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Social Gaming

Before I start, I want to clarify that I am a huge DotA 2 gamer. I play almost every day; mostly after class or after dinner. The pandemic does make me a little crazier on the game but I've been loyal since 2016. I also have countless online friends and I am never alone.

The topic I would like to discuss today is, is social gaming a great tool to cope with the stress of COVID-19?

According to Krittanawong, C. et al. (2022), social gaming has the ability to enhance wellbeing and mental health, which may be particularly important when people are feeling socially isolated. We hypothesised that this might be related to the tranquil setting included in Animal Crossing: New Horizons (such as the friendly community, character customisation, interactions with adorable animals or other players). This might make it possible for gamers to find a healthy diversion from the COVID-19 pandemic's realities.

During the heavy pandemic with strict laws in 2020 to 2021, I did nothing but gaming with my friends. It does helps pass the time quicker and I feel that I became more alert and cautious as a person. DotA 2 is a game of skills and awareness and the pandemic helped me enhanced my gaming and life skills as a whole. Krittanawong, C. et al. (2022) also stated that after eliminating tweets that were retweeted or had irrelevant subjects, we evaluated the data and came up with three primary conclusions. First, 16% of tweets claimed that Animal Crossing: New Horizons reduced anxiety, but 4.6% claimed that tension from the game's content made their anxiety worse. Second, according to 72% of tweets, playing Animal Crossing: New Horizons can help you unwind.

Reference

Krittanawong, C. et al. (2022) “Association of Social Gaming with well-being (escape covid-19): A sentiment analysis,” The American Journal of Medicine, 135(2), pp. 254–257. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amjmed.2021.10.010. 

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Public Health

I think this is a very important topic in general and I'm privileged enough to have this topic as my presentation along side with my groupmates.

Many including myself do not know what public health was until my team and I did research about this. So, what is public health.

So, what is public health? The science of safeguarding and enhancing the health of individuals and their communities is known as public health. In order to accomplish this effort, healthy lifestyles are encouraged, disease and injury prevention research is conducted, and infectious disease detection, prevention, and response are studied. Protecting the health of entire populations is the main focus of public health. These populations can range in size from a single neighbourhood to a whole nation or continent.(CDC Foundation, 2022)

Does social medias promote better public health? or made it worse...

Right on the bat, I personally think social media creates an open medium for anyone at all to look up to medical care. Let's use COVID-19 as an example. During this time, we are anxious about contracting the virus, and whatever small symptoms we have, we will look up on the Internet about it. Getting sick in these hard times is very detrimental especially since this virus can mutate and become more contagious yet undetectable. The Internet helps us to detect first signs of the virus even without doing a PCR Test.

Gatewood, et. al (2019) stated that the inefficient distribution, according to Brownson et al., "is responsible in part for the gap between discovery of public health information and use in practise settings and policy development." Passive dissemination techniques, such as publishing consensus conferences in scholarly journals, are typically unproductive and don't result in much of a shift in practise. 1(p102). 2 Informing audiences about health issues, enhancing communication during public health emergencies or outbreaks, and responding to public reporting of a specific public health issue are now all possible and affordable ways for public health practise.

Reference

What is public health? (no date) CDC Foundation. Available at: <https://www.cdcfoundation.org/what-public-health> (Accessed: November 11, 2022). 

Gatewood, J. et al. (2019) “Social Media in Public Health: Strategies to distill, package, and disseminate public health research,” Journal of Public Health Management and Practice, 26(5), pp. 489–492. Available at: <https://doi.org/10.1097/phh.0000000000001096>

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help.

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help.

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ACTIVISM

Before I start writing, I want to clarify that I am not the type to join an activism activity solely because I am scared of the government. They watch and listen to our every moves and if we somehow cracked something, I might get "deleted".

So, what is activism? Activism is defined as the doctrine or practice of vigorous action or involvement as a means of achieving political or other goals, sometimes by demonstrations, protests, etc. (dictionary.com)

Yes, protests, riots, and rebellious acts are all part of activism. I am proud of my generation that we are getting brave to speak out our opinions and prove them with facts. There are numerous world issues that we need to stand up against such as global warming, racism, corruption, and more.

For example, recently they have been an online protest about freedom of speech on Twitter after Elon Musk, the current owner of Twitter, bought the app. Before Elon, Twitter is famous for banning accounts that sparks hatred, racism, and act of supremacy from their followers such as Donald Trump. After Elon, it looks fine for a few days since everyone has been tweeting about anything at all without getting banned. He also unbanned previously banned accounts like Trump, Tate and Kanye West.

