Exploring Social Media

Image sourced from: http://socialmediainfluence.com/2012/05/28/infographic-how-china-became-a-force-in-social-media/

Social media engagement in China is vastly different to that of many other countries, with freedom of speech and the right to information being heavily censored by the government, “with the largest population of web users in the world, China also has one of the most restricted internets, with a host of measures employed to make sure that netizens cannot read about sensitive issues nor themselves post information the government deems threatening” (openDemocracy.net, 2013).   Jon Penney from Harvard’s Berkman Centre for Internet & Society and Toronto’s Citizen Lab describes the Great Firewall of China (GFC) as one of the “most technically sophisticated internet filtering/censorship systems in the world… Its depth, scope, and capacity is certainly impressive” (openDeomocracy.net, 2013).

Image sourced from: http://www.ketknbc.com/news/the-great-firewall-of-china-is-nearly-complete

In the western world we can use social media to express our political views, spread news of world events, or rally against a common threat within our community.  In China the GFC prevents users from posting unwanted information by blocking anything containing key words as decided by the government. To further their political interest they use groups such as the 50-cent party which are rumoured to be paid by the government “for each pro-government post.... to tweak the online debate in the preferred direction” (openDemocracy.net, 2013).  According to Rebecca Mackinnon from ForeignPolicy.com, citizens or companies who do not abide by the firewall are subject to severe punishment such as “Liu Xiaobo, who circulated the "Charter 08" treatise calling for multi-party democracy and who won a Nobel Peace Price in 2010, is serving a 10-year jail sentence... and in early 2011, dozens of people who re-tweeted calls for "jasmine protests" inspired by Tunisia’s "Jasmine Revolution" were questioned or arrested” (Mackinnon, 2012). 

Image sourced from: https://www.opendemocracy.net/china-correspondent/great-firewall-of-china

Due to lack of control the government has over mainstream social media platforms, China has created its own version of each in order to keep its citizens entertained online. Home grown blogging platforms like Sohu and Sina are the western equivalent of Tumblr, and Facebook is replaced by RenRen or Kaixinwang (openDempcracy.net, 2013). Furthermore, there is evidence to suggest that without firewalls Chinese citizens may be more likely to migrate to their own platforms over the mainstream, international ones.  Using Japan as an example, many citizens, due to social, language and economic differences choose to use local social media site GREE (www.gree.jp) over platforms such as Twitter and Instagram, even though there is no government restrictions on them accessing these sites (Chiu & Silverman , 2012).  Further evidence from within China is how citizens use their equivalent of YouTube, instead of short videos, consisting of funny animals or beauty “how to’s”  up to 70 percent of content uploaded to Youku  is commercially produced, long video content and citizens spend up to 1 hour a day watching in comparison to the American average of 15 minutes.  This suggests that the international equivalents may not suit the wants and needs citizens in China (Crampton, 2011).

Image sourced from: https://beyondnessofthings.wordpress.com/category/youkucom/

While there are many social media networking platforms that keep the Chinese citizens entertained and prevent the need for them to access international sites, the government will never prevent those seeking freedom of information in religion, politics or human rights from finding ways around and protesting against the firewall.

References

OpenDemocracy, 2013. The Great Firewall of China. openDemocracy.net . Available at: https://www.opendemocracy.net/china-correspondent/great-firewall-of-china. [Accessed 08 February 2015].

Chiu, C & Silverman, A, 2012. China’s social-media boom, McKinsey & Company.  Available at: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/marketing_sales/chinas_social-media_boom. [Accessed 08 February 2015].

Crampton T, 2011. Social Media in China: The Same, but Different. Thomas Crampton.com. Available at: http://www.thomascrampton.com/china/social-media-china-business-review/. [Accessed 08 February 2015].

Image sourced from: http://ronrik.com/augmented-reality-blog/mobile-phone-social-games-play-when-you-would-like/

Although online gaming as been around for a long time (think World of Warcraft or Second Life) it’s movement over to social media platforms has been lucrative for big businesses such as Zynga Inc. (the creators of Farmville), making an estimated profit of 711 million in 2014 (Yahoo Finance, 2015). It has also created opportunities for small time developers and programmers, building games from their homes, releasing them on apple and then selling them for large profits. Social gaming adds a fun aspect to staying in touch with family or friends that are not in the same geographical location as you, games such as Chess with Friends or Words with friends have allowed me to play the online-long distance version of Chess and Scrabble I played with my dad as a child. There is of course a significant downside to gaming that we all know too well.

