Let's get connected Digital Communities Blog

With the highest amount of social media users in the world and a huge participation rate of users of social media, it is easy to see why marketers and businesses around the globe are jumping onto the China bandwagon. But here is the catch, Facebook, Twitter, Google and pretty much most westernised social media platforms are banned from China. Just like they built in ye old times, China now has an equivalent online great wall to block ‘toxic influencers’ from entering their internet sphere, this is known as the Chinese Firewall. Take that modern day Mongolians AKA America.

But how do the local marketers and businesses sell their products? Interestingly enough Chinese consumers have an avid distrust of advertisements, their government body and generally question much of what is promoted to them via what we would call traditional methods. You’re probably thinking me too China, me too. So how do they manage the largest consumer industry in the world. Peer to peer reviews and Word of Mouth are huge to the Chinese population. Many of the products that their online friends and social media celebrities are promoting are considered trustworthy. ‘Guanxi’ is the act of forming online trustworthy relationships and is the key to selling your products to an online Chinese market.

What else is going to sell your product to your target audience and their networks of friends and family members? How about the hundreds of social media influencers and celebrities China has and their relationship with their followers? Social media has transcended boundaries around the globe but especially in China. Users are more likely to believe that they know a social media influencer when they’ve never actually met them before. Because to a user, they see this person every day, that person is a friend in everyday life via a livestream or social media platform. So why wouldn’t you trust the recommendation of a friend? Who cares if that friend is getting paid 50,000 for promoting a product they may not have even used?

But say this Chinese user actually buys the product and its bomb AF and then they post about it, share it, tell their friends about it. The wonderful art of social media, online networks and sociality means that they have become a cog in the wheel of consumerism. But also they now own a really great Mr bags bag, so who is the real winner?

$$$

 I like to learn and here you can too...

http://www.parklu.com/china-influencer-marketing-campaigns-2017/

http://retailinasia.com/headline/chinese-influencer-marketing-why-chinese-bloggers-sell-so-well-on-social-media/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qROXrmyMbQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4lk17pmofM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZs2i3Bpxx4

From playing hide and go seek as kids to jumping online to play Minecraft with your mates, social games have changed since I was a little’n. There are now entire networks where you can create an avatar and socialise with hundreds of others users, games like First Life and IMVU give you the opportunity to create hyper realities or even a new world, a separate online life, hey you can even get married if you want. Or jump into World of Warcraft and go battle some other gamers who might be a panda. Yep you read that right. Each gaming option has its own affordances and rules, do people always follow them? Not always.

But what happens when we take the sociality from real life and insert it into an often hyped up gaming atmosphere free from face to face interaction, (with sometimes less rules) whilst still giving access to a community of others?

Welp let’s begin with the downsides of social gaming, oh yeah the gritty stuff. Just like crack social gaming is addictive. You are reading the words from someone who has spent 8 hours playing Minecraft with friends at the same time as having several essays due. Cracking use of time. But there are people who literally get sent to addiction boot camps in Korea. That’s wack. Not to mention the incredible amount of abuse and general hate gamers can experience. Games like Call of Duty have audio and visual chats where things get heated real quick. If that wasn’t enough I’m going to quote your favourite infomercial and say ‘but wait, there’s more!’. Isolation and social anxiety IRL (in real life) are also huge concerns. Yes, you can communicate online with randos that you’ve never met but can you do the same at the grocery store? And last but not least, most definitely the most disturbing, aggression. Insert video of crazy teen losing his shit over online gaming here.  

Ok, ok we’ve seen the bad but there are also really awesome perks to this whole online gaming scene. Just like with other social media, online gaming opens up people to communities and networks from around the globe. You could be playing DOTA with some kid from South Africa and become best pals and hey who knows visit him one day. Not to mention the brain stimulation that happens when you are playing tactical games with others is far more than if you are sitting in front of a Brooklyn Nine Nine episode. This leads me onto my next point which is that learning to work as a team and improving your cooperation skills comes hand in hand with certain online gaming arenas. For instance Portal 2 demonstrates working with others to achieve success, it also has you working on problem solving abilities at the same time. Finally, and my personal favourite, social gaming is great at improving your hand eye coordination. Take the Wii Sports game for instance and playing Tennis. This social game should improve your hand eye, or at least your forehand.