What caused the online protest is that when Kanye was BANNED again for tweeting. According to Mclean (2022), Kanye West's Twitter account was shut down early on Friday after Elon Musk claimed it had broken the site's guidelines against inciting violence.

"I gave it my all. Despite this, he once more transgressed our prohibition against inciting violence. Account suspension is coming, Musk tweeted in response.(Mclean, 2022)

CNN was unable to confirm which particular tweet West was suspended for. West, who has legally changed his name to Ye, tweeted a modified image of the Star of David that contained a swastika earlier in the evening.(Mclean, 2022)

Twitter users bombarded the app on the same day it happened to call out Elon about free speech. Many users tweeted that Elon does nothing at all to the app. Furthermore, twitter users also enraged when they know that Elon fired few Twitter workers that banned people from Twitter (before Elon). This speaks hypocrites and netizens don't like it.

Reference

Activism definition & meaning (no date) Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com. Available at: >https://www.dictionary.com/browse/activism> (Accessed: November 8, 2022). 

McLean, R. (2022) Kanye West's Twitter account has been suspended after Elon Musk says it violated rule against incitement to violence | CNN business, CNN. Cable News Network. Available at: <https://edition.cnn.com/2022/12/02/tech/elon-musk-kanye-west-twitter-suspension/index.html> (Accessed: November 8, 2022). 

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Po Po Politics

We Malaysians know that the General Election (GE) is coming real soon and yes, politics. As citizens who craves fair and square government, let's dive into political engagement in social media.

According to Rainie, et. al (2012), many Americans' political and civic participation now includes using social media. According to a recent survey by the Internet & American Life Project of the Pew Research Center, 66% of American adults who use social networking sites like Facebook or Twitter—or 39% of all American adults—have engaged in at least one of eight civic or political activities using social media.

In order for more publicity of certain parties, they can't escape social media, especially in this era. Be it good or bad representation, these engagement may alter the minds of citizens.

When it comes to using social media, such as social networking sites and Twitter, there are mixed partisan and ideological patterns among users. The majority of people who use social media for civic or political objectives are those who regularly discuss politics on the platform. Liberal Democrats and conservative Republicans are sometimes more inclined to use social media for these objectives than moderates in both parties since they have stronger party and ideological ties. (Rainie, et.al 2012)

For example, let's talk about one of our young and well known politician, YB Syed Syaddiq. As a millennial and naive person, I have a really good impression of him. I even followed him on Instagram because he fights for justice against the big names in Malaysia, passionately and without stuttering.

Reference

Rainie, L, et.al . (2020) Social Media and political engagement, Pew Research Center: Internet, Science & Tech. Pew Research Center. Available at <https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2012/10/19/social-media-and-political-engagement/> (Accessed: October 9, 2022)

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Week 4

Is blogging still relevant in the era of Tiktoks and Instgram?

Personally, I never knew about "blogging" until we discussed this topic in class. I used to think blogging is the same thing as a Facebook "what's on you mind today?". It is similar in a way but according to Minaev (2022), a blog or informational website that displays content in reverse chronological order, with the most recent posts appearing first, is known as a blog (a contraction of "weblog"). It serves as a forum for writers to express their opinions on specific topics.

With that being understood, I think blogging is still relevant but not as strong as it used to. It goes without saying that without social medias, blogging is the hotspot for open discussions and open sharings.

Long (2022) stated that, freedom of expression is more crucial than ever. Perhaps the only written format that enables anyone to make concise, well-reasoned claims and post them for everyone is a blog. Personal blogs are uncensored, which can be a tremendous advantage in a world where so many news organisations have predetermined agendas. In order to keep it alive, we should hold on to and take care of it.

As we all know, as we breath, the cancel culture is stronger than ever and freedom of speech is challenged. The most famous banned or cancelled icons are Donald Trump, Andrew Tate and Will Smith.

Reference

Artem Minaev, AM. 2021, What is a blog? - Definition of Terms Blog, Blogging, and Blogger FirstSiteGuide, viewed 26 November 2021, <https://firstsiteguide.com/what-is-blog/>

Keeping you connected to everything from Namecheap. and Long, J. (2022) 5 reasons blogging is still relevant in 2022, Namecheap Blog. Available at: <https://www.namecheap.com/blog/5-reasons-blogging-is-still-relevant/?gclid=Cj0KCQiA1sucBhDgARIsAFoytUugvCA3HIREq4eGgCQY-EFBMBeAlTqkjjm5ZXEN2a2KQ-dsv3hAtS8aAszdEALw_wcB >(Accessed: October 2, 2022)