Addiction

Image sourced from: http://gameaddictionz.blogspot.ca/

Social Gaming addiction is becoming an increasingly large problem in western society, with children, teens and males being the most susceptible. According to Clinical Psychologist Dr Brent Conrad “The addicted gamer often isolates him/herself from others, ignores more important responsibilities, and is often obsessed with obtaining higher status/ranking/achievements in his/her favourite computer game”. Conrad suggests the most addicted games “are open ended with clearly no defined end” and “are based on a leveling system that requires only minimal effort to "level-up" in the early stages…which slowly evolves into very long gaming sessions to reach the next stage as the game progresses”. These two points may suggest why there is an increasing amount of addicted players, with many social media platform games containing both these elements, Farmville anyone?

Image sourced from: http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/technology/3371258/Farmville-addicts-anonymous

 Gaming for Good

One positive outcome of social gaming is WeTopia, a game designed to raise money for children’s charities, created by Konami Digital Entertainment it is a free Facebook game where players create villages and help their neighbors.  Designed to be fun for users while at the same time helping solve real-world issues” (McNaughton M, 2011) The game raises money by having purchasable add on virtual goods which when purchase result directly in a donation to a real world cause. There is also additional “joy” points which can be obtained by liking one of the games sponsors on Facebook. (McNaughton M, 2011)

Image sourced from: http://therealtimereport.com/2011/12/06/will-social-gaming-for-social-good-make-a-difference/

WeTopia is a great example of using a popular social media activity for the greater good. However, games like this are in the minority against the hundreds if not thousands of profitable Farmville-like addictive games available on social platforms. Do you feel the positives of games like WeTopia outweigh the negatives of social gaming?

References

McNaughton, M. (2011). Will Social Gaming For Social Good Make A Difference. The Realtime Report. Available at:http://therealtimereport.com/2011/12/06/will-social-gaming-for-social-good-make-a-difference/. [Accessed: 1 February 2015]

De Zwart, Melissa and Humphreys, Sal. The lawless frontier of deep space: Code as law in EVE. Cultural Studies Review, Vol. 20, No. 1, Mar 2014: 77-99. Available at: http://search.informit.com.au/documentSummary;dn=225934593111540;res=IELAPA>ISSN: 1446-8123. [Accessed: 1 February 2015].

Yahoo, (2015) Yahoo Finance, Available at: http://finance.yahoo.com/q/ae?s=znga+Analyst+Estimates. [Accessed: 1 February 2015]

In the short time since our parents were young there have been drastic changes in the way we communicate with our social networks.  It is now rare to receive a letter in the mail or call someone from a corded phone. Today, we seldom let our mobile phones leave our sight and can be instantly contacted by our friends and family at any place, any time.  What’s interesting to note is, it is not just technology advances that have changed but a change in the type of communication we have with our social networks.  With the evolution of social media platforms such as instagram, snapchat, facebook and even YouTube our forms of communication are primarily visual and centred on the individual. Instead of traditional means (even email can be described as traditional in this sense) where the conversation is two sided, with both enquiring after the other, we now post “selfies” of ourselves on holidays, at a restaurant or being tagged a prestigious event we want people to know about. It’s all about advertising ourselves to our networks and receiving immediate feedback through comments, likes and shares. 

Image sourced from: http://www.soberrecovery.com/forums/user-created-social-groups/341707-fluffys-note-part-6-a-24.html

Due to its increase in use of 17,000% in just 12 months the word “Selfie” was named word of the year in 2013 and is now included the Oxford Dictionary. “Selfie” can be defined as “A photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically one taken with a smartphone or webcam and shared via social media” (The Guardian, 2013). Unsurprisingly, the “selfie” trend is most popular with young (23.7 is the estimated mean) women (selfiecity.com, 2015), what is surprising is according to the findings of a study conducted by selfiecity.net people take less “selfie’s” that often presumed, with only 3-5% of images uploaded being true “selfies”. 

