socialmediamaven-blog

[socialmediamaven-blog]

Global Social Media: Case Study China

A friend of mine lived in Shanghai for many years. She would come and go from Facebook sporadically, with the occasional announcement that the loop hole they used to access Facebook in China had been closed, but they were back again with another work around to the Great Firewall of China.

Here’s how it works…

( Hungry Beast, 2010 )

While I knew that social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter were banned in China, I wasn’t aware of the extent of the internet censorship. In April 2014, an explosion at the main railway station in Urumqi occurred at the end of President Xi Jinping’s visit to the region, during which he had committed to increase focus on fighting terrorism (Waddell, 2017). The Chinese government’s censorship protocol began immediately, with search terms blocked and thousands of paid propaganda posts flooding the internet to distract from the news of the attack in Urumqi (Waddell, 2017). King et al. (2017) suggest that there are now up to 2 million people who are paid to add huge numbers of social media posts to distract and change the subject, in order to avoide controversial issues. The estimate is that this group, known as the “50c party” as they reportedly get paid 50c per post, make around 448 million social media comments each year (King et al., 2017).

According to Crampton (2011), while China’s online censorship is important to the 420 million internet users, connecting with other Chinese online is their top priority. While sites such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter are blocked, the Chinese have created their own social media equivalents (Crampton, 2011).

(Top Social Networks in China 2014)

Chiu et al. (2012) suggest that Chinese internet users spend an average of 46 minutes each day on social media, compared to 7 minutes in Japan and 37 minutes in the United States of America. Perhaps this significant social media interest is part of the reason Facebook are developing software to censor posts according to geographic profiles, in order to break into the Chinese market (Isaac, 2016)?

References

Chiu, C, Lin, D & Silverman, A 2012, China's social-media boom, McKinsey & Company, viewed 3 August 2016, <http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/marketing_sales/chinas_social-media_boom>.

Crampton, T 2011, 'Social media in China: The same, but differen't, China Business Review, Vol. 38, no. 1, pp. 28-31, viewed 3 August 2016, <http://www.thomascrampton.com/china/social-media-china-business-review/>.

Hungry Beast 2010, The Great Firewall of China, You Tube, viewed 4 February 2017 < https://youtu.be/dWfUOG0EA9w>

Isaac, M 2016, Facebook Said to Create Censorship Tool to Get Back Into China, New York Times, 22 November 2016, viewed 4 February 2017 < https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/22/technology/facebook-censorship-tool-china.html?_r=0>

King, G Pan, J, and Roberts, M 2017.  “How the Chinese Government Fabricates Social Media Posts for Strategic Distraction, not Engaged Argument.” American Political Science Review, 2017. Viewed 4 February 2017 <http://j.mp/1Txxiz1>

'Top Social Networks in China' [image] 2014, Social Media Today, viewed 3 August 2016, <http://www.socialmediatoday.com/content/understanding-social-media-china-2014>.

Waddel, K 2017, 'Look, a Bird!' Trolling by Distraction, The Atlantic, viewed 4 February 2017 <https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2017/01/trolling-by-distraction/514589/>

[socialmediamaven-blog]

Trolling and race

While bullying has long been a part of society, with social media and public communication more available than ever before, in recent times, harassment and stalking has been taken online. Techopedia (2016) describes this online bullying as “trolling” and states that it is widespread in social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, comment facilities and anywhere users can communicate online anonymously.

One type of trolling in Australian digital communities is cyber-racism. The Australian Human Rights Commission (2016) describes racism as “jokes or comments that cause offence or hurt; name-calling or verbal abuse; harassment or intimidation, or public commentary that inflames hostility towards certain groups”. Anti-racism Education for Australian Schools (2015) suggests that these actions are incited by a belief that one’s own race is superior to others. Racism communicated online via websites, blogs and social media is known as cyber-racism (Australian Human Rights Commission, 2016). Donath (1999 pp29-31) suggests that in contrast to face-to-face communication, communication online is often considered anonymous and allows for entirely constructed identities. This facilitates member of digital communities saying or writing things that they may not say or write in face-to-tace communication.

