Looking into my crystal ball- The future of social media

You can't take something off the Internet - it's like taking pee out of a pool.  ~Author Unknown, 1995http://www.quotegarden.com/internet.html

Social media has opened the door to so many positives for the human race as a whole. The positives I see are the ability to lessen judgement on physical attributes, widen the scope for communication on a global platform, the ability to globalise businesses, the ability to transcend race, religion, language or geographical location. That said, I’m a bit of an old chook (not in years of course, I’m only 30) when it comes to what is and is not proper when it comes to social media. I believe there should ALWAYS be a time and a place to be using social media. Also there should be monitoring by parents on their children’s internet consumption, clearly as my previous blog showed, the potential for children to expose themselves to harm online is quite alarming.

            When you get your license, you have to go for a driving test… this assesses your ability to operate a vehicle (which has the potential to harm) in a safe way, and teaches learners all about what you can and cannot do on the road. Why can’t we have the same thing for children in schools? I think it would be an invaluable addition to school curriculum. Should we not teach our children the potential dangers of the internet and how to navigate it safely to avoid harm to themselves and others just as we teach them about road safety?

            The future that I see for social media is much the same as I see it now, a lot of both pro’s and con’s, depending upon the personal use and monitoring for that particular person. The health risks and lack of physical contact using social media are quite worrying for myself, and I believe there is a huge advantage of having ‘people’ skills which may be lost if social media becomes the sole vehicle of communication (http://socialnetworking.lovetoknow.com/Negative_Impact_of_Social_Networking_Sites).

            I have learnt a lot about social media from this unit, but what I have learnt more about in all honesty is myself. My core values, my belief systems and my vulnerabilities when it comes to online usage. It has raised new worries for myself as a parent (like I didn’t already have enough), but has also given me enough information and exposure to issues to be able to combat these problems with confidence and knowledge. From a business perspective I see endless possibilities for social media sites, but without proper guidelines in place, where will it end? I don’t have a crystal ball, but if we lose the ability to communicate in person via body language and context, what is the point of life? It’s great we can run a business meeting with people all over the world via a Skype chat, but how do you know one of the participants isn’t on twitter or facebook at the same time as you are running your meeting? There are certain things that can never be replaced by personal interaction, but social media’s potential to enhance and progress the scope of this communication is huge. Maybe we are the last generations to experience this merging of communication techniques. Who knows? But I am going to hang on and try and keep up with technology for as long as is humanly possible.

Social media’s dark side



Closed Doors

© Jane Kirby

I cry myself to sleep at night
Just wishing it would stop
Maybe tomorrow it will cease
Then again, maybe not

You push me and you poke me
You call me hurtful name
To me it's like a prison
To you it's fun and games

Your heart is made of ice
But it doesn't even deserve that
Mine was once a rainbow
But you have moulded it to darkest black

I hate you, I hate everyone
There is no one I can trust
Are you proud of what you've done?
You've turned my soul into dust

If there was a door I could open
A simple path I could tread
I don't want to be stuck here forever
In this endless spiral of dread.

http://www.bestteenpoems.com/poem/escape-from-bullying-closed-doors

What a terrible but necessary topic to be covering for our blog this week. The less friendly side of social media seems to be becoming a real issue for people to be aware of for the sake of our futures. Online bullying, heightened risk of sexual predator grooming, and potential for extremist’s exposure and growth are only three of the problems we will be facing as an entire planet, not just individual countries.

            The above poem I have included screams of teenage pain, you want to reach out and hold this child, and tell her that everything will be ok one day. But will it? One study has shown that in the UK 8 out of 10 university staff members has experienced bullying from co workers in the last 6 months (http://news.discovery.com/tech/workplace-cyber-bullies-are-worse-121103.htm). That’s 80%! That is quite a strong number to be going up against. Particularly for teachers, who are helping monitor and guide our children into the people they will be for the rest of their lives. How are we supposed to tell our children that they bullying they are experiencing through high school will eventually go away when everyone ‘grow’s up’. And this is just one of the problems social media presents us with.

            As a mother, the potential for child grooming online terrifies me! The thought that my innocent child could be exposed to a child predator as easily as turning on the computer is an alarming situation. I found some statistics on child predator activity online that was core shaking. 1 in 33 youth received an invitation to meet up with a child predator online within the last 12 months, and 75% of the children interviewed were willing to share personal information with a stranger online (http://www.sentrypc.com/statistics.htm). Wow, maybe I shouldn’t have read that, my kids are banned from computers for the rest of their lives (I am joking of course). But it is one of the many reasons we need to be careful with what our children are exposed to online, and also what they are exposing the world to about themselves, our families and our private lives.

