#smcf14

Matthew Salvatore

Analytical Response 2

The impact that social media has had on protesting is vast and spreads from those which are less serious to those that affect the very fibers of society. From the issue of #gamergate to the Arab Spring, and numerous incidents in between the two, social media played a pivotal role in making a change for what the people stood by. Also a more recent protest that has taken on all new levels because of social media is the Ferguson Protest, which is related to the death of one Michael Brown by a Ferguson police officer. People had already been protesting, but when pictures of the violence broke out through social media such as twitter and Instagram, the protest rose to all new heights. The protests were a main driving force behind getting the issue enough credibility to become a national issue. At the very least hundreds of similar incidents go unnoticed every day, but because of social media’s ability to spread the news of Michael Brown, and the violence of the protest which turned to riots, the whole nation if not the world took notice. President Obama has even made statements regarding the situation and the case was brought up to a grand jury. My personal experience related to the Ferguson Trial on social media stems from twitter. I was on twitter the day after the riots initially broke, after waking up for an early morning class I hadn’t watched the news but when I scrolled through my twitter feed I found myself viewing dozens of pictures of the Ferguson incident. Through social media I was notified of both the shooting itself, and the protests that were generated by it, and while I may not have joined the movement I know many people that I follow did join after seeing pictures on social media. Nancy Scola’s Washington Post article gives the viewpoint of Prosecutor Robert McCulloch who claims social media gave off the wrong idea and complicated the case. The more I explore into the protesting through social media the more I realize that a lot of these changes don’t come without some kind of outside action, for example sit-ins or whatever type of live protest the group uses, but the greatness of using social media is that those who are heading the group can amass a large group of protestors before they air their concerns, this gives the protest the power of numbers and makes it hard for people to ignore the point that is trying to be made. All this combined made for a serious complication in Ferguson which even still carries on despite the case being closed by the grand jury. Similarly, the Arab Spring all started from a facebook page entitled “We are all Khaled Said,” which allowed the people of Egypt to realize the amount of people who shared the same distrust and disgust of the regime that ruled over them. When the “stupid regime” pulled the citizens’ internet access for facebook the protest was pushed onto the streets with much larger numbers than had it never been put together on social media. Bratich’s paper fully dives into the power facebook gave the protestors. When the great numbers of Egyptian people were forced to finally hit the streets the regime could not handle what the protestors could throw at them, and it would not have been possible without the help provided by social media. While I do not have any personal story about someone I know joining the movement in Egypt or anything like that, I do remember people sharing photos that the protestors’ page posted and stating that they supported the revolution. The public opinion was pushed in a certain direction because of the content spread on social media by the protestors. On a lesser note, the #gamergate protests which are solely online have not yet been entirely successful. #gamergate is a movement that was initially about ethics in the business of video games but than snowballed into being about how women are represented in video games and that they deserved to have the same opportunity as men do in the gaming world. Eklund explains that in games such as World of Warcraft women may have all different options, but they are sexualized and they tend to still fall into the gender stereotypes.  While the idea has gained a great deal of notoriety and many have heard of the protest, and know the meaning behind it, without any outside actions such as picketing outside the executive offices of Rockstar Video Games for example, the idea is simply an idea and no type of physical action has taken place to make a change. I know plenty of both female and male gamers who support the #gamergate movement but the problem is they love their games so much they would never do anything like boycotting. What it all wraps up to is that social media does play a huge role in protests in today’s society but there still needs to be physical action to get any real change.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2014/11/25/ferguson-prosecutor-blames-social-media-for-complicating-investigation/

file:///C:/Users/Matthew/Downloads/Eklund+-+2011+-+Doing+gender+in+cyberspace+The+performance+of+gender+by+female+World+of+Warcraft+players.pdf

         The last couple of weeks, we have been learning about a couple different topics, but the ones that stood out in my minds were Fans and Amateurs, and Embodiment and Exhaustion. We learned about the Brony phenomenon and Lady GaGa as well as Jenna Marbles and Ryan Higa and their contribution to YouTube and genderization. The Bronies were being taunted and bullied just because of the socialized norms of gender norms in today’s society. Gender norms are socially constructed. Who is to say that something is a “girl’s” thing, or that something is “manly”? It is all based on what society says is acceptable. In Watercutter’s article, “Bronies are Redefining Fandom- And American Manhood,” Watercutter writes that,“the reasons why people enjoy brony fandom are complex, in part because of the gender assumptions surrounding the show and its “intended” audience” (Watercutter). When people go around spitting out ideas about gender that are not “normalized,” people start to get offended and tend to attack what is not normal by society’s standard. For the Bronies, it has been a difficult world to exist in. People are made uncomfortable by things that are not what they are used to. So when a bunch of grown men start enjoying a show about little ponies, which was intended for an audience made up primarily of young girls, there is some backlash to be expected.

The internet is supposed to be a safe place, yet the second that something that is not accepted is brought up, there is immediate rebuttal. Being on the internet should allow the internet user to be anonymous and not judged, the whole reason most people go on the internet. It is important to understand that, “having a safe place in fandom ‘is a fight from that, it’s a retreat to something which is happier, which stresses getting along with others’” (Watercutter). If everyone could stop fighting with each other and arguing about what is “supposed to be,” we could get around these social norms of gender, etc.

