Sweet Digital

It’s almost old new now that China has banned Facebook, Google, YouTube and a list of other social media platforms that western countries visit daily, or hourly. But are they still functioning without it? Of course! According to Duncan Clark in the below video, China are copy-cats and have managed to keep social media platforms by creating their own (in most cases, better versions of their counterparts). 

DLD13 - How social media is changing China and Asia (2013) <http://bit.ly/1BHSpbp>

The Chinese government made the decision to ban the social media platforms to gain more control over what was shared and what was posted with regards to the government and/or political parties. In 2013 the Chinese Supreme Court ruled that people who committed slander by spreading roomers could face jail time up to three years if their original post was shared more than 500 times, or seen by 5000 people (China Uncensored, 2014). The first person to be arrested under this new policy was 16 year old, Yang Hui.

So is China becoming the new North Korea? According to Michael Anti (2012), China has the same ban from Facebook to that of Iran, Syria and North Korea. This ban has created wars in Iran and Syria, but China has been allowed to create their own version that is highly monitored by the government. 

According to CNN Tech (n.d.), the founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg has visited China a number of times -- even shaking hands with President Xi Jinping. This relationship still has not reversed the law to have Facebook banned from usage. 

After speaking with a friend who has visited China many times, she explained that most Chinese youth use WeChat for everything from sharing images, chatting with friends, meeting new people and even paying for things. The application is easily accessible and provided a platform that has resulted in the Chinese not feeling the need to have a Facebook, Instagram or Twitter account. 

References:

China Uncensored, 2014, ‘Is facebook a destabilizing force for chinese society?’, accessed 03 February 2018, <http://www.visiontimes.com/2015/03/28/is-facebook-a-destabilizing-force-for-chinese-society.html

Words with Friends was released in 2009 by Zynga and soon took over with thousands of people playing numerous games of online scrabble (Zynga, 2014). Because the game was promoted via Facebook, it made it easier to spread by asking players to challenge their Facebook friends and share their scores. 

The same story goes for FarmVille which was created by the same developers as Words with Friends. Players are able to communicate wit other ‘farmers’ and challenge one another through the game. The popularity of these online games spread as they were more accessible and did not require as much patience as more traditional games. 

Our lives have been influenced by video games for much longer than one would think - 46 years to be exact (Diplomats, 2016). Thinking back to your childhood, I’m sure there are a few games that spring to mine. My childhood was mostly climbing trees and ‘digging to China’ in the sandpit, but there were the odd raining day where my siblings and I would take turns running from boulders in Crash Bandicoot. 

Gaming has come so far in 46 years. From arcades and consoles, to online-gaming and virtual reality (Diplomats, 2016). It is amazing what is available in the world of gaming for children in today’s society. 

Watch this short video about Shanna Zwart and her experience with gaming.

As she mentions, most non-gamers view gaming as something that is incredibly anti-social and a way of disconnecting from the real world. Her experience was the complete opposite and has really opened my eyes to the positive side of online-gaming and virtual reality. It’s too easy to judge someone else’s choice in life because they sit inside for hours on end playing video games online and probably have no idea of what is going on outside of their house. Shanna has opened my mind to the thought that because I am not a gamer and have had no real interest in joining a gaming community, that it isn’t just an anti-social act of disconnecting from the world, it can be a real positive step for many to feel accepted and reconnect with the world on another level. 

References:

Diplomats, M 2016, ‘Video games and their effect on modern day society’, Huffpost, <https://www.huffingtonpost.com/montclair-diplomats/video-games-and-their-eff_b_9873646.html>

I often find myself telling people about a ‘friends’ snap I saw on Snapchat or post I saw on Instagram, only to realise the ‘friend’ I was referring to was in fact Gwyneth Paltrow and she was in no way my actual friend. But the social media platforms of Instagram and Snapchat have enabled individuals from all walks of life to share their everyday lives with millions (if not trillions) or people with one click of a button.  Social imaging and visual communities have changed the way we interact and in way it has set high standards for how one should view their own lives.  Instagram, Pinterest, Snapchat and Flickr have provided platforms that almost create a different world for users where they have the choice to share sections of their lives, while leaving other sections hidden. These sections are then viewed by others and can create the illusion that their sheets are always perfectly matching, their fruit bowl is always stocked and their pantries are colour coordinated - because this is how it is portrayed on visual communities right?