            Lastly the potential for exposure to extremist groups online is quite worrying too! In America, 1018 known extremist or hate groups are displaying information to the public (http://www.splcenter.org/what-we-do/hate-and-extremism). The potential for reach online is immeasurable, and has the potential to expand a hate group rather than let its influence wane. Hate groups shouldn’t be promoted online, they should be quashed! But then there comes the question of free speech, where does it begin and end? I’m not sure, but the more I read the more I worry about the future for my children in this world that is so consumed by social media.



MeTube? Produsage

It is the long history of humankind (and animal kind, too) those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed." - Charles Darwin
http://www.brighthub.com/office/collaboration/articles/71425.aspx

Produsage is not a word according to my WORD program. It is spelt wrong. It is two words combined into the one. Producer and usage. The producer is also the user and then someone else can use the material again and produce something again. The first thing about user controlled and edited content that I thought of was wikipedia. U can look up just about any topic you can imagine on wikipedia and you will get thousands of people collaborating together to provide the rest of the world with information that they believe is correct. http://www.wikipedia.org/. When you search for wikipedia on a Google search the subtitle of the page defines wikipedia as “The free encyclopedia that anyone can edit”. I am in two minds about this. Obviously, with anyone being able to add or remove content, the information provided on wikipedia may or may not be correct. This is the reason why we don’t use wikipedia to gather top references for university assignments. Technically anyone who can get onto their website can delete and add information to it. This is a type of collaboration.
          I found the above quote from Charles Darwin to lend weight to my opinion on collaboration. Those who learn to collaborate are using many people’s intelligences to come up with one answer. This is why businesses use collaborative sessions when they need to generate ideas, because “Two heads are better than one”. I think most things in life could benefit from using collaboration, including online.
          uTube, people upload content on the website daily and entertain millions of people around the world. I engage in this type of media on a weekly basis at least. Another type of produsage that came to mind for me was actually university assignments. Even for the particular unit we are now studying ‘Social Media’, where we had to make a poster. This is essentially what produsage is. We are taking content, be it pictures or written information, and making it into something else. We had to showcase as much information in a visual way as we could. Did the poster benefit from many different people collaborating on the same project? Absolutely! I have no doubt that if we had not had the few people all consolidating resources and knowledge together to create one new project, we would not have produced a product that was anywhere near as successful.
          Produsage is the way of the future I believe, in business and in life. Families must work together to keep a successful balance of work and play, businesses need new ideas and ask many people to brainstorm ideas. Even companies introduce competitions to the public for ideas such as LAY’S chips offering a customer 1 million dollars or 1 percent of the flavor’s sales for one year for a new flavor concept. The slogan for this competition is “Do us a Flavor?” Catchy huh? I think it’s a great idea to see what customers want, and then these customers will get behind the product. I think we will see more of produsage as the years go on, trying to develop new and interesting ideas with the help of many people, from many different knowledge structures.

Bruns, A 2007, Produsage: towards a broader framework for user-led content creation in Creativity and cognition: proceedings of the 6th ACM SIGCHI conference on Creativity & Cognition, viewed on 30 January 2013.

sim-ple... get a life. Sim-ulacra

http://www.jesusda.com/docs/juegoslinux/s5/im...



Avatars, virtual reality, 3D… they still sound like futuristic prospects in today’s society, but we are living in an era that has accepted this as the norm. The younger generations are growing up with exposure to such existences online as the game ‘Second life’ or even the ‘Sims’. So it’s not surprising that one out of every five Americans over the age of 5 years old has participated in some form of online social game (http://mashable.com/2010/08/23/social-gaming-study/).

Now this is where I am going to get personal, I am going to share my experience with the day I got drunk and decided it might be a good idea to try out this ‘Second life’. To start off with, my mother was minding my children, so I had no other responsibilities on that day, and after a couple of red wine’s I was curious. I had in the past played the ‘Sims’ and I did enjoy building the houses but the fact that you have to send your sim to the toilet and shower regularly etc really annoyed me (and for all the gamers out there I am well aware there is a cheat to override those urges).