Image sourced from: http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/nov/19/selfie-word-of-the-year-oed-olinguito-twerk

There is mixed debate from scholars on if the “selfie”, is a positive or negative trend. On one hand many believe it is creating a younger narcissistic generation and at the extreme can lead to addiction and mental illness. According to psychiatrist Dr David Neal “Two out of three of all the patients who come to see me with Body Dysmorphic Disorder since the rise of camera phones have a compulsion to repeatedly take and post “selfie’s” on social media sites” (True Activist, 2014).

Image sourced from: http://www.feeldesain.com/the-selfie-syndrome.html

On the other hand another group of scholars, who primarily identify as feminist, have formed The Selfie Researcher’s Network and are of the opinion that “selfies” empower the individual and reject traditional forms of beauty as portrayed by the mass media. It “may actually be uniquely characteristic of more complicated forms of marking time, disciplining the body, and quantifying the self” (Losh, 2015), such as providing motivation to exercise in order to look your best or to review and share a personal journey such as pregnancy or overcoming a mental illness. Furthermore, political activist Susan Sontag writes, “to photograph is to appropriate the thing photographed. It means putting oneself into a certain relation to the world that feels like knowledge – and, therefore, like power” (Sontag, 1977: 4) (Lee, 2005).

Image sourced from: http://flavorwire.com/471413/feministsareugly-doesnt-deserve-your-gorgeous-selfies

  References

Losh E, 2015. Beyond Biometrics: Feminist Media Theory Looks at Selfiecity. Selfiecity. Available at: http://d25rsf93iwlmgu.cloudfront.net/downloads/Liz_Losh_BeyondBiometrics.pdf. [Accessed 18 January 2015].

selfiecity. 2015. selfiecity. Available at: http://selfiecity.net/. [Accessed 18 January 2015].

The Guardian, 2013. Selfie is Oxford Dictionaries' word of the year, The Guardian. Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/nov/19/selfie-word-of-the-year-oed-olinguito-twerk. [Accessed 18 January 2015].

True Activist, 2014. Scientists Link Selfies To Narcissism, Addiction & Mental Illness, True Activist.com. Available at: http://www.trueactivist.com/scientists-link-selfies-to-narcissism-addiction-mental-illness/. [Accessed 22 January 2015].

Image sourced from:  http://www.terraxml.com/community/blog/bid/312305/Can-Crowdsourcing-Work-in-Enterprise-Environments

Crowdsourcing is a form of online collective behaviour that typically happens within a community when they are collectively faced with a crisis.  This collective behaviour “consists of socio-behaviors that include intensified information search and information contagion.” (Meier, 2013).  While crowdsourcing doesn’t necessarily identify with a crisis within our physical community, when it appears in our online community we feel compelled to act. Perhaps because we can see and hear what is happening to individuals involved on a massive scale, rather than a 5 minute snippet on the 6pm news that can easily be forgotten, or perhaps it’s due to new technologies, such as online mapping tools which makes it so easy to act and help where you can.  

A major advantage of online crowdsourcing in comparison to traditional means is the massive amount of free resources volunteers are willing to provide from their own homes.  Under traditional means you are restricted to a geographical location and require many resources such as organising and managing search parties.  A recent example of crisis crowdsourcing is a social mapping platform created by Tomnod to help in the search for missing Malaysia airlines flight MH370.  According to qz.com, Tomnod enlisted around 3 million volunteers from around the world to search through satellite images in the hope of spotting debris.  (Merelli, 2014). 

