vixen-experience-of-mda20009

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Week 10 of mda20009: Social Media Conflict and Governance

Social media governance highlights the reality that conflict on social media frequently results from people's craving for power and control by incorporating the themes of conflict, activism, digital citizenship, regulation, community, and inclusion. In actuality, a large portion of social media as a whole is about power—from Facebook group moderators to laws governing the internet as a whole. All levels of government have some form of governance, but its efficacy is frequently questioned. Over one-third of adolescents have experienced cyberbullying, which is a form of harassment that takes place online. Furthermore, since 2017, the proportion of women who have experienced sexual harassment online has doubled (Jagannathan 2021). Sexual harassment online is three times more common among women, especially those under the age of 35 (Jagannathan 2021).

Childnet International (2018) states that non-consensual sharing of private images or videos, threats, sexualized bullying, and unwanted sexualization (including sending unsolicited material like "dick pics") are examples of this behavior. Up to 10% of Australians claim that they have been the subject of uninvited posting or sharing of naked or semi-naked photos on the internet (Powell & Henry 2015, p. 1). Term like "gaslighting," which was shortlisted for the Oxford English Dictionary's 2018 word of the year, makes these rising levels of harassment evident. Although gaslighting is not a new kind of psychological abuse, its resurgence in our daily language is partly due to its ability to make the victim doubt their own sanity, reality perception, and recollections.

This happens a lot in person, but it also happens a lot online. Anita Sarkeesian, a feminist media critic, has been outspoken about her encounters with online bullying and harassment, particularly from individuals who identify as "anti feminist" YouTubers and bloggers. According to Marwick & Caplan (2018), p. 543, this harassment targets Sarkeesian individuals with "death threats, slurs, and sexually violent language." This behavior shows a glaring lack of control online and insufficient punishment for those who engage in it. There are laws in place to provide some protection, but there isn't a single piece of legislation specifically targeting cyberbullying and internet abuse in Australia. The Australian Human Rights Commission Act 1986 (Cth), the Criminal Code Act of 1995, the Enhancing Online Safety Act of 2015, and the Online Safety Bill of 2021 are a few of them but some haven’t been passed as a firm law yet (Milne 2021).

As technology and the internet is rapidly expanding and innovating, the need for safety laws have never been needed as now, for both the safety of users as well as delivering just and fair consequences for those who abuses and refuse to abide them.

References

References 

Childnet International 2018, Defining online sexual harassment, Childnet International, viewed 16 May 2021 <https://www.childnet.com/our-projects/project-deshame/defining-online-sexual-harassment>.

Jagannathan, M 2021, The percentage of women who’ve experienced online sexual harassment has doubled since 2017, Market Watch, viewed 16 May 2021 <https://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-percentage-of-women-whove-experienced-online-sexual-harassment-has-doubled-since-2017-11610569856>.

Marwick, A & Caplan, R 2018, 'Drinking male tears: language, the manosphere, and networked harassment’, Feminist Media Studies, vol.18, no. 4, p. 543

Milne, E 2021, ‘Week 10: Digital citizenship and conflict: social media governance’, MDA20009 Digital communities, learning materials via Canvas, Swinburne University of Technology.

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Week 9 of Mda20009: Gaming Communities, Social Gaming and Live Streaming

The first video games was called “tennis for two”, created by William Higinbotham in October 18, 1958. Since then, the gaming industry has expanded rapidly, reaching a valuation of over $100 billion. It now comprises a global community of "gamers" who can select from a wide range of genres and platforms to meet their preferences, from consoles to pc, and from handheld devices to personal computer. Social gaming started to take off in the late 2000s and early 2010s. To attract and keep players, social games emphasize interpersonal bonds, while also enabling current players to form networks. Numerous social games provide incentives and prizes for users to interact with social media sites like Facebook which rewards players to invite their friends to play by giving them in-game gifts like boosters and power-ups. Other games like World of Warcraft and other MMORPGs give them daily missions to complete and gain loot and create things like guilds with benefits to tempt player into becoming more social.

