wasteland-vortex-blog

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Yet another example of technology and a little Aussie ingenuity being 10 steps in front of the law

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Another wonderful kickstarter story. I’d love one of these for my family

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Super Size My Socials

(Free Software Foundation 2010)

In this digital age, I can understand people’s disbelief in China’s censorship ban on western websites. Have you ever thought about how many times a day you check your social media accounts, whether it be Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or one of many others? For me, it has become a habit to scroll through Facebook whenever I have to wait for something, an appointment, in the school car park, anywhere really. Social media has become so ingrained in our daily life, we find it hard to imagine life without it. But who says China is missing out? Apple are not the only phone manufacturer and Krispy Kremes are not alone in the donut market, so why do we immediately assume Facebook are the only ones that can do what they do? China has found innovation through censorship, not only have they replicated the banned social media sites, they have given them an American twist and super sized them; socials on steroids (DLDconference, 2013).

(Gentleman Marketing Agency, 2016)

Like the western world, the average Chinese resident runs a multitude of social media apps, and there is a lot of conjecture as to who are the market leaders, Weibo and Wechat are two of the largest in the Chinese social media market (Attract China 2016). Weibo, a microblogging site, is similar to Twitter, allowing the writer 140 characters per message. An advantage the Chinese have found is in their language, with each character representing a word instead of a letter, the writer is able to convey a longer message than the traditional Twitter message. I know what you’re thinking, sounds exactly like Twitter, how is that super sized? Chinese developers have thrown in some Facebook functionality, creating a cross between twitter and facebook, having similar functions to both sites. The user can share music, conduct polls and edit their profiles in the same fashion any Facebook user would. Wechat is the ultimate comms app combining voice and text messaging, broadcasting and sharing abilities all in one place. 

The Chinese take their social media serious and with a population of almost 1.4 billion people, it makes for a big market. In June 2016, Weibo Monthly active users were 282 million users, a growth of 33% year on year (Chinese Internet Watch, 2016). Wechat excelled as well with 700 million monthly active users, a growth of 29% for the same period the previous year (Business Insider, 2016). In comparison, for the third quarter of 2016, Facebook reported 1.79 billion monthly active users (Statista, 2016) and Twitter reported 317 million for the same period (Statista, 2016). As you can see China is coping without western socials just fine, no need to break out the tissues or organise a sit in just yet.

Attract China (2016), Comparison of Chinese Social Media Weibo and WeChat, viewed 1 February,  http://www.attractchina.com/comparison-of-chinese-social-media-weibo-and-wechat/>.

Business Insider (2016), WeChat breaks 700 million monthly active users, viewed 2 February, <http://www.businessinsider.com/wechat-breaks-700-million-monthly-active-users-2016-4?IR=T>.

Chinese Internet Watch (2016), Weibo MAUs grew to 282 million in Jun 2016, viewed 2 February, <https://www.chinainternetwatch.com/18681/weibo-q2-2016/#ixzz4XUKIhQj1<https://www.chinainternetwatch.com/18681/weibo-q2-2016/>.

DLDconference 2013, DLD13 - How Social Media is changing China and Asia, 7 February, viewed 3 August 2016, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rG3z2ucaR6A>.

Free Software Foundation (2010), Mark Zuckerberg is TIME Magazine's Person of the Year? Where's the "dislike" button? [image],  viewed 2 February, <https://www.fsf.org/facebook>

Gentleman Marketing Agency (2016), UNDERSTANDING THE WORLD OF INFLUENCERS IN CHINA [image], viewed 2 February, <http://marketingtochina.com/understand-the-world-of-influencers-in-china/>.

Go Globe (2013), Social Media in China, viewed 2 February, <http://www.go-globe.com/blog/social-media-china/>.

Statista (2016), Number of monthly active Facebook users worldwide as of 3rd quarter 2016 (in millions), viewed 2 February, <https://www.statista.com/statistics/264810/number-of-monthly-active-facebook-users-worldwide/>.

Statista (2016), Number of monthly active Twitter users worldwide from 1st quarter 2010 to 3rd quarter 2016 (in millions), viewed 2 February, <https://www.statista.com/statistics/282087/number-of-monthly-active-twitter-users/>.