"Changing in media technologies have engendered changes in how we capture, remember and communicate personal images of everyday and family images” ( Burgess & Vivienne, 2013, p.280)

Going back to my ‘friend’ Gwyneth Paltrow. Have a look at her pantry. 

She shares images of her home and her lifestyle within visual communities and her followers are always astounded by the amount of organisation she has to her supposedly busy life. Prior to the technology that allows the sharing of such images, people would have never known that Gwyneth has OCD tendencies, or that Kim Kardashian has a bowl of porridge with banana for breakfast. Visual communities have allowed the world to gain insight into personal lives which has changed the way the social platforms are used. 

Watch this short video about the art of flatlay by Marianna Hewitt (2017).

With the rise in Instagram usage, more and more users are creating accounts to attract masses and create their own personal brand (Sensis Social Media Report, 2017). Tanya Hennessy has created a list of accounts to share her tutorial videos that are relatable by most women. See below.

So what’s your thoughts on visual communities? Have they set the bar too high for everyday people? Or do the ‘Flatlay Queens’ help inspire people to be more create in their own lives?

References:

Burgess, J E & Vivienne, S 2013, The remediation of the personal photograph and the politics of self-representation in digital storytelling, Journal of Material Culture, 18(3): 279-98, accessed online 03 February 2018, <https://eprints.qut.edu.au/62708/1/Vivienne-Burgess-ImagingDigitalLives_revised_final.pdf>

Hennessy, T 2017, Everyday make up tutorial, 26 Feb, viewed 03 February 2018, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_3-QKY99qE>

Hewitt, M 2017, How to take flatlay photos for instagram, 15 Oct, viewed 03 February 2018, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lN64Lw_ivuE>

Crowdsourcing is the act of taking a job traditionally dedicated to an individual employee, and outsourcing it to a generally undefined, large group of people. (Howe, 2009). Watch this quick video to better understand the concept: Crowdsourcing and Crowdfunding Explained

Wikipedia is one of the most well known forms of crowdsourcing where a large group of people are able to document and share information about certain topics for the world to view and learn from. 

The main idea of crowdsourcing is to make people’s lives easier and better. Sourcing services and information from a broader community results in quicker response times, but also increases the chance of error and unreliability of information. 

Uber is a great example of a modern technology paired with crowdsourcing. According to Vachhani (2015), Uber was almost a throw away idea by the founder Garrett Camp, and entrepreneur, Travis Kalanick. They realised the dire need for better taxi services in their busy city of San Francisco and thought about a system the could be more cost-effective and streamlined to keep customer service at the forefront of the business model. Their idea of connecting drivers directly with customers through an app has the same concept of many other crowdsourcing applications, but still presents the idea of ethical and legal issues.  The lack of confidentially is one major concern for those using crowdsourcing platforms depending on the platforms affordances (Wagorn, 2014). Even if there are legally binding forms in place, you can still not fully trust that someone is who they say they are and for whom they work for. 

Above is an amazing video by TED that goes into explaining the world issues such as world hunger, natural resource targets and fighting corruption and how we could use crowdsourcing to overcome these issues (Drummond, 2012). Have a watch.. it’s truely amazing.  Jamie Drummond goes into explaining how poverty rates in Africa are being reduced and the poor are being located in countries that are going through natural disaster, all through crowdsourcing applications. This is the way we can solve the worlds problems (Drummond, 2012) . 

