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This ABC article shows the dark reality of trolling, but also offers a positive light at the end of the tunnel, which I think every social media user would benefit from reading.

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Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (November 12, 2017)

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This is an episode from one of my favourite podcasts that I really recommend. Part of the episode discusses trolling in a very thoughtful, critical way that is very interesting!

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Trolls aren’t just the stuff of fairy tales – Week 11

As smart phones, tablets and laptops advance in technology, they integrate services that allow users to perform more tasks than ever before, all with a singular device: receiving news, getting directions, paying for food, the list goes on. This has benefited society, making many services more accessible and turning the world into a place that is functioning and “on” 24/7. With this, bullying and violence have also been adopted into the cyber space. As Ostini and Hopkins put it, “power and control extend beyond the physical world to the online world and frequently produce real world effects” (2015).

There are so many facets to the negative dialogue and conflicting relationships on social media. It’s possible that anonymity, or simply just not having to physically speak to someone’s face, gives people a sort of self-appointed entitlement to say whatever they want. This often occurs in high school whereby teenagers put embarrassing information on social media to humiliate their peers or say mean things about someone (boyd 2014, p. 129). Gossip’s glamorisation in traditional media such as TV shows, movies and magazines may have certain connotations of being “cool” when being mean. Social media allows people to be anyone they want to be, including multiple people on multiple different accounts, which creates a certain degree of exciting attraction to actions like catfishing and trolling.

But situations of conflict can escalate way further than simple hate messages. Because everything is so accessible on our technological devices, it is easy to gain access to other’s personal information that goes beyond cyber bullying , going to extreme lengths such as stealing money and stalking.

Despite how accessible it is to start conflict on social media, it’s extremely hard to end and that’s where the a lot of these issues lie. Social media platforms don’t want to get involved in disputes and recommend blocking accounts and contacting law enforcement, but contacting police can lead to more abuse and the legal system is still fully catching up to the rapidly developing online world (Laville, Wong & Hunt 2016).

Navigating the world of social media conflict is difficult because every situation is difficult, and it’s easy to hide and provide false information. But it’s important that society recognises that trolls aren’t just the stuff of fairy tales, they can ruin real people’s lives in real ways that have lasting impacts.

^ not the kind of trolls I’m talking about

References:

boyd, d 2014, it’s complicated, Yale University Press, New Haven & London.

Laville, S, Wong, J.C & Hunt, E 2016, ‘The women abandoned to their online abusers’, The Guardian, 11 April, viewed 13 April 2020, <https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/apr/11/women-online-abuse-threat-racist>.

Ostini, J & Hopkins, S 2015, ‘Online harassment is a form of violence’, The Conversation, 8 April, viewed 13 April 2020, <https://theconversation.com/online-harassment-is-a-form-of-violence-38846>.

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The launch of Animal Crossing New Horizons on the Nintendo Switch during the corona pandemic has resulted in what seems like the whole world spending all their time on this game. Animal Crossing enhances the concept of gaming communities in that players share memes and jokes about the game on social media, such as the one above, for each other’s enjoyment, but the game allows other players to come over to their island and interact, promoting social gaming.

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When did gaming become so complicated? - Week 10

Everyone knows a serious gamer. If you don’t, chances are you are one yourself. Gaming used to be thought of as just owning a ‘Game Boy’, but has now extended into so many types and forms that it’s possible to call yourself a gamer while being completely unknowledgeable about particular groups of games. These groups form gaming communities, people who connect via specific types/genres/forms of games such as Animal Crossing on the Nintendo Switch or Call of Duty on PlayStation.

Getting involved with games doesn’t just extend to playing them either. The largest personal YouTube account, PewDiePie, has over 104 million subscribers who mostly watch videos of him playing video games (See: https://www.youtube.com/user/PewDiePie/videos). Twitch is a whole platform based off live streaming gamers and this year is estimated to have a net worth of $5 billion after being launched in 2011 (The Wealth Record, 2019). As shown below, live stream gaming is a significant part of the internet (Quartz 2020).

Equally, social gaming is fosters a large community in the gaming world. Initially set up as almost a placeholder for casinos, games such as Farmville on Facebook, Angry Birds and Candy Crush have since been based off this framework, notorious for getting players to pay money for benefits to the point that within two years the global social gaming market is expected to be worth about $25 billion (Social Gaming: It’s Bigger Than You Think, 2017).