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To Game Or Not To Game

(Handheld Empire, n.d.)

My first foray into the world of gaming was a handheld game, in the style of Game & Watch, where you were one of the dwarfs out to save Snow White from the evil Queen. Between my siblings and I, we had a couple of these games and remember them fondly. There are a couple of others that I played throughout the years, Mario Bros., of course, Mario Bros., what self-respecting kid of the 80s didn’t play Mario Bros at one time or another. The other game I loved to play, Crash Bandicoot. Crash was released at a time when I wasn’t quite an adult and I wasn’t quite a kid anymore either. I was living out of home in a share house and games were something we used to pass the time. Internet gaming is not something I’ve ever really known about. By the time we had an internet speed you could use for gaming - oh God, who remembers that awful dial-up sound - I no longer had time for games. 

(Giphy, n.d.)

Having not been a part of the online gaming world, I’d never really understood how people could sit and play games for hours. I think this is one of the biggest things I have learnt this term (thanks Mellie and Tam), it’s not just about the game. Yes, there is a game to be played but it’s so much more than that. For some, it gives them a sense of belonging when they don’t belong in their physical environment (Ducheneaut, Yee, Nickell, Moore, 2006). The social structure and communities that are created become real, as do the friends, in every sense of the word, even though you may never have met in the physical world. Here, people find like minded people with similar interests. They can share ideas like how they can create their amazing cosplay outfits for the next Comic Con, share tips and tricks around conquering an enemy and even develop team work and management style problem solving and conflict resolution skills (Griffiths, M, Hussain, Z, Grusser, S, Thalemann, R, Cole, H, Davies, M, Chappel, D 2011).

(Bioshock Cosplay, n.d)

So, next time you meet someone that says they’re a gamer, don’t immediately think they are some awkward loner stereotypes have lead you to believe, they put their pants on one leg at a time, just like you and me.

Bioshock Cosplay [image], viewed 30 January, <https://au.pinterest.com/pin/400961173046825453/>.

Ducheneaut, N., Yee, N., Nickell, E., and Moore, R.J. (2006). "Alone Together? Exploring the Social Dynamics of Massively Multiplayer Games." Proceedings of CHI 2006, pp.407-416

Giphy (n.d.), Crash bandioot animated GIF,  viewed 2 February, <http://giphy.com/gifs/crash-bandicoot-XBtt4III8mnKM>

Griffiths, M, Hussain, Z, Grusser, S, Thalemann, R, Cole, H, Davies, M, Chappel, D (2011), Social Interactions in Online Gaming, International Journal of Game-Based Learning, 1(4), 20-36, October-December

Handheld Empire (n.d.), Snow White [image], viewed 30 January, <http://handheldempire.com/game.jsp?game=2406>.

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What’s your social image

There is no better, surefire way to feel old than to ask a teenager how to use a social media app. I’m fairly tech savvy and have used an array of different social media apps but Snapchat is the one that seems to elude me. I’ve had it for a bit now but I only share pictures with one friend and really couldn’t work out what the big deal is, isn’t is just Instagram? No, apparently is not. One of the biggest differences is that the pictures only stay on your ‘story’ for 24 hours, after that time they disappear and are no longer accessible, and if you send a picture to someone they can open it twice, consecutively before it disappears.  This constant sending pictures back and forth, been to the gym, pic of me in sweaty gym gear, off the beach, pic of me in the car, Christmas celebrations, pic of a champagne bottle. Speigel might spruik it is digital self-expression but isn’t it more like self-indulgence? (Herman, 2014)

(Shutterstock, 2017)

Certainly, the use of social imaging is aiding the combat of self-consciousness felt around images, but I'm not sure they are actually targeting the self-conscious. Over half of Snapchat users are between the ages of 16 and 24 (Statista, 2017), these are the people that have grown up in the digital age. Many of them won't have had the pleasure of dropping off a roll of film, waiting an hour for the express development, only to find a bunch of hideous and blurry photos. These are the kids who for the most part, have grown up with a camera in their back pocket, ready to be whipped out at a moments notice, coupled with the ability to take endless shots in order to get the perfect one. The bigger question is, could this lack of self consciousness be having a negative effect?