In December 2016, lawyer and human rights advocate, Mariam Veiszadeh publicly shared an abusive, racist message she was sent on Facebook and was subsequently blocked from the social media site (Dumas 2016). As the message to Veiszadeh was sent privately through Facebook, it did not contravene community standards, however when she shared the message publicly on her page, the post was removed and she was banned (Dumas 2016). Veiszadeh is quoted as saying “People think that there are absolutely no consequences for pushing their anger and sending you unreasonable, hateful messages and threats… "I wouldn't feel compelled to share these posts publicly if Facebook had better regulations and processes in place to actually tackle these kinds of threats in a prompt and efficient manner."

This incident raises two issues – firstly, should it matter whether an abusive, racist message was private or public? And secondly, do online social forums deal adequately with cyber bullying?

Personally, I don’t think there should be a distinction between public or private when an organisation like Facebook is considering whether or not to take action against trolling. The words have power. The damage is done, whether it is public or private. Cyber-racism has an enormous impact on the mental health of victims. The Australian Human Rights Commission (2016) reports that women who have been targeted are afraid to leave their houses. Students who were exposed to cyber-bullying are reported to have felt isolated, unsafe, violated, depressed and threatened, with some students refusing to attend school, and some leaving school altogether (Hawke Research Institute for Sustainable Societies, 2008).

According to Lawstuff (2017), social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube all have the power to remove content deemed as bullying. Facebook (2017) states that it doesn’t tolerate online harassment, and that it may remove offending content, however it does not specify whether it will remove private messages or not. In Veiszadeh’s example, Facebook only removed the content when it was posted publicly (Dumas 2016). I believe, in this case, Facebook’s initial response to the private message was inadequate. Veiszadeha reports that online trolling like the below image affects both her physical and mental heatlh (stellerxeno6, 2015), which is not surprising. It’s horrific.

(stellerxeno6, 2015)

References

Anti-racism Education for Australian schools 2015, Racism No Way, NSW Government Department of Education, viewed 17 December 2016 <http://www.racismnoway.com.au/teaching-resources/factsheets/9.html>

Australian Human Rights Commission 2016, Racisim It Stops With Me/Cyber Racism, Australian Human Rights Commission, viewed 17 December 2016 <https://itstopswithme.humanrights.gov.au/what-can-you-do/speak/cyber-racism>

Donath, J 1999. Identity and deception in the virtual community. In Communities in Cyberspace , eds. Marc Smith and Peter Kollock. London; New York: Routledge.   

Dumas, D 2016, Facebook apologises after banning Mariam Veiszadeh for sharing troll's Islamophobic ran, Sydney Morning Herald, viewed 21 December 2016 <http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/news-and-views/news-features/facebook-bans-mariam-veiszadeh-for-sharing-trolls-islamophobic-rant-20161220-gtfhws.html>

Facebook, 2017, Community Standards Bullying and Harassment, Facebook, viewed 3 February 2017 <https://www.facebook.com/communitystandards/#bullying-and-harassment>

Lawstuff 2017, Cyber-bullying, Lawstuff, viewed 2 February 2017 <http://www.lawstuff.org.au/qld_law/topics/bullying/cyber-bullying>

King, S 1996. Researching internet communities: proposed ethical guidelines for the reporting of results. The Information Society 12:119 ‐ 128  

stellerxeno6, 2015, Mariam Veiszadeh shares her experience with cyber bullying#IStandWithMaraim, You Tube, viewed 3 February 2016 <https://youtu.be/UlCJPuSKhg4>

Techopedia Inc 2016, Troll Definition, Techopedia, viewed 17 December 2016 <https://www.techopedia.com/definition/429/troll>

[socialmediamaven-blog]

Gaming and digital communities

I admit, this week’s topic did not pique my interest at first. My idea of gaming was of someone socially awkward locked in their bedroom, playing for hours on end. Something that I considered quite unsociable.

(Greenhough, 2010)

What I have discovered however, is that gaming is an involved form of sociality, there are many aspects to the digital communities generated by gaming, and there are massive profits to be made.

