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Online Trolls

When it comes to the internet, like many things, there are many sides to it that can be considered ‘good’ or ‘bad’ or even both, like my last post about online gaming. Depending on who you ask it could be good or bad. But one thing that I think is unanimously bad is the harassment and bullying that occurs on online spaces. With this post I want to talk about a very specific type of harassment, trolling.

For the last time, I am going to start this off by giving a definition. Trolls are people who “leave intentionally provocative or offensive messages on the internet in order to get attention, cause trouble or upset someone.” (unknown, BBC) This is different to normal online harassment as the people aren’t doing it necessary to harm but because it is a joke to them. I think there is a fine line between trolls and harassment, and I want to dive into this further, looking into the reasoning behind trolls, and why they troll.

So trolling isn’t inherently a bad thing. Many trolls are just making jokes that is just making a bit of fun, but when trolls start to use racial slurs or give death threats in their comments trolling becomes so much worse. This is where the fine line between trolling and harassment is. Where does one stop where does the other one end. You can say it could lie in the intention behind the trolls’ comment, are they intending for it to be a joke. This isn’t a good way of assessing it because you can’t know the persons intent just from reading a comment. So, why do trolls make these ‘jokes’ about something that can be easily taken as harassments, cyber-bulling or threats from the person receiving them.

Well, according to SciShow, a video science and technology show on YouTube, there has been no real research into trolling behaviours, but there is research suggesting why people act the way they do online that can be linked to trolling behaviours. One of these studies was done by the scientist John Suler coined the term ‘The Online Disinhibition Effect’ which is the “loosening of social inhibition because of the anonymity of the internet” (SciShow, 2016). There where 6 key factors as to why this occur:

1.     Dissociative anonymity

2.     Invisibility

3.     Asynchronicity of interaction

4.     Solipsistic Introjection

5.     Dissociative Imagination

6.     Minimization of authority.

Another study suggests that harmful trollers have some or all of the personality traits of the “Dark Triad”, Machiavellian, narcissism, antisocial personality disorder (psychopathy), or sadism (SciShow,2016). This research suggests that harmful trolls’ behaviours stem from the troll’s real-life personality and the disinhibition they have made on online spaces. Which make sense. Looking at both these theories, I think the anonymity that comes along with the Online Disinhibition Effect and being in an online space give trolls the space to act on these personality traits without the social backlash that would happen in reality.

TLDR: Not all trolls are bad, but research suggests that harmful trolling is linked to the trolls real life personality and the ‘Online Disinhibitions Effect’.

Resources:

Unknown, BBC, ‘Why do people troll and what can you do about it’, https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/zfmkrj6

‘The Psychology of Trolling’, SciShow, July 1016, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gqHTlBp6iY

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Online gaming, digital communities, and real life good

As a society, online gaming is considered a counterculture, something that is hugely misunderstood and not excepted by the masses. If you talk to any middle-aged mother, they will tell you that gaming is bad, violent, anti-social and is rotting away their children’s brains. But this isn’t necessary true. There are communities of people that are formed out of online gaming, that are actually very positive places and are doing good. One of these communities that I want to focus on is the speed-running community.

So what is speed-running I hear you ask. Well speed-running is a way of playing a video game so that you complete the game as quickly as possible. This only works on games that have an end goal to finish the game, so games like Fortnight doesn’t work as the aim of this game is to be the last one standing, not to complete goals to finish the game. It’s really quiet fascinating to me. There is great skill that comes with playing a game over and over again just to get the quickest time. The more you play the better skills you gain and the quicker you can finish the game. And yes, there is a whole community dedicated to this.

Harris Brews, or better known online as hbomerguy, made a video about the culture around the community that surrounds speed running of video games, called ‘Speedrunning is Awesome, And Here’s Why’.

In this video he disuses a lot of reasons but one that I really liked and want to pinpoint is even when you are playing a game by yourself over and over again there is this online community of people who all have the same goal as you. People film themselves playing and share them with others, giving people their knowledge and helping them to beat your score. These videos show quicker routes and glitches in the games that help them get through the games quicker.

