘We Can Blog It’, in #iwd2013: 50 female innovators in digital journalism, journalism.co.uk  <https://www.journalism.co.uk/news/50-female-innovators-in-digital-journalism/s2/a552338/>
Truu, M, 2019, ‘'Unsolicited election trash’: Clive Palmer’s texts prompt outrage’, SBSNEWS, 16 Jan,   <https://www.sbs.com.au/news/unsolicited-election-trash-clive-palmer-s-texts-prompt-outrage>
Young, S 2010, How Australia Decides : Election Reporting and the Media, Cambridge University Press, Melbourne. Available from: ProQuest Ebook Central. [15 January 2019].
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cdarcyswin-blog · 6 years ago
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Banding Together As Crisis Strikes
This is one topic that I loved to learn about, using the utilities that we have as normal people to the best of their ability especially in the time of crisis or need. The one disaster that hit very close to home was the Black Friday Bush Fires that evoked devastation in the reign of East Gippsland in 2009. It destroyed 450,000 hectares of land, injured 414 and killed 173 people. This crisis forced emergency representatives to use crowdsourcing to their advantage and to communicate as effectively as possible while this disaster was occurring.
‘A tragedy beyond belief, beyond precedent and beyond words … one of the darkest days in Australia’s peacetime history.’ Julia Gillard  (https://www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/black-saturday-bushfires)
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The Kinglake National Park after the Black Saturday bushfires, 2009. CSIRO (Accessed from: https://www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/black-saturday-bushfires)
Four Primary Ways that Social Media is used during natural disasters:  1. To keep family and friends connected (Velev and Zlateva 2015, p.43).  2. Situational updates (Velev and Zlateva 2015, p.43).  3. Situational/supplemental awareness (Velev and Zlateva 2015, p.43).  4. Assistance with access to services (Velev and Zlateva 2015, p.43). 
Crowdsourcing is essential during natural disasters as it implements actions and information to the community as quickly and efficiently as possible. During the Black Friday bushfires, through the CFA website and phone updates alerted residents of the actions and spreading of the fire and the response being called to action in real time. This crowdsourcing information saved many lives that would have otherwise been lost in such a sad day for Victorians.
“Timely and accurate information about natural disasters helps emergency responders and the public minimise the risks, but in such an emergency, real-time data may be in scarce supply,” he said.
“Authorities already rely on ground-based observations, high-resolution satellites and airborne infrared scanners, all of which play an important role in bushfire emergency planning and response.
“But in the case of bushfires, there are no authoritative information sources that can always and reliably generate up-to-date and accurate information about bushfire perimeters.
“The precise boundaries of a bushfire are highly dynamic and emergency management processes have to capture the progression as accurately and quickly as possible.”
(Accessed from: https://www.rmit.edu.au/news/all-news/2016/november/how-can-crowdsourcing-help-us-respond-better-to-disasters-)
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cdarcyswin-blog · 6 years ago
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Fights or Friendships?
Ah yes, this week we delve into the art as you would say of trolling. Trolling has been around since the internet began forums for multiple strangers to be grouped together to have conversations or share details about one another one of the first systems I can remember that many used for trolling is;
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(Accessed from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Habbo-logo.png) 
This used to be an online forum where you made your avatar, build your own apartment and socialised in that seems to be the biggest hotel on earth with exclusive clubs, game rooms and more throughout the virtual game. One of the biggest uses for this game was if you were in an exclusive room and a stranger came into ‘crash’ the party there was an onslaught of abuse being hurled, racial slurs being used and users trying to be explicit in a game made from pre-teens to teenagers. 
Trolling on any platform has become remarkably easy due to Photoshop, editors and the vast content of photos and videos that can be taken to pretend to be some who they are not pretty much identity theft.
Below I have attached a Ted Talk in Toronto. Steph Guthrie talk Don’t Feed the Trolls dives right into her own personal experience with trolls that pushback towards her feminist opinions and in which is a perfect example of modern day trolls on the internet. 
‘To pretend to hold a particular point of view with the sole or primary purpose of creating chaos’
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(Accessed from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KHEkR5yb9A)
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cdarcyswin-blog · 6 years ago
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Does Activism In Social Media Work?
