Ooh baby baby it's a wide world...

In my opinion the Internet is kind of the most wonderful thing to happen to the human race since agriculture, transportation and medicine. It allows us to meet new people, purchase lovely new things, watch interesting films and shows, travel the world, carve out a new identity and be whomever we want to be, all from the comfort and safety of our homes. It’s an agoraphobes dream come true! But have you ever considered the fact that there may be people out there who are using they Internet to fool you; because they have ulterior motives; because they are sinister and cruel and feel secure behind the veil of their monitors...

I don’t mean to go all fear-monger-ey on you but it’s happening right now and it’s likely you’ve even experienced it yourself. I’m online everyday and I see it every day. It’s called cyber-bullying and it comes in all shapes and sizes.

SOURCE: http://270c81.medialib.glogster.com/beccam666/media/1f/1f17f53fcf5af4d5e780896f2ec5229f881c2a46/iphone-cyberbully-1yo7t8a.jpg

 Now if you haven’t been living under a rock for the last few years you’d have seen articles like this one on theaustralian.com.au and heard of the growing endemic of cyber-bullying and it’s devastating effects on our youth. You’ll know that children as young as 13 and 14 years old all over the world are taking their lives because of the embarrassment and shame caused by disgusting comments littering their profile pages. At the best of times our world can be mean and nasty, throw in a little anonymity and the worst human traits appear to grow exponentially.

Now if you’re sitting there thinking ‘it’s not that bad, I’ve never had that bad an online experience’ you have to bear in mind that you are just one of over 2.4 million Internet users. But if you are thinking that, well I am a little bit too. We’re the lucky ones. I’ve never been on the receiving end of a purely hateful message but I have seen them and they can range from humorously offensive to downright sickening. I often find myself in a ‘comments box vortex’ where I can’t tear my eyes away from the screen because it seems the trolls have kicked off a troll-off. Its like a virtual car accident, I’m walking past ever so slowly watching the horror unfold thinking ‘how can these people be so cruel?’ and ‘what exactly do they think they’re achieving?’

Well according to Mishna, Saini & Solomon, trolls, cyber-bullies, whatever you like to call them, behave this way for all the same reasons as regular face-to-face bullies but the results are far worse. The ever-present and non-stop nature of cyber-bullying means there’s no safe place for victims to rest, it’s often faceless and forceful and of course our children have no reference with which to defend themselves or deal with it.

But it’s not always children bullying children; sometimes it’s adults bullying children. At other times it’s adults actively preying on children but studies and initiatives like this one by the Australian Institute of Criminology and this one by the Terres De Hommes International Federation for Children are actively cracking down and making a difference. 

Some online personalities have had enough. Lindsay Bottos, courageous and spirited woman and blogger, is holding a mirror up to her online community, simultaneously shaming those who have left her negative remarks whilst successfully showcasing her innovation and guts. Bravo Lindsay! I applaud your approach and can feel a full online movement a-brewing.

SOURCE: http://lindsaybottos.tumblr.com/

There’s so much more I could say, so many more sad and awful facets to the dark side of social media. But I’m going to finish with this: it has to stop. And the only way to stop it, as with bullying in real life, is to stand up and make a difference. Don’t let those trolls hi-jack that beautiful page with their vomitus. Don’t let that child feel neglected and alone. Pay attention to what’s happening out there because we’re all connected and all a part of it. In the words of the late Michael Jackson “heal the world, make it a better place” – that goes for the digital world too.

REFERENCES:

Bahadur, N 2014, ‘Blogger Lindsay Bottos is using her internet haters’ own words to fight back’, huffingtonpost.com, viewed 2 February 2014, <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/03/lindsay-bottos-tumblr-anonymous-comments_n_4703344.html>

Bottos, L 2014, lindsaybottos.tumblr.com, viewed 5 February 2014, < http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/03/lindsay-bottos-tumblr-anonymous-comments_n_4703344.html>

Carswell, A 2013, ‘Parents take extreme action on faceless bullying’, theaustralian.com.au, viewed 5 February 2014, <http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/parents-take-extreme-action-on-faceless-bullying/story-e6frg6n6-1226646307704>

Cuneo, C & McDougall B, 2013, ‘Madeleine Milne didn’t know how much she was loved’, The Daily Telegraph, viewed 5 February 2014, <http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/national/madeleine-milne-didnt-know-how-much-she-was-loved/story-fncvk70o-1226637189275>

