digitally-challenged-blog

[digitally-challenged-blog]

A culture of virtual communication and experiences.

Digital media has impacted many aspects of our life. Some aspects for better, others for worse. It has provided easier access to certain things, it has impacted certain aspects of politics and how politics operates throughout the world and it has also impacted peoples personal lives in many ways that have improved their lives, while in other aspects it has impacted lives negatively. Digital media has also impacted cultures and culture in general throughout the world and this post will explain in what ways it has done so.

Social media and digital media have introduced many products which have changed the world and all the lives of people that live on it. In the past, communication was done either through meeting with people in person, or through written mail that was delivered to each other via delivery vehicles who would physically drop off mail at one’s homes.

Over time this has evolved into direct messages via messenger applications like Imessage and Whatsapp and even through the direct message sections in sites like Instagram and Facebook (Papacharissi, 2009). 

Due to these changes, the public sphere has also changed dramatically as in the past individuals would discuss their viewpoints and ideas with other individuals or groups in person, but today these public spheres have become online forums and other social media platforms (Papacharissi, 2009). These forums and social media platforms have resulted in changing the ways in which we communicate with people.

Many people believe that social media platforms have created a very antisocial culture as most people that you see while walking around in one’s community are all on their phones either talking over voice-calls, messaging people over social media platforms, or just spending time on social media platforms like Instagram or Facebook to pass the time (Morley, 2018). 

Even in personal company people still tend to spend large amounts of time looking at their phones. Although in some cases people can be antisocial by not paying attention and communicating with those in their immediate vicinity, the fact that these people are still using these platforms and forums for communicating can still be considered being social (Morley, 2018). It may not be in person but we are still communicating with people through other ways such as sharing pictures or videos about where one is or what they are doing for everyone to see, or chatting via messages sent from one device to another (Morley, 2018). In some cases, this new form of communication and the “new” public sphere can be considered even more sociable as people now have the ability to communicate thousands of people all over the world, all the while communicating with people around them within their personal spaces (Morley, 2018). 

In the past, humans were only able to communicate with a handful of people at one time as even if there were thousands of people around to speak to, words could sometimes get misunderstood due to a crowd drowning out what is being said, and not everyone has the ability to focus on what they are listening to for long periods of time (Morley, 2018). With digital and social media, all people need to do is be able to read and they are already able to absorb information easier, as well as they can also skim past uninteresting information while if one is listening to someone speaking, they cannot skip uninteresting, or pointless information (Morley, 2018).

With the introduction of digital and social media, has come new linguistic information that we discuss and include within our dialogues. New words and phrases have become very common within society whereas some of these words would not have ever existed in the past before digital media was introduced (Stamm and Krell, 2013). This also changes how we communicate with people as we now have new words and phrases that we can compare people to and from. Words like ‘meme’ and ‘vlogging’ are words that would never have existed if not for digital media (Gil, 2018). A meme can be described as humorous, or even in some cases serious, ideas that are put into either video, picture, or text format that goes viral and can be used to relate to other things or relate other things to that specific meme (Gil, 2018). 

Vlogging is a form of blogging which makes use of videos rather than text (Kaminsky, 2010). In some cases, already existing words have been given different meanings due to them being used for different things on digital media and social media. An example of this could be a ‘Troll’ or ‘internet troll’ which previously was known as a supernatural creature which were very large in size and had large ears, or it means to move around when described as a verb, but now it is also known as someone who provokes others into starting arguments for their own enjoyment and for the enjoyment of others, or someone who messes with someone or somthing for their own enjoyment (Handley, 2018). These words would not have existed when digital media was not around.

The above video demonstrates a person "trolling” a bird.

Digital media has not only impacted language and social characteristics of humans, but it has also allowed humans to almost literally “delete” people out of our lives. Social media platforms have the options “befriend” or “unfriend” people (Pennell, 2018). In todays society, unfriending someone on social media can be almost as bad as having a figurative fight with them which ends up in two people not being friends anymore (Pennell, 2018). 

That is a problem for society as someone may not just enjoy what the individual posts or unfriends them by mistake yet it is taking so seriously. This prevents individuals from discussing their differences or problems about the other that resulted in the unfriending as the individual tends to then either be upset with the person, or just ignores them and moves on with their lives when it is completely unnecessary to unfriend someone so easily without discussing issues that may have led to this (Pennell, 2015). 