(Time, 2017)

In this new digital era, employers are becoming savvier and using our social media footprint to their advantage. It is now commonplace for employers to check and monitor employee and applicants social media posts, to supplement their employee profiles, and they can be grounds for dismissal and being passed over for a job (ABC, 2014). As with most areas of technology the law has not been able to keep up with the fast paced move into the future and the legality is still a grey area and the implications are still being determined (Fair Work Centre, n.d). Employers argue that an employee is an extension of the company and therefore their social media footprint is also a presentation of the company (SMH, 2016). Even setting your accounts to private will not guarantee safe posting. An employee was found in breach of company conduct policies and had his employment terminated when he posted a crude and threatening facebook rant. Although his account was set to private, employees who were listed as “friends” were able to read the post, breaching the conduct policy (Fair Work Centre, n.d). I guess the moral of the story is if you don’t want anyone to see it don’t post it.

ABC (2014), Job applicants' social media profiles now checked by companies as 'common practice', viewed 30 January, <http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-11-15/social-media-profiles-of-job-applicants-checked/5888908>.

Fair Work Centre (n.d), Social Media and Unfair Dismissal, viewed 30 January <http://www.fairworkcentre.com.au/newsblog/Case-Studies/Social-Media-and-Unfair-Dismissal/>.

Herrman, J 2014, ‘Meet the Man Who Got Inside Snapchat’s Head’, BuzzFeed, 28 January, viewed 3 August 2016, <http://www.buzzfeed.com/jwherrman/meet-the-unlikely-academic-behind-snapchats-new-pitch#3dlvjg2>.

Shutterstock, 2017, New Year and Christmas Celebration with Champagne. Two Flutes and Pouring Sparkling Wine from the Bottle. Holiday Decorations [image],  viewed 30 January, <https://www.shutterstock.com/video/clip-4821002-stock-footage-new-year-and-christmas-celebration-with-champagne-two-flutes-and-pouring-sparkling-wine-from-the.htm>.

Statista (2017), Distribution of Snapchat users worldwide as of 2nd quarter 2015, by age, viewed 31 January <https://www.statista.com/statistics/315398/snapchat-user-age-distribution/>

Time (2016), Kodak Wants to Bring Back More Films [image], viewed 3 February, <http://time.com/4649349/kodak-film-photography/>.

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Community Sourced Information

When I first thought of crowd sourcing, I instantly thought of someone raising money to fund a new invention. I’d seen this recently with the Sea Bin and the Fidget Cube, but I found it really wasn’t the only type of crowd sourcing. Broadly, crowd sourcing is where information is collected from the community and compiled in an online arena; the supplier of the information becomes a contributor of the website or app (Merriam Webster Online 2014). IMDB would be considered partially crowd sourced. Some information would be industry supplied, while users can also contribute and correct information. An example of crowd sourcing in an app form would be Dorsal. Dorsal is an app that can be downloaded from the App Store and Google Play, and markets itself as ‘Australia’s largest shark alerts and reporting service. Here users are able to search their location for shark reports and contribute a report if they have located a shark. 

While we were holidaying at Hastings Point, NSW, over the New Year period, a 3.5m shark was reported 50m off shore and the beach was evacuated. 

Since then another sighting has been reported, this time two sharks were located and were approx. between 1.5m-2m. 

Crowd sourcing is a great way to quickly collect information and deliver it to the masses, while it is still relevant. This has been the case with the 2011 South East Queensland floods (Bruns, A, Burgess, J, Crawford, K & Shaw, F, 2012). During the flood crisis, the twitter hashtag #qldfloods was adopted to ensure information could be quickly located and monitored; this hashtag is still used today when referencing the floods. One of the major issues with online information is accuracy. Outlets, in particular, news outlets, have moved to placing more emphasis on how quickly information can be delivered, rather than its accuracy. A prime example of this was when Richard Wilkins went on national TV to let the country know of the tragic death of Jeff Goldblum, following the deaths of Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett (Media Watch, 2009); Jeff Goldblum is very much alive. Nick Pisa, lead reporter on the Amanda Knox murder case admitted as much in a Netflix documentary, "It's not as if I can say, 'Right, hold on a minute. I just wanna double check that myself in some other way.' I mean, goodness knows how. And then I let my rival get in there first before me, and then, hey, I've lost a scoop." (Blackhurst and McGinn, 2016). 