‘Cyberbullying causes another teen suicide’, 2013, essentialkids.com.au, viewed 5 February 2014, <http://www.essentialkids.com.au/older-kids/education-for-older-kids/cyberbullying-causes-another-teen-suicide-20130807-2rekx.html>

Grosskopf, A 2010, 'Online interactions involving suspected paedophiles who engage male children', Trends & issues in crime and criminal justice, no. 403, viewed 5 February 2014, <http://www.aic.gov.au/publications/current series/tandi/401-420/tandi403.html>

Internet World Stats, 2012, internetworldstats.com, viewed 5 February 2014, <http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm>

Mishna, F, Saini, M & Solomon, S 2009, ‘Ongoing and online: Children and youth’s perception of cyberbullying’, Children and Youth Services Review, Volume 31, Issue 12, pages 1222-1228

‘Stop webcam child sex tourism’, 2014, terredeshommes.org, viewed 5 February 2013, <http://www.terredeshommes.org/webcam-child-sex-tourism/>

‘Suicide of Megan Meier’, 2014, wikipedia.org, viewed 5 February 2014, <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide_of_Megan_Meier>

Troll (Internet), 2014, wikipedia.org, viewed 5 February 2014, <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troll_%28Internet%29>

To produce or to use, that is the question...

Produsage is a modern mash-up term combining Production and Usage. It refers to all of us digital savvy types who use the interwebs for anything at all. Basically the development of the online world has evolved so that everyone can now be deemed a Produser.

Produsers can be either active or inactive. Active produsers are those that actively participate in creating online content, be it a Wikipedia post, a YouTube video, a Yahoo Answers thread – the list goes on and on. In actual fact, if you tweet, share, comment, re-tweet, like or post on anything at all, you’re an active produser!

SOURCE: http://produsage.org/files/produsage/produser.png

Inactive Produsers are those who don’t necessarily engage with their online activities but unbeknownst to them, there are algorithms (also known as cyber-digi-bots (no not really) recording your every online move and collecting data for the purpose of limiting future searches to those items that are most relevant to you. While this sounds creepy (and I’m not denying it is) it’s for your benefit. Compare doing anything online to going to a supermarket. At the supermarket everything is clearly labelled, has it’s own department and there’s a basic model all supermarkets work to making it easy for you to shop. The Internet is a virtual supermarket containing multiple versions of everything ever created, ever known to man or even possible to know with no aisles, no signs, no model, no familiarity or order whatsoever. This is why we have algorithms, to streamline our online presence and to sort the good from the bad, the relevant from the irrelevant. And simply by clicking on various links or buttons you are inactively produsing and contributing to the algorithm. Basically, all users of the Internet are produsers and have the ability to create and contribute to the quality of online content.

Tell me more I hear you say... Well using my own online activity as an example, I’m a pretty active produser. I slap up my own posts and photos and share or re-post those belonging to others. I am a ‘fan’ of a few companies and I ‘like’ a few pages, and when they post something interesting I’ll comment and share, initiating a dialogue or conversation between me, the company and other followers. Thus the cycle of Produsage begins. According to Alex Bruns, the genius who coined the term, produsage is ‘an effective process of evaluating the [quality and value] of online content’.

   

 SOURCE: http://www.groovybootstheatre.com/site/UserFiles/like-us-on-facebook-small.png

 SOURCE: http://www.viralblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Tweet.png

I can see what he means, current online culture means there is now a direct link between me and let’s say an App Designer/Distributor on the Apple App Store. Have you ever seen the reviews of apps and someone has posted “Great app, love it, use it everyday – but can you please update/modify/re-jig the fill-in-the-blank? It would be so much better if it fill-in-more-blanks. Thanks!” And then have you noticed a few weeks later there’s an update that directly addresses those requests? That, my friend, is Produsage in action. All users, regardless of skill or knowledge have an equal opportunity to shape and direct the quality of what we discover online. And the larger and more diverse the community the better the quality will be.  More perspectives and viewpoints = more products, apps, approaches and content. More for all!

So if you don’t already, get out there - comment, post and create! As Bonnie Stewart says ‘Produsage matters because it offers people the opportunity to be part of the media they consume’. So come on, be part of it already. You can start by telling me what you think about produsage, good or bad. Or perhaps you can share a moment when you actively engaged and something amazing happened or you made friend.