References:

Drummond, J, 2012, How to set goals for the world, June 2012, viewed 01 February 2018, <https://www.ted.com/talks/jamie_drummond_how_to_set_goals_for_the_world#t-47348>

Howe, J, 2009, Crowdsourcing: why the power of the crowd is driving the future of business, Three River Press, New York, Accessed online 01 February 2018, <https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/83579/crowdsourcing-by-jeff-howe/9780307396211/>

Digitization has changed the way the world communicates. We know this right? Back in the day our ancestors would have had to send letters, smoke signals and carrier pigeons to communicate (Check out these 10 weird ways of communicating), whereas today we have the luxury of communicating via numerous social media platforms to send instant messages, share pictures and video chat. Life seems easier, right?

Unfortunately, these platforms have also allowed for wide spread negativity. Internet trolls are sweeping the web causing much havoc than ever expected. Hostile messages, abuse, deception and manipulation are all forms of trolling and it’s made social media platforms a playground of hurt. So what aspects of social media have made the job of trolls so easy?

‘Trolling has been characterised as a loose set of acts and activities, and as cultures of practice and modes of social media participation’ (Savory 2017, n.p.). But although trolling is undesirable, it is now a fact of our social media lives and is made easy through different social platforms affordances .  Journal ‘Under the bridge: An in-depth examination of online trolling in the gaming’ authors Christine Cook, Juliette Schaafsma and Marjolijn Antheunis (2017) uncovered three key motivations for trolls - those being: personal enjoyment, revenge, and thrill-seeking. All at the expense of others. 

Social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram allow for trolls to communicate with other users outside of their direct network. Therefore the disconnection is greater and the temptation for a trolls to spread their opinions or negative messaging is higher.  Boyd (2014) explains that young people use social media in a way that can create drama between peers and instead of blaming the technology or platform in which they are a user of, they should focus on the way they use the platform and better understand it’s affordances.  Do you agree? Are social media platforms making it easier to spread negativity and hatred messages? Or is society just changing? References:

Boyd, D 2014, 'Bullying: Is the Media Amplifying Meanness and Cruelty?', in It’s Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens, Yale University Press, New Haven, USA, pp. 128-52.

Remember when we all rallied together online and some in person for something to do with Kony? I do. I remember sharing videos, posts and status’ on Facebook about Kony 2012 with little understanding of the cause, but it must have made me feel some what powerful and part of a wider community coming together for.. Kony?!. 

But according to Park (2013), this type of social activism known as clicktivism isn’t doing the world an good. Apparently it is time and money that gets things done, whereas raising awareness on social media of political issues, charities and protests are only encouraging people to think that their job is done if they like, share or ‘react’ to a post instead of actually acting on it or donating time and money. 

Kony 2012 was done and dusted on social media shortly after it was launched, but surprisingly nothing happened. Barcia (2013) reports that in 2013, Joseph Kony was still at large and although the organisation running the protest raised a large amount of funds, their funds went predominantly into marketing campaigns and spreading the messages instead of actions to stop Kony. Instead of spreading the right messages, Drumbl (2012) explains that many images of children carrying weapons, young male soldiers and child abduction have been ‘Afrikanised’ and do not portray the right messages as they do not match the real situation. So is clicktivism promoted more on some social media platforms due to their affordances? Of course! Facebook and Instagram allow users to like, follower and re-post posts which gives users a sense of community and the feeling that they are contributing to a worthy cause. So in reality, social media is making it easier for charities to spread the message, but harder to promote the desirable actions of donating and volunteering. Think before you like, share or react for you could be adding to the damage that is clicktivism.

References: Barcia, M, 2013. Whatever happened to kony 2012?. Opinion / Afghanistan, accessed online 22 Jan 2018, <http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/201311510541807406.html>

Donald Trump tweets. Hillary Clinton shares campaign videos on YouTube. The Black Lives Matter movement started as a hashtag (Cohen & Luttig 2016).