Digital media has tremendous influences on many aspects of our lives and although it has connected humans more than ever before, it still comes with its negativities which could result in us drifting apart as a species as much as it is trying to bring us all together. We may have the ability to be social with more people at once, but we still lack the feelings and physical experiences we have when communicating with someone in person. 

Although digital media is currently evolving, it should evolve to the point where we don’t rely so much on our connections with people through digital media and rather help our connections with people physically while allowing connections with the world digitally.

[digitally-challenged-blog]

For more information about digital media and how it impacts politics, press 1..

New media has given politics new avenues to operate in. Politics would usually be viewed or orchestrated in a formal setting or through television, newspapers, or the radio. Now due to new media technologies such as Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, politics has been given the opportunity to be orchestrated and viewed 24 hours a day, ever day with no interferences with production times, and announcement delays. Much like personal life, digital media has made connectivity with the world much more accessible and attainable which has provided politics with a new world to operate in. 

Digital media provides many with the opportunity to view and share information all over the world with a click of a button.

This information can be seen by anyone anywhere in the world with access to an internet connection and a cellular device or computer to access the internet. Since over 50% of the worlds population have access to the internet, this means that over 4 billion people have the ability to view and make an opinion about international and local political matters that may be happening in the world (World Internet Users, 2018). In the past, people would have to wait for news agencies and newspaper companies to create and publish certain news reports about certain events and this would usually take around 24 hours to a few days to publish and be sent out to the public (Anderson and Caumont, 2014). 

Now with the help of digital media, like Twitter, Facebook, and online news sites, this information can be viewed at any-time, anywhere (Anderson and Caumont, 2014). This provides the world with the ability to form opinions about certain political matters a lot faster than in the past (Anderson and Caumont, 2014). 

An example of this could be the 2016 South African Municipal elections. 

The results and progress of these elections were able to be seen by anyone in the country, and internationally, 24 hours a day as the process was happening (Anderson and Caumont, 2014). The political changes and cabinet reshuffles were all open to the public within a few minutes after they were released due to the digital media. In the past this information would have taken a few minutes after they were released due to the digital media. In the past this information would have taken a minimum of 24 hours to be printed and published by newspapers (Bendile and Sekhoto, 2016). By the time some of the information was released and viewed by the public, some of this information, or other information about politics could have changed already, such as the vote count, but with digital media, this was updated almost instantly for the public to view (Bandile and Sekhoto, 2016).

Digital media not only has allowed information regarding politics to be viewed at all times while the processes happen, or a few minutes after the information is released, but it has made protest action more widespread and easier to take part in than previously.

The Fees Must Fall protests that occurred during the years of 2015 to 2017 throughout South African universities all over the country were originally quite small protests that took place due to the rise in fees at tertiary institutions (Makgoba, 2016). Due to digital media, these protests grew substantially due to the amount of people who have access to digital media and the short span of time that it took for information about certain protest actions that were occurring throughout the country to be released (Makgoba, 2016). These protests were happening all over the country almost every day, and with the help of digital media such as Twitter and Facebook, people would hashtag certain events which people were able to search and all events pertaining to those hashtags would pop up and people would see what was happening regarding the protests, where, and how it was happening (Makgoba, 2016). 

Not only did it provide easier, faster access to this information, but there is no gatekeeping process that occurs when individuals who were a part of the protests posted something about what was happening (Makgoba, 2016). This resulted in less bias and more reliable viewpoints rather than ones that come from media companies and news agencies that have gatekeepers who may leave out certain information about the protests to favour one side over the other (Makgoba, 2016).  

Protest action and other political information that is released for the audiences to be viewed has become more reliable than in the past due to the speed of information production and publication that digital media allows. Digital media has also provided more reliable political information to the public due to the lack of formal gatekeepers, and the fact that the majority of this information comes from the public and the publics experiences themselves rather than formal media companies who are run or funded by politicians and the government who could prevent certain information from being released to the public. 

[digitally-challenged-blog]

Personal Life. Yeah we get it you're pretty but like..that’s a bit much.

Media and media technologies have drastically improved over the years and have revolutionised many things that we have used in the past as well as things we use today in our everyday lives.

