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Week 11: Global Social Media: Case study China

And then there was one!

Hard to believe that another teaching period is over already and this will be my last blog post about Digital Communities - well, that will be critically assessed for it anyway. Over the last 11 weeks I have started looking at social media and our interactions in a different light and already have found myself being more critical of its uses - in line with many of the texts that we have studied - and because of this, in theory , I will perhaps look at changing the way I approach the use of social media.

This image is good for two reasons; one because I just said “in theory” and two because this week we looked at social media censorship in communist China. As far as the ideologies go I’m with Homer on this one. If executed correctly communism could be the best thing that ever happened to the world. The problem is the natural human instincts of greed and power - but these are topics of discussion for another day.

With regards to internet censorship, specifically social media, the Chinese government - much like some of their counterparts in the middle east and South America - have used their iron rule to not only censor popular western destinations like Facebook but they have avoided revolt and dissent amongst their people by appeasing them with virtually identically functioning homegrown products to fill the void. Giving the people what they want, keeping them happy, and keeping them thoroughly pinned down inside the four walls of the glorious regime. Amazingly there are roughly half a billion people using Chinese social media at any given time - that’s 1/15th of the worlds population (approximately). 

China isn’t the only nation that censors what it’s people can see, ironically just about every ‘free’ western country has measures in place to chop and change what we see daily - the difference being that they don’t restrict things entirely. Strategic advertising and product placement is just as much apart of internet censorship in Australia as the blockage of Twitter is in China. Chinese people may not have ‘Google’ as we know it but they can probably make a search without their information being sold on to third parties to allow for geotagged results using their location to try and cater to them. From the outside we talk about this censorship and interference it would be interesting to see if the Chinese onine experience is more authentic than our own given that the content they have available to them has not been tainted.

I’d like to finish this post by saying thank you to everyone who has commented or engaged in any way with my post so far - hopefully you’ve found them enjoyable and I’ve been able to both comprehend what we have learned and give you a different angle from which to look at things. Cheers.

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That last minute rush to get everything done before deadline actually makes you wonder if you’d be better off on the boat...

good luck and solidarity to all my peers up late and scrambling for the finish line right now! we’re in the same boat ~ 

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Week 10: Social Gaming

Week 10 was probably my favourite topic out of all those covered - mainly because I thought I might get to play some games and pass it off as work. Unfortunately this was not the case - though I did manage to find a suitable subject for my final essay, and one that made writing it quite easy (which is usually a bad thing, but I hope for my sake that it’s just because I am knowledgeable on the case study). 

Social gaming is one of my favourite past times, in particular the Online world of Grand Theft Auto. Together with two of my good pals I am the president of the Hells Harambe’s Motorcycle Club. We grow pot, we cut coke and we manufacture meth in a large scale operation which takes the tender loving care of all three of us (and sometimes some ring ins).

Running a shady criminal empire probably wouldn’t be anywhere near as fun as it sounds without having a couple of mates on the other end of a headset to share a laugh and some strategic murdering with. Waddell & Peng (2014) explored this subject in their research paper Does it matter with whom you slay? The effects of competition, cooperation and relationship type among video game players and found that “cooperative game play was found to predict increased cooperative behaviors and trust in their partner” Personally I am inclined to agree with them on this as I have complete trust in my  second, both in virtual reality and in real life where we are good friends, however I don’t know that this extends to makeshift alliances. Often if we allow an outsider into our inner sanctum it will only be for a short while - and afterwards they will be “let go” as they are nothing more than fodder and would only be called upon if need be. After all, why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free?

But social gaming to me means so much more than online shooters or fantasy roleplaying. Roleplaying, in the traditional sense of words on paper, has been a part of my life for the best part of the last 10 years in one form or another and I have loved it since I first encountered it. It is somewhat disheartening then as a long time “competitive writer” as some may call it to see that our art is not even thought of in the new media society where social gaming seems to have replaced old fashioned communities with fast, money grabbing apps on social platforms like candy crush. This is the subject that I have chosen to complete as a case study for my final essay so I may leave it there before I give away all my secrets!

References

Waddell, J & Peng, W 2014, ‘Does it matter with whom you slay? The effects of competition, cooperation and relationship type among video game players’, Computers in Human Behavior, vol. 38, pp. 331–338.

Hells Harambes MC [image], rockstarsocialclub, viewed 5 February 2017, <https://socialclub.rockstargames.com/crew/hells_harambes_mc>

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Week 9: Visual Communities and Social Imaging

As a society we seem to be desperate to find motivation and/or inspiration wherever we turn. What was once the noble art of photography has become something of a hobby for anyone with an iPhone and there are more photos of peoples pub meals online now than there are pubs in the world (probably). When I first started reading up on the topics covered this week the first thing that instantly came to mind was an image I had seen on Facebook many times (but for the life of me cannot find now!)

