ELZBTH.TRN

Underwood and Welser’s article demonstrate the extent to which protests have radically changed my means of the Internet. As a result of society’s fascination with the Internet and social media, today’s means of protests incorporate a mix of online and offline cultures. Social media has become the new outlet of protests--a combination of memetic information, humor, and real world activism. Likewise mentioned in the article, I thought it was amazing to see that the Church of Scientology could be under scrutiny by a group of anonymous people, and it really comes to show how threatening a group of hackers can be through the kind of resistance they put forth. From what I recall, Occupy Wall Street was heavily spread by Anons who hacked into websites like the New York Stock Exchange. Word of these protests rapidly circulated from New York City to Boston, prompting for more social movements to take place there. It didn't stop there, for Anons also helped to organize protests outside of the London Stock Exchange.

Coming into this class, I wasn’t really that aware of sites like 4Chan. I had heard of them, but I didn’t think it was as popular or mainstream as 9Gag, Buzzfeed, or Reddit. I’ve come to realize that 4Chan has generated a lot of memes and Internet phenomena that mainstream media companies virally spread.

Paul Mason articulates in “ Global Unrest: How the Revolution Went Viral” that today’s social activism has prompted, “the ability to deploy, without expert knowledge, a whole suite of information tools has allowed protesters across the world to outwit the police, to beam their message into the newsrooms of global media, and above all to assert a cool, cutting-edge identity.” Social media proves that it has the power to short-circuit typical editorial processes that could potentially filter what is deemed most important. The ubiquity of social media also gives social media activism the ability to seep into one’s conscience than would traditional social media. 

As shown through Lady Gaga’s fan base of Little Monsters by the article, the most dedicated fan bases on social media primarily stem from the celebrity’s authentic use of the social media platform. Little Monsters emerged as one of the largest fan bases due to Lady Gaga’s acitive presence on Twitter, tweeting, retweeting and replying to the millions of tweets she receives. More importantly, her level of activity on Twitter stems from the fact that she is one of few celebrities who controls her account--not by a management or publicity team. Sharing things that no typical fan would know of, Lady Gaga strengthens the emotional connection between her and her fans.

On a slightly different note, Taylor Swift is another one of those celebrities who is active on many social media platforms, from Twitter to Instagram to Tumblr. Like Lady Gaga, Swift also appears to run her social media platforms on her own, with some frequent promotional retweets and occasional replies. Moreover, she demonstrates her generosity and love toward her fans through social media. With fans who are able to identify with her music, Swift eagerly gives back to those who seek consolation or advice, going as far as giving relationship advice to a lucky fan about unrequited love.

Nick Yee’s article, “The Labor of Fun: How Video Games Blur the Boundaries of Work and Play” argues that gamers invest a lot of their time into shaping the virtual careers or second life established through the videos games they play. As shocking as it is to see that these individuals spend an average 22 hours a week playing, many of them make it a solid career dedicating their life to success in the game. At the same time, gamers spend more time crafting their second lives as a means of escaping their troubles in the real world. 

Wotanis and McMillan’s study “Performing Gender on YouTube” touches upon the aspects of gender performance as they become parodied by comedians on a wide range of social media platforms. In a democratic and public space like YouTube, users are encouraged to voice their thoughts, including gender norms. 

YouTube videos continually embrace the things that males and females do in a way that makes it relatable to the viewer. In particular, the presence of how-to’s and tutorials are prevalent among female YouTube beauty bloggers like Michelle Phan (Michellephan), Lindy Tsang (Bubzbeauty), and Blair Fowler (Juicystar07). Their videos of makeup tutorials exemplify female standards of beauty and the things that we prioritize. However, the tag “My Boyfriend Does My Makeup” became a viral trend on YouTube, where the boyfriends of these beauty bloggers are encouraged to put makeup on her--a test of gender norms since men do not normally spend their time prepping to go out. These videos are commonly seen as a form of humor given a man’s lack of experience in makeup application, which then results in a seemingly unsatisfying look. However, role reversals go in the other direction as well. In another example, male counterparts trick their significant others into doing so-called “manly” things such as changing car tires, expecting a terrible end result.

In reality, YouTube allows viewers to understand that some aspects of gender norms can be transparent in both gender spheres. A man can put on makeup  the same way a woman is capable of changing a tire. Ultimately, there can be circumstances that may drive individuals to perform norms of the opposite gender. 

Individuality proves to be a more prevalent aspect of consumer culture. There is an ongoing trend toward interaction through media and away from the top-down delivery of content. Every customer is their own market, and there is always this desire for products that tailor to their specific needs, even if he or she is willing to pay more for that. The web continually pushes the effort for an individual to be more self-expressive, so customization through the web becomes more transparent.

In Dara Murray's article, "Am I Ugly?: Female Beauty, Digital Media, and the True Me", it has become more apparent that vloggers question their beauty and thus impose that self-conscious question on their viewers. Soliciting those types of responses not only allow viewers to sense the vlogger's lack of confidence, but it also serves as gateway to self-deprecation among the viewers. If a female viewer watches such a video and sees a girl who she thinks isn't ugly reprimand herself, wouldn't that make a viewer question her standards of beauty and whether or not she is beautiful as a result?

Photoshop continues to manipulate standards of beauty across the media. Last September, Beyoncé--a celebrity who often embraces her beauty through her curves--faced scrutiny on Instagram for using photoshop on her thighs. 