  Image sourced from: http://irevolution.net/category/crowdsourcing/

Micromappers.org, another crowdsourcing platform is helping with different type of crisis, saving wildlife in Namibia from poachers.  While not a traditional type of crisis many of these species are at risk of becoming extinct if poaching continues.  The program works by volunteers drawing shields around animals so that the rangers can easily locate them in the vast reserve and better protect them from poachers and other threats. (Meier, 2014)

Images sourced from: http://irevolution.net/2014/09/17/piloting-micromappers-digital-rangers/

While there is no doubt that crowdsourcing is a valuable asset to disaster response and prevention, there is still a lot that needs to be refined for authorities to be able to rely on them as an official source of information for those involved in the crisis.  Patrick Meier from the Qatar Computing Research Institute notes that “The overflow of information generated during disasters can be as paralyzing to disaster response as the absence of information. While information scarcity has long characterized our information landscapes, today’s information-scapes are increasingly marked by an overflow of information—Big Data”(Meier, 2014).  I’m sure we have all experienced this, when trying to log on to a site such as the CFA during a bushfire we are unable to access information due a crash from high traffic.  This can have deathly consequences for those needing the information to decide on whether they should be evacuating their homes or not. 

There is also no current way of evaluating the accuracy of information provided by users, and while most “volunteers” sign up with the highest of intentions there will always be those who seek to cause problems for others and waste valuable time and resources of the relevant authorities.   While crowdsourcing is most certainly the future of disaster aid and recovery, there needs to be some reliable tools implemented in reviewing and confirming the accuracy of the information provided before we fully utilize its benefits.

References

Merelli, A, 2014. Using crowdsourcing to search for flight MH 370 has both pluses and minuses, Quartz. Available at: http://qz.com/188270/using-crowdsourcing-to-search-for-flight-mh-370-has-both-pluses-and-minuses/. [Accessed 18 January 2015].

Meier, P, 2013. Social Network Analysis of Tweets During Australia Flood, iRevolutions. Available at: http://irevolution.net/2013/01/15/tweets-australia-floods/. [Accessed 18 January 2015].

Meier, P, 2014. Piloting MicroMappers: How to Become a Digital Ranger in Namibia (Revised!),  iRevolutions. Available at: http://irevolution.net/2014/09/17/piloting-micromappers-digital-rangers/. [Accessed 18 January 2015].

Image sourced from: http://www.cagle.com/tag/social-networking/page/6/

Bullying is not a new phenomenon; most of us have experienced some kind of bullying in our lives whether it was at school, at work or the subject of a racist rant in the public space.  However, our always connected lifestyle and the ability to be anonymous has created a whole new, more extreme way of disrupting, attacking and upsetting others. A “troll”, in internet slang, “is someone who deliberately upsets others by starting arguments or posting unnecessarily inflammatory messages on blogs, chatrooms, or forums”. (Lewis, 2014)

According to Nobullying.com and a survey by Ditch the Label, 7 in 10 young people are victims of cyberbullying, with 20% of those experiencing it on a daily basis. More worrying is that “Cyberbullying found to have catastrophic effects upon the self-esteem and social lives of up to 70% of young people” (Nobuylling.com, 2014).

Given these statistics you would think there would be harsh consequences for those caught trolling others.  This is often not the case; an example of this is the first suicide attempt of Charlotte Dawson in 2012.  Dawson was an New Zealand born, Australian TV personality who was targeted on twitter by constant trolling. Dawson managed to track down one of her main trolls with the help of an IT tracing company and named her in the media.  Her troll, Tanya Heti turned out to be a Monash University employee who had regular dealings with young people entering university. Surprisingly, after an investigation the university allowed her to return to work even though according to the Herald Sun “Ms Mair did not dispute that Ms Heti had sent the tweets, which included telling a follower of Ms Dawson, who's fiancé had died from suicide the year before, "if I was your fiancé I'd hang myself too”.

Image sourced from: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3504228

A study by the University of Manitoba suggests that trolls are usually male, in their mid to late 20’s and are “by far, more likely to have narcissistic, Machiavellian, psychopathic, and sadistic personality traits.” The interesting part of this study is that it suggests “since a sadistic person is characterised by being vicious and degrading toward others, it’s possible that the internet allows them to redirect their energy. If they’re inflicting harm through anonymous words, perhaps it’s preventing them from doing something much more destructive in person. On the extreme end, and unsurprisingly, sadism is commonly seen in sexual offenders and serial killers” (Lewis, 2014). Scary right!  Does this mean we should be thankful these “trolls” are satisfying these urges online?  