But for those to take it very seriously, E-sport exists. "E-sports" refers to "formalized competitive computer gaming" (Taylor 2018, p. 3), or electronic sports in which professional players compete in single-player or team formats. There has long been a drive in this community to have these competitions broadcast on television to gain respectability and boost participant revenue and attention (Taylor 2018, p. 3). Live streaming services like Twitch, which lets users record themselves playing games, have become one of the most dominant platforms for entertainment across all of the internet. The network claimed to have 30 million daily active users and more than 2.2 million unique broadcasters per month in 2022, with its only competitors in Youtube and now, Kick, meanwhile, Discord is more commonly used as both a place to make friends and fun with others in the community, even making new friends, with nearing complete domination over the chatting apps for gamers and creators.

References

Hardwick, T 2021, ‘Gaming communities, Social Gaming, and live streaming’, MDA20009 Digital Communities, Learning materials via Canvas, Swinburne University of Technology.

Oldest.org 2020, 10 oldest video games in the world, Oldest.org, viewed 1 May 2021, <https://www.oldest.org/entertainment/video-games/>.

Taylor, T.L 2018, Watch Me Play: Twitch and the Rise of Game Live Streaming, Princeton University Press

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Week 8 of Mda20009: Face filters

Most humans want to be perfect, as beautiful as they can be, it is one of the unique traits of humans. That is why filter exists, they are made so that people can alter their image online, to give strangers the illusion of perfection and beauty, forced on them by societal standards. Given what society expects of women to become perfect, “a battlefield of diverging concepts” (Coy-Dibley 2016, p. 2). It makes sense that so many people struggling with severe body dysphoria over their appearance, while other people may end up changing their bodies permanently as a result of these "quick fixes”. To desperately make their online persona look better, for example when social distancing started, the usage of face filters have sky-rocketed, some apps even surpassed 20%. And right now, filters are already included in a lot of social networking platforms, and even editing software have multiple filters already built-in like adobe premiere and photoshop, so they are basically free to those who know where to find them.

Not even significant adjustments are required; a small reduction in waist circumference or a mild smoothing of the pores would do. Dysphoria is the result of an increasing distance between a person's idealized, digitally augmented self or their "online persona" and their true self. This is very unhealthy since it can cause numerous mental diseases and issues. The likelihood of experiencing mental health issues and disorders, such as body dysmorphic disorder, eating disorders, anxiety, sadness, and OCD-related issues, also rises (Rodulfo, 2020). Most of the media that we consume has been altered in some way, especially on social media, where the majority of celebrities and influencers edit their photos before posting them.

Since we are aware that most of what we see isn't "real," why does it still have such an impact on us? That is the one question I cannot answer for you.

References

Coy-Dibley, I 2016, ‘Digitized Dysmorphia of the female body: the re/disfigurement of the image’, Palgrave Communications, vol. 2, no. 16040, p. 2

Miller, L 2021, ‘Week 7. Face filters’, MDA20009 Digital Communities, Learning materials via Canvas, Swinburne University of Technology.

Rodulfo, K 2020, It’s easier than ever to make a new face on social media. But is it killing your confidence?, Women’s Health Magazine, <https://www.womenshealthmag.com/beauty/a33264141/face-filters-mental-health-effect/>.

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Week 7 of mda20009: Body Modification

Body modification, in the most literal meaning, is to deliberately modify your body mostly by tattoos, piercings, teeth modification, and gym/steroids. And especially plastic surgery, which is this week's topic, plastic surgery delves into the mind of humans in their unending pursuit of beauty and perfection, especially on social media platforms.

Body modifications have existed for thousands of years, dating back to ancient Egypt, where people would often tattoo hieroglyphics in their reverence of the gods, and the present, they still have massive cultural ties to them, for example, the Polynesian people use tattoos to distinguish themselves, displaying their social status, rank, geographic origin, familial history, courage, and power. Another example is that many tribes still extend the neck in Thailand and Africa, and filing one's teeth is regarded as attractive in Bali. Even the fairly popular "alternative" habit of expanding one's lips and ears in the West nowadays has its origins in Africa, where it is still practiced (Bradley University, 2021). The relationship between social media and body alteration, as well as the potential consequences for public health, are notoriously unhealthy.