Even though these glitches make the game go quicker some people believe its cheating so there are different subsections of speed-running in through games that exclude these making many different ways that you can quickly complete the games. And it’s not just glitches, but other rules that are set in place to make the game harder. There are a whole community of people making subsections

At the end of this video Harris announces he wants to go back to a video game he played as a kid, Donkey Kong 64, that he never completed and try and do it as quickly as possible, not stopping it until he was done. In the media at the time there was a bit of hate for the transgender community going on so he took it upon himself to livestream this so he could raise money for Mermaids, a trans (transgender) charity that helps trans kids and families to come to terms what being trans means.

This video is a play by play of what happened during the livestreamed, worth the watch but there is one thing I want to pinpoint out of this video that is worth talking about. Long story short, at one point he needed to go to bed, so Harris kept the stream going and asked friends to fill in the time until he waked again. This happened a few times over the 58 hours stream. During the first sleep breaks something unexpected happened. The people who were watching started talking about their experiences being trans. This stream gave them a platform to tell their stories and for others to listen, and to be educated about an issue they didn’t know about. And this lasted for the rest of the stream, with Harris’ friends as mediators. In the end the stream raised about $350,000 for Mermaids, which ended up funding half of a 5 year to better a Mermaids program.

What’s amazing about this stream is it started as a joke that was fuelled by Harris’ spite towards TERF (trans-exclusionary radical feminist), that turned into this community where people had a place to openly share and to educate other. To me this just proves the good that can come out of something that perceive as a no-good, solitary, waste of time. Gaming isn’t as bad as people think it is. It is a place for creating strong communities. 

TLDR: there is a lot more to online games than violence, there are communities of people who just want to support others to do better and communities of people who are helping to better the world.

Resources:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5auJOBC828

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lS1k88LzjkQ

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Political engagement and activism in online spaces

This week’s topic is about political engagement and activism in online spaces. I not going to start with any definitions as I feel like this week’s topics are quite self-explanatory.

What I do want to do is extend this week’s topic and talk about how political movements are created, not in liberated online culture but in a censored online space. I want to talk about the extremes some people have to go to get their voices heard in online spaces. I want to digital activism and China’s censorship laws.

Let’s start this by sharing a link to Hasan Mihaj’s episode on Patriot Act talk about this topic. I found what he said to be very interesting and explains this topic more than what I can in this short post. link is here but can also be found in the resources at the bottom of this post

So we all know about the censorship that governs the lives of the everyday lives of the citizens. Certain historical event and political movements, like Tiananmen Square, isn’t as commonly taught to students and is a conversation that most people don’t talk about (Beam, 2014). Information like this is stripped from the internet and made almost impossible to find information about it. So, you can only imagine what it is like to live in an environment where historical activism are wiped from the internet, then what is happen with real time activism. So, let’s no longer imagine and let’s talk about it.

So in China there is something The Great Firewall and this is a “complex ecosystem of human beings, telecom and tech companies, and law that all gives the Communist Party and China’s president Xi Jinping he ability to control what can be seen on the internet in real time” (Patriot act). This makes it extremely hard for activist to be heard in online spaces but not entirely impossible. People have to find creative ways around censorship. Take for example the #metoo movement. At one point the government put a ban on the word #metoo and other words associated with them, so Chinese actives started to use the hashtag #ricebunny as rice sounds like me in Chinese and bunny sounds like too. Other ways that activist got around censors was rotating images, making memes and using blockchain services (Patriot act).

What this highlights, for me at least, is this outstanding resilience to be able to stand up for what they believe in, even if it isn’t what the governments wants. This ability to keep fighting for what they believe in something that can be admired by anyone, and should be something that is modelled into how we react to setbacks in our online activism.

TLDR: Thar even in the most censored online spaces (China), people are still actively engaging in activism they just have to be creative in how they do it.

Resources:

Christopher Beam, 2014, “ I think it’s already been forgotten”. https://newrepublic.com/article/117983/tiananmen-square-massacre-how-chinas-millennials-discuss-it-now

Patriot Act with Hasan Mihaj’s, “Censorship in China” https://www.netflix.com/watch/80990679?trackId=14170287&tctx=0%2C0%2C969347fe-42f5-4116-9909-82288de42083-598025961%2C2488f48d-3ebd-4ee7-8ded-1f1eac9b33b7_141850984X3XX1590981844269%2C2488f48d-3ebd-4ee7-8ded-1f1eac9b33b7_ROOT%2C

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As per usual I want to discuss some definitions before we head straight into the main focus of this weeks post. This week I want to talk about pornification, which according to Jonathan Mavroudis refers to the “Displays of female sexuality through sexualised social media content, is a powerful means of gaining visibility. (week 8 lecture). But this doesn’t just stay in social media spaces, it leaks into everyday lives as people feel the need to get things like plastic surgery or when this starts to effect people’s mental health.