On the flip side…

Anonymous and unmoderated social media platforms can, and are starting to be used for naming and shaming those who commit racism, violence or bullying in public (such as on public transport, in pubs or at sporting events.  Being anonymous empowers the bystander with the ability to film or photograph the offender and upload the content to social media, shaming and exposing their behaviour without having to risk the bystander’s safety.  While this may not help the victim of the abuse in the short term, the online negatively the perpetrator will receive may motivate them to change their attitude or even provide authorities the evidence to convict them where possible, such as the jailing of Jacqueline Woodhouse in the UK after a video of her abusing another passenger was uploaded on YouTube. (OHPI, 2012).

The video can be viewed here: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZK5ooA1uiI

Image sourced from: http://editorialcartoonists.com/cartoon/display.cfm/122882/

Do we need a social media Ombudsman?

There have been many parliamentary and scholarly debates on whether Australia need’s an ombudsman for cyber- safety. A paper by the School of Law at the University of South Australia argues that illegal, offensive content can already be regulated by existing legislation and non- illegal but offensive, bullying behaviours should be regulated by the social media providers, in fact “Facebook self-regulates in accordance with its policy which is more stringent than the broader parameters the Australian law provides.” (Langos, 2010). Furthermore, funding would be better directed at being safe online campaigns and better resources for convicting those who post illegal content online.

References

REACHOUT.com, 2014, ‘Cyberbulling’. Available from: http://au.reachout.com/cyberbullying.  [11 January 2015].

No Bullying.com, 2014, Cyberbullying and Bullying Statistics 2014, Finally!. Available from: http:// http://nobullying.com/cyberbullying-bullying-statistics-2014-finally/. [11 January 2015].

Ainswoth, M, 2012, Twitter troll back at work after Charlotte Dawson comment, The Herald Sun. Available from: http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/twitter-troll-back-at-work-after-charlotte-dawson-comment/story-e6frf7kx-1226472920815. [11 January 2015].

The Online Hate Prevention Institute (OHPI), 2012, OHPI discusses the use of Social Media to expose racism with SBS News. Available From: http://ohpi.org.au/ohpi-discusses-the-use-of-social-media-to-expose-racism-with-sbs-news/. [11 January 2015].

Lewis, L G, 2014, Internet trolls are also real-life trolls, The Guardian. http://www.theguardian.com/science/head-quarters/2014/feb/25/internet-trolls-are-also-real-life-trolls. [11 January 2015]

Source: http://mediaoriente.com/tag/social-media/

Social media platforms are an extremely important broadcasting tool used by activists, the reach being far greater than traditional activist techniques such as flyers, letters to authorities, local protests etc.  Online campaigning increases ‘publicity through diffusion of information to regional and global publics’ (Youmans, WL & York, JC 2012). Furthermore campaigning online gives activists a level of security, by remaining anonymous, the word can be spread without fear of retaliation.

“Social media in the Middle East and elsewhere undermine the territorial, coercive, and social underpinnings of despotic governments by exposing and breaking the state’s power to silence popular grievances and to criminalize opposition” (Youmans, WL & York, JC 2012). An example of this is the internationally famous 16 year old Palestinian, Farah Baker (https://twitter.com/Farah_Gazan), whose Twitter followers have grown from 800 before the war to 166,000 (Nidal Al-Mughrabi, 2014). Baker’s tweets have made it to television news programs around the world and brought international attention to the Israeli –Palestinian conflict.  The increase in attention within our community and the questions we start to raise about why the rest of the world is not intervening forces our own politicians to act. Perhaps by increasing aid or putting pressure on the countries involved (by trade restrictions etc) to end the conflict.

Source: http://jesuslarena.blogspot.ca/2014/08/por-primera-vez-en-pampelmuse-un-pomelo.html

 ‘The internet helps furnish the critical leap between the closely personal and the anonymous and abstract, or, as one may say, between the private concerns shared with friends and acquaintances and the public bodies necessary for any significant change’ (Bakardijeva, 2009) .Earlier this year popular clothing companies such as Zara, Gap and French Connection were caught outsourcing angora wool from farms which were committing cruelty towards their rabbits, PETA posted this information and named the companies on Twitter and Facebook, resulting in a sharing frenzy. In addition PETA asked followers to post on the pages of the retailers committing to a boycott until they stopped producing items made with angora wool.  The incredible success of the online campaign meant that all the retailers mentioned stopped using the wool within a matter of weeks.  There are many other similar campaigns by the RSPCA & Animals Australia targeting the Australian Government such as cage eggs and chickens and pigs in feedlots.  This has resulted in Tasmania becoming the first ‘cage free’ state in Australia.

