mylesobando

[mylesobando]

Ethics of social media

In the online space it has become a trend to be snarky with your responses. They are often tweets from brands that end up going viral as you would not expect for a large company to respond like a moody teen. This was made very popular by Wendys, they seem to have moved away from this strategy but do sometimes respond to things in a more silly or childish way like this response to twitter user @objecti_5 saying “Mhm” to a tweet that just reads “Chicken Sandwich”. This is a trend we can see a lot from airline brand Ryanair. For example responding to popular Youtuber @RyanTrahan when they quote retweeted him saying “so needy” when asking for a compliment on twitter. Another example of them doing this is yet another quote retweet response to user @Chris_nonumbers telling him “dream bigger, Chris” in response to a photo of them being in a row by themselves and saying “Today, I lived the impossible dream”. 

There have been cases of poor ethics as in the Dr.DisRespect situation where he was canceled due to claims he was a predator and was also cheating on his wife. He had responded to these claims on twitter but this tweet has since been deleted. There were numerous tweets made about the situation such as that made by user @chrissyxchi posting about her opinions about the situation and some of her own personal findings. There have also been rather blatant cases of manipulation with the use of AI images/deep fakes. There have been images and videos of political leaders of them doing unsavory things and spreading misinformation. There are even laws being put into place in the state of California to force social media to take action against it. 

If I was to join a social media team I would like to be a part of the social media team for the game Omega Strikers. I think they seem like a good team to be a part of and exhibit ethical behavior. I believe this because they seem very genuine and kind as well as grateful for their community. They repost fanart of their characters on twitter or posting it with credit on their instagram. They also do not speak on things outside of their expertise or on topics not pertaining to their game, thus not stirring up controversy in their community. They also run the account in an often silly way making it not seem like tweets from a corporation but rather a real person like anyone else and they take real note of what their community wants and enjoys.

Another brand that I believe shows off good social media ethics is GamerSupps. They don’t just support themselves but they work with many different content creators big and small and from many different kinds of content creation. They retweet posts from their partners mentioning their brand, potentially bringing more eyes to those creators. There was also a controversy involving the release of one of their flavors, specifically the art on the tub. Normally when there is any art involved with their products they link to the artists social media account in the product description but for this product there was no such link. There were also many who believed the art to be AI generated. Reddit user u/countrybumpkincospla even posts a photo outline every spot where they think the AI claim would make sense. In response to the backlash, the company said the flavor would never be restocked and made a public apology about how much they hate AI generated art and will work to be better in working with artists and publicly crediting them. 

In the case of influencers being ethical two good examples would be MBT and Mista GG. MBT is a very positive voice not just for the Yu-Gi-Oh community but also for the LGBTQ+ community as well as he is openly bisexual. He also is someone who talks about politics quite often, even having a video posted where he plays Yu-Gi-Oh and speaks with a member of congress. Often speaking on politics is the downfall of many online but for MBT on his many platforms of Youtube, Twitch, Twitter, and even his podcast he shows a level of understanding and competency in the space to not spread misinformation or disinformation while also being able to continue being humorous without running the risk of spreading anything through misunderstood satire. Mista GG is a Youtuber and Twitch streamer who I also find very ethical. He navigates tough topics like his thoughts on a trend of simply beating up predators for views in a video on his second channel Mista G Dubs while making it clear it is just his take, not trying to put an agenda trough his position even respectfully saying he is not the target audience for that kind of content. He also watches and reviews movies and notes every video that he is not a professional thus to not mislead viewers who may be unfamiliar with him into thinking he is a professional movie reviewer and that he is just giving his personal opinion on the film.

For my own personal conduct I feel it is important for me to maintain trust with the people who follow me, I post more amateur edits of gameplay clips and when I say I am going to post soon I plan to adhere to that even is others say it does not matter if it am true to my word or not. I also feel it is important for me to not post about topics I would be more ignorant on as I personally do not like to spread lies online but also for potential employers to see me posting my opinion on current events and for me to maybe have a stance built on lies or misunderstandings that reflects poorly on myself. In the same vein I want to avoid Misappropriation. I can try and avoid this by doing sufficient research when big events happen and choosing if and when I post about them so as not to cause conflict with peers, family, or potential employers. I can also continue to refrain from dealing in unsavory activities. I also want to avoid having negative ripple effects. This means I have to be mindful that others may see my work and to not post things online that may, even if not offensive or hurtful to me, may be hurtful to others. 

Transparency, when a project is not on tract making sure I communicate this with my community.

Avoid Monotony, keeping my ideas fresh and improving my work and innovation with help me be a better social media user

Do not engage with narcissism, I will avoid hyper fixating on engagement on my page like follows and likes and will avoid pushing my name to a point where it is bothersome for those who engage with me. 

I will acknowledge that when entering a conversation under a post or about a topic online that I am not the star of the show and that we are all there to converse about something we had an interest in.