In the case of crowd sourcing, it’s important to have an experienced tech savvy team as the most visible account, in the case of the Queensland floods, it was @QPSMedia, who were disseminating the information and driving the wider discussion (Bruns, A, Burgess, J, Crawford, K & Shaw, F, 2012). They were able to ensure the community was provided most relevant information and correct any false information provided.

Media watch 2009, One Death too Many, ABC, viewed 19 January 2017, <http://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/transcripts/s2611645.htm>.

Blackhurst, R and McGinn, B 2016, Amanda Knox, Netflix, viewed 1 October, 2016, <https://www.netflix.com/search?q=amanda%20&jbv=80081155&jbp=0&jbr=0>.

Bruns, A, Burgess, J, Crawford, K & Shaw, F 2012, #qldfloods and @QPSMedia: Crisis Communication on Twitter in the 2011 South East Queensland Floods, Arc Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation, pp. 7-10, viewed 3 August 2016, <http://www.cci.edu.au/floodsreport.pdf>.

'crowdsourcing entry' 2014, Merriam Webster, viewed 3 August 2016,<http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/crowdsourcing>.

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An interesting take

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Are you a billy goat Gruff or a Troll?

(Google Play, 2017)

Whenever I thought of trolls, I always conjured the image of the three billy goats Gruff and the troll that lived under the bridge, and wouldn’t let the goats cross. In recent years I’ve learned of a new troll and they are every bit, if not more, as horrible as the ones under the bridge.

As a parent of a teenage girl, her online citizenship is always a concern. Growing up in the age of technology and social media, she is always connected, whether it be Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr or whatever other social media platform she is using today (Boyd, 2012). Her phone is constantly dinging, a message here, and a like there, and she runs to pick it up every time. For now, everything is peaches and she has not run into anything too heavy online, but what happens when she does.

People her age are so open and accessible online, constantly uploading selfies, commenting here and there, and never really giving a thought to what they put out there. This openness can, and does lead to negativity and trolling, no one likes to be the butt of someone else’s joke (Bergstrom 2011). I think one of the hardest lessons to teach a young person is regarding images. Once you release an image into the world, it can never be retrieved, and you have no control over how it’s used, or what type of comments will be sent your way regarding the image.

The anonymity a computer gives, leaves people, colloquially known as keyboard warriors, believing they can say what they want with no repercussions, no one knows who they are, so there’s no backlash.  Remarks that they would never openly sprout in a face to face conversation/confrontation, come spewing onto the screen.

(know your meme, 2017)

With the internet still in its infancy, why people troll, on a psychological level is still being researched, but for one young Victorian man it makes him ‘happy’ (Adelaide Now, 2012). Ben, not his real name, takes enjoyment from other people’s anger, feeding off it. Ben spends up to 70 hours a week trolling websites for people to enrage. Now, 70 hours is a lot of time, so as you can imagine, Ben doesn’t have a job or time for friends or many friends at all - I can’t imagine why...but he says he doesn’t feel alone because he is part of a community. Ben is the quintessential key board warrior, tough, but only when protected by the anonymity of his computer; he didn’t use his real name for the article, and I’m guessing he didn’t use it online while trolling either. He also only trolls a page or a site once for fear of being arrested.

(Lloyd, 2017)

So next time you’re on line you have a choice, you can be like Ben and be the troll or you can be the bill goat, Gruff, which one would you rather be?