Although these platforms are indispensable to activists, serving as a venue for shared interests and collective action, there are many flaws in the platforms themselves that constrain and prevent certain types of activism. One of the fundamental problems being, the platforms are driven by monetization. In order to stay in business the platforms must appeal to broader classes of users and advertisers, which means that changes to terms and conditions and the architecture of the site. Some changes may be beneficial but increasingly tight privacy changes are not welcome for activists who need a level of protection against retaliation (Youmans, WL & York, JC 2012). An example of this is the famous “We are all Khaled Said” Facebook page that was a central platform for debate during the 2010 Egyptian uprising. The page was deactivated by Facebook in November 2010 due to a violation of their updated terms and conditions where they prohibit pseudonyms in accounts.  The creator of the account had put in a fake name for fear over his own safety. It will be interesting to see as the social media platforms continue and tighten rules around anonymity and privacy how activists will use social media, if at all.

References

Bakardieva, M 2009, ‘Subactivism: Lifeworld and Politics in the Age of the Internet’, Information Society, vol. 25, no.2, pp. 91-104. Available from: 10.1080/01972240802701627. [3 December 2014].

Youmans, WL & York, JC 2012, ‘Social Media and the Activist Toolkit: User Agreements, Corporate Interests, and the Information Infrastructure of Modern Social Movements’, Journal of Communication, vol. 62, no.2, pp. 315-329, Available from: 10.1111/j.1460-2466.2012.01636.x. [3 December 2014].

Nidal Al-Mughrabi, R 2014, ‘Gaza teen’s war tweets make her a social media sensation’, Toronto Sun, Available from: http://www.torontosun.com/2014/08/11/gaza-teens-war-tweets-make-her-a-social-media-sensation. [14 December 2014].

The Daily Mail, 2014, ‘Zara and Gap finally ban angora as shoppers threaten to boycott shops over the horrific plight of rabbits plucked alive for their fur’, The Daily Mail, Available From: : http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2529849/Zara-Gap-finally-ban-angora-shoppers-horrified-plight-rabbits-plucked-alive-threaten-boycott-shops.html#ixzz3LtyUgF4H 

Average Joe’s increase in political power

Prior to social media platforms the individual had little political power within the community. To voice your opinion you would need to write/email your local member of parliament, write into your local newspaper in the hope of being published or attend local community Q&A meetings.  None of these had much impact because they weren't broadcast within the community and could be easily disregarded by political parties.  A lot of our friends were unlikely to know our political views because many people feel uncomfortable bringing it up in social situations for the fear of offending.  Many Australians only knew of foreign conflicts from what we saw on the local news.  Platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and blogging sites such as Tumblr have changed all this. 

Posting online about a political issue important to you can reach into the hundreds, thousands or even millions.  This sort of social sharing forces political parties to take notice and respond to the issue.  A study by the University of Sydney has found that increasing social media use in young people has increased political participation in those groups,  in particular with those  that have “an issue-based approach to why political participation matters, rather than a traditional orientation that only focuses on formal, electoral politics” (Mayor, K 2014). Much of this participation occurs by liking, sharing and commenting on non-official political media content.

  Source: https://www.facebook.com/OperationSovereignParliamentTurnBackAbbott?pnref=story

Personal connection key to generating votes

For the politicians themselves, social media can be an important tool for generating votes and aligning the interests of voters with their own.  Prior to social media we rarely heard of politicians lives outside of politics (excluding party propaganda).  Our votes were based purely on what we heard were on each party’s agenda.  If you were uninterested in politics you would most likely cast a donkey vote.   On Twitter and Facebook politicians have the power to create a personal, non-political connection with the individual, such as posting support about a football team (Tony Burke), a picture of a cut while shaving (Kevin Rudd) or jovial random posts (Clive Palmer).  This helps to show the public that politicians are just normal people who have the same interests as everyday Australians.