In todays society, many people are able to make use of new media for entertainment, communication, or even business. In the past, people created these media technologies to help people interact easier as well as improve access to information to those throughout the world but now people have used this new media to create their own business ventures. 

New media technologies such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, have created connections with people all over the world through messages, photos, videos, and other information that can be used on these platforms to allow increased connectivity to people throughout the world (Thompson, 1995). The ability to post photos and videos for everyone to see all over the world allows for people to create and share their own creativity and ideas which has resulted in people becoming famous from these platforms (Thompson, 1995). 

This is where the terms ‘Instafamous’ and ‘Instamodel’ have originated from (Bumpas, 2015). There are many accounts on these social media applications and sites that have thousands, if not millions, of followers and the more followers the account has, the more likely they are to make a living from these accounts (Cabrera, 2018). This is because the accounts will be used for advertising, including original content for sponsors who will pay the account holder for advertising their products. The account holder can also sell their photos if they are showcasing photos that agencies or individuals would like to buy, or one can use these social networking sites as ways to advertise their own business and products to help their businesses grow (Cabrera, 2018).

Many of the youth of today are making use of these social networking sites for  business reasons and to just gain thousands of followers which has resulted in a very superficial, shallow generation of youth (Curtis, 2016). Nobody really cares or worries about who is following them but rather how many people are following them and many people will do whatever they can to gain as many followers as they can, this has resulted in a form of micro-celebrity status between the youth and other individuals which leads to a very shallow society (Curtis, 2016). The shallowing hypothesis explains that those who use social media the most and post photos in ways to ensure followers and likes are gained end up less concerned about others and become more self-obsessed (Curtis, 2016). 

Many of these micro-celebrities or instafamous people have gained their followers through very revealing pictures that they post of themselves (Curtis, 2016). Most of these people don't care about what they post, as long as they look "hot” or attractive so they can gain followers (Curtis, 2016). This has resulted in these individuals, and more commonly women, posting very revealing, and almost nude, pictures to gain these followers and further compromises their moral judgements (Curtis, 2016). 

Although this may not be a huge issue for some of the individuals who are taking part in these revealing posts, it is still impacting certain pars of society and other individuals in negative ways. Most people want to become famous and these social networking sites have made it a whole lot easier for people to reach this goal (Smale, 2015). Even young adolescents and teenagers want to be famous and will do what they can to reach this goal, and because these individuals have access to these sites they can see what "has to be done” to gain followers and likes and they tend to copy the posts of already famous people such as Kim Kardashian, and Bella Thorne, to gain their own followers and likes. These woman are role-models for many young individuals and therefore there is a high chance that they will copy the behaviours of their role-models as they would like to be similar to them (Smale, 2015).

This is a problem as it has resulted in young teenagers posting provocative images on their social media accounts as they seek approval from society or even to potentially gain their own form of stardom and society has made this seem almost normal (Knorr, 2018). There are ‘instamodels’ as young as 15 who are posting pictures where they show off their bodies in provocative ways and in some cases these individuals have thousands of followers. this results in a very shallow, sexual lifestyle that is being created by these instamodels and the acceptance f these young instamodels. An example of this could be an instamodel known as Loren Gray. 

Loren Gray is a well-known instamodel, singer, and actress who started her career on the music application known as ‘Music.ly’ where she originally gained her stardom (Famousbirthdays, 2018). 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musical.ly

https://www.instagram.com/loren/

She is followed by millions of people around the world, some of which are my own friends. She is currently 16 years of age but has been posting provocative images on Instagram since the age of 15. These images have helped her gain further followers on her Instagram account and although she may be attractive and may look more mature than she is, it is still inappropriate for someone of her age to be posting the images that she does. These girls end up being role-models for other young girls around the world which leads to more young teenage girls posting provocative images.

Digital media and new media technologies have provided connectivity to the world via messages, photos, and photos but it has also resulted in a shallow, self-obsessed society. Although this may never change, what should happen is there should be a more reliable filter that filters these images from young teenagers as it will lead to an ever-growing trend of self-obssed young individuals sharing inappropriate images of themselves for likes and followers for the end-goal of getting famous, but most may never reach that goal. This can be seen as a new form of prostitution, which can be considered "digital soft-prostitution”, where people "sell” their bodies for likes and followers. Digital media has led to this, as well as self-obsessed lifestyles for many.

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