The fact that gaming is now so serious, with money involved and all, means that governments must also involve themselves in the matter and can have lasting impacts on the physical world. An example of this is EVE. EVE Online is a space-themed massively multiplayer online game (MMOG) that has over half a million subscribers and encourages players to communicate with those in charge of the game and help develop it, bringing on a range of disputes and controversies in its history (Zwart & Humphreys 2014, pp. 77-78).

EVE was intentionally designed to be “lawless” making it problematic for people who go too far (Zwart & Humphreys 2014, p. 82). Cases such as the ‘Eve Investment Bank’ which created a scam banking structure that now owes approximately AU $126,000, shows how each games’ environmental and user “norms” are individual and it can be hard for governments and game managers to navigate the rules and laws to reach a solution (Suzor & Woodford 2013, p. 6).

The only times I ever played any type of video game was with my Nintendo DS. This largely involved me sitting in the back seat of my parents car playing Nintendogs, screaming my dog’s name in order for it to learn it. I’m sure it wouldn’t surprise you to hear that this side of gaming has come as a shock to me and I’m still struggling to wrap my head around it all. I apologise if the result of that is a sub-par Tumblr post. What I can say is that next time you consider gaming to be just an innocent, uncomplicated hobby, think again because the gaming world is one of many complexities.

References:

Quartz, ‘Worth Graph’, in Khalid, A 2020, YouTube is now the biggest threat to Twitch, Quartz, 29 January, viewed 16 April 2020, <https://qz.com/1792011/twitch-is-losing-users-to-youtube-and-other-live-stream-platforms/>.

Social Gaming: It’s Bigger Than You Think, 2017, The Drop, viewed 16 April 2020, <https://the-drop.com.au/social-gaming-its-bigger-than-you-think/>.

Suzor, N & Woodford, D 2013, ‘Evaluating Consent and Legitimacy amongst Shifting Community Norms: an EVE Online Case Study’, Journal of Virtual Worlds Research, vol. 6, no. 3, pp. 1-14.

The Wealth Record, 2019, Twitch Net Worth, The Wealth Record, viewed 16 April 2020, <https://www.thewealthrecord.com/celebs-bio-wiki-salary-earnings-2019-2020-2021-2022-2023-2024-2025/other/twitch-net-worth/>.

Zwart, M.D & Humphreys, S 2014, ‘The Lawless Frontier of Deep Space: Code as Law in EVE Online’, Cultural Studies Review, vol. 20, no. 1, pp. 77-99.

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@ohhappydani

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Do you personally participate in online activism or engage in political conversations? Do you think that reposting someone else’s thoughts about an issue on your Instagram story is productive? Why?

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Memes are often used in political and activism spaces within digital communities online as they get people’s attention and start important conversations.

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Social media can be serious too - Week 9

Arguably one of the best things about social media is that it provides people who aren’t usually given a voice by traditional broadcast media a platform to speak their truth. Social media has changed the way activism works, as minority groups are able to reach large audiences in ways previously not possible.

Just over the past couple of weeks the Black Lives Matter movement was once again shown to be imperative, with video footage leaked online of jogger Ahmaud Arbery shot dead by two white men (Evelyn 2020). Digital communities of people of colour shared the video, making it go viral and as a result change was made. Despite the video being controversial due to its confronting matter, audio recordings, online petitions and traditional media attention has come about as a result (Shah 2020) . Now, further investigation has been undertaken and Gregory and Travis McMicheal have been arrested after initial reluctance to press charges. Politics has become involved too, with Donald Trump even making a statement to express his condolences. None of this would’ve happened without social media aided activism.

Like the students involved in the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Florida which killed 17, for anyone who feels that their voice isn’t being heard, “social media shrewdness has allowed them to take control of the narrative” (Alvarez, Lauzon & Zaiontz 2019, p. 1). Social media clearly has a lot of power to bring about changes in the political landscape as minority groups participate in online activism surrounding anything from Black Lives Matter to #MeToo to elections.  As Whelan states, “decision makers are influenced by visible and invisible factors”, which includes tactics of online activists that are purposely trying to influence political leaders (2020).

As produsers (Bruns 2006, p. 2), sharing links on our Facebook page, reposting onto our Instagram stories or even reblogging another post on our Tumblrs makes a big difference, as it spreads awareness and educates others. Many of us feel that it is our responsibility to use the voice social media gives us for good. While some believe it’s not productive, I think that it has the potential to start conversations and that just a little bit of recognition is better than nothing. As demonstrated above, social media has potential to bring about significant changes in society and it shouldn’t be underestimated.