 Places on the interwebs that make my brain bigger

 https://www.huffingtonpost.com/scott-steinberg/video-games_b_1695116.html

http://blog.noplag.com/impact-of-online-games-on-college-students-pros-and-cons/

https://www.readersdigest.com.au/healthsmart/conditions/mental-health/pros-and-cons-playing-computer-video-games?items_per_page=All

https://www.benzinga.com/14/09/4883412/online-gaming-advantages-disadvantages-threats-and-their-solutions

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-03-08/teens-addicted-to-gaming/5306534

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_KBnLUTMIg

http://www.adweek.com/digital/social-games/

https://www-sciencedirect-com.ezproxy.lib.swin.edu.au/science/article/pii/S0747563211002706

When I think about health across social media the very first image that comes to mind are the before and after shots shown on the many #fitspo accounts I follow in instagram. Why do I follow these accounts? Here is a fun fact for you, I used to be fat. If you looked at me today you probably couldn’t imagine it. So here is a visual, this morning I hit the scales at 62kg and my height is roughly 5 foot 6 inches. But, 5 years ago I was roughly 20 kgs heavier and had just broken up with my college sweetheart (not so sweetheart now). #unhealthyrelationshipweight #healthyremindertostopeatingcrap.

So sad and fat I went on a rampage and followed every group, page, blog, pinned everything on Pinterest subscribed to new YouTubers and researched the crap out of healthy eating and weight loss. And boy was there a lot. However, most of my #fitspiration was coming from Instagram.

The #fitspo pages I followed on insta were daily reminders of what can be done when you put your mind to it. Hey if other people could shed 30kg why couldn’t I? These insta posts were also a regular guilt reminder that I was out of shape and hated the way I looked. I mean if you are constantly comparing yourself to beautiful women rocking active wear with 6 packs and amazing booties and you don’t look that way of course you are going to feel crappy about yourself everyday. Luckily for me I have always liked a challenge and viewed these posts as a big ol’ challenge. Can I get my ass to look like that? Can I get that skinny again? CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!

However, for a huge number of social media users the always on lifestyle of Instagram and the fake nature that we represent ourselves across social media can have a negative effect on our health.  Our self confidence can be effected, anxiety and depression can increase as we constantly compare each other to pictures that have been edited to within an inch of their life. These pictures do not tell the real story. On many of these insta fitness pages you won’t find a photo of that girl downing a Big Mac on a drunken night out (even if she has done that) you only get the edited version of that influencer, only the positives. It also gives voice to those who may not even have a qualification or the right kind of certification/knowledge about health, fitness and well being. It could be some random plumber telling you what is healthy and what isn’t!

In my case things worked out ok. I lost 20kg, unfollowed 95% of those insta pages, unfollowed the Facebook pages that were not legit and cleared out all the garbage information I had been fed by the health and fitness industry via their social media accounts and online presence.

Friendly reminder, this is a blog, I’m no expert and you don’t have to take any of this to heart but some friendly advice from an old fatty; personal trainers know a lot more about how your body and muscles work best, nutritionists are a great source of info about food and nutrition and your friendly neighbourhood GP is far superior to Web MD. Get offline and check out the IRL experts.

 Check out this part of the web for info

https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/instagram-is-spurring-the-biggest-shift-the-fitness-world-has-seen-in-decades-a6990001.html

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/danielle-prager/fitness-and-social-media-a-match-made-in-heaven-or-hell_b_9218906.html

https://greatist.com/health/social-media-affects-fitness

http://time.com/5172989/exercise-social-media-psychology/

https://breakingmuscle.com/fitness/social-media-and-fitness-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly

https://www-tandfonline-com.ezproxy.lib.swin.edu.au/doi/abs/10.1080/08924562.2013.764794#aHR0cHM6Ly93d3ctdGFuZGZvbmxpbmUtY29tLmV6cHJveHkubGliLnN3aW4uZWR1LmF1L2RvaS9wZGYvMTAuMTA4MC8wODkyNDU2Mi4yMDEzLjc2NDc5ND9uZWVkQWNjZXNzPXRydWVAQEAw