I’m setting the mood here… wine in hand, giggling a tad, I signed up! I created an avatar that was prettier than me, skinnier than me, and I had bigger boobs… like, way over the top gigantic boobs. I never took it seriously, I was laughing so much I could barely see the screen. I learnt how to do all the necessary things like walk and interact with objects etc. Then off I teleported into the real world. I was ‘walking’ around trying to ‘talk’ to people, and for someone with barely enough computer skills to use ‘word’, I was flat out with that. Eventually I was taken under the wing of an angel, no, like a real one, or a fake one, or a real one in a fake world… ok now I’m confusing myself. This angel took me to her ‘clan house’, which she assured me was very special, not many people were brought here. I was thinking to myself “I’m 12 times over the legal alcohol limit, and I’m talking to an angel, this is going to end badly!” Trying to cut a long story short I was invited to attend a meeting with this angel at her special clan meeting place thingy (to be honest I forget what it was called). All the while I am laughing so much at how serious this woman is taking this game. Of course I wasn’t rude to her, I do have manners, even when I am inebriated, but I was finding this quite entertaining. The angel described things to me via private chat about who was who, and who was getting married. All of a sudden I’m getting bored because I think this is all drivel so I begin to start pressing buttons and selecting options. Next thing I know, I am apparently standing in front of hundreds of clan members, NUDE. Yes, I had no virtual clothes on. Again, laughing at the fact that even online I can manage to get myself into trouble while drinking, the angel is getting quite cross with me. Apparently the ‘king’ was offended by my no nipples and missing genitals. She was trying to explain over and over how to put my clothes back on and that’s when I turned the game off. So that’s my story, but then again I have a life that I love, the first one. I have two children and I study online, and I dance and have family that drive me insane but that I love dearly. There is no way I could commit to anything other than a game of solitaire (and usually that’s when I am on the toilet) for more than five minutes.

That aside, when I watched the four corners documentary called ‘You only live twice” (http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/special_eds/20070319/default_full.htm) I was mesmerised at the potential I saw! People becoming millionaires selling houses that don’t exist to people that don’t exist, on land that doesn’t exist. I can see the allure of online social gaming, there are no boundaries, everyone is beautiful, rich, and can FLY! (Which apparently I can even do 12 times over the limit). What scares me are people who are missing out on the reality in their own lives. They all have family or friends, or a job. But what sort of escape is it for people? Why do they want a second life, when they aren’t making enough of the first one? My advice, get a life.. now. In the physical world where u can touch someone or hear someone laugh or fall over! But it’s real, and it’s not very long. From a business perspective, second life has a HUGE potential, but what at what cost? Human interaction… can you put a price on that?

dobbers wear nappies? Wikileaks

“This is the paradox of public space: even if everyone knows an unpleasant fact, saying it in public changes everything. One of the first measures taken by the new Bolshevik government in 1918 was to make public the entire corpus of tsarist secret diplomacy, all the secret agreements, the secret clauses of public agreements etc. There too the target was the entire functioning of the state apparatuses of power.”
― Slavoj Žižek

http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/wikileaks?auto_login_attempted=true

Dobbers wear nappies, wet ones too…..

Personally I believe that whether Julian Assange is a whistle blower, activist, terrorist or hacktivist depends entirely on who you are. If you are a government official, I would think Mr Assange was a terrorist. He displayed secret information which could have jepordised the lives of many military personnel. If you were a journalist, I would imagine you would think of Mr Assange as a whistle blower, people like him expose information that is so newsworthy it has made history.

I think that sitting here in my home behind a computer screen indicates I am not fully aware of the entire wiki leaks saga. My initial first reaction was disgust. How could army personnel, highly trained, gun down innocent civilians for no reason. Then I thought to myself, “I wonder if that was really the way it went down?” Of course we saw the video, we saw what happened right? There were muslim men standing on a street corner, possibly talking about the weather, and the army officers gunned them down. This must be what happened because the video showed it.

One of the very first things I learnt while studying at university is to critically analyse everything! How do we know that’s what happened? Maybe someone could have doctored the videos into one clip making it seem like all those terrible things happened. It’d make for an excellent news story right?

I think the government needs someone watching them, otherwise who would stop them from doing whatever they wanted? Wouldn’t that change them into a dictatorship eventually? If there are no consequences for your actions, what would you do? I’d like to think that I’m a nice person, but let’s be honest; If you could fly to Hawaii for free and have a luxury holiday all expenses paid just by claiming it was a ‘business trip’ and you knew no one would question you about it, would you do it? I’d like to say no, but the reality is unless we have boundaries in life, we don’t know when to stop. Wikileaks is the boundary to the government, they know people are watching, like big brother... (insert da dum da dum scary music here).

politics, ew!

"Politicians and diapers have one thing in common. They should both be changed regularly and for the same reason."

Unknown  http://thinkexist.com/funny_politics_quotes/

Politics, one of the topics ‘they’ (being people with better manners than I have) suggest we never talk about in polite company, alongside religion. The definition I found most interesting about politics was; “The science or art of political government”. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/politics?s=t

            The reason I found this definition so interesting is the use of the word ‘art’. Now I am the first to admit that I have absolutely no idea about politics. I simply don’t care. I know there are people out there that will get irate at the thought of someone having no interest in the future of our nation, but quite simply, I don’t see myself making one bit of difference in the political world, with or without voting. Sure, I vote, because if I don’t I will get a fine. That’s the only reason. I look at politics like going to the theatre. It’s all bells and whistles in front of an audience, but out the back is an overweight man eating Doritos calling the shots. Are our prime ministers and presidents just a face? I believe so. I think it’s all an act, so either way we vote in an election, we are voting in a fraudster. Someone pretending to make decisions but used much like a puppet on a string.