Promoting individualism and the idea that we are all special it is  simple stock photo of a single white flower amongst a sea of red poppies with a caption to the effect of “why fit in when you were born to stand out”. Sure, some may find this inspirational or motivating - however - it loses its sheen somewhat when you see it on loop, as it is, copy and pasted hundreds of times only with different names and profile images next to it. 

Yes, photography is a different beast today than it was when you would round up the family in their Sunday bests and meet with a photographer or an afternoon of snaps - nowadays if you see something, you have your phone out and it is captured and online before you could even spell photographer. This was made no more clearer to me than when I reached that magical age where, well I’ll let the Skyhooks explain:

Weddings used to be all about the fanfare and the pomp and ceremony with photographers and videographers running around making memories that would last forever - which has now become a thing of the past, seemingly with apps like WedPics which allow guests to log in to the wedding album and take as many photos as they like, which can then be accessed in high definition clarity and remembered for years to come. The cost of this is considerably cheaper as well compared to the traditional photographer - not saying that their time and effort is not worth the money - but to put it in perspective my wife and I will have been married 2 years in June and we still haven’t been able to afford to pay off the last part of our album!

Fortunately it’s not all doom and gloom on the selfie front thanks to one of my favourite photosharing apps - Snapchat. Unlike the rest the images don’t last for very long and you can make some hilarious changes with filters and the ability to draw on pictures. Snapchat is one of the best additions to social media in recent times, in my humble opinion, because it lets you connect with people without being constantly in contact with them - and whatever you show them disappears after a while so there’s no monthly cleanse of your downloads to remove 2GB of images and stupid videos of cats (thanks to all my WhatsApp group chat pals for that). The only downside to Snapchat is, well, ghosts...

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Week 8: Crowdsourcing in times of crisis

How many times have you signed into Facebook after a devastating natural disaster or global event and seen your friends marking themselves as being safe - despite being on the opposite side of the world?

No? Maybe that’s just the kind of company I keep then.

Lightheartedness is a precious gift in a moment of crisis but, for all the fake check-ins and banter that goes on between friends, the real winner is society who now have the ability to instantaneously send a message around the world to anyone who may be worried about them with the tap of a thumb. No more waiting on hold to call through to crisis centres or spending days worrying with no way of making contact. All of this potential heartache has been eliminated by the global presence of social media and the unbreakable spirit that lives within us all.

I myself can recall a Saturday afternoon in February 2009 when friends and family all came within kilometres of raging bushfires. Black Saturday was just known as Saturday then and it wasn’t until now, looking back, I realise how we too were crowdsourcing information from one another. The town I lived in was on lockdown, nobody in or out, and as the sunset from our front verandah in between showers of ash you could see the ominous glow of a bushfire. There wasn’t much we could do but sit around and wait it out and I remained in contact with my friends, most of whom were closer to the fires path, through trusty old MSN Messenger. We all chatted and joked and fortunately for all of us the fires were brought under control and our lives carried on as normal. Looking back I realise the comfort that it gave me being able to speak with those friends and I realise now that without the internet that would not have been possible. In the context of our learning materials I realise that crowdsourcing is spoken about on a global scale, but it’s more than that, it’s as simple as two friends sharing a message to say that they are alright and telling each other what they have seen. The beauty of social media is that it amplifies this and those two friends messages can be shared amongst thousands and used to bring both comfort and knowledge to all around them.

References

Facebook 2015, Nepal Earthquake Safety Check, April 25, viewed 3 February 2017, <https://www.facebook.com/safetycheck/nepalearthquake>

Homer on Hold [image], giphy.com, viewed 3 February 2017, <http://media.giphy.com/media/xT5LMtGgXDDnerda0g/giphy.gif>

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Week 7- Trolling and social media conflict

For the purpose of this blog post I will be looking at trolling and social media conflict from the perspective of anonymous comments, random attacks and spontaneous posting. Systematic bullying of a known subject is wrong, it is heartless and nobody deserves to be the subject of such victimisation - be it cyber or otherwise.

After looking over the reading materials and reflecting on the conversation from Week 7 one of the most fascinating things I found to come out of this topic of conversation is the apparent double standards with regards to how social media and the use of social media is viewed. On one hand there is the perspective that cyber bullying is a real and prevalent issue in our society - which it is, to an extent - that cannot be stopped without writing laws, making changes to legislation and re-commissioning the cyberpolice (assuming they weren’t just made up by this guy). 