REFERENCES:

 

Stewart, B, 2012, crib.chronicles.com, ‘What Produsage is and why it matters’, viewed 8 January 2014, <http://theory.cribchronicles.com/2012/07/03/what-produsage-is-and-why-it-matters/>

Bruns, A 2010, video.nextconf.eu, ‘Produsage and Business: Sharing Your Brand with Users’, viewed 8 January 2014, < http://video.nextconf.eu/video/923263/produsage-and-business-sharing>

Is that real?!

Simulacra - what a word! When I first came across this word I had to look it up and you know what, it’s hard to find a straightforward definition, but I’ll try to unpack it and we’ll work it out together.

As you can predict Simulacra is a derivative of simulation. Basically it encompasses all those things that simulate elements of our real lives. Jean Beaudrillard, sociologist and cultural theorist, first developed his theory of Simulacra in the late 70’s and 80’s in relation to media and hyperreality. He theorised that multiple facets of real life ‘[are] composed of references with no referents, a hyperreality’ and have evolved into mere simulation of life through media, art and imitation. But life is a big topic so for the purpose of this post I will focus on one thing that is riddled with simulacra – social media and our digital world! Hopefully you find it interesting too.

Beaudrillards theory of simulacra demonstrates that there are four orders to the hierarchy of simulation:

1.  The First Order – emulates or is the basic reflection of reality i.e. a voice-mail message

2.  The Second Order – misrepresents, masks or perverts a basic reality i.e. a ‘perfected’ image of a model in a magazine

3.  The Third Order – creates the impression of a reality where in fact none exists i.e. the hyperreal worlds found within books such as The Hunger Games or Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy

4.  The Fourth Order – bears no relation to anything that could be called an original i.e. virtual reality worlds such as Second Life

With this hierarchy in mind let’s discuss simulacra in social media. I use Facebook for personal use and Twitter for work. In both instances I stick to the First Order; I aim to portray myself as honestly as I can to communicate meaningfully with friends, family, professional colleagues and potential clientele. But there are some people who use social media in a distorted or misrepresentory way, (yes I just made that word up, go ahead, use it, it’s yours).

Take Facebook for example. There are some people out there - and I know you have some in your friend catalogue - whose lives are just fan-frickin-tastic all the time. Non-stop fun, frivolity and festivity. Don’t you just wish you were them ‘cause your life seems so average all the time? Well I’m telling you now, you can let that ship sail, those friends are simply using social media to project a simulated perfected version of their lives. It’s got the Second Order written all over it! Life isn’t that perfect, their Facebook is just masking and perverting their reality. And there ain’t nothing wrong with that per se, chances are they are just doing their bit to spread the love & cheer & rainbows. After all reading all about ones drear, drab and drollness is equally draining.

But what about the remaining Orders. Well this is where it gets pretty interesting. In my travels I stumbled upon this Ted Talk given by Eli Pariser. In his engaging and informative video Eli talks about how digital algorithms create ‘filter bubbles’ which essentially sort our digital lives for us, meaning virtual cyber-digi-bots are choosing what to display in our Google searches, News-feeds and Online Dating sites. At  3:47 he makes the point that filter bubbles enable ‘the internet [to show] us what it thinks we want to see, but not necessarily what we need to see’ and at 4:16 he says ‘Your filter bubble is your own personal, unique universe of information that you live in online. What’s in your filter bubble depends on who you are, and it depends on what you do. But you don’t decide what gets in - and more importantly, you don’t see what gets edited out’. While I’ve acknowledged this is the case for a while now, that doesn’t make the idea any less unpleasant. 

But to bring it back to simulacra, it means that my digital galaxy is somewhere smack-bang in the middle of Order Three and Four; it’s only an impression of reality and is generated based on my clicks and links, so even if I wanted to investigate something profound about the Large Hadron Colider or soil development for agriculture, I couldn’t because I’m always clicking on dessert recipes and organic lip balms (don’t judge me, we all have our vices!) and that’s what the Internet thinks I want to see all the time – imagine organic soil flavoured lip balm, perfect for the impregnated among us!

So it’s safe to say, that everything about social media and our digital worlds is simulacra. Hopping online simulates going out into the world; online profiles simulate and represent real people. Is simulacrum a bad thing? No, not to me. It’s an extension of real life experiences. It’s not great that I have so little control over how things are simulated and presented to me but that’s part of being a member of the digital community; the challenge is to navigate your way through the what’s simulated and what’s real and apply what’s right for you.