I will talk a little more psychological harm a little later, but first I want to talk about an online influencer, Natalie Wynn, or as she is more communally known as ContraPoints. She is known for making video essays on topics such as politics, gender, ethics and philosophy

In her video ‘beauty’ Natalie talks about her struggles with female beauty standards. Being transgender, Natalie has a unique viewpoint of female beauty standards. She talks about how she has transitioned as an adult, and the struggles of trying to fit into the ‘common’ world of beauty. Unlike many females she wasn’t a child when media influenced the way we think about our self. She knews, unlike many others females, that the beauty we see on Instagram is fake, photoshopped, that some models have plastic surgery but that doesn’t stop her from thinking that she isn’t pretty enough, or that she needs to keep changing. Now before you say that her want to be beautiful comes from having dysphoria, she talks about this in her video, saying

“How sharp is the line separating gender dysphoria for the other kinds of body dysphoria that drives cisgender people to get cosmetic surgery all the time? … I also think that trans (transgender) people often talk like gender dysphoria is this intrinsic, personal experience that’s always 100% valid and never has anything at all to do with the external pressure of beauty standards. But in fact, gender dysphoria is not sealed away in a vacuum away from the influence of societal ideals and norms. “ She later goes on to say that the days in which she feels like she ‘passes’ are the days she feels the most externally beautiful.

When talking about her mental health, Natalie talks about how additive she finds editing her face, and how she thought FFS (facial feminization surgery) would fix the way she felt about her body, but it didn’t. She indicates in the video how damaging this can be by saying that “You have to keep in mind that surgery fixes very specific problems, like the Adams apple problem … but its really not a solution deep psychological issue.”. Its interesting to here Natalie thoughts as she wouldn’t have had to deal with pornification of women on social media for that long but it has still worn away at her psyche. Damaging the way she feels and her self worth.

I know it is a lengthy video but it think it is worth the watch:

I think that there can, and is, a real phycological harm that comes with the pornification of people within society. In the article ‘The influence of body image on mental health’ Carolyn Mair discusses how “research from the Mental Health Foundation with more than 4000 participants, found that ‘idealised’ media images are not only undermining our self-confidence, they are also contributing to our poor mental health.” (Carolyn Mair, 2019) This article also talks about the something that Natalie talks about. “And although much, if not most, of fashion and other media imagery is digitally altered and legislation requires acknowledgement of this, it still influences us. Even when we know that an image has been ‘doctored’, we still feel worse about our own body after viewing it.”

Both of these points further illustrate the reality for so many people. That the way females are portrayed on social media platforms, like Instagram, does effect they ways in which they perceive their body image.

TLDR:  Using Natalie Wynn (ContaPoints) as a case study I discuss how pornification of females within society has a psychological impact on females.

Resources:

Carolyn Mair, 2019, ‘The influence of body image on mental health,   https://www.bps.org.uk/blogs/guest/influence-body-image-mental-health

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Slow fashion and Covid-19

As defined in ‘An Exploration of Consumers’ Perceptions Towards Sustainable Fashion’ fast fashion is “those goods and services that respond to basic needs and bring a better quality of life, while minimizing the use of natural resources, toxic materials and emission of waste and pollutants over the life-cycle, so as not to jeopardize the needs of the future.” The garments must be produced “in an ethical and socially responsible, manner, paying workers fair wages and, ideally, create jobs in the country of origin by producing locally” (Palgrave: 2017). Yes, these definitions are quite wordy and long, but this is because there isn’t a clear-cut definition of slow fashion (Palgrave: 2017). There are to many moving parts within the process of fashion production to have just pinpoint what slow fashion is with a small bite-size definition.

The idea of slow fashion isn’t a new idea, it can be dated all the back to the late 1960’s with the rebellious movements against the consumerist behaviours started in 1950’s or the hippie movement as some of you might know better (unknown, Solene Rauturier). Then onwards it can be found is counterculture fashion like punk rock in the 70/80’s and anti-fur movements of the 80’s.