Source:  http://www.news.com.au/technology/online/the-funniest-and-stupidest-tweets-of-australian-politics/story-fnjwncel-1226864539110

Source: https://twitter.com/tony_burke

When voting time comes, those who are not politically minded may remember these funny tweets or posts and vote because of the online connection or engagement they have had with that politician. Malcom Turnball is also highly engaged with his followers, regularly tweeting replies or sharing others political posts,  giving voters the feeling that he cares about their views and genuinely wants to help “create a better Australia”.

References

Mayor K 2014 Facebook most effective way to engage young people in politics, study shows, Available at: http://sydney.edu.au/news/84.html?newsstoryid=14095 (Accessed: 7 December 2014).

Jericho, G 2012, ‘How many votes are there on Twitter?’, in The Rise of the Fifth Estate, Scribe, Victoria, Australia.

 Week 1-3: Our Social Selves

Looking back 15 years ago it’s hard to imagine how I managed to co-ordinate my social life without the use of social media. It’s also astonishing how quickly we have gone from getting in trouble with our parents for spending too much time talking to our friends on the corded home phone, to having our first grayscale screen mobile phone to literally being able to, through the use of mobile technology, contact any of your friends, family and colleagues at any moment no matter where you or your contact may be.

Mobile internet, video calling, instant messaging and location platforms has become a large part of our everyday life (myself included, I will be the first to admit I am a Pinterest and Facebook addict), many are starting to consider the implications social media is having on the way we interact with each other and our sense of community.  Many of the new media platforms we have available to us centre on how we present ourselves, who we are becomes who we are connected with, our posts/tweets/uploads/shares and the online groups we are part of. This constant concern with self-formation has lead to a rise of individualism towards the end of the twentieth century and is still continuing to rise.  Social media allows us to construct a version of ourselves that we aspire to be, we can create aliases, make new online connections and friends which enables us to remove ourselves from our everyday reality and be part of an online world where you control how you want to be seen. 

Social media allows users who are unhappy with their everyday life to create a new one online, or those who many not be comfortable talking about problems face to face can get help from similar minded individuals or those who have been through similar experiences through specialised websites, chat groups or forums. Platforms such as Skype allow us to stay in contact with those who are not geographically near us and sharing Platforms such as Twitter, YouTube and Facebook allow us to express our political views to the masses and generate support for causes that are important to us.

On the flip side, with new media being a relatively new technology we are unable to determine the long term effects it will have on our sense of community.  Many scholars believe that these online communities can be associated with a loss of human contact, a change in ideals and ethics and a movement towards many niche groups within the community space who have little or nothing to do with each other.  The problem with this is that when we only associate ourselves with those of similar interests or beliefs, those interests or beliefs are not challenged, and by satisfying our personal interests with like people we remove our motives for associating with others.  The Result? we lose the ability to interact in the way we do when our social circle consists of many different personalities within our geographical location.   

Privacy is another increasingly large concern with the amount of publicly listed information we share on a daily basis.  Studies have shown that teenagers are relatively unaware of the reach of what they share online and many adults who are, choose to ignore it because of the increasing pressure to be part of these online communities. 

By sharing our personal lives and information with the public, we are starting to realise that the parts of our life that were once kept separate, such as the way we behave at work, with our family and our friends, have now become one large space.  We have to consider all of these aspects before sharing certain information online or suffer loss of credibility in certain areas of our lives. 

There is no doubt that new media and social platforms are advancing us in ways we have not seen before and enhance the human experience for many. We must though, not jump head first into the online sphere without considering the implications it has on everyday reality. 

References

Boyd, D., 2012. Participating in the Always on Lifestyle. The Social Media Reader, pp. 71-76.

Cunningham, S. & Turnbull, S., 2014. Social Selves. In: The media & communications in Australia. Sydney: Allen & Unwin, pp. 291-295.

Gillespie, T., 2010. The politics of platforms. New Media & Society, 12(3).

Siapera, E., 2012. Socialities and social media. In: Understanding new media. London: SAGE, pp. 191-208.