Digital Communities

In a perfect world, everybody would be able to act as good digital citizens and connect and communicate in a positive manner online however, there are many people that use social media asa platform for online harassment. Online harassment can include a number of harmful activities online such as, calling people offensive names, embarrassing people, physically threatening people, sexually harassing people, impersonating people and spreading dangerous rumours about people (Lenhart et al in Marwick & Robyn Caplan 2018). Harassment often occurs online as people feel safe to say these things from their homes without the same consequences that they would likely face if they were to say the same thing to someone to public.

Different places online have different levels of tolerance for harassment. Different sites have different rules and regulations about what you can and cannot say and do (Milne 2020). For example many sites such as Facebook allow users to report other users for toxic and inappropriate behaviour. This will then lead to Facebook looking into the content or comment that has been reported and decide what action needs to be take. If it is a breach of their guidelines then they will likely remove it and potentially give the user a ban. On forum sites such as Reddit, individual forums usually have their own moderators that will constantly look through for inappropriate comments and ban them from posting and commenting again to prevent future toxic behaviour. In addition to this streaming sites such as Twitch also have moderators to ban people from commenting if they are harassing the streamer or other viewers. 

It is important for social media governance to take place online in order to minimise and prevent toxic behaviour online. This is because this kind of behaviour can have a very negative impact on the recipients mental wellbeing and there are no positives that come from this sort of behaviour online. 

References:

Lenhart, A., Michele L., Ybarra., Zickuhr, K., and Price-Feeney, M 2016. Online Harassment, Digital Abuse, and Cyberstalking in America. New York: Data & Society Research Institute.

Marwick, A & Caplan, R 2018, Drinking male tears: language, the manosphere, and networked harassment, Feminist Media Studies: Online Misogyny, Vol. 18(4), pp.543-559

The gaming community is an ever-growing community that has seen a huge increase in population over the last two decades. A major factor responsible for this was the rise of Social games which are “online games that adapt your friendship ties for play purposes, while accomodating your daily routines” (Järvinen 2011). These games are usually free and available on smartphones, designed for regular, short interval playing times. Social games are usually connected through social media sites such as Facebook and rewards the player with in game items for inviting their friends to the game. This works as free advertising for the game as it is being directly sent to large amounts of people and continuously spreading. 

The live streaming community has also seen a large increase in popularity with live streaming sites such as Twitch being flooded with viewers and streamers from all over the world streaming a very wide range of games. By 2017 the site was seeing over 10 million active daily users (Taylor 2018, p. 3). This is becoming such a large form of entertainment as it allows people to broadcast and communicate in real time with people from all over the world whilst playing the games that they love. 

Another reason for live streaming and the gaming communities increased popularity is the rise of esports. Esports is where “professional players compete in a formal tournament setting for prize money” (Taylor 2018, p.1). This large following of the community leads to huge numbers of viewers for esports events making them very lucrative. For example, Kuro Takhasomi has won over $4 Million from esports events making him the highest paid esports player (Shefrin 2019). Esports is an incredibly competitive sport with only the best of the best making it to the professional tournaments. 

References:

Järvinen, A 2011, State of social in social games [presentation slides] viewed 26 May 2020, from http://casualconnect.org/lectures/community-social/state-of-social-in-social-games/ 

Shefrin, S 2019, Highest Paid eSports Players in the World, Lineups Betting, viewed 26 May 2020, https://www.lineups.com/betting/highest-paid-esports-players-in-the-world/ 

Activism through online engagement is a huge factor in creating change today. Activism is defined as “the use of direct and noticeable action to achieve a result, usually a political or social one” (Cambridge 2020). That is exactly what the participants in The March for Our Lives rallies are doing as they as they are aiming to make a change in USA’s gun laws by collectively standing up together for marches and dies- ins however, they also use the ever-growing platform of the internet to spread their message (Alvarez et al. 2019, p. 2). 

The internet is being used more and more for political engagement and activism as it gives users the ability to communicate to an audience all around the world from their fingertips. Social media allows everybody to have a voice that they never would have had and to be heard as they can comment on and have discussions on posts as well as posting their own content. The rise of this new medium has allowed many regular people to come together and create a change that they never usually would have been able to make. For example, there are many political parody videos on sites such as Youtube which aim to negatively impact the viewers perception of the candidates (Lim & Ki 2007) (Lim & Golan 2011,p. 711). 