So this idea of stainable fashion has been around for the better part of the last 50 years but what is it about today’s culture with the popularity of slow fashion. Well it is linked to the overall stainable and eco ways of living that are becoming more prominent as people are starting to realize the impact we have on the earth. What I want to do is dig a little deeper into this and talk about the almost over-night awareness that has occurred due to the global pandemic.  

With Covid-19 countries, and industries all over the world have become blatantly aware of sustainable production of good, the fashion industry being hit quite hard. As talked about in the article “Coronavirus hits the Australian fast-fashion industry, forcing it to look at a slower future” Coronavirus has put a lot of pressure on designers to relook at the way they are creating  their products. With worldwide restrictions factories have closed, Australia’s borders are closed, and with consumers have fanatical difficulties people aren’t buying clothes the same way anymore. It is predicted because of covid-19 that Australian fashion industry will suffer a 12.5 percent drop revenue drop this year (IBIS world, 2020). As bad as this drop is, many designers believe this is the perfect time for people to rethink what they are doing, and how they can be better. Australian Fashion council chief, Leila Naja Hibri has said that “The silver lining is that we are being forced to rethink the way we do things; from sourcing and manufacturing to selling and consuming," (Michaela Boland, 2020).

This is the kind of hope I wish to see going forward with the fashion industry, that the producers of our clothing start to realise the damage they are doing, so that slow-fashion is no longer a counter culture but the main cultural norms, but only time will know.

TLDR: Slow fashion movements have been around since the 50’s but with the resent global pandemic, fashion brands have had to rethink the way in which they are producing their clothes. Hopefully when we are on the other side of this pandemic there will be new attitudes to how fashion produces are made.

Resources:

WEEKLY READING: Zhen Lai, Claudia E. Henninger and Panayiota J. Alevizou ‘An Exploration of Consumers’ Perceptions Towards Sustainable Fashion – A Qualitative Study in the UK’, in Sustainability in Fashion A Cradle to Upcycle Approach, edited by Henninger, C.E., Alevizou, P., Goworek, H., Ryding, D. (Palgrave: 2017)

Unknown, Solene Rauturier ‘a brief history of fashion’, https://www.solenerauturier.com/blog/history-ethical-fashion

Michaela Boland, Mary Llyod, April 2020, ‘Coronavirus hits the Australian fast-fashion industry, forcing it to look at a slower future’ https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-04-28/coronavirus-covid19-australia-fashion-industry-adapts/12189924

IBISWorld, 2020, Clothing Retaling in Australia – Market research Report https://www.ibisworld.com/au/industry/clothing-retailing/407/

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Digital Citizenship and Politics

In its simplest terms, Digital Citizenship is the way in which we, the citizen, interacts and use digital spaces. Just like any real society there is correct ways to act and rules that we all follow. The NSW Department of Education explains that a good citizen is “… a person with the skills and knowledge to effectively use digital technologies in a positive way to participate in society, communicate with other, and create and consume digital content.”  I find all of it is quite interesting, being a citizen and following rules that are such second nature to many that you don’t even know existed.

Before we go too far, I want to start this by saying just like digital public sphere, digital citizenship has its flaws especially around accessibility to technology and correct usage of these digital platforms. These limitations are referred to as digital divide, and are a critical aspect to the usage, or miss-usage, of a digital platform.  I mention this because it is always good to be reminded that the internet, and technological devices, are privileges that not everyone has access too. Digital spaces aren’t as clean cut as what some people would want you to believe, and lead to disadvantages and inaccuracy within society.

I want to talk about something called e-Government. According to Getrude Ntulo and Japhet Otike paper on e-governments importance an “e-Government is the use of technology to enhance the access to and delivery of government services to benefit citizens, business partners and employees. It is the use of information technology to support government operations, engage citizens, and provide public services in a more efficient and transparent manner.” I think it’s worth mention this as there is more to digital politics then just random people tweeting at each-other, there is a whole underlying system at play that have changed the way in which citizens can interact with the government. It has simplified the process of gaining information, empowers people to engage with politics, strengthens democracy by getting more citizen involved, better delivery of services, among many other benefits (Ntulo, Otike).  