In today’s blog post I wanted to really hone into one aspect of activism and protest in our vast digital community. Upon some research, I had a look at hashtag activism with is a growing space on any platform that hashtags are used (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Youtube etc) when a natural disaster, political issue or terror attack occurs banding the community of the world of the users together. The two that I looked at were; 
#BlackLivesMatter   This hashtag began back in 2012 when 17-year-old Trayvon Martin was shot by a police officer which caused him to die at the scene. This was not the first of the many racial shooting by police towards people of colour even when they were innocent or not doing anything wrong. The outrage that was sparked from the shooting did not only ripple the United States but the entire world and an online civil rights movement began with the hashtag  #BlackLivesMatter. This put pressure on the American government to hold police accountable for their actions. Below shows the impact this had on Twitter at the time along with the top-ranked hashtags with the top 3 involving the topics of race;
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(Accessed from http://www.pewinternet.org/2016/08/15/the-hashtag-blacklivesmatter-emerges-social-activism-on-twitter/)
#illridehomewithyou This hashtag began when the gunman in Sydney Lint Cafe took several workers and a customer hostage. This had started an onslaught of the Mulsim community being scared for their lives travelling anywhere in public wearing and appearing to be a part of that religious community. Due to the terror attack and Mulsim civilians being scared after several attacks happening after the event the hashtag  #illridehomewithyou started circulating Twitter. This showed the push back of the Australias saying no to stereotyping a religion or a certain person with beliefs and actions of those who do not represent the entire community of those people. It caused a ripped effect of kindness and something that would have never been possible without social media being as effective and instantaneous as it is.
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"I saw one tweet that was just a very small act of kindness to a frightened Muslim woman on public transport and it pretty much broke my heart," Tessa Kum told the BBC. "And it just seemed like something that there should be more of in the world. I can't say that I planned this at all. It has been amazing to watch this take off. There were 40,000 tweets using the hashtag #Illridewithyou in just two hours, according to Twitter Australia; 150,000 in four hours. And it's been rapidly growing since.’
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(Accessed from: https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-30479306)
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cdarcyswin-blog · 6 years ago
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Politics and Social Opinion, does it work?
In this week's readings, we have looked through the dare I say the importance of how social media has reshaped the discourse of political campaigning in the 21st century. This is also the week myself and my group of peers really had a gritty look at how this has changed peoples perspectives, opinions and how they voice those like they never have before. 
We mainly took a look at the Victorian State elections that just passed in 2018, and even the forthcoming advertisements for the Federal elections which is closely chasing after. The utilisation of social media in campaigning is at an all-time high also with traditional media (TV, Radio etc) which opens up a realm of opinions and comments on policies, certain politicians personalities and beliefs within the world of politics. We look at this example below 
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http://www.pewinternet.org/2018/03/01/social-media-use-in-2018/ 
The growth of social media uses as rapidly increased in just the last six years. Mobile phones are used on the go with instant news content being uploaded to our screens every single second of the day. The behaviour of humans has also developed around this concept with now what is called ‘cyberbabies’  are growing up utilising these media as normal from a very young age. This, therefore, can develop their brain development unlike we have seen in past generations. I would like to finish on a quote that sums up our ever-changing social media and political climate. 
‘The prevalence of social media in politics has made elected officials and candidates for public office more accountable and accessible to voters. And the ability to publish content and broadcast it to millions of people instantaneously allows campaigns to carefully manage their candidates’ images based on rich sets of analytics in real time and at almost no cost. ‘
(Accessed from: https://www.thoughtco.com/how-social-media-has-changed-politics-3367534)
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cdarcyswin-blog · 7 years ago
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Hi Mel!
You’ve done an awesome job of condensing the Ted Talk and I couldn’t agree with you more. I was watching this video on my way to work on the train and noticed as I was glued to my phone and looked up nearly every single other person on the train was eyes staring blankly at a screen. I find it quite interesting that we could be texting, on Facebook and responding to emails all in a matter of 5 minutes but a lot of us find it impossible to create those relationships outside of a screen which creates a buffer. This buffer can be detrimental to our relationships as they do not evoke or give emotion to the two parties communicating whether it is a conversation, or through photos and videos, hell half the time if someone has a baby or gets engaged its straight onto social media instead of the classic excited phone call.
Us as humans need to stop morphing our behaviour to suit social media but go back and to re-learn how to communicate with one another at face value.