References:

Alvarez N, Lauzon, C & Zaiontz, K 2019, ‘On Sustainable Tools for Precarious Times: An Introduction’ in Alvarez N, Lauzon, C & Zaiontz K (eds) Sustainable Tools for Precarious Times (Contemporary Performance InterActions), Palgrave Macmillan, Switzerland, pp. 1-25.

Bruns, A 2006, ‘Towards Produsage, Futures for User-Led Content Production’ in Sudweeks, F, Hrachovec, H & Ess, C (eds), Proceedings Cultural Attitudes towards Communication and Technology, Murdoch University, Estonia, pp 275-284.

Evelyn, K 2020, ‘Ahmaud Arbery killing reignites debate over sharing graphic viral videos’, The Guardian, 7 May, viewed 12 May 2020, <https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/may/07/ahmaud-arbery-video-shooting-sharing-viral>.

Shah, K 2020, ‘Ahmaud Arbery killing: man called 911 to report ‘black male running’ prior to shooting’, The Guardian, viewed 12 May 2020, <https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/may/07/ahmaud-arbery-killing-man-called-911-report-black-male-running-shooting>.

Whelan, J 2020, ‘Theories of Change’, The Change Agency, viewed 12 May 2020, <http://www.thechangeagency.org/theories-of-change/>.

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What a great question - one that I think will differ between each person! I think it depends who you follow, as, while it may not seem like it sometimes, we are in charge of our feeds to a certain extent. We chose to follow people and therefore have influence over the messages we recieve. I tend to follow a mix of positive and negative influences in that, sometimes I go on social media and feel empowered whilst other times I am stuck in a comparison headspace which made me feel less confident.

Overall, do you guys think social media is good or bad for perceptions of body image? Does browsing Instagram make you feel less or more confident in your own body? 

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A thought provoking piece...perhaps social media’s normalisation of plastic surgery has resulted in events like this.

“I observed the rhinoplasty of an eighteen-year-old girl whose preoperative nose appeared, well, uneventful. It was small, regular in shape, no humps, no bulges. I felt surprised. As it turned out, another surgeon had refused to operate. I can’t imagine anyone twenty years ago performing surgery on this girl’s nose. No, she didn’t have Candice Bergen’s nose, or Christy Turlington’s, or anyone with that very narrow hyper-AngloSaxonized nose that registers perfect on the American aesthetic meter. She had a regular nose. But its failure to be paradigmatic, a “model” nose, somehow disturbed her enough to have it operated on.    This is normal. Twenty years ago the attempted refinement of normal features into perfect ones would have been the province of actors — not ordinary people, who would never expect to be evaluated so closely.”

— Virginia L Blum, Flesh Wounds: The Culture of Cosmetic Surgery; 2003

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This is a really interesting video from the American TV show ‘The Docotrs’ about this week’s topic and my post. The medical community is clearly concerned about social media’s role in cosmetic surgery and body modification in today’s society, which makes me concerned individually too. 

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Superficiality on social media - Week 8

Every time I go onto social media I am flooded with messages of self-love, being true to who you are and body positivity. I love this. It just so happens that these messages are coming from social media influencers who have vast amounts of money and spend it on personal training, fake nails/eyelashes and Botox/filler/cosmetic surgery and are the epitome of superficiality.

As of January 9th 2017, #plasticsurgery had 523,361 posts, #facelift 224,235 and #rhinoplasty 138,259 on Instagram (Dorfman et al. 2018, p. 334). Not only is this practice now increasingly normalised on social media, but people are consulting this information available before going about doing the same thing themselves.

YouTube videos are often created by individuals sharing their cosmetic surgery experiences, this openness busting myths and removing stigma about the experience (Wen, Chia & Hao 2015, p. 939-940). However it is worth nothing that much of the cosmetic surgery content promoting it to others is produced by cosmetic surgery companies with aims of marketing. This brings into question the amount of reliability that can be had when trying to find information online relating to cosmetic surgery. While individuals may be more honest, they have less accreditation; and while professionals share a one-sided positive perspective they have the science and expertise to back up what they’re saying.

The elective practices are undoubtedly rising due to social media and technology, but large developments and advancements in technology have also amounted to more upstanding outcomes. Groups facilitated by global health care training non-profit  Physicians for Peace (PFP), educational apps, tele-monitoring and online courses are all now possible (Thompson 2016). These essential services are privy to the same growth that cosmetic surgery has, yet does not get the recognition it deserves online.

This brings into question whether social media only champions the aesthetically pleasing? Do we care about genuine people, their stories, education and connecting with the wider world or are we just superficial?