This can be seen during the 2016 US election between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. During this time social media became the “latest fascination of political communication strategists” as it “has become an increasingly important source for political news in particular.” (Enli, 2017). With the use of these ‘new’ online spaces, the political parties could directly talk to their citizens without the use of a third party, to delivering their messages in  clear and concise ways.

TLDR: although digital citizenship is a flawed structure, with limitations on accessibility and usage, it is a way in which we interact online with others and society about many things, including the interaction with governments through online spaces.

Resources:

Week 6 Lecture

WEEKLY READING Enli, G 2017, 'Twitter as an arena for the authentic outsider: Exploring the social media campaigns of Trump and Clinton in the 2016 presidential election', European Journal of Communication, vol 32, no 1 pp 50-61

Ntulo, G. and Otike, J., 2013. E–Government: Its Role, Importance and Challenges. School of Information Sciences. MoiUniversity.

https://scholar.google.com.au/scholar?q=E+–+GOVERNMENT:+ITS+ROLE,+IMPORTANCE+AND+CHALLENGES&hl=en&as_sdt=0&as_vis=1&oi=scholart

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What is Tumblr and how does it function as a digital community?

On the surface, Tumblr is just another micro-blogging website, but I think there is a lot more to Tumblr then what people many think. Tumblr has this beautiful way of making the members of the community feel like they belong and there are endless possibility for blogs. In this post I want to do a quick dive into a key element that makes Tumblr unique, anonymity and why I think this helps to build a digital community.  

But first, I want to touch on is Jurgen Habermas’s theory of Public Sphere. for those who don’t know what a public sphere it is a place where where “private people come together in public for the purpose of using reason to further critical knowledge which, in turn, leads to political change” (Kruse, Norris, Flinchum, 2018) and it is argued by many scholars to this day if it even exists. There is a lot of reasons why people believe this that I won’t go into, but I think that it has a good base to what a digital community should be. A place for the individual person can come together with people and discuss the things they like.

Burns and Highfield talk about how public spheres and how they have “to a more dynamic and complex conceptual framework [that] provides the opportunity to more clearly recognise the varying forms that public communication can take, especially online.” (Burns and Highfield, 2016). Even Haberman claimed that the public sphere can be changed to fit modern communities (Kruse, Norris, Flinchum, 2018). So even though Tumblr doesn’t work like a tradition public sphere it has evolved to be its own type of community.

When it comes to being a part of a Tumblr community, an aspect that I think tends to get overlooked is the ability to have anonymity. “You don’t tell people your Tumblr URL, you aren’t logging the banalities of your day—you aren’t even you. On Tumblr, you can revel in anonymity, say whatever you want without fear of it going on your permanent record. You can start as many Tumblr’s as you like, one for each slice of your personality” (Reeve, 2016). Having the ability to be anonymous gives the users the hug box effect.

Talked about in ‘Social Media as a Public Sphere? Politics on Social Media’ “The hug box is like I am somewhere warm, safe, comfortable, and it’s my beliefs and it’s my type of thing and I never get challenged and I never get exposed to new ideas” (Kruse, Norris, Flinchum, 2018). The report goes on to talk about how social media creates this space for its users, and I think Tumblr does this better than the others. As you are encouraged to share your interest to similar people, without fear of judgement as they have the same, if not similar, stances as you. This creates a strong friendship between people as they bond over the posts.  Which then creates a beautiful digital community of like-minded people sharing what they love.

TLDR: Tumblr doesn’t work in the traditional sense of a public sphere, but it does work as a digital community that provides people with the confidence to blog about the things they enjoy, without the fear of judgement from peers. This is done through the creation of a hug box. 

Reference:

Lisa M. Kruse, Dawn R. Norris & Jonathan R. Flinchum (2018) ‘Social Media

as a Public Sphere? Politics on Social Media, The Sociological Quarterly,’ 59:1, 62-84, DOI:

10.1080/00380253.2017.1383143

Axel Burns. Tim Highfield. (2016) ‘Is Hebermas on Twitter? Social Media and the Public Sphere’

Elspeth Reeve (2016), ‘The Secret Life of Tumblr Teens’ https://newrepublic.com/article/129002/secret-lives-tumblr-teens