On the other is the belief that we are living in an online fantasy world where we present ourselves in a certain way, as an online persona if you will, to show off the life we want people to think that we have (TED-ed, 2013). Instagram photos of fancy things. Facebook check-in’s at lavish places. Reblogging the latest fitness craze to show how healthy and spiritual we are on Tumblr.

So which is it?

In the world of social media if we are so isolated and disconnected from reality, presenting to the worlds our ideal self, how then can our ‘reality’ be defined by something that should, in essence, not matter to us at all? An attack on an entity that doesn’t exist, or only exists within the confines of the world wide web? To this end it seems to be a case of having your cake and eating it too, depending on your own personal circumstances.

Sticks and Stones may break our bones but as society progresses and finds new ways to interact words seem to be getting more and more powerful. Why? The only logical explanation, based on the theory explored here, is that the only thing worse than being bullied outside by ‘real’ people is having the idea of the ‘perfect you’ belittled by someone (who you probably don’t even know) online. The sad reality of this situation is that some people don’t know how to disconnect and, whether they realise they are doing it or not, give in to the pressure - or “feed the trolls” for want of a better phrase. Each individual person is entitled to their own beliefs and their own opinions and I respect that as much as the next person - and want to reiterate that I do not condone bullying in any form - however, if you ask me there is one very simple way to avoid cyber bullying and/or trolling - and it’s got Paul Anaka’s guarantee (guarantee void in Tennessee)

References

KnowYourMeme 2017, Jessi Slaughter, KnowYourMeme.com, viewed 2 February 2017,

Smosh 2011, Facebook You vs Real You [Image], viewed 2 February 2017,

TED-Ed 2013, Connected, but alone?- Sherry Turkle, 19 April, viewed 2 February 2017,

The Simpsons 1995, Paul Anka and Lisa Simpson - Just don’t look, October 29, viewed 2 February 2017,

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This is a brilliant quote - and scarily applicable - not dissimilar to a comparison made between the likelihood of 2022 being just like it is in Soylent Green...

“What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture.”

– Andrew Postman from Guardian article My dad predicted Trump in 1985 – it’s not Orwell, he warned, it’s Brave New World

An interesting read about the future of the media, politics, factual information and our attention spans!

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Almost on cue; the irony of which I spoke about in my week 6 post appears again in the media

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Week 6 - Activism & Protest

Before we get started I would like to offer a word of advice to my fellow students. No matter how good of an idea it may seem at the time, never try and move house in the middle of a teaching period and expect it to go smoothly - because, naturally, it won’t. Fumigation, lack of internet connection, and electricity disruptions later here we are ready to kick the final 6 posts of this term over the bar, or into the net or wherever you like to see it go in your preferred sporting code.

In week 6 we looked at the role social media and digital communities play in aiding activism & protesting. With the sheer enormity of the online world it is impossible not to see the benefits of this medium - one which has exploded in recent times. An early example of this digital activism renaissance can be seen in the infamous Kony 2012 documentary which brought the medium of digital activism to the forefront.

While the digital community is the ideal way to spread a message to a mass audience it would be foolish to think that it can in anyway make a real difference without substantially backing from;

Accredited not for profit bodies

Government assistance

Substantial funding from independent backers

What it can do, however, is create the spark which could ignite any of these three powder kegs into beginning significant action. 

Perhaps the biggest downfall of promoting activism in this way is the ‘social justice warrior’. A casual observing, nonchalant member of the digital community (or slacktivist) who feels that by ‘liking’ and ‘sharing’ superfluous articles to their friends they are making a difference to society as a whole - when really they are doing nothing more than justifying their own social beliefs to themselves in a thinly veiled attempt to appear up to date on current affairs. This is not to discredit their intentions but the manner in which they are conveyed is often irrational and this can be detrimental to the cause that they are trying to promote. An example of this can be seen in the irony of Anti-Trump supporters protesting, and promoting violence against their opposition, for fear of said opposition acting in the way that they are themselves. An irony which seems to be lost on many of these individuals. 

Using the digital community as a means to promote change for activists is a wonderful tool that, when used effectively can encourage change, however this needs to be done thoughtfully and insightfully to avoid damaging the causes in the process.

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When panic sets in that you can’t remember your email or password for your blog - it’s alright - I remembered before I had to start all over. Time to go crazy with 6 weeks of catching up to do - sorry in advance 

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Politics & Civic Cultures

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Digital Communities and Social Media - An Introduction of sorts