One form of gaming is ‘massively multiple online role-playing games’ (MMORPGs), where a large number of players interact in a virtual world.  Research suggests that social interaction is a driving force for players of MMORPGs (Hsueh-hua Chen & Been-Lirn Duh 2007 pp1). A study by Griffiths, Davies & Chappell (2003 pp 81–91) suggests that 41% of gamers consider social interaction their favourite part of online gaming. As an example of the revenue generated by online gaming, popular MMORPG World of Warcraft accounted for 36% of the subscription gaming market in 2013, and generated over $1 billion in revenue (Tassie, 2014)

(Tassie, 2014)

The impact of online communities within gaming is evident in World of Warcraft’s ‘corrupted blood’ incident where players united to support each other in a time of crisis within the game. A coding error caused a virtual plague, in the form of a spell intended to last only seconds, which massively damaged players and became contagious (Kohler, 2010). Warhurst (2016) reports that one of the reactions from the plague, was for players to set up healing stations. While some players took advantage of the plague and intentionally infected others, some players joined together for good.

Quite different to World of Warcraft is FarmVille, which is played via Facebook. Liszkiewicz (2010) suggests that the popularity of FarmVille is the social obligation that it brings to players. Players can send gifts and help each other build farms, and are obligated to return the favours. Further to this, developer of FarmVille, Zynga, used it’s technology to gamify reconstruction after Hurricane Sandy in a simulation of Farmville called Repair the Rockways (Fox, 2013). Players purchased bricks to build houses in the game, with 100% of the revenue going towards rebuilding the town of Rockaway in New York.

I have to say that I am pleasantly surprised about the positive impact of gaming communities - it is definitely much more than the socially awkward lonely person playing in their bedroom that I had in mind!

References

ABC, Good Game, ABC, viewed 1 February 2017 [http://www.abc.net.au/tv/goodgame/about/]

Greenhough, 2010, Hardcore Gamer, viewed 1 February 2017 [http://www.inquisitr.com/74025/people-gaming-for-longer-extreme-gamers-averaging-48-hours-per-week/]

Griffiths, M. D., Davies, M. N. O., & Chappell, D 2003, Breaking the stereotype: The case of online gaming. Cyber Psychology and Behaviour, 6 (2003), pp 81–91

Hsueh-hua Chen, V and Been-Lirn Duh, H 2007, Understanding social interaction in world of Warcraft, Proceedings of the international conference on Advances in computer entertainment technology, Salzburg Austria, June 13-15, 2007, pp 21-24, viewed 1 February 2017 [http://dl.acm.org.ezproxy.lib.swin.edu.au/citation.cfm?doid=1255047.1255052]

Liszkiewicz, P 2010, The Real Reason You Are Addicted To Farmville (And Zynga Is A $5 Billion Company), Business Insider Australia, 27 April, 2010, viewed 1 February 2017 [http://www.businessinsider.com.au/the-cleverest-explanation-as-to-why-zynga-is-a-multi-billion-company-you-will-ever-read-2010-4]

Tassie, P 2014, 'World of Warcraft' Still A $1B Powerhouse Even As Subscription MMOs Decline, Forbes, viewed 1 February 2017 [http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2014/07/19/world-of-warcraft-still-a-1b-powerhouse-even-as-subscription-mmos-decline/#25bd0f6b7725]

Warhurst, S 2016, Gaming’s weirdest moments: the corrupted blood incident, Rocket Chainsaw, viewed 1 February 2017 [http://www.rocketchainsaw.com.au/corrupted-blood-incident/]

[socialmediamaven-blog]

Crowdsourcing in Times of Crisis

My personal experience with crowdsourcing started with a friend’s Kickstarter campaign to launch a new business idea. She shared her Kickstarter page on social media, and used it to raise the $20,000 she needed to get the project off the ground - I loved that I was contributing to her goals, but also that I received an awesome product in return for my contribution.

You can check out the Kickstarter campaign here and watch the video below

(Bang Bang Collective 2016)

In recent times, crowdsourcing has been used for more than sourcing funds to get a business off the ground, Crowdsourcing in times of crisis facilitates gathering, reporting and sharing information from members of the public, which would help a person to make an informed decision impacting his or her health and safety (Weaver et al 2012). Similarly, emergency services and disaster management teams could also use this information (Weaver et al 2012). However, Weaver et al (2012) also suggest that the authenticity of this information could be questioned.

When Melbourne was hit by flash flooding on 28 December 2016, photos, videos and stories went viral on social media platforms, providing the public with live updates on flooded areas. This crowdsourced content allowed people to avoid danger and find appropriate ways to get home.