According to Dorfman et al. (2018), p. 332, Instagram had more than 400 million active monthly users in 2016. This number has likely grown substantially in the subsequent years. According to Dorfman et al. (2018), p. 333, "Instagram has become a dominant channel for business marketing to young adults, and its usage in plastic surgery continues to rise." This is because the platform is becoming bait for consumers, with plastic surgery ads and influencers constantly suggesting that option to them. However, these "aesthetic templates" frequently propagate an unrealistic standard of beauty, with photoshopped or otherwise altered images to give the impression that they are on the good side of things. Regardless of the amount of plastic surgery a person undergoes, It is nearly impossible to ever look like the influencers that dominate their social media feed, no matter how many workouts or what they consume. The unrelenting quest of meeting society's distinct standards for physical perfection—which vary depending on gender—is also fueling the growth in eating disorders and mental diseases. Eating Disorders Victoria (2021) estimates that 1 million Australians may experience eating disorders at some point in their lives, and global statistics indicate that eating disorders are becoming more common. Furthermore, as stated by Mavroudis (2021), "research indicates that Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD) is associated with young people managing the conflicts between their offline bodies and whom they aspire to be on social media." This leads to an unhealthy obsession with perfect “body types” and makes people worry about how they appear on social media.

In conclusion, the fault is not because of people who willingly choose to modify their bodies purely for themselves and their culture, the fault lies in the lack of regulation of social platforms.

References

Dorfman R, Vaca E, Mahmood E, Fine N & Schierle C 2018, ‘Plastic surgery-related hashtag utilization on Instagram: implications for education and marketing’, Aesthetic Surgery Journal, vol. 38, no. 3, pp. 332-334

Eating Disorders Victoria 2021, Key research and statistics, Eating Disorders Victoria. <https://www.eatingdisorders.org.au/eating-disorders-a-z/eating-disorder-statistics-and-key-research/?gclid=Cj0KCQjw1PSDBhDbARIsAPeTqrdjMEzThC-fN4HWPBsTxhs7tLBLtzAcLHF0FME3XdI15oirws8GOxkaAqrEEALw_wcB>.

Mavroudis, J 2021, ‘Week 6 - Digital citizenship and health education: body modification on visual social media’, MDA20009 Digital Communities, Learning materials via Canvas, Swinburne University of Technology.

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Week 6 of mda20009: Slow Fashion and influencers

Today, on week 6 of mda 20009, I will talk about Slow fashion and online influencers The concept of slow fashion is the "intersection of ethical, eco, and lasting fashion". Designing and producing clothing with the only goals of lifespan and quality is known as slow fashion. It promotes less waste, fair salaries, and a reduction in carbon footprints in the fashion industry's manufacturing (Study New York, 2020). These three categories—Ethical, Eco, and Lasting— these three concepts make it clear how it will affect both the global situation as well as you, the consumer. Ethical fashion is concerned with human and animal rights, eco-fashion is related to the “impact of clothing production on the environment”, and lasting fashion refers to the “slowing down of the clothing consumption rate” (Collings, 2018). This creates a slow and lasting effect on both the fashion as well as the consumer scene, since they can now last for much longer compared to before and won’t utilize the consumer conscience to give in and buy the latest products.

As obvious as it may be, Instagram is one of the biggest platforms filled with influencers, and those influencers can tempt their audiences to buy the products that they promote. Because of their expertise, reputation, and connection to the audience, influencers have "the power to affect the purchasing decisions of others" (Influencer Marketing, 2020). Influencers are a kind of marketing technique that can also connect a product or service to a "district niche" market.

Many Instagram influencers promote what is known as "ethical fashion" in which their goal as an influencer is to promote recycled and sustainably created clothing to save the environment. A lot of them have filled their posts with eco-friendly products like makeup and such. They utilize the full power of Instagram to spread their positivity and establish. Instagram is a very effective tool for promoting the slow fashion trend because it can draw in a large audience through sponsored advertising, and just browsing through material that the app curates for you based on your preferences from the posts you see and what your influencer posts.

References: 

Collings, K, 2018, Why We’re Celebrating the Slow-Fashion Movement in July, Who What Wear. https://www.whowhatwear.com.au/slow-fashion-movement/slide3. 