This week, we took a look into the way that social media has changed politics and the way it has radicalised young people. As a group of four, we presented numerous issues including the way ISIS present information through social media and how this impacts/or doesn’t impact on the general public political understanding. 

Twitter seems like the perfect social media platform for political parties and politicians as individuals. Murthy (2001) explains that 'Twitter is unique in facilitating interactions across discrete social networks' and it has the ability to strike up conversation between strangers as one of its main affordances is to enable posts to be viewed by anyone outside of your immediate contacts (i.e. those not following your account). 

To expand on this, I want to look closer at how social media played a part in Donald Trump being elected as America’s 45th and current President. 

‘Make America great again’ - Donald Trump (over and over on social media).

In 2017, 81% of America had a social media platform (Statista 2017). Donald Trump used this in his favour to reach those far and wide to gain votes for an election most were sure he was going to lose. 

With over 44 Million followers on Twitter, Donald Trump has tweeted over 36.5K tweets covering everything from political news, controversial updates and undecipherable blab that has everyone guessing what he is going on about (Remember: Covfefe? - well that went viral in seconds). 

So really, the matter of the fact is that Donald is just that little bit better at sparking engagement on social media when compared to his competition Hillary Clinton. It’s not how many followers he has or how often he tweets, it more about his openness and ability to spread the message wide through shares/ retweets/ likes/ follows etc. This is the aim on social media and Donald Trump has used this to his advantage. So according to a survey conducted by Pew Research Center, 35% of Americans aged between 18 and 29 have said that social media was their primary source of information leading up to the presidential election (2016). 

Google was also full of people searching Donald Trump (228 million to be exact) and only 145 million typed Hillary Clinton (Forbes 2016). This just goes to show that the conversation was booming for Trump! Those controversial and sometimes undecipherable tweets really did assist in his election votes.  He presented himself as a part of the community having direct conversation with the public, sharing new reports and constantly updating his feed. Hillary chose a more professional approach of only posting where necessary and only boasting about herself and what she promises America once she is elected. 

So there you have it. Social media is a powerful tool in more ways than one. Now I ask you, would you have voted for Donald Trump? and what do you think he meant to say instead of Covfefe?

References

Cohen, C & Luttig, D 2016, ‘How social media helps young people-especially minorities and the poor-get politically engaged’, The Washington Post, 9 September, viewed 30 November 2017, A<https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2016/09/09/how-social-media-helps-young-people-especially-minorities-and-the-poor-get-politically-engaged/?utm_term=.026be59c9683>.

Forbes 2016, ‘Donald Trump Vs. Hillary Clinton -- The Social Media Report’, 07 August, viewed 04 December 2017, <https://www.forbes.com/sites/williamarruda/2016/08/07/donald-trump-vs-hillary-clinton-the-social-media-report/#6046b5b9128f>

Statista 2017, ‘Percentage of U.S. population with a social media profile from 2008 to 2017′, viewed 04 December 2017, <https://www.statista.com/statistics/273476/percentage-of-us-population-with-a-social-network-profile/>

Murthy, D 2013, Twitter: Social Communication in the Twitter Age, Wiley, pp. 1-13.

How many times have you checked your phone today? When you need to know the new headlines, would you wait for the morning news report or would you visit Twitter or Facebook? I often take a step back from social media because I feel that it has consumed my life a little too much at times. After being Digital Content Creator for two large state events, I now take pleasure in switching off my phone and zoning out with a book or face-to-face conversation. In fact, this is how it used to be. ‘Most people lived in small villages, knowing not only each other, but each other’s parents and grandparents, children, cousins, uncles and aunts!’ (Siapera 2012 p. 192). So how has social media changed our lives and what does this mean for the future of social interaction and relationship building?