(twitter.com)

On a much larger scale, crowdsourcing is claimed to have saved lives in Haiti. On 12 January 2010, when an earthquake struck Haiti and over 100,000 people were feared dead, a crisis map was launched, originally to assist in finding some friends. (Meier 2012). Named the Ushahidi Haiti Project, the crisis map, is credited by the US Marine Corps as saving hundreds of lives. Social and conventional media outlets were monitored by over a hundred students for relevant, mappable content and an international SMS number was established to receive information to map (Meier 2012). Following on from the success of the Ushahidi Haiti Project, this mapping technology has been used in Chille, Pakistan and Russia and has formed a global network of 850+ volunteers around the world who use their live mapping skills to facilitate information sharing in times of crisis (Meier 2012).

(Meier 2012)

References

Bang Bang Collective 2016, Kickstarter, viewed 29 January 2017 [https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/753471608/bang-bang-collective]

[socialmediamaven-blog]

Slacktivism – does it achieve anything at all?

Slacktivism, clicktivism, subactivism, hastag activism – these terms refer to the ‘easy activism’, usually via social media, which have been described as having no real impact on the world. Bakardjieva (2009, p. 103) suggests that subactivism refers to the ‘feeble motions’, which occur every day. He also suggests that subactivism is an important part of democracy as it encourages conversation and interaction. Social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and blogs have increasingly become tools for people to engage in social activism. Gladwell (2010) states that these tools make it easy for people to collaborate, coordinate and share their opinions, but does a ‘like’ a share, a change in profile picture or a check-in on social media actually have an impact?

In November 2016, more than a million people checked in to the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in North Dakota on Facebook, inspired by a viral Facebook post urging people to support protesters against the Dakota Access Pipeline (Massie, 2016). The concept behind the post, was to confuse the Sheriffs who were targeting protestors, and it could all be done without getting off the couch. Whether or not the 140 arrests were influenced by social media has not been revealed, however Facebook did facilitate resources, solidarity and raise awareness throughout the world (Massie, 2016).

“It’s definitely better than just sticking your head in the sand. And it does often lead to ‘real’ activism when people who don’t know anything about organizing or activism connect with people who do,”

Lindsey Jones, from Wethersfield, Connecticut

(Levin & Woolf , 2016)

( Levin,S & Woolf, N, 2016 )

Once advantage of connecting on social media for a cause is that content can be created and streamed to gain support (McCafferty, 2011). The Kony 2012 campaign (Invisible Children 2012) is an example of content created to gain support by pulling at the heartstrings. Invisible Children produced a graphic video to promote the movement to capture LRA’s Joseph Kony. The video quickly went viral, with more than 100 million views in six days (Cauterucci, 2016). The campaign undoubtedly gained awareness of the tragedies of Kony’s rule in Uganda, it prompted millions of dollars in donations (Cauterucci, 2016), however the video’s effectiveness is questioned as Kony has still not been captured and the campaign is all but forgotten. So did it really achieve anything?

(Invisible Children, 2012)

I believe slacktivism, clicktivism, subactivism, and hastag activism (whichever your preferred term) does have an impact. As Bakardjieva (2009, p. 103) states, it encourages conversation and interaction. If these are the first steps to people taking action outside their lounge rooms and away from their phones, then there is a place for it in today’s society, perhaps even a need for it.

References

Bakardjieva, M 2009, 'Subactivism: Lifeworld and Politics in the Age of the Internet', Information Society, vol. 25, no. 2, pp. 91-104.

Cauterucci, C 2016, The Lessons of Kony 2012, Slate.com. viewed 29 January 2017 [http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/the_next_20/2016/09/kony_2012_quickly_became_a_punch_line_but_what_if_it_did_more_good_than.html]

Gladwell, M 2010, Why the revolution will not be tweeted, The New Yorker, viewed 29 January 2017 [http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2010/10/04/small-change-malcolm-gladwell}

Invisible Children, 2012, Kony 2012, Invisible Children, viewed 29 January 2017 [https://invisiblechildren.com/kony-2012/]

Levin,S Woolf, N, 2016, A million people 'check in' at Standing Rock on Facebook to support Dakota pipeline protesters, The Guardian, viewed 29 January 2017 [https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/oct/31/north-dakota-access-pipeline-protest-mass-facebook-check-in]