Influencer Marketing, 2020, What is an influencer? https://influencermarketinghub.com/what-is-an-influencer/. 

Osment-Le, H, 2020, Sustainable Fashion Influencers in 2020, Good on You. https://goodonyou.eco/sustainable-fashion-influencers-to-follow-in-2020/. 

Pinterest, 2018, ‘What is the Slow Fashion Movement? https://www.pinterest.com.au/pin/create/link/?description=Why+We%27re+Celebrating+the+Slow-Fashion+Movement+in+July&media=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.cliqueinc.com%2Fposts%2F261735%2Fletter-from-the-editor-july-2018-261735-1530461132557-image.700x0c.jpg&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.whowhatwear.com%2Fslow-fashion-movement. 

Tara, Fast Fashion vs. Slow Fashion, New York Study. http://study-ny.com/slow-fashion. 

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Week 5 of mda20009: Digital Citizenship

Week 5 of mda20009: Digital Citizenship

Digital citizenship is often associated with politics, activism, and people's general online behavior. It can be defined as the ability to benefit society as a whole and facilitate individuals' participation within said society. People are finding it easier and easier to be involved in politics and other digital citizenship activities thanks to social media platforms like Instagram and Twitter. Increasingly, politicians are using social media sites like Twitter to spread the word about their policies, garner support, and generate publicity (both positive and negative). According to Vromen (2017, p. 3), "Established political organizations are increasingly turning to digital forms of citizen engagement to re-engage citizens in the political process." another way to do this is by using hashtags like #auspol or #taxtherich, which link people together by utilizing a variety of important terms and themes. Increasing "citizen-initiated and policy-oriented" (Vromen 2017, p. 3) engagement within society is a key benefit of this growing digital citizenship in the political arena. But people's capacity to be engaged online citizens is also significantly impacted by the digital divide. The gap between those who have access to the internet and those who do not is known as the "digital divide." Live Internet Statistics estimates that 90% of Africa is still offline, and only 7% of people in Myanmar have access to the internet (Wilks-Harper 2017). Many of these nations that are unable to utilize the internet and practice digital citizenship also have the least political freedom. For instance, during the country's presidential elections in December 2016, the government of the Gambia blocked access to the internet, even though at that time only 17% of the populace had internet access. The UN declared internet access to be a human right in June 2016 with a non-binding resolution because it is now deemed to be of such great importance (Wilks-Harper 2017). We can only hope that this will lead to a rise in digital citizenship, which will allow those who have been denied this kind of expression more freedom and political autonomy online.

References Internet Live Stats, viewed 7 April 2021.

Vromen, 2017, Digital citizenship and political engagement the challenge from online campaigning and advocacy organizations, Palgrave Macmillan, London

Wilks-Harper, E 2017, A map of countries with the worst internet access, Independent.

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Week 3 of mda2009: How tumblr acts as a digital community

According to Bruns and Highfield (2016), p. 98, a "digital community," also known as a "micro-public," is a little kind of hub that may "co-exist, [is] intersecting and overlapping in multiple forms across diverse media platforms." Smaller communities exist on various social media platforms where users can participate and interact with others by using the internet as a forum for conversation.

One social networking site that serves as a virtual community is Tumblr. When the company was founded in 2007, David Karp sought to provide a "free" platform for people to blog, allowing them to post anything they wanted or enjoyed. At the time, blogging had evolved into a form of "editorial material" (Karp, 2011). For Karp, Tumblr is a means to differentiate from other social media platforms, like Facebook or Twitter at the time, in that there was less creative control over how a person could arrange or style their profile. This allowed people to creatively express themselves because they could design their blog in their own unique way and essentially post about what they wanted. This illustrates how Tumblr functions as a community for people to truly express themselves but can also do so anonymously, something that many other social media platforms do not permit. Keller (2019, p. 7) writes that "Tumblr could be understood as a platform that prioritises aesthetics, amplified through its allowance of user-customised short form blogs."