Clark's study as presented in Dating on the Net concludes that the focus of Internet dating primarily centers on "individual gratification." With that being said, teenagers who attempt to date online don't seem to feel as committed to their partners because people enter the online dating world seeking instant gratification. Sometimes that kind of "fun" in a relationship involves less rules and restrictions and less of a need to follow the norms of dating offline. People get to control how they project themselves online to get the gratification of dating online. Personally, I find that my personality speaks out more to individuals of the opposite sex more than my physical attraction. As a result, more of my interactions in a chat room would tend to focus on exhibiting my personality to attract an individual. 

Despite not being the avid online dater, sometimes my friends and I would go on Chat Roulette for shits and giggles. While some people would leave their web cameras on, I turned off that particular feature--a hinted sign emphasizing my focus on . Since my intentions going into the site were rather sarcastic, I could "talk" to people and instantly die of laughter either from watching others do stupid things or from just having a funny conversation with a random stranger. 

Social media platforms like Facebook establish the tendency that information / facts are the quickest means of getting to know someone as more than just an acquaintance. Some people who lurk on Facebook to stay in the loop find that they are more familiar with other someone if they know her or her favorites or know random yet specific things about a particular person.

Seeing Deresiewicz mention this idea in his article prompted me to look through the Facebook "notes" I composed way back in high school. A few were titled 100 Truths, Girl Confessions, Time Wasters--all of which were meant to reveal some sort of silly, factual truth about myself to nearly 500-something friends at the time. I only did them because people tagged me, which would become a chain reaction of doing the same exact thing: revealing seemingly trivial yet partially significant information about myself to so-called friends. I don't really talk to these "friends" anymore, but they'll nevertheless know bits and bits of the truth because Facebook prompted that to happen.

Reading Marwick and Boyd's article really brought in an interesting perspective of authenticity as a celebrity. Like many other users, I hope to believe that the celebrities and verified accounts that I follow on Twitter are their actual voices--the ones who are eager to put their life out there and share it with the world. After reading this particular article, I've come to realize that authenticity is subjective. Sometimes you wonder if Twitter accounts like Britney Spears or Barack Obama are controlled by the people themselves or by their representatives. That being said, I think that definitely takes away the whole idea of authenticity. In my opinion, Twitter is one of many means for a celebrity to provide an unfiltered perspective on life, but if all that the Twitter account does is market for films, music, new fashion lines, etc., I don't think that's as authentic as it should be. 

Perhaps it's worth bringing up a similar controversy of authenticity on social media--not on Twitter but rather on Reddit. Ask Me Anything (AMA) is a subreddit that encourages Redditors to ask questions about literally anything while the featured celebrity truthfully answers the questions. This particular subreddit encourages honesty, and the last thing needed was to use AMAs as a marketing tactic. While many of them are successful, some are downright horrendous; Woody Harrelson's AMA, an effort to promote his film, was deemed the worst of all time. Whenever someone asked about Harrelson's life or about anything other than Rampart, he would quickly change topics and ask everyone to "focus on the film."

Like most people in the class, I was certainly not aware of the spectacle as a concept, but after reading through the articles, it is definitely an issue to keep in mind. Social media facilitates and amplifies the fact that experiences gradually lose authenticity as something spreads to people across multiple platforms. 

The kind of authenticity an individual loses results from the constant need to curate the self: finding the right selfie to post on Instagram; sharing a YouTube link that's gone viral--all of which can easily generate likes because they follow a trend. Despite the fact that social media could be used to enhance human interaction, this interaction has simply eroded into a mass of superficial experiences. We alienate the people around us for the sake of using social media, assuming that we are maintaining relationships online.

Based on my own personal experiences, I recently went on a cruise trip to the Bahamas and spent a day on an island called Coco Cay--probably one of the teeniest yet most gorgeous square mile of sand. As fun as it was touring the island on wave jets and strolling around the island with my family, there was a moment where I was on a lounger basking in sun rays. All I could think about was that this was the perfect Kodak moment that I wanted to share with close friends, so I did the typical #hotdogsorlegs picture. 

However looking back at it, I was definitely taking part in creating a spectacle, and I wasn't as focused on just enjoying the moment with my family. Being in the Bahamas is a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and to think that I was forgoing meaningful interactions with my family for the sake of following a photo trend was somewhat silly for me. I was taking pictures to maintain interactions with friends who live hundreds of miles away when the people who I should be spending more time with are within the closest vicinity. I could have been enjoying the sounds of ocean waves, the sights of little guppies in clear waters, the fact that these beaches were nothing like the ones in the U.S., but all these things were set aside so that I could curate into the person most people would be likely to see on social media.

Hi. I'm Elizabeth Tran, but everyone calls me Liz. 

I'm a sophomore from Livingston majoring in Communication. Y'all might be thinking I was born on a Rutgers campus, but nah; it's actually a teeny town in North Jersey. It's fun watching people get thrown off by this fact.

Words can't describe my use of social media. I'd like to think it provides a pretty good representation of myself. My Instagram adequately captures the four F's: family, friends, food, and fun. Maybe some shameless promoting too. Now that I think about it, my use of Snapchat has been pretty unpredictable. Then again, nobody knows what to expect when opening all these stories.

Ooh ooh, I should probably also mention my growing interest in Reddit. I never realized how much I loved it until this past semester. The front page is one thing but I love the /aww, /TIFU, and /askreddit subreddits. I'll never forget that I found a picture of a high school friend with a former Miss Universe, but the comments were even funnier.

Like everyone else, I'm looking forward to analyzing social media much more closely. Maybe I'll become more appreciative of it; maybe I'll loathe it that I could deactivate everything. Who knows, but I'm sure to finish the class with increased knowledge.

Until next time, toodle-loo.