Massie, V 2016, What the viral Facebook check-in at Standing Rock says about activist surveillance, Vox, viewed 29 January 2017 [http://www.vox.com/identities/2016/11/1/13486242/facebook-standing-rock]

McCafferty, D 2011, Activism vs. slacktivism, Communications of the ACM, Volume 54 Issue 12, December 2011, Pages 17-19

[socialmediamaven-blog]

Great to see digital communities being used for good instead of evil - Mumma Mac, whoever you are, never change x

[socialmediamaven-blog]

This article raises the question of could the recent increase in deleting social media accounts be the start of a social media revolution?

Possibly, but I know I am not ready to delete my Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, SnapChat accounts!

[socialmediamaven-blog]

A good news story demonstrating the power of digital communities and social media

[socialmediamaven-blog]

Crowdfunding has so far raised almost $150K to reinstate Australia Day billboard

Anti-racism campaigners have started a crowdfunding project for an Australia Day billboard advertisement featuring Australian Muslims, after backlash to a billboard showing two girls in hijab led to its removal.

Read more...

http://www.theage.com.au/lifestyle/news-and-views/news-features/antiracism-campaigners-want-to-put-australian-muslim-girls-back-on-a-billboard-for-australia-day-20170118-gttkdp.html

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“WITH THE RISE IN FAKE NEWS STORIES AND FABRICATED STORIES TARGETING MARGINALIZED GROUPS, IT IS IMPORTANT TO MONITOR THE LEGITIMACY OF ALL SOURCES”

German Police Says Breitbart Created Fake Story on Muslim Mob Fire

Police and the local paper in Dortmund, Germany are calling out Breitbart for producing a fake story alleging a mob attack happened on New Year’s Eve, whose culprits were over a thousand “Muslim” men chanting “Allahu Akbar” while setting fire to the oldest church in the country. It described incidents where the men launched fireworks at police and a group gathered around the “Free Syrian Army” flag.

Police and the local paper state that the right-wing conservative publication falsified reports from the scene to produce “fake news, hate and propaganda.” Police said there were no “extraordinary or spectacular” incidents that occurred that night.

Ruhr Nachrichten, the newspaper which Breitbart cited in its piece, stated that many of the elements Breitbart reported in its story were greatly exaggerated. Although stray fireworks did start a small blaze, the fire was only on netting covering scaffolding on the church and it was put out after about 12 minutes, the paper reported. The roof was not on fire and the church is not Germany’s oldest.

WITH THE RISE IN FAKE NEWS STORIES AND FABRICATED STORIES TARGETING MARGINALIZED GROUPS, IT IS IMPORTANT TO MONITOR THE LEGITIMACY OF ALL SOURCES.

The local police also noted that the officers handled 185 incidents that evening, and described this past New Year’s Eve as “average to quiet.” They also explained that the night likely went smoothly due to the large police presence in the area.

There have been concerns in Germany that there could be a widespread of more fake news depicting violent situations regarding Muslims and immigrants ahead of this year’s elections as a means to help right-wing nationalist parties gain power. German officials have called for a special government unit to combat fake news ahead of the elections.

With the rise in fake news stories and fabricated stories targeting marginalized groups, it is important to monitor the legitimacy of all sources.

Breitbart’s story is still up without any corrections or editor’s notes.

[socialmediamaven-blog]

I shared this video on my personal Facebook page this week and a comment was made that “these two deliberately incite, which flaws their argument”. Is this relevant? If they did, does it change the impact of racial trolling? (language warning on the video) 

[socialmediamaven-blog]

Social media and politics

This week’s research into politics and social media has had me delve not just into the use and effectiveness of social media in politics, but also the differences in how social media is used between different levels of government and also in Australia compared to the United States of America. According to Young (2010), social media is impacting election news and political communication in the way that news is produced, content is created and public debate. Young (2010) states that the Pew Research Centre found 74 percent of American internet users took part in, or sourced news and information about the 2008 presidential campaign, however in Australia, the results are much lower.

Jericho (2013) suggests that the key to Malcolm Turnbull’s social media strategy is to use a combination of Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to collect demographic data to profile voters, and use this information to target campaigns. Turnbull also credits his success on social media to being a little “loose” with his approach and having a bit of fun with mediums such as Twitter (Jericho 2013).