There has also been a great rise in politicians using social media as a medium to connect with the public. Sites such as Twitter allow for politicians to quickly and efficiently deliver short messages to a large audience around the world. This also opens the chance for discussions between the audience as they can comment and share their views and even the politicians can join in on these discussions, answering the questions the public has. However, this opens up the possibility to many online trolls as they aim to harass others online and fail to communicate as a digital citizen should.

 March for Our Lives recap: Shooting survivors lead passionate pleas to end gun violence (ABC NEWS 2018) 

References:

Alvarez, N, Lauzon, C, Zaiontz, K 2019, On Sustainable Tools for Precarious Times: An Introduction, Sustainable Tools for Precarious Times. Contemporary Performance InterActions. Palgrave Macmillan

Cambridge Dictionary 2020, Meaning of activism in English, Cambridge, viewed 21 May 2020 https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/activism 

Lim, J. S & Ki, E. J 2007, Resistance to ethically suspicious parody video on Youtube: A test of inoculation theory, Journalism & Mass Communication Quaterly, 84, p.713-728

In recent years there has been a drastic increase in the negative impact social media influencers have caused through the repeated positive portrayal of body modifications. These modifications and cosmetic surgeries are being normalised through the many social media influencers flaunting them on their accounts, damaging peoples perceptions of true beauty as they aspire to look like the drastically edited photos of their favourite influencers. 

The combination of these modifications, cosmetic surgeries and heavily edited photos are leading to dangerous images for young audiences when they are on social media as it is giving them a false sense of beauty and setting unrealistic expectations. This is leading to many people going out and paying for extremely expensive surgery to modify their appearance as they feel as though they have to in order to be seen as beautiful. This is evident through 42% of surgeons reporting that their patients are looking for these types of surgeries in order to improve their appearance on social media sites such as Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat (Dorfman et al. 2018, p. 332). 

These unrealistic standards are developed through pornifcation online where females are presenting a heteronormative display of sexuality that is targeted towards a male audience (Drenten & Gurrieri 2019). In addition to this these influencers regularly present particular beauty products in their photographs to their large audiences as sponsorships. This leads to audiences believing that they must have surgery on their bodies and use these particular products in order to look like these strongly edited, unrealistic images. So many young males and females have self esteem and body issues growing up as they are surrounded by these unrealistic portrayals of beauty. Every time someone looks at their phone they are constantly seeing these highly edited and modified photos and comparing themselves to these images, leading them to cosmetic surgery in order to appear more like the social media influencers they see everyday.

References:

Dorfman, R, Vaca, E, Mahmood, E, Fine, N & Schierle, C 2018, Plastic Surgery- Related Hashtag Utilization on Instagram: Implications for Education and Marketing, Aesthetic Surgery Journal, Volume 38, Issue 3, pp. 332-338

Fast fashion is used to define the rapid, massed produced clothing that is supplied by quick and efficient chains in order to effectively provide it’s consumers with clothing for the lowest price possible (Brewer 2019, p.3). This fast fashion led to faster consumption as the consumers view clothing as disposable, as they demanded monthly changes in fashions (Fast Fashion 2014).  Fast fashion is highly unethical as it abuses low socio-cultural countries through slave labour in order to minimise the costs of production and maximise profits. 

Slow fashion is a new trend that has gained popularity on social media platforms such as Instagram in order to fight against fast fashion by promoting ethically made, long lasting clothing. It often also referred to as eco fashion, sustainable fashion and ethical consumption. Many social media influencers aim to raise awareness about slow fashion by regularly promoting it to their large audiences in hopes of preventing others from purchasing fast fashion. These posts aim to inform the public about the many benefits that it has to society. Slow fashion seeks to slow down the rate that new fashions change and focus more so on quality as opposed to quantity (Lai, Henninger & Alevizou 2017). This type of fashion involves timeless necessities that aren’t going to go in and out of fashion and be disposed of (Henninger et al. 2017, p.4). 

An example of a social media influencer that promotes slow fashion is Kristen Leo. Kristen has an Instagram account with tens of thousands of followers as well as a Youtube account with hundreds of thousands followers. On both of these accounts she regularly promotes to her large audiences the importance and benefits that come from purchasing slow fashion clothing. Also, she explains the unethical ways that fast fashion ways are made and the negative impacts they have on society. 

