#com380

We, as a species, are a very social, and anti-social at times, people. From our earliest stages of development, humans have found ways in which we can communicate with one another, and it shapes how we interact among ourselves. It is a reflection of our thoughts and emotions just as much as it is a medium for transferring information.

Now a days, after thousands of years of development, we live in an age in which communicating with others is extremely simple and available. Social media and digital technology has changed that so much. You can talk with a person at the push of a few buttons, in a written text, a phone call, a tweet, a meme, whatever, it is likely that no matter what, you should be able to get a hold of someone.

Of course there are certain affordances and limitations that come with this kind of technology, but there always will be. Think of a smart phone. It ‘allows’ for touching and typing, visual and audio stimulation, and most also include touch screens, meaning interactivity is enhanced a thousandfold. Granted you would also need an Internet connection, but nothings perfect. Yet with it, you have access to nearly all the data available in the world, in the palm of your hand. Organization and data sharing has never been easier, and there is little to no effort involved beyond typing on a few words or commands.

Newer generations seem to be born with a digital touch, and us millennials have more or less been the guinea pigs, but it is more of a struggle for older generations. Some might catch on rather quickly yet some have more difficulty with it, more or less used to the way things were for them growing up most of their lives, and that seems foreign to us. It is a concept known as the Alien Past. Susan Strasser wrote an article about it in the Journal of Consumer Policy, describing how as the generations continue, the past seems more and more foreign to us, as those who lived then wold find the past or future equally foreign. We’ve all heard the complaints that today's generations are more anti-social, they don’t know how to interact in public, or how to talk to others, etc, etc, and while these arguments are not without merit, they do seem a bit too exaggerated. Although perhaps our generations could spend less time looking at this...

 and more time reading a book or two.

Although the older generations can’t truly call us out on being anti-social...

The ever growing tech industry has also provided us with new ways of educating people about media. There are the traditional ways of course but there are other means of teaching, such as combining traditional teaching styles and incorporating more informal settings, to learn about this new media as many younger generations do, described as learning transmedia literacy skills.

Looking back on how we communicate with each other, how these techniques adapt to time and change, what is developed through local cultures, allows us to understand each other more, and allows us to embrace who we are. It will never stop no matter the future. Although, perhaps we should avoid communicating solely in memes, the world would only be filled with sarcasm and opinions. Oh wait...

Citations

Scolari, Carlos A. [email protected]., et al. EBSCOhost, doi:10.3145/epi.2018.jul.09. Accessed 7 Nov. 2018.

Our use of social media increases our power in a digital culture. Should we contain as much power as we do through something so intangible?

With social media, we have the freedom to post whatever we want. However, this freedom results in positive and negative outcomes. We can communicate with anybody in the world and spread useful information if we choose to.

Our use of social media leads to an increase in participatory culture and convergence culture. As users, we tend to pick what we want to see or communicate with online. Therefore, we follow, like, or retweet people whose voices we want to hear. This partial connection with anybody in the world develops the sense of proximity.  "the personalization of the telephone means that we now live our lives in constant proximity to communication" (Athique). We have constant communication. When we indulge in this participatory culture, we can increase our power in a digital society. By reaching out directly to politicians or celebrities, our voices can be heard and spread important causes. Although we may not always be able to get into contact with somebody, it is a lot easier now through Twitter to connect with others than it was in the past. Communication is faster and plentiful. Without the internet, information would not reach everybody in the world and lose the capability it has. 

In essence, we as a society choose what information is worth knowing. Through social media, we pick and choose what relays a message to us and to others. Therefore, we do have effectiveness in a social media world. The constant increasing of these social media platforms increases our own power in a digital culture. 

References:

Social media has become one of the biggest intangible aspects in today’s society. So many people have some type of social media but we don’t all use it the same way. The power we as a society have with communication is ten times stronger than we would have 200 or even just 50 years ago. With the huge advancement in mobile phones with internet, we can connect with almost anybody at any moment and with this newfound power, comes certain issues. 