Local member for Port Phillip, Tim Baxter has some social media presence, but is not using the tool extensively. His Twitter account (https://twitter.com/baxtertim) wasn’t used at all in two months in the leadup to the local election. His tweets are mostly retweets of other user’s content. Similarly, his Facebook page (facebook.com/TimBaxter/Greens) has little content, and hasn’t been used since election results were shared on 23 October. While Australian federal politicians and more so US politicians are using social media prolifically to firstly win votes and secondly build relationships and PR, the local member for Port Phillip seems to be missing the opportunity.

Interesting to note the limited use of social media by my local candidate, as leading up to the local election I acknowledged that I didn’t know any of the candidates listed and hadn’t seen any social media, received anything in the mail or a local paper. I went to the polling booths relying on how to vote cards, but none of these informed me on what the candidate’s policies or focus would be – they were literally instructions on how to number the candidates for a particular result. I felt I was not able to make an informed decision. As a mid (technically late!) thirties voter who is active multiple times a day on Facebook, Instagram and less so on Twitter, the opportunity was missed by Port Phillip’s local candidates to connect and win my vote. This raises the question of how many other people voted without information?

In contrast to Australia, in the USA, Barack Obama’s social media campaigns are supported with offline activity, are designed to encourage participation and are specifically designed to connect with younger voters, particularly via YouTube (Rahaf 2009). Obama demonstrates the use of this strategy with appearances on shows such as Jimmy Fallon which are then shared on YouTube

The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon 2016, "Slow Jam the News" with President Obama 

On a completely different scale again, US President-elect Donald Trump has profiles on Twitter, Facebook Instagram, Snapchat and even an app and uses social media to engage with voters and media in many different ways. Trump has a massive 17.1M followers on Twitter (twitter.com/realdonaldtrump)  and tweets on average 11 times a day (The Telegraph 2016, Why social media is Donald Trump's most powerful weapon). He dominates the political conversation on Twitter with 130 million mentions on Twitter between January and July 2016, compared to his opponent Hilary Clinton who was mentioned 37 million times (The Telegraph 2016). Trump uses social media to create controversy – with angry and negative tweets which often result in thousands of hours of media coverage. (The Telegraph 2016) reports Trump received $3.4 billion in free media coverage in 12 months. Given his $91M campaign budget, which is 300% lower than Clinton’s (The Telegraph 2016), this has to have had an impact on his reach during the campaign.

The Telegraph 2016, Why social media is Donald Trump's most powerful weapon, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agQuA-JFjiE

Jericho (2012) raises the question, ‘How many votes are there on Twitter?’. In reference to Twitter’s 140-character limit, The Telegraph (2016) asks “Can 140 characters win an election?” While Trump’s success is not only due to his prolific Twitter use, I would answer these questions with “a lot” and “probably”!

 References

Jericho, Greg. Rise of the Fifth Estate, Scribe Publications Pty Ltd., 2013. ProQuest Ebook Central, viewed 12 December 2016 [http://ebookcentral.proquest.com.ezproxy.lib.swin.edu.au/lib/swin/reader.action?docID=1020873&ppg=261]

Rahaf, H 2009, Yes we did – an inside look at how social media built the Obama brand, New Riders.

The Telegraph 2016, Why social media is Donald Trump's most powerful weapon, September 2016, viewed 12 December 2016 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agQuA-JFjiE]

The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon 2016, "Slow Jam the News" with President Obama, June 2016, viewed 12 December 2016 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziwYbVx_-qg]

Twitter 2016, twitter.com, viewed 12 December 2016 [https://twitter.com/baxtertim\]

Young, S. How Australia Decides, Cambridge University Press, 2010. ProQuest Ebook Central, viewed 12 December 2016 [http://ebookcentral.proquest.com.ezproxy.lib.swin.edu.au/lib/swin/reader.action?docID=647454&ppg=225]

[socialmediamaven-blog]

Social media distractions

Here’s the offending photo - dedicated time to study, only to stop and post a photo of my cat to Instagram. Seems I read the text, acknowledged the importance of staying focused rather than losing connection, and then lost connection. I am a student of life :)