In 2014, Business 2 Community published a blog article ‘How Social Media Has Changed Us: The Good and The Bad’. Keeping in mind that it is now 2017, this blog still raises some interesting points. Social media has allowed immediate access to information and the ability for your voice to be globalised. Spreading news has never been easier and I am sure we can all remember a piece of breaking news that we learnt about via social media - for example Michael Jackson’s death or the Vegas gun man. Social media is the broadcaster of social change in society, terror and violence, famous birth and deaths and all news between. But there is a lot of bad about social media. 

Social media makes it incredibly easy for individuals and groups to hide behind anonymity. ISIS use social media to recruit fighters, yet no one is certain who is behind the mounds of videos posted on behalf of ISIS followers (ABC News 2015). Randi Zuckerberg, sister of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, announced that anonymity “should go away.” She said, “I think anonymity on the Internet has to go away. People behave a lot better when they have their real names down. … I think people hide behind anonymity and they feel like they can say whatever they want behind closed doors.” (Huffington Post 2011).

So what’s your verdict? Has social media made our world a better place for broader communication, or has it made us less connected and more fearful?

References

ABC News 2015a, How US Officials say ISIS uses social media to recruit, 8 May, viewed 28 November 2017, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzN1rbqSvaQ>

Huffington Post 2011, Facebook’s Randi Zuckerberg: Anonymity Online ‘Has To Go Away’, 29 September, viewed 04 December 2017, <http://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/entry/randi-zuckerberg-anonymity-online_n_910892>

It’s true though isn’t it? Although, the way social media is now being used by large corporations gives those ‘Insta-Famous’ individuals the chance to be millionaires!

Social media is quickly evolving with new platforms being created that offer different affordances from one another. Twitter varies greatly from Tumblr, and Tinder is different from Facebook, but there are similarities that keep users actively using them. These affordances mimic social behaviours that would have been performed face-to-face, via pen and paper of telephone call prior to social media platforms. 

Sinclaire and Vogus (2011) explain that large corporations use social networking sites to observe and connect with users, especially younger ones. These users have gained power over service and product offerings through social media and many corporations have changed the way they market their products or services to suit the way their target audience uses social media. For example, Red Bull and GoPro put a large percentage of their efforts into market their products via video platform YouTube as their target market is the ‘on-the-go’ young adult who has the urge of adventure and loves thrill seeking. 

Linkedin is a social networking sites often used by individuals to connect to businesses and potential empoyees, also by businesses for B2B marketing. Daisyme (2014) states that “when you connect with others in your professional field, you’re gaining more knowledge and insight since you’re interacting with colleagues”. Linkedin has made it easily for people to access information about companies and fields through the interests and backgrounds of the various connections. Communicating becomes more than just creating face-to-face relationships. It also creates a way of being able to promote yourself without having to go for an interview. The accessibility of online interaction is a an interesting concept that has changed human social behaviours considerably. 

So we have covered the positives. Now for some negatives. Have you ever realised that you follow other people’s daily lives via social media, but haven’t seen them face-to-face for years? I find I have a lot of connections on Facebook and Instagram that I would usually catch up with face to face, or communicate via another method (writing a letter or phone call) if social media wasn’t available. As Siapera has explained "[v]irtual communities come together on the basis of sharing information, ideas,feelings and desires (Calhoun, 2002) and is linked to 'to the loss of more traditional public places in which people came together' (Siapera 2012, p.194).

Allison Graham from TEDxSMU has made some amazing points in her video ‘How social media makes us unsocial’ (2014). She mentions that we touch our phones or check our phones more than 150 times a day. Within these 150 times, what is it that we are really doing that we still feel so disconnected from people? I often feel like I ‘forget’ to message my friends back to ‘forget’ to ask a friend out for a catch up, but I would definitely check my phone 150 times a day, if not more.  So what about you? Do you feel disconnected while being connected?

References

Graham, A 2014, How social media makes us unsocial, YouTube, viewed 08 Decmber 2017, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5GecYjy9-Q>

Siapera, E 2012, 'Socialities and Social Media', in Understanding New Media, Sage, London, pp. 191-208.