    A few weeks ago I attended a Drag Show up at Purchase College in upstate New York. The drag show included males dressing as females and vice versa. There was no stigma of who should be doing what and how one should be acting. It was a melting pot of people who were all there for one reason: to perform and to witness. In this place, it was a safe space of the performers and the audience alike. There were no norms to abide by, even though, interestingly enough, it was sort of a parody, or satire, on the whole gender norms situation. Watercutter explains it best when he mentions that, “identity is a tricky thing, and being a grown man wearing a My Little Pony T-shirt can get you harassed—it’s much easier to find like-minded friends on the internet” (Watercutter). Or in the case of the Drag Show, at a college in Upstate New York. The girls dressed as guys performed stereotypes of how a man should be and the same went to the men dressed as women. Finding a community like the before mentioned is extremely important in today’s society, especially if one expects bullying and isolation to be eliminated.

    This connects with the idea of fandoms. Fandoms come about when fans feel some sort of connection with an artist or a celebrity. In Click, Lee, and Holladay’s article titled, “Making Monsters: Lady GaGa, Fan Identification, and Social Media,” Click, Lee and Holladay discuss the idea of how fandoms come about and how “imaginary relationships with media figures, including celebrities, are encouraged by the media industries, which “lavish considerable effort on techniques that not only invite but virtually force this kind of identification’” (Click, Lee, Holladay). Not unlike the Bronies fandom, the Little Monsters feel an attachment towards Lady GaGa because of the message that she exudes. Lady GaGa is all about loving each other and being free and feeling comfortable in your own skin. So why is it that these fans who cling to the mere idea of Lady GaGa cannot be comfortable in the real world and most reside in this imaginary society? It all goes back to gender norms.

    So whether you are a Brony or a Little Monster, or something similar to that nature, it should not, in the end, matter who you are. The fine line of gender roles needs to be blurred around the edges. Fandoms are created in order to establish a safe place for the fans and to create a world and a community that can share ideas concerning the beliefs and ideals that the fandoms create. It should not matter whether or not the fan is gay, straight, bi-sexual, white, black, yellow, green, blue, or a male or a female. It is what that fan has to bring to the table and what they have to offer as a fan that makes all the difference.

Works Cited:

Lindsey Wotanis & Laurie McMillan (2014): Performing Gender on YouTube, Feminist Media Studies, DOI: 10.1080/14680777.2014.882373

Melissa A. Click , Hyunji Lee & Holly Willson Holladay (2013) Making Monsters: Lady Gaga, Fan Identification, and Social Media, Popular Music and Society, 36:3, 360-379, DOI: 10.1080/03007766.2013.798546

This Friday, we talked about four types of labor in today's society where communication is key and it has moved from factories, to the office, to perhaps digitally.

We touched on user generated content where users were creating products such as Huffington posts bloggers in which I talked about in another class and discussed, to making own t-shirts on a customizable website. I have actually created a custom pillow and keychain at café press. There, it was awesome to create an image you want and giving it to somebody. In the Huffington post bloggers case, they went on strike to get paid rather than just writer for the prestige any longer. As Larry Lessig from TED says we "produce for the love what they're doing not for the money" and it seems those times are changing.

Chris Nalwasky

10/21/14

Social Media & Participatory Culture

Analytical Response 1

  In my interesting Social Media & Participatory Culture class at Rutgers University, we have learned a variety and a set of interesting topics thus far. Included in the concepts are “liking” on Facebook, the dangers of the internet, your experiences of online friendship, online intimacy and passion, love as technology, and self-interest in the attention economy. As you can see, these are a wide assortment of terms. In watching videos and reading the selections provided for class and based on my own personal experiences using the social media platform Facebook, I will be discussing the dangers of the internet and online friendships. These concepts are somewhat alike and based on my experiences, I can back them up.

            The dangers of the Internet are a really controversial topic not so much up for debate, but for the amount of danger and conflict that is possible all over the web. You were always told to watch what you put on the internet whether its credit card information, other banking, social security numbers, watching out for scams, and to watch what websites you are going on and looking at and photos and such you are posting. You never know who will find your profile and want to do harm to you. In addition, employers will search for you and scout your profile.

 Inn Danah Boyd’s article Social Network Sites as Network Publics: Affordances, Dynamics, and Implications “Social network sites have gained tremendous traction recently as popular online hangout spaces for both youth and adults. People flock to them to socialize with their friends and acquaintances, to share information with interested others, and to see and be seen. In addition, “there are those who use these sites to flirt with friends-of-friends, make business acquaintances and occasionally even rally others for a political cause,” (Boyd, 2010). With all of this commotion, comes time of disaster. In a way, spending too much time online and on Facebook is a danger. You become so focused on your phone or your computer and you don’t take the time to appreciate the world around you. I see people all the time with their heads down when they walk or on the busses here at school. In a way, are we “alone, together,” (Murray & Manivannan, 2014)? Put your phone down and take a look at a beautiful city skyline or even the cute dog walking next to you instead of writing on someone’s wall.