            Now that my personal opinion on politics is out of the way, how do politicians use the media? This ties in with my opinion actually. I believe that the media use politicians as much as politicians use the media. Media need politicians to create stories, hype, and the media dig up stories on politician’s personal lives as well as their political statements to create newsworthy stories. Making people want to tune in. Everyone remembers the scandals; Clinton and the cigar, Kennedy and Marilyn, and the Watergate scandal in the 1970’s. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watergate_scandal. The media has played an irreplaceable role in the exposure of these scandals, and without the media exposing these scenarios, the truth may well have been hidden from the public for many years, if not indefinitely. Obviously personal infidelity in a politician’s private life, or sexual orientation may not be as much of a concern as a more career orientated problem, the public still sees it as their right to know as much about these public figures as possible.

            It brings to mind a saying about the ethics behind these sorts of media releases that it can be either in the Public’s interest, or in the interest of the public (Stoker & Stoker, 2012, p. 31). The best way I can explain this is, is the information we are receiving in our interest, or do we just find it interesting? Do we need to know the private lives of politicians to make a decision whilst voting? Surely a person’s sexual orientation or marriage problems cannot make them a better or worse candidate in an election, or can it?

 References

Stoker, K, & Stoker, M 2012, 'The Paradox of Public Interest: How Serving Individual Superior Interests Fulfill Public Relations' Obligation to the Public Interest', Journal Of Mass Media Ethics, 27, 1, pp. 31-45, Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 12 January 2013

Digital activism

 

'Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever does.' -Margaret Mead (Inspirational quotes, 2012)

     Wow, what a huge issue to be discussing. Activism itself has been defined as "The doctrine or practise of rigorous action or involvement as a means of achieving political or other goal, sometimes by demonstrations, protests, etc " (Dictionary.com). the digital side is obviously the platform in which the activism is getting it's publicity.
     This brings to mind firstly for me, the movement on Facebook last year that was both widespread, traumatic and moving. The KONY 2012 movement was a video released on UTube, trying to raise awareness about Joseph Kony abducting thousands of African children and turning them into little soldiers, killing at his command ( KONY 2012 Official video). Now why this issue got under so many people's skins could be put down to the fact that this issue was about children. Helpless, harmless children. I personally cried the first time I watched this video. I got mad, I wanted KONY's head on a platter. I have two young boys and to think someone has the power in whatever country it may be to come into your home, take your children, and make them do things to others that they will never be able to forgive themselves for is mortifying. Then I wrote a university assignment on this movement. Not only was there widespread support for this case, but there was also a lot of criticism following this video's release. There were questions about whether Joseph Kony was even still alive, questions about the motives for the video, and also questions about the creator of the video's moral integrity ( Huffington Post, 2012).
     Did watching this video make me a better person? I don't think so. Did it make me aware of an issue I had previously been unaware of? Of course it did. What did I do about it? Nothing. I watched the video, I cried, I even had discussions with some family members and friends about it. But did I physically do anything? No, I did not. Does this make me a 'Slacktivist'? The Urban dictionary.com coined 'slactivism as ;

The act of participating in obviously pointless activities as an expedient alternative to actually expending effort to fix a problem (Urban Dictionary.com, 2008).

     Oops, I was made aware of an issue, but by doing nothing I became a slactivist. I am a keyboard warrior! I defend the rights of the less fortunate and hard done by all whilst sitting in my lounge room on my laptop drinking a cup of coffee and watching 'The doctors' on television.



     So does digital activism work? I guess that depends on the outcome you are wanting to achieve with it. If you want a mass movement I truly don't think this is the way to go, but for exposure to an issue there is no better way to have to plastered in the faces of thousands of people. A post on Facebook may only take seconds to be liked and shared all over the world, but is it really making a difference?

References

UTube, 2012, KONY 2012 official video, viewed 11th December 2012 <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2M2vjy6aSkg

Huffington post, 2012. Jason Russell Arrested, viewed 11th December 2012 <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/16/jason-russell-arrested-invisible-children-

kony_n_1354455.html

Inspirational quotes; Margaret Mead, 2012, viewed 11th December 2012 <http://voices.yahoo.com/ten-inspirational-motivational-quotes-social-justice-2324663.html

Urban Dictionary.com, 2008, viewed 11th December 2012 <http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=slacktivism

UTube, 2012, KONY 2012 official video, viewed 11th December 2012 <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2M2vjy6aSkg