The 2010s saw the realization that Tumblr was a site where users could "revel in anonymity." and speak without fear about anything they desired (Reeve, 2016). becoming a place where people, mostly teenagers, went to find solace and to openly express emotions that they would not otherwise be able to on other social media sites. Users could also "reblog" content they found entertaining, allowing them to create a very personal profile that accurately reflected who they were. For LGBT+ adolescents in particular, this was crucial since, according to McKracken (2017), the platform's anonymity allowed users to feel comfortable being themselves and interacting with like-minded others. This had a beneficial effect on LGBT+ adolescents since it allowed them to learn more about themselves or others and gave them a sense of support from the online community.

References

Keller, J 2019, ‘“Oh, She’s a Tumblr Feminist”: Exploring the Platform Vernacular of Girls’ Social Media Feminisms, Social Media + Society, vol. 5. no. 3, p.7

McCracken, A, Cho, A, Stein, L & Neill Hoch, I 2020, a Tumblr Book: Platforms and Cultures, University of Michigan Press

Schonfeld, E 2011, (Founder Stories) Why David Karp Started Tumblr: Blogs Don’t Work For Most People. https://techcrunch.com/2011/02/21/founder-stories-why-david-karp-started-tumblr-blogs-dont-work-for-most-people/>

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Week 4 of mda20009 :Reality Tv

"A type of television programming… [aiming] to show how ordinary people behave in everyday life, or… situations, often created by the program makers," is what reality television is defined as. (English Dictionary Collins, 2021). The Real World, an MTV program that "brought so-called people to television in what were nonacting roles… [and] viewers of the [program] saw themselves in these faces," is credited with popularizing the genre in the 1990s (Huff, 2006). From that point on, pop culture and society at large have been greatly influenced by reality television. TV shows like "Survivor," "Big Brother," and "Idol" were extremely popular in the 2000s. The enormous popularity of the original show led to the creation of these programs in numerous other nations. (Hill, 2014).

Reality television is a large and extensive television genre that includes dating shows, talent shows, celebrity-based shows, court shows, gamedocs, and lifestyle shows (Murray & Ouellette, 2009). Other well-known reality TV programs include "MasterChef," "Queer Eye," "The Bachelor/Bachelorette," "Keeping Up with the Kardashians," and "Next Top Model."

Reality TV is hugely popular in Australia, where shows on major commercial channels like Channel 7, Channel 9, and Channel 10 consistently rank at the top of the ratings. In the social experiment "Married at First Sight Australia," which airs on Channel 9, strangers are paired together by "experts" and legally wed (albeit the marriage is not binding) to determine whether they are compatible (Nine TV Access, 2015). During the last season of the

show, which debuted in 2021, often drew in one million viewers per episode, making it the highest-rated show of the evening (TV Tonight, 2021).

But since social media was developed, viewers' perceptions of and interactions with reality TV have changed. Televoting, an SMS-based opinion surveying method, was once a way for viewers of reality television to voice their opinions (Definitions, 2021). This is a typical practice on many other reality television shows that let the public make decisions. It was implemented in the early seasons of Australia's "Big Brother," when fans could send an SMS for whom they wanted to save. Social media has greatly expanded the amount of engagement that the different interactions viewers have with reality shows. People can discuss shows and exchange ideas or thoughts about events that may have happened on a reality show they were watching on social media platforms. This creates "buzz," and little conversations have the potential to grow into larger ones that may involve the public. According to Bone (2020), platforms are therefore "[becoming] essential to the success of [reality] television."

Reality TV celebrities also depend significantly on social media to grow their following or maintain it after their show has concluded. Certain reality shows specifically target individuals who already enjoy a substantial online following in an attempt to boost their show's visibility and audience. Other reality TV show contestants could desire to attempt and keep their admirers by utilizing social media to sustain their star status. When "individuals [develop] a distinctive public image for commercial gain and/or cultural capital," this is referred to as "self-branding" (Khamis et al. 2016). Reality stars frequently turn to social media sites like Instagram to become influencers and maintain their notoriety.

References

Bone, B, 2020, How Social Media Changed Reality TV. https://medium.com/swlh/how-social-media-changed-reality-tv-c4cb3e725a86

Definitions, 2021, Televoting, https://www.definitions.net/definition/televoting

Hill, A 2014, Reality TV, Taylor & Francis Group, London

Huff, R 2006, Reality Television, ABC-CLIO, LLC, Westport