So what are your thoughts? What simulacra have you discovered? What digital hyperreal experiences have left you feeling part of a brand new world? What’s the best and worst thing about being able to simulate everything we do?

REFERENCES:

Jean Beaudrillard, 2014, Wikipedia.org, viewed 6 January 2014, <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Baudrillard>

Felluga, D 2011, ‘Modules on Baudrillard: On Simulation’, Introductory Guide to Critical Theory, viewed 6 January 2014, <http://www.cla.purdue.edu/english/theory/postmodernism/modules/baudrillardsimulation.html>

Pariser, E 2011, ‘Beware online filter bubbles’, viewed 6 January 2014, <http://www.ted.com/talks/eli_pariser_beware_online_filter_bubbles.html?quote=931>

wiki wiki WikiLeaks

WikiLeaks is the social revolution we have all been waiting for. We all ask ourselves what our government is up to, we all feel sometimes that we’ve been slighted and something is amiss. In creating WikiLeaks, Julian Assange has provided global society with the tools to make those feelings a thing of the past. 

 

 SOURCE: https://wikileaks.org/IMG/wallpapers/wall1.png

 

WikiLeaks is one of the resulting websites of the ever-expanding information and communication technologies age. Founded in 2006, WikiLeaks is a non-profit media organisation whose ‘goal is to bring important news and information to the public. [They] provide an innovative, secure and anonymous way for sources to leak information to our journalists’. The information WikiLeaks provides is that which is screened out of main stream media by governments for various reasons but usually because it’s akin to hanging out dirty laundry. It’s upsetting and sinister stuff that could potentially change our votes and negatively impact our attitudes to government. And government reaction flies in the face of the Freedom of Information Act established in Australia in 1982. International reactions have been even more scandalous with some American and Canadian politicians calling for imprisonment and illegal assassination of Assange and his employees!

And this is why is WikiLeaks is grabbing headlines. The Freedom of Information Act was created because it is widely believed that ‘transparency and the right to access government information are now internationally regarded as essential to democratic participation, trust in government, prevention of corruption, informed decision-making, accuracy of government information, and provision of information to the public’. Governments worldwide are responding to WikiLeaks as though they have something to hide. And at the rate WikiLeaks is going, gaining public support with every passing day, it seems soon these very governments will be exposed. The ill treatment of whistle blowers including Julian Assange, Bradley Manning and Edward Snowden only compound this societal reaction. 

 SOURCE:http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51uVC9tp21L.jpg

But why is WikiLeaks so successful? According to this article there are three types of anti-corruption approaches, one of them being social change. Social change is basically social reform through the empowerment of the citizens by encouraging them to participate in institutional reform movements; ‘by changing cultural attitudes that have been accepting of corruption, citizens can ultimately protect themselves from corruption.’ WikiLeaks cashes in on the highly participatory and anonymous culture of the Internet and social media to distribute unknown truths to the masses. It is successful because the spread of information is immediate and because the people are crying out for more transparency in government and business.

In previous posts I’ve spoken about the ability of social media to connect and engage people all over the world. That is the nature of the beast; it’s a participatory culture. In creating WikiLeaks Julian is banking on the small percentage of people out there willing to engage and supply unadulterated and often uncomfortable truths. As creator, Assange may be pinned as the hero, villain, catalyst or target but in actual fact he has simply manipulated existing social media tools, enabling the digital community as a whole to keep government and corporations in check.

Will WikiLeaks continue to succeed and grow? For that I cannot say, but what is evident is that Julian Assange has paved the way for new activists and whistle blowers to take the stage should he depart – there is always another Queen Bee waiting in line to play her part.

REFERENCES:

Bertot, J, Jaeger, P, Grimes, J 2010, sciencedirect.com ‘Using ICT’s to create a culture of transparency: E-government and social media as openness and anti-corruption tools for societies’, Government Information Quarterly, Volume 27, Issue 3, July 2010, Pages 264–271, viewed 9 February 2014, <http://www.sciencedirect.com.ezproxy.lib.swin.edu.au/science/article/pii/S0740624X10000201>

Freedom of Information Act, 1982 [reformed in 2010], Office of the Australian Information Commissioner, viewed 9 January 2014, <http://www.oaic.gov.au/freedom-of-information/freedom-of-information-act/the-freedom-of-information-act>

‘Julian Assange should be assassinated, former Canada adviser tom flanagan claims’ [video] youtube.com, viewed 9 February 2014, <http://youtu.be/5wLYy7ETO34>

