Have a look

Due to censorship laws in China social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter are blocked, making access to them extremely difficult. This might make you think that there’s no social media in China then. WRONG. It is BOOMING. China has it’s own versions of social media sites which serve similar purposes. But the issue with this is that people in China find it exponentially more difficult to communicate with people outside of China or learn about foregin places. In Wilfred Yang Wang’s “Remaking Guangzhou: Geo-Identity and place making on Sina Weibo’ it states “The Chinese people are individually free, but collectively in chains” in relation to the internet. 

This speaks volumes as Chinese users have been shown to spend more time on social media than people in Japan or the US, as stated in “China’s social media boom”. This mass usage of social media in China as well as censorship laws has caused users to become much more thrifty to get around these laws. Codes have been developed. Recently, the #MeToo hashtag was blocked in China, as well as #MeTooinChina. This censorship caused outrage as many wanted to participate in the global discussion and make change in their own country. So, the code “Rice Bunny” was formed. The words rice bunny in Chinese are pronounced as “mi” “tu” and work as a code to get around censorship laws. This is not the first time codes like this have been used on social media in China for this purpose, if you’re interested have a look here! 

The social media platforms in China, although similar to those in western countries they actually offer a lot more services than ours do. For example, the Chinese equivilant to WhatsApp, “WeChat” can be used to pay bills, online shop and play games! Now that is WILD. I wish my Apps were multifunctional so I didn’t have to have SO MANY ON MY PHONE. There are heaps of apps in China which serve the same purpose of ours but then BETTER, have a look here. 

Okay, so a little disclaimer here. I do not game, I don’t really get it and I’m also really bad at and I really have an issue with the online abuse and harassment that goes on. SO! Having said that, I’m going to talk a little bit about gaming!

Consent in the online world seems tricky, it’s like when you are signing up to something apple related and you check the “I agree to these terms and conditions” box without reading it because who has time to read 71 pages of something when you just want to download flappy bird? NOT I. Anyway, but checking ‘I understand’ or ‘I agree’ when signing up to an online community or virtual world is risky business. It’s not just a formality, it is a legally binding contract. BUT. Online communities and digital worlds often seem to form their own unspoken but universally agreed upon social norms or rules which, according to Suzor and Woodford in ‘Evaluating Consent and Legitimacy amongst Shifting Community Norms: an EVE Online Case Study’ is “crucial in order to develop regulatory practices”. I agree, there is a huge emphasis on online communities and digital worlds forming their own ways of doing things in order for the world to run smoothly and that everyone has fun and safe time. Easier said than done hey? A huge appeal of digital worlds is their autonomous nature and that they do not necessarily always mirror real world rules. Hmm, maybe this is why sometimes people feel entitled to scream sexist/violent/misogynistic hate online!? The online streaming site Twitch is a space in which many women inhabit and are starting to become a part of the mainstream community. So, no sexism? No hate? No discrimination on this platform!? Yeah, not that’s not the case. A study into the interactions of watchers with female streamers showed that the percentage of non game related comments they were grossly disproportionate to their male counterparts. Some of the most popular words/comments women gamers were receiving were: bitch, boobs, pussy, cute, marry, love and of course, the online troll’s favourite, fat. You can read more about this study here 

BUT IT’S NOT ALL BAD NEWS. Alanah Pearce is a student and online game reviewer. Back in 2014 she realised that a lot of the sexually aggressive or harassing comments she received weren’t from adult men, they were from young boys. (GROSS HEY). Some messages Alanah received were as extreme as “I’ll rape you if I ever see you cunt”. WHO TAUGHT A 12 YEAR OLD THAT WORD. I don’t know. But Alanah, because she’s a superstar, decided that she’d had enough. So she started telling their mothers. THEIR MUMS. SHABOOYAAAA! I love it. Read more about Alanah’s bad-assery here 

TRIGGER WARNING: this post will discuss: eating disorders, recovery, bopo

Public health campaigns make their way through social media like a virus (ha ha get it?) and often the effect is positive. The “R U OK?” campaign sparked discussion of mental illness and gave people a reason to reach out when they might not. But, as everything with social media, there is a heckin downside! The commercialisation of health becomes a HUGE thing. Using social media to raise awareness for various health issues is great and all, but when the message is lost in the trend that’s when it becomes superficial and not doing what is intended. Burgess et al. talk extensively on the superficial nature in the engagement with the movember campaign. After analysing various posts using either the # or just the word movember its clear it participation in this campaign is at a very superficial level without much focus or emphasis on the actual health related issues around movember (prostate cancer and mens health) but rather engaging with celebrities, social events or commercialising the campaign. Blogs can often be tools to express sensitive issues surrounding health be it mental illness or cancer. McCosker & Darcy refer to these blogs as a “self-expressive space” which operates outside mainstream health. These candid and sometimes confronting blogs can be useful in presenting real, raw information and tips to those suffering with similar illnesses.

Crowd sourcing in times of crisis is not neccesarily a new concept. Crowd sourcing isn’t just about raising money though, it’s about the dissemination of information, providing valuable resources and assistance to those in need. The effectiveness on crowd sourcing often relys on the timeliness and importance of information being shared. In the Australian journal of emergency management one of the issues faced when trying to communicate via social media in times of crisis was the overload of information. Providing too many updates with little information runs the risk of the account losing followers and not being able to provide useful information.

Social media has the capability to amplify messages and get them widespread to a different audience. By retweeting during times of crisis, information can be spread widely and provide integral information and assistance to those in need.

Crowd sourcing in crisis doesn’t always remain within a crisis. Recently, a man walked into a Nashville waffle house and proceeded to open fire on customers dining in the restaurant. Not at all an uncommon story. What is uncommon about this is that an unarmed man James Shaw Jr, after being grazed with a bullet wrestled away the gun, threw it over the counter and stopped the shooter from taking more lives. Now what does this have to do with crowd sourcing? Well, the very next day James started a GoFundMe the very next day to help raise money for the victims funerals. James’s heroisim and bravery inspired the donations of over 6000 people in 15 days, well surpassing his initial $15,000 goal to a whopping $228, 298. The donations are ongoing and you can find it here 

Not only has a GoFundMe account been created by James, people have been so inspired by his actions one has been put up to donate money to James himself to assist him and his daughter. This can be found here