The lonely girl with one million followers...
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“Connected, but alone?” the title of Sherry Turkle’s Ted Talk (TED-Ed 2013) drew me in right away, this idea that someone can be connected with thousands, even millions of people virtually, but feel completely alone in the real world is an interesting phenomenon.
I was indifferent at first, but as I listened to Turkle on the bus home from work, I looked around me and realised that at least 90% of the people on the bus had earphones in and heads buried in their mobile device. Right in front of me was a perfect example of what Turkle (TED-Ed 2013) meant when she said, “we are all alone together,” completely disconnected from the physical world, whilst simultaneously connected with the digital world. I suddenly realised how ironic it is. We shut ourselves off from developing potentially rewarding relationships with real people, to actively interact with ‘virtual’ people.
Yes, as Saipera (2012) says, digital technology has afforded a greater ability for people who have similar interests, ideas and opinions to connect and express themselves freely. However, Putnam (cited in Saipera 2012), made a contrasting viewpoint that technology is affecting our ability to build social capital thus breaking down the very constructs that hold society together. In the Ted Talk ‘How social media makes us unsocial’ (TEDx Talks 2014), Allison Graham highlights the impact of digital technology in a poll conducted in 2001, where Americans said they had ten close friends and in the same poll in 2014, they admitted to only having two close friends. The fact that digital technology allows us to customise our experience and stay within our familiar groups is as Sunstein (cited in Saipera 2012) suggests, fragmenting society into a “collection of polarised groups that share little if anything with each other”.
This ability to customise was further discussed by Wilken & McCosker (2014), who suggest that we use social networking and digital devices to construct our self-identity choosing what is made public or kept private about ourselves. Turkle (TED-Ed 2013), further supports this saying that digital mediums allow us to “present the self we want to be” and edit and delete aspects of our lives. Simon Sinek (2016) also referred to this as “adding a filter to our lives” so as to make it look like we’ve got it together, happy and successful, whilst in reality, many of us are insecure and depressed.
In looking at my interaction with digital, I realise that many of my online ‘friendships’ are surface level at best. Yes, I know what they ate for breakfast and where they went on holiday, but I don’t actually know the real people behind the highlight reel.
So, upon reflection, I began to agree with the sentiments of Turkle (TED-Ed 2013) that digital devices are “so psychologically powerful, they don’t only change what we do, they change who we are.” Yes, we are more connected than ever, but is it at the cost of society and community? Will we sacrifice deep and meaningful relationships in our quest for connectivity?
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cdarcyswin-blog · 7 years ago
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Hi Claire!,
Fantastic reiteration of our presentation last week and an informative blog post condensing our hectic political realm into a blog post. Dan Andrews used social media and an online presence to his advantage to win this election by a landslide. As social media is one of the cheapest and more efficient and effective ways to communicate opinions and messages across to the citizen of Victoria, rather than the traditional methods such as leaflets which are not the most environmentally friendly, TV commercials and radio commercials which are not listened to or watched as much as they used to be about a decade ago. 
Social media creates a far larger impact on messages and creates an open discussion for everyone to get involved in.
The Victorian State Election
I recently contributed to a presentation looking at social media in the Victorian State Elections Which was held on the 24th November 2018. Now, for those of you who don’t live in Victoria or care about politics, this was one of the strangest elections in Victorian History. Before we go into the landslide victory, we should understand how many seats were held from the 2014 election. The Labor Party formed the government in 2014 winning to the Liberal Party with 47 seats and a 1.8% swing, the Liberal party managed 30 seats (ABC 2014). Put simply, in 2018 the Liberal Party had a steep battle in front of them and they were up to the challenge. Swinging voters, with no official demographics or characteristics (Throsby 2013) have the power, the Liberal Party just had to convince this group the Liberals knew what is best for the state.
The premier, Dan Andrews had an advantage coming into the election, with the strength of a solid social media following.  Over half a million people follow Dan Andrews on Facebook (Andrews 2018), many of which were gained through sponsored posts costing around $280k (Darvall 2017). Some would argue that the likes he received are “paid”, however I feel that a marketing campaign of achievements is wildly different from buying Instagram followers.  Paid Instagram followers are about creating the perception that your brand is desirable.  Paid followers are largely bot accounts run by computers, with no interaction, therefore having no engagement value (Hootsuite 2018).