References:

Dorfman, R.G, Vaca, E.E, Mahmood, E, Fine, N.A & Schierle, C.F 2018, ‘Plastic Surgery-Related Hashtag Utilization on Instagram: Implications for Education and Marketing’, Aesthetic Surgery Journal, vol. 38, no. 3, pp. 332-338.

Thompson, S 2016, ‘How social media is transforming medical care in the developing world’, Fast Company, 15 March, viewed 13 April 2020, <https://www.fastcompany.com/3057869/how-social-media-is-transforming-medical-care-in-the-developing-world>.

Wen, N, Chia, S.C, & Hao, X 2015, ‘What Do Social Media Say About makeovers? A Content Analysis of Cosmetic Surgery Videos and Viewers’ Responses on YouTube’, Health Communication, vol. 30, no. 9, pp. 933-942.

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Slowly but surely, the slow fashion movement is gaining popularity on social media, even forming its own aesthetic and niche, as seen above.

moodboard ~

// sustainable fashion //

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The advertising of clothes on social media through individual brands and influencers, as well as “hauls” of large quantities of clothing being popular online have real negative consequences that many do not realise. 

Buy less - fashion is the world's second most polluting industry and the world consumes 80 billion pieces of clothing each year.

Choose well - second hand or ethical and sustainable fashion are good alternatives to the largest employer of women globally (80% of the world’s garment workers are women), where less than 2% of women workers in Colombian mines, Bangladeshi factories, or Vietnam textile mills earn a living wage.

Make it last - Doubling the useful life of clothing from one year to two years reduces emissions over the year by 24%.

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Instagram, influencers and the slow fashion movement, oh my! - Week 7

Have you ever strategically worn a specific new outfit on a particular day that photos will be taken because your other clothes have already appeared on Instagram? I’m sure I’m not the only one, and, well, if so, that’s embarrassing. But thoughts like these feed into consumer culture, specifically fast fashion. People want a lot of cheap clothes which enables clothing companies to exploit factory workers, an example of this being The Rana Plaza factory experiencing more than 1,000 deaths and 2,000 fatal injuries (Parveen cited by Henninger et al. 2017, p.2).

Sustainability and slow fashion are increasingly the focus for many companies as a result. Log onto Instagram and you’re sure to find influencers putting up sponsored content with buzz words such as “eco”, “green” “slow” and “ethical” when describing a brand, because that’s what sells. However, a lot of people don’t actually know what these words mean. This can be seen by Lai et al.’s research where that people thought the industry needed to change to become more environmentally and socially responsible but had a low level of awareness of the movement, believing it’s dated (2017, p. 88).

It is highly likely that this lack of knowledge results in little trust had towards the retailers to produce ethical products, as they could potentially charge higher prices for a product made using cheap labour and materials. Further, Instagram is a platform typically used by teenagers, young adults and millennials who may not be in the financial position to afford high price items, though they may want to. Compassion, however, plays a large role in the slow fashion movement. Because slow fashion can be considered ethically relevant behaviour, compassion for the potential child workers being exploited is a moral emotion that plays a meaningful role in how consumers actively participate in the movement (Geiger & Keller 2018, p. 1137).

Influencers similarly play a large role now. Not only do fashion brands have a social media presence that advertises to their followers, they could also use the platform to educate people about the slow fashion movement and utilise influencers to reach more people, “influencing” them to adopt more ethical views and show them that it’s okay to repeat an outfit. Times seem to be changing, so maybe it’s time to reconsider buying a new dress for just one event.

References:

Geiger, S.M & Keller, J 2018, ‘Shopping for Clothes and Sensitivity to the Suffering of Others; The Role of Compassion and Values in Sustainable Fashion Consumption’, Environment and Behaviour, vol. 50, no. 10, pp. 119-1144.

Henninger, C.E, Ryding, D, Alevizou, P.J & Goworek H 2017, ‘Introduction to Sustainability in Fashion’ in Henninger, C.E, Alevizou P.J, Goworek, H & Ryding D (eds), Sustainability in Fashion A Cradle to Upcycle Approach, Palgrave, United Kingdom, pp. 1-10.

Lai, Z, Henninger, C.E & Alevizou P.J 2017, ‘An Exploration of Consumers’ Perceptions Towards Sustainable Fashion – A Qualitative Study in the UK’, in Henninger, C.E, Alevizou, P.J, Goworek, H & Ryding, D (eds),  Sustainability in Fashion A Cradle to Upcycle Approach, Palgrave, United Kingdom, pp. 81-101.