[socialmediamaven-blog]

What I love about this is the visual image created. While reading this post, I realised, that just an hour ago, as I was studying some material for this same subject, instead of giving 100% of my attention to the task at hand, I stopped to Instagram a photo of my cat at the height of relaxation on the chair beside me. Switching off from social media is a challenge when studying marketing online - sometimes the distractions are the exact tools that we are researching. Emma 100294861

‘I share therefore I am’

Photograph by Rohan Furnell

Recently while taking a break during rehearsals, I stood slouched, discreetly up in the far corner of the stage. My body draped back over a dismantled piece of set with my legs casually planted down and out to either side of me. A most perfect and typical moment in my day as I observed the company’s rehearsal continue on in front of me. Only a few years ago, my closest attention and concentration would have been fully invested in the flutter of activity playing out on the other side of the stage. However, on this day a fragment of awareness had splintered off and was surveying this moment, distracted by a noticeably casual and peripheral resolve. This was, I began to consider enthusiastically, an ideal opportunity to take a photo for Instagram.

Here in the back of the rehearsal studio I, like danah boyd (2012, p. 71), found myself ‘part of the cohort who is always-on’ and dynamically connected as a result of new digital technologies. One node in the midst of a digitally networked collectiveness that seemed to offer both a sense of community and involvement in society that reflects Tönnies’ ideas of instinctive and goal oriented will (Siapera 2012, p. 193). Through the images and videos I publish onto social media I document, curate and project a perception of experience and self. This ‘bringing of people and information into context’ as boyd (2012, p. 73) suggests captures an understanding of my own ‘digitally enhanced’ experience.

However Turkle’s (TED-Ed 2013) proposition of ‘I share therefore I am’ underlines the potential stumbling blocks of the increasing attachments to digital media and its potential to influence my very definitions of self. Interactions across the perpetually broadening horizons of the digital universe are irrefutably shaping the processes through which we construct knowledge, understand social orientation, perceive our environment and most critically form our identity (Turkle 1999, p. 643). As Turkle concludes the difficulty for us within this rapidly expanding network of virtual communities is that ‘if we don’t have connection we don’t feel like ourselves. We almost don’t feel ourselves’ (TED-Ed 2013).

Considering my own digital fluency from more ‘interactionist’ perspectives highlights how the expressive capabilities of social media are being continuously ‘negotiated’ beyond that considered by Tönnies (Papacharissi 2009, 216). More precisely these technologies are both ‘socially shaped and socially shaping’ (Papacharissi 2009, 216). The notions of digital citizenship that Wellman proposes are not ‘a matter of perceiving an ideal form of community’, but rather illustrative of ‘understanding its dynamic nature and its historical embeddedness’ (Siapera 2012, p. 197).

Appreciative of the potential for contributors and audiences to produce and tailor their engagement with social media through dynamic interaction across a network of digital platforms; I believe the socially constructed and pluralistic nature of the current digital landscape to be especially inviting. Seduced by a ‘wanting to be with people, but also elsewhere, connected to all the different places I want to be… to customise my life and have control over where I put my attention’  (TED-Ed 2013). Yet I am also concerned about the breakdown in the quality of human experience as a result of the distraction and conditioning of digital engagement. I wonder what is being lost in the continuing substitution of the authentically analogue for the digitally evocative?

References:

Boyd, D 2012, Participating in the Always On Lifestyle, in Mandiberg (ed) The Social Media Reader, NYU Press, pp. 71-76.

Papacharissi, Z 2009, ‘The virtual geographies of social networks: a comparative analysis of Facebook, LinkedIn and ASmallWorld’, New Media & Society, vol. 11, no. 1-2, pp. 199-220.  

Siapera, E 2012, ‘Socialities and Social Media’, in Introduction to New Media, Sage, London, pp. 191-208.

TED-Ed 2013, Connected, but alone?- Sherry Turkle, 19 April, viewed 1 December 2016, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rv0g8TsnA6c>.

Turkle, S 1999, ‘Looking toward cyberspace: Beyond grounded sociology’, Contemporary Sociology, vol. 28, no. 6, pp. 643-648.

[socialmediamaven-blog]

The Politics of Social Media

Coming tomorrow.. discussion on the use of social media in politics