I will maintain proper etiquette and treat others as I would want to be treated.

Links for sources mentioned

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqVtF_YfXho&rco=1   timestamp 6:20

[mylesobando]

Helping the People of Los Angeles get their message heard

Homelessness is a problem around the entire United States. However, when I think of homelessness now I think of LA. I hear about it a lot especially when I Listen to the Joe Rogan Experience for about 2 years now. It sounds like a major Problem and that is where the Los Angeles Mission comes in. The problem is that I have never heard of these people. Before doing a bit of digging for different charities there was never an ad or a mention of this group. 

If we are talking about vanity metrics, those aren't great. Their Instagram only has 40.5K and their last post was on the 26th of August and it only got 18 likes. Their Facebook has 33k followers, even less than their Instagram. One thing that is of great importance is that the summer Olympics will be held in LA in 2028 so even on posts that would be positive the top comment is how they are only cleaning up now so when the Olympics come the place is not a mess. With them having less followers they also get more people liking and especially commenting on their posts as reading on Facebook is expected so they could use the tactic they use on Instagram on Facebook and it would do far better.

They could improve metrics by making the post into ads that show up while you are scrolling . you could also have more ways for people to find out about the foundation. They only have Facebook and Instagram. They do not have a TikTok and they do not have a Youtube. There is a video posted by someone who is inside the shelter but it is sandwiched between a movie clip and a call of duty black ops 2 video. Making more places to find out about them like a Youtube or a TikTok would help them greatly. Something that they do very poorly on Instagram is they make posts that are essentially garbage that nobody is going to look at. This happens a lot on their page like how they have Just a picture of some guy and there is no other context within the image. Reading the caption tells us they were going to be running a challenge to raise money with a link. This is an awful way to show this as the picture seems like an unrelated glamor shot of some random guy that even if they were to promote this and make it an ad that would show up on people's feeds nobody is reading that caption. They also do have their own site but I could not find a single place where they link their own social media accounts on their own website so they should definitely add one. 

I think they should make themself stand out more as they are similar in name to the Los Angeles Mission College. They would benefit greatly from seeing what gets the most traction and clicks. I think It would be helpful, especially for instagram if they made their posts into ads and looked to see how many more profile views came from the advertisements. If they sponsored LA based influencers that could also be a great help.

[mylesobando]

My first post

I would define social media as a tool to connect with the world. I think that it was made with the intention of making people closer with others and helping realize that we in fact are all just as human as anyone else. It unfortunately did not end up that way. In a best case I think the most it could be was a place for people to just be funny online, and we have that. We have a big network of people “riffing” with everyone else for all of eternity. 

What social media is in actuality is a cesspool showing up the worst of what humans can be, and the extent others will go to use it to control others. How some will use it to manipulate and control a narrative. Build “communities” that are essentially just echo chambers where they can scream their hate speak and everyone else there will agree or blindly follow. It is a place for most to go fully numb in their head and consume an amount of information the human brain was never meant to take in. It is a place for us to endlessly doom scroll and take in our slop as it is presented to us so we can interact with rage bait or see something that can make us laugh but in 4 scrolls we forgot we ever saw it. Being on social media is the closest those of us living will ever get to being in purgatory, because even if hell is hot it doesn't have AI generated jesus engagement farming on facebook. 

As a social media user I am fairly active. I definitely have more time on it then most people my age I feel. I was lucky to be born when I was so I did not have to navigate the people who are marketing misogyny and to young boys and saying that's how you get women because I was really dumb and would have fallen for it. I feel like I am not quite “chronically online” but you have to be a certain level of online to even be aware of that phrase. I am an amount of online where making connections in person is hard because most sentences start with “did you see that post on (social media site) about (dumb/angering/political/funny thing)”  and if they say no then it feels like an impromptu staring contest. 

I feel like I am pretty strong at identifying some trends and reading between the lines of internet speak. I can also read things with an appropriate amount of skepticism knowing everyone wants to make themself look like the good guy who just did a superhero landing in a marvel film, you have to read posts from many different perspectives to really feel you have the full story. I would say I am fairly weak out of my bubble however. If it is things about welding or gym rat behavior I am out of the loop and would not be able to clue people in. I am strong within my cliques but outside there are many things I know very little about.

For this class beyond of course the credits I think being more informed on things I use but know little about has always been interesting. I have been on social media since I was very young and yet I know nothing about it beyond what the 2010 film The Social Network told me. Elon bought Twitter for more money than anyone in my gene pool will ever see within their lifetime but why, what value did it have to him? Joe Rogan may say he needed to and is saving humanity by doing it but I think he is just a very rich bored guy with autism because if I had a lot of money I would also buy things I did not need because I am also autistic and bored. I feel this class can potentially teach me the value social media can have and how we can use it most effectively. I also feel like this would be fun for me because before I changed my major I wanted to be a social media manager.