The Negatives

There is a lot of problems when it comes to social media. The biggest is the fact that we can hide behind our screens and say and do anything we want. Cyberbullying became a growing concern since the introduction of the internet. However, in just my short 20 years, I have seen rapid changes in how we communicate and how much social media takes over our lives. I believe the introduction of social media platforms such as Twitter, Instagram or even years ago, Myspace, appealed the most to tweens and teens who can be vicious. I’m not saying every teenager is brutal, but in general, the younger generations, including my own, utilized social media to create a harmful atmosphere for others. Cyberbullying can be very powerful, even prompting people to take their own lives. This is just one of the many ways our power in social media is dangerous.

The spread of false information and “Fake news” is the latest issue we have been facing across all platforms. Anybody can create a post or fake news story and spread it across somewhere like Facebook and have it reach a large audience. Therefore, this false information is believed to be true which can be harmful to a society. If you believe everything you read or hear, you contribute to a news story that may damage a reputation. 

The Positives

Despite these issues, there are many positives to the power that we hold in the social media world.

We can communicate with people we know and those we don’t. Through this affordance of communication, we can spread important information. There have been many instances in which social media affords the ability to spread awareness for a cause or major event. Recently, the devastating earthquake in Mexico or the hurricane in Florida has gained a lot of attention. Due to the amount of shares and retweets of information on these affected areas, we are able to see the destruction and want to reach out and help in every way possible. Without social media, we wouldn’t realize the ultimate catastrophic state of these areas.

In addition to spreading imperative information, our power of sharing and communication can lead to crimes and missing people cases being solved. With constant sharing of information, somebody is bound to see something relating to the case they saw on Twitter. It has been discovered that social media can help a lot in finding missing people. The article below examines how a family found their child through the power of social media. 

https://www.channel4.com/news/can-social-media-help-find-missing-people

Another positive outcome we have with social media is the access to information. Sometimes, others are taught hate and ignorance and through these platforms, they are exposed to new information that maybe they were never taught. It’s not always the case that an opinion can change,however, social media affords the ability to communicate and discover new information. Whether the information is taken into consideration or not, it’s still put out there for everybody to see and maybe change a previous discriminatory opinion. 

We hold power in all social media. Our constant communication with one another can lead to change in the world for better and for worse. 

Affordances

Affordances are “possible actions between an object and an individual”. With all of the different social media platforms we have, they hold the ability to afford certain actions. We use platforms such as Twitter, Facebook or Instagram to connect with anybody and everybody. These sites afford the ability to connect and share. So how do these affordances give us power in social media?

Because these sites and apps let us post and relay messages to the world, we can share important information. However, that’s not the majority of social media posts. Not all social media is similar in the sense that you share your every move with the world. Snapchat can be very exclusive to just friends or family and the messages disappear unlike other sites. Snapchat affordances include a camera to take and share photos and a messaging system. With all of these affordances that social media offers, we can use them to increase our power of communication.

Participatory Culture

Social media was designed to connect with whoever the user wants to connect with. As users we can follow all of our favorite things whether it be movies, music, television or books. We can end up into our own cultures this way as “convergences”. Convergence refers to “the coming together of things, and the merging of domains that were previously understood as distinct entities”(Henry Jenkins)(Digital Media and Society-Athique). Fans can easily bond together. With this group connection comes power.

We appropriate our “fandoms” onto sites such as Tumblr or Twitter. Fans come together to discuss their opinions and feelings of their favorite media. By bonding through the love of something intangible, fans tend to develop into a power group. For example, there are many fans of the movie, Super Troopers. For years they requested a sequel. Director,  Jay Chandrasekhar, saw the success of crowdfunding a Veronica Mars movie, and decided to start a Kickstarter campaign. This campaign was a complete success and displays the power a fandom can have in the social media world. 

https://www.cinemablend.com/new/Super-Troopers-2-Just-Raised-Crazy-Amount-Money-Officially-Happening-71088.html

Overall, we as a society hold a lot of power in the social media world. It has afforded us the ability to connect with people we have never even met. With these connections, we can influence the world around us.

References:

Social Media Affordances- Anne Helmword