Kelley, M 2014, ‘Edward Snowdens relationship with WikiLeaks should concern everyone’ Business Insider Australia, viewed 9 January 2014, <http://www.businessinsider.com.au/edward-snowden-and-wikileaks-2014-1>

WikiLeaks, 2014, wikileaks.org, viewed 9 January 2014, <https://wikileaks.org/>

‘WikiLeaks acting illegally says Gillard’ 2010, smh.com.au, viewed 9 January 2014, <http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/wikileaks-acting-illegally-says-gillard-20101202-18hb9.html>

Social Politics

Social media has blown politics wide open in so many ways. What used to be the realm of hoity-toity newspapers and men’s clubs is now out there for all to see and comment on. It’s live and alive. I remember when I was a kid, politics was some sharp faced, red nosed geezer blathering broken promise after broken promise for hours on the telly. While I don’t follow it consistently, it seems to me that modern politics is much the same coupled with 24/7, instantaneous and ever-present social media.

It’s well documented that Australian politicians such as Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard are following Barak Obama’s lead and investing heavily in social media. Obama took out Mitt Romney in the 2012 US elections in a landslide by using pioneering social media seduction and it would be senseless for the leaders of the free world to ignore this powerful and colossal tool. Kevin Rudd seems to have embraced social media and digital interaction the most, starring in viral videos, re-tweeting and sharing and posting selfies all over the shop. By doing so K-Rudd has made himself relatable and relevant to a multitude of people previously considered excluded from the political agenda - Generations X & Y. Some may consider Kevin’s digital approach a waste of time but from where I’m standing, the world is evolving rapidly around us and only the strongest and most adaptable will survive. And who deems whom the strongest and most adaptable? Well it’ll be the young ones who will be here long after you, me, and the current political cast.

SOURCE: https://twitter.com/MrKRudd

SOURCE: http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/OB-YP568_0821se_H_20130820232259.jpg

 

 SOURCE: https://twitter.com/JuliaGillard

But as always there’s a flipside. Even politicians aren’t immune to the eternal damnation that is the social media faux pas. In this article, ABC journalist and blogger Jarrod Strauch describes how shoot-from-the-hip tweets can come back to haunt even the most experienced politicians and goes on to say that ‘mistakes’ like Wendy Francis’ “legitimising gay marriage is like legalising child abuse” comment are actually doing the Australian communities a favour, ‘[letting] us know what politicians are thinking... illuminat[ing] the more colourful characters ... and expos[ing] the bigotry still present in modern politics’.

More recently, popular television personality and prolific blogger Charlie Pickering is using his online presence to highlight social issues such as gender equality, climate change and gay rights. These issues are relevant to the iGeneration and are often brushed to the wayside by typical politicians. As with Kevin Rudd, by highlighting these nouveau concerns, writing about them and promoting them in his affable-yet-informed manner, Charlie is making a name for himself as a competent political commentator.

SOURCE: https://twitter.com/charliepick

So to wrap up I’d like to finish on a provocative note because like Charlie, I believe that social media is key to social change. The world is rapidly shifting and with it our community views. Social media is keeping us connected and fuelling greater global ties and politicians should absolutely hop on board this gravy train and use it to create and enforce more relevant policies and guidelines. Those who refuse to hop on deserve to be left behind and we as a society can use a politician’s capacity for social media use as a stick measure for whether they really have the right (or the foresight) to be speaking for me. Oh how very Gen-Y of me to say!

REFERENCES: 

'Kevin Rudd social media campaign gearing up on Twitter, Facebook, Youtube', 2013, news.com.au, viewed 7 January 2014, <http://www.news.com.au/technology/kevin-rudd-social-media-campaign-gearing-up-on-twitter-facebook-and-youtube/story-e6frfro0-1226577817645>

Pickering, C 2014, charliepickering.com, viewed 7 January 2014, <http://charliepickering.com/>

Rutledge, P, 2013, mprcenter.org, 'How Obama won the social media battle in the 2012 Presidential Campaign', The Media Psychology Blog, viewed 7 January 2014, <http://mprcenter.org/blog/2013/01/25/how-obama-won-the-social-media-battle-in-the-2012-presidential-campaign/> 

Selfie, 2013, wikipedia.org, viewed 7 January 2014, <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selfie>

Strauch, J 2010, abc.net.au, 'Social Media and Politicians, enough (virtual) rope', viewed 7 January 2014, <http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/35774.html>