References:

Brewer, K 2019, Slow Fashion in a Fast Fashion World: Promoting Sustainability and Responsibility, Laws 2019, 8(4), 24

Fast Fashion 2014, 100 Ideas that Changed Street Style, Laurence King, viewed 12 May 2020, https://search-credoreference-com.ezproxy.lib.swin.edu.au/content/entry/lkingitcss/fast_fashion/0 

Henninger, C, Ryding, D, Alevizou, J & Goworek, H 2017, Introduction, Sustainability in Fashion A Cradle to Upcycle Approach, Palgrave

Lai, Z, Henninger, C, Alevizou, P 2017, An Exploration of Consumers’ Perceptions Towards Sustainable Fashion - A Qualitative Study in the UK, Sustainability in Fashion a Cradle to Upcycle Approach, Palgrave

References:

Digital citizenship describes users behaviours on social media platforms including bullying, trolling and workplace policies, it involves effectively communicating with others online. A digital citizen shows respect and responsibility for themselves, others and property and “focuses on safe and respectful behaviour in any online environment” (Crockett 2015, p.40).  There are three key aspects of participation online. These include economic opportunity, democratic participation and finally, inclusion in prevailing forms of communication (Mossberger et al. 2008). The rise of the internet has allowed almost everyone to become global citizens, giving users the ability to “gauge our social and moral differences and similarities” (Crockett 2015, p.39). In order for this to happen, digital citizens must refrain from harassment, bullying and trolling, and instead respectfully comment on their different opinions. 

The rise of social media has given politicians a new platform to express their views to the public. Previously audiences were generally passive audiences as they consumed the content without being able to have a say in it however, this new platform of social media invites an active audience as they are able to become involved in an active discussion about the content, acting as digital citizens as they can discuss their opposing views. Also, by using social media platforms, politicians are able to bypass the mainstream media such as news networks and instead are able to personally control the messages they publish. 

Social media sites can be used as a community where everybody has the ability to express their opinions. This can be done through things such as hashtags in order for digital citizens to be able to easily find topics of their interests. For example the hashtag #auspol is one of Australia’s most popular hashtags. It is mostly used for “commentary and rumour spreading about the machinations of the federal government” (Bogle 2016). Having a hashtag like this allows Twitter users to quickly and easily find people who share an interest in politics with them, allowing them to comment and communicate with people to share their thoughts as well as publish their own thoughts using the hashtag for others to see.

References:

Bogle, A 2016, #auspol: The Twitter hashtag Australia can’t live without, Mashable Australia, March 21 2016, viewed 8 May 2020,https://mashable.com/2016/03/21/twitter-australia-auspol/#4tvfXtsZUEqV 

Crocket, L 2015, Conversation: Digital Citizenship, Social Educator, Vol.33(1), p.39-43

The increased use of technology around the world has led to the majority of the population to be apart of certain digital communities. A digital community is a “connected community that combines broadband communications infrastructure and flexible service-oriented computing infrastructure based on open industry standards.” (Li 2013, p. 385). Social media sites such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Youtube, Reddit, Tumblr and many more have a wide variety of groups and communities within them in order to account for different audiences interests.

Tumblr has a wide range of communities and groups allowing audiences to personalise the information that they consume on the site by following particular pages and hashtags related to their interests. Tumblr follows a many to many communications model meaning that everyone has a voice with the capacity to be heard. This is because everyone has the power to distribute information onto the site and anyone has the ability to view this information if it is public. This leads to a much wider range of content that is catered to everybody’s needs and isn’t just Tumblr trying to reach one particular target audience as a one to many communication model would. 

A public sphere is a place where different opinions, problems, concerns and solutions are collectively communicated. It “is the central arena for society’s communication” (Wessler 2018). Tumbr is an example of a public sphere as it allows a wide audience to express both the similarities and differences in their opinion with people all around the world. Sites such as Tumblr allow the networked population much greater access to information as well as “more opportunities to engage in public speech, and an enhanced ability to undertake collective action” (Shirky 2011). 

This platform allows users to truely express themselves as they can join groups of like minded people with the same interests or beliefs that they may not have been able to communicate with in real life. A user seeing that there are many people similar to them around the world and that they are not alone can drastically increase their confidence in themselves and feel more comfortable being themselves as they know that their are other people out there that are just like them. This can prevent people from trying to be someone that they’re not and embrace who they are as they aren’t feeling like the odd one out. 

References: 

Li, H. 2013, An anonymous data collection framework for digital community, Wuhan University Journal of Natural Sciences, Vol.18(5), pp.385-392, https://link-springer-com.ezproxy.lib.swin.edu.au/content/pdf/10.1007/s11859-013-0946-4.pdf 

Shirky, C. 2011, The Political Power of Social Media: Technology, the Public Sphere, and Political Change, Foreign Affairs, Vol.90(1), pp.28-1, https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.lib.swin.edu.au/docview/821252102?rfr_id=info%3Axri%2Fsid%3Aprimo