Dan Andrews has managed to create an engaging social media presence, with people choosing to like his page and then choose to continue following it. Utilising his social media page to interact rather than preach shows Dan Andrews understands the interface of the online community, and the similarities between this community and that of the real world. The online community interaction fed the results of the election, with the Labor party winning the election in a landslide with a 4.8% swing, achieving 56 seats to the Liberal/National Party’s combined 26. It seems the Liberal Party are unsure how to engage the community, and what is important to them.
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One politician who could take a leaf out of Dan Andrews’ marketing team’s book is Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who on Thursday, 6th December 2018, shut down parliament, adjourning them for the Summer period to reconvene in February, before the parliament could vote on a number of decisions, relating to the remaining 10 children on Nauru (Karp 2018) and paid family violence leave .  Dan Andrews had some choice words to offer on his facebook page about the decision of the Prime Minister. It seems Dan Andrews’ follower’s agree - this post has high engagement, achieving four times the average.
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But then again, Scott Morrison Blames Labor For Victorian Election Landslide. 
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cdarcyswin-blog · 7 years ago
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Are we social on Social Media?
Here on today's blog post, we jump into the thoughts and theories relating to how our communities have changed and if there is underlying self-gain to being so connected through many different forums to the user.
Eugenia Siapera the author of Understanding new media dedicates an entire chapter on Socialities and social media. Throughout this chapter, she explains her theories on our loss of community, how the human network and the history of socialising and how its changed through the ages. One section I had picked out from the reading;
‘For Tonnies, Aristotle's understanding of humans as social animals is seen as corresponding to a psychological mechanism that concerns human will. Societies, argues Tonnies, can only exist because people want to associate with others. But human will is of two kinds: there is the essential, organic will that is almost instinctive -this is referred md to as the natural will. On the other hand, there is a rational will, which is purposive and goal oriented. While natural will leads people to form associations as an end in themselves, rational will leads them to associate with other people in order to attain some goals.’
Which got me thinking of the selfish nature of humans when it comes to social media and how we network with each other. We steal valuable family time with our partners or our children to respond to work emails to look efficient and productive to our superiors. We spend more time staring at photos of beautiful places instead of going to them. We care so much about the number next to our friend count on Facebook, our follow count on Instagram or the number of likes on a post in a certain amount of time. This directs straight back to the 'goal-orientated' nature Siapera speaks about in this chapter and how we would rather maintain a certain status or image online than drop these networks altogether.
We are controlled by our networks and we abuse them for selfish reasons. 
https://commons.swinburne.edu.au/file/bbc79a6d-9889-4d68-8a8d-229b87ab9140/1/99333188118.pdf
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cdarcyswin-blog · 7 years ago
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Connected and Lonely
Through this conversation, I will be relating back to the Ted Talk by Sherry Turkle ‘Connect, but alone?’ she delves into the idea of how humans behave in such a short amount of time since the creation of the internet, smartphones and social media have forced humans to become almost incommunicable in the modern world. 
Turkle explains that us as humans in this modern age of information and entertainment at our fingertips we use and abuse this when placed into situations of boredom or sadness such as work meetings or funerals. 
A lot of what Turkle speaks about I completely agree with such as us phones and notifications give us instant gratification. Personally once I had watched the Ted Talk I started picking up on the behaviour she was explaining such as being out together with friends and everyone touching or being busy on their phones. Which now seen in a different light is a little redundant to be catching up with friends, paying money for a meal and not communicating together about each other lives but instead catching up on what your friend's list may be doing on Facebook, responding to work emails even though its the weekend or scrolling aimlessly to keep our hands busy. 
Another interesting fact Turkle quotes;
'People want to be with each other but also elsewhere, to be connected to all the different places they want to be, people want to customise their lives...because the thing that matters most to them is control'
This sparked so many thoughts, on how our natural behaviour to our digital lives is one that we are a prisoner of but one we try to grasp control over. This is a constant fight and is a depletion of our attention spans, we try to take control and once we are bored we jump to the next thing to get that hit of serotonin. But this is never a replacement of not only being physically present at work meetings or at dinner with family and friends but to be present mentally and using our full attention span to the people you are around. 
We are all connected in many different ways but we are all lonely one way or another. 
Turkles Ted Talk https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=rv0g8TsnA6c 
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