Adelaide Now, 2012, ‘'It just makes me happy when I can make someone angry' - A special investigation into the dark world of trolling’, viewed 15 January 2017, <http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/national/it-just-makes-me-happy-when-i-can-make-someone-angry-a-special-investigation-into-the-dark-world-of-trolling/news-story/43c8e92cc0d9619a4b93791cfe741998>

Bergstrom, K 2011, ‘“Don't Feed the Troll”: Shutting down the debate about community expectations on Reddit.com’, First Monday vol. 16, no. 8, viewed 3 August 2016, <http://www.uic.edu/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/3498/302>

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

Lloyd, C, 2017 ‘Don’t be like Ben’ created using Imgflip 15 January 2017 <https://imgflip.com/memegenerator/Be-Like-Bill>

The three Billy Goats Gruff, 2017, ‘The three Billy Goats Gruff’ viewed 15 January 2017, <https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=no.agens.bukkenebruse>

Know your meme, 2017 ‘you have no power here! - keyboard warriors, viewed 15 January 2017, <http://knowyourmeme.com/photos/1012535-you-have-no-power-here>

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Do I care enough to get up?

(city vision, 2012)

In the past, if you felt strongly enough about an issue, cared enough, you got off your bum and did something about it, joined a movement, attended a protest. Today, we can be involved with just a click of a button, but do we click and forget? And the question is asked, again and again, activism or slacktivism? It has been argued that this type of activism or ‘subactivism’ should still be viewed as important no matter how frivolous it appears (Bakardjieva, 2009, p. 103), although this view can be hard to swallow at times. 

(Nine, 2016)

In 2014, in a bid to decrease alcohol fuelled violence, Sydney introduced 1.30am lockout laws for pubs and clubs in Kings Cross and the CBD (Nine, 2016). With Casinos unaffected by the lockout laws, Premier Mike Baird received backlash that new laws would not only kill off the city’s vibrant nightlife but also the local music scene. The response: the Keep Sydney Open campaign and petition.  The petition currently has 54,109 signatures and Keep Sydney Open have held a number of rallys, including one in February, attracting approximately 5000 people (police estimation) (Triple J, 2016) and another in October with approximately 4000 people attending (ABC News, 2016). These numbers are a far cry from the 54,000 that have signed the petition. Does that give less validity to the petition? No, I don’t think so. In the age of technology we are more informed than ever before and have the ability to be more engaged, regardless of our physical environment (Ducheneaut, Yee, Nickell, Moore, 2006). With these types of laws being introduced into our major cities, this was much more than just a Sydney issue, and the online environment allowed anyone, from anywhere, to engage in the situation (ABC News, 2016).

As Morozov has pointed out, social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter are prodominately for entertainment purposes (Gerbaudo, 2012), but just as the business world has begun to adopt the platforms, so too have activists. 

A few years ago I came across a petition with Change.org, which was advertised on Facebook regarding the NBN and how it would be delivered to homes, fibre to the node (FTTN) or fibe to the home (FTTH). At the time, we owned a telecommunications service provider company and this was a big issue within our industry, so I signed the petition. Since then I have received regular emails from Change.org regarding a variety of different matters, none of which have been relevant to me, and they have been discarded. But it does make me wonder, does everyone else discard them? I’m not really sure how I feel about online petitions and their validity now.

ABC News, 2016, Keep Sydney Open: Thousands attend protest against lockout laws, Jimmy Barnes backs campaign,  viewed 16 January 2016 <http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-10-09/lockout-laws-rally-sydney-130am/7916524>

ABC News, 2016, ‘Queensland to introduce the country's toughest lockout laws’ viewed 15 January 2016, <http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/programs/hack/brisbane-lockouts-pass/7175962>

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

Charlie Brown image, ‘Technology and Social Causes- Activism or "Clicktivism"?’ 2012, viewed 15 January 2017, <http://kalw.org/post/technology-and-social-causes-activism-or-clicktivism#stream/0>

Ducheneaut, N., Yee, N., Nickell, E., and Moore, R.J. (2006). "Alone Together? Exploring the Social Dynamics of Massively Multiplayer Games." Proceedings of CHI 2006, pp.407-416

Gerbaudo, P 2012, Tweets and the Streets : Social Media and Contemporary Activism, Pluto, London.

Nine, 2016, NSW Government says violence has risen at Sydney’s Star casino since lockout laws introduced, viewed 16 January 2017 <http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/health/health-problems/nsw-government-says-violence-has-risen-at-sydneys-star-casino-since-lockout-laws-introduced/news-story/231d9e2d1918cf7d14e2c871e4651e08>