            In the Frontline Film Growing Up Online, there are a few stories mentioned in the film about kids or teens making bad choices. This one incident was where a group of high school friends snuck into a concert and acted crazy and drank even though they were underage and it was a mess (Van Petten, n.d.). These pictures and videos ended up on the internet for the world to see. One thing my mom did when I was a kid growing up was having the computer on our main floor next to the kitchen so it wasn’t in any private room. In addition, my brother-in-law is a computer wizard and works with computers so he showed my mom ways to monitor, not that I was a bad kid online. Something that was stressed in another class at Rutgers was to check what you put on your Facebook as future employers search for you and look at what you have on. There was an emphasis to not post that picture from the party from Friday night. However, having the ability to share with friends and post pictures and connect with others is awesome and why Facebook is on my agenda at least once every day to check up.

            On Facebook, you can change your privacy settings but if it is public, anybody can look at your information you have posted and even try to contact you and talk to you. This is a spot for online sexual predators. Also, Facebook and online is a place for cyberbullying and it can ruin a child’s life or even take it as it highlights in the Frontline film (Van Petten, n.d.). Thankfully, I have no experience with either of these but just to show you that they exist.

            Online Facebook friends are something that can be looked at in a couple ways. Some people add everybody and anybody, while others just add their real friends. Well, what are real friends? Friendship is the state of being friends and a state of mutual trust and support between two or more individuals (Murray & Manivannan, 2014). I personally have added people I “know” from work, or school, or something along those lines. In addition, I add people who I really talk to. I currently have 1,261 friends on Facebook. Do I “know” them each on a personal level, of course not? I have added people who are of interest including friends and family but also other acquaintances and others from school that I have seen and know of. In a video from class, our brains can keep track of 150 meaningful friendships, and no more (howstuffworks.com). In a Chris Bloor piece, “if we have too many friends, the beneficial effects of the network become fragmented. Maintaining a large group of friends takes our focus away from getting to know the characters of a few trusted individuals,” (Bloor, 2010). I would say I have five really close friends and categorizing them as two best friends, two “bros”, and of course, my girlfriend.

With Facebook, you are able to connect with your best friends you have now, or reconnect with family and even an old childhood friend who you haven’t seen in ten years like me which is absolutely amazing and why I like Facebook. I searched him up on Facebook one day after remembering his last name and I was able to add him as a friend and message him and reminisce of playing soccer in his backyard. Now, would I have a deep conversation with someone on Facebook? I wouldn’t. I wouldn’t even have one with my girlfriend. I’ll save that for a phone call or in person. However, these friendships and even those people you meet online can be authentic and I think Facebook is great (no, I am not a Facebook junkie). In this “Web 2.0”, this new age “replaces the one-to-many model of service provision with utilization of users through the any-to-many potential of the internet” (Scholz, 2007). In a study done in the UK in 2005, Lewis and West’s article Friending: London-based undergrads’ experiences of Facebook, found that Facebook as a low commitment friendship acting as a “security blanket” where you are included in people’s lives, but not in depth (Lewis & Clark, 2005).

In the age of the Internet and Facebook, there are many dangers on the Web and we all no matter how old or young we are must think twice about what we are posting. In addition, we must all be careful of what information we are giving out and keep things private as you never know who is watching and who wants to get you. In addition, no matter how many hundreds or thousands Facebook friends you have, you really only have a select few best friends. All the other people just become noise. I personally have always watched what I put on my Facebook including all videos, sharing other status updates or links, pictures, anything. I mostly only have photos of myself, my family, and my girlfriend on uploaded. I don’t have any “bad” or “harming” photos and frankly, don’t do any crazy things anyway. Facebook is great for reconnecting with old friends, but we really have a select few friends that we can trust no matter what, and there is nothing richer than getting to spend time with them and enjoying the world with our phones turned off so there is nothing to post online.

  Works Cited

Bloor, C. (2010). What are friends for. Facebook and Philosophy. (pp. 147-157).

Van Petten, V. (n.d.) Summary: Frontline’s Growing Up Online. Radicalparenting.com.            http://www.radicalparenting.com/2008/02/01/summary-frontlines-growing-up-online/

(n.d.) Fw:Thinking [video file]. Retrieved from http://shows.howstuffworks.com/fwthinking        show/future-of-social-media-video.htm

Murray, D., & Manivannan, V. (2014) Lecture Notes, Rutgers University, 09/23/14-09/26/14

Boyd, D. (2010). Social Network Sites as Network Publics Affordances, Dynamics, and   Implications. Networked Self: Identity, Community, and Culture on Social Network Sites.       (pp. 39-57).

Lewis, J., & West, A. (2009) Friending: Long-based undergraduates’ experience of Facebook.      New Media & Society, 11, 1209-1229. doi: 10.1177/1461444809342058

Scholz, Trebor. "A History of the Social Web (draft)." Collectivate.net. 26 Sep 2007. 1 Oct          2007 <http://www.collectivate.net/journalisms/2007/9/26/a-history-of-the-socialweb.      html>.