The how-to-do of my video is I talking for most of it
expressing my views towards digital media’s influence to online dating and
online pornography. With the help of quotes from scholars, I do hope viewers
will be influenced to what I have to say. I adopted this strategy on my own,
thinking that the ultimate ultimatum is for me to talk in front of the camera
and not shy away by showing too many images or videos or statements.
The content of my video is to be able to influence people
that digital media has lots of impact towards today’s online dating and online
pornography. I keep on expressing my views of how most people uses the internet
as primary tool for communication in their online dating world, thus throwing
away major barriers such as social anxiety, self-consciousness and shyness. Along
with it all, it becomes way easier to meet a stranger just by a click of a
button.
There are quite a few challenges that I faced for this
assignment. Because this topic is extremely diverse, it’s a bit difficult to
explain within 5 minutes of video and compress everything in order to make
sense of it all. I have to take many researches online and read many readings
so I can get the full understanding of this topic and deliver it from my brain
into a five-minute short video clip. What I learnt from this exercise is the
creativity it offers to students to undertake many readings (whether online or
library books) and have a good read and applies all of it to the assignment,
needless to say that it also strengthens my video-editing skills and knowledge.
Throughout my readings (references), I have to find relevant
quotes and statements that fully support my argument that digital media do
strengthens the online dating world along with online pornography.
The content of my video are a mixture of myself talking in
front of the camera, with the full statements and quotes of scholars that will
support my argument towards this topic.
The way I drew on my readings are to find relevant materials
that will connect my points to the statements that will deliver the topic
smoothly. I have to read many pages from the readings and make sure that I write
down the most important points.
To be honest, I found this assignment a major hurdle, as I have
not done a video for an assignment before throughout my life here at the
university. And in a way, I do overthink the situation as well and stressed a
lot thinking that I might not get the job properly done. But after a few
chatting sessions with my friends, I found to just do it and leave the fear of
failing out of it.
After I completed my video and uploaded to YouTube, I was
very impressed and proud of myself knowing that I’ve completed a major
assignment properly and that I thought I won’t be able to do it. I do think we
need more exercise like this as it helps improve student’s confidence in
themselves to get things done and believe in themselves more than they should.
Reference List
Ben-Ze’ev, A 2003, Love
Online: Emotions on the Internet, Cambridge University Press, New York.
Kang, T and Hoffman, L H 2011, ‘Why would you decide to use
an online dating site? Factors that lead to online dating’, Communication Research Reports, vol. 28,
no. 3, pp. 205-13.
Waskul, DD 2011, ‘Internet sex: the seductive “freedom to”’,
in Seidman, S and Meeks, C (eds.), Introducing
the New Sexuality Studies, Routledge, Abingdon and New York, pp. 364-70.
All of us use internet. It becomes part of reality, part of life living in the 21st century. Cyberspace has become larger than what it was 10 years ago. Everything becomes much easier to access, whether for information or personal purposes. The Internet makes everything possible, without boundaries. Facebook, Instagram and Twitter are among the most popular social media sites used all around the world for people to connect with one another, thus, creating a new concept and meaning of 'online identity'. Most of us by now already learnt and know what online identity is but still wondering how it comes to age. In reality, we have our own personal identity but in the cyber world , everyone can be anyone, giving the term 'online identity' a borderless opportunity. Smith and Watson (2014) explains the use of social media as " for young people to narrate moments in coming of age, for families to track and narrate their genealogical histories, for people seeking friends and lovers or those with similar hobbies to make connections, for political activists to organise around movements and causes." (Smith & Watson 2014, p.70).
From my experiences, I will use Facebook and Instagram as examples of tools that helps shapes my online identity. Facebook and Instagram are two very different social media sites, although yes they share one thing in common, that is they are social media sites, but the way consumers use them are very different. For example, in Facebook the user can almost do anything, in my experience, I can post random statuses, post photos and videos, or perhaps check-in at relevant places so my friends know where I am, whereas in Instagram the user can only post photos and videos of what they wanted. Instagram users don't have the luxury to post words or check-in at some place without posting a photo or video first. My Facebook online identity I can say is quite contrast in difference with my Instagram online identity this is because I decided to use Instagram more and more every week rather to use my Facebook, thus creating my Instagram content more relevant pictures and videos of my everyday life rather than Facebook. In Facebook , I'm very careful of my online identity because it's the most common social media everyone uses, so I wouldn't want anyone with simple access to Internet to access my Facebook profile, and am careful with the images (profile picture, for example) that I posted and status updates. In Instagram, as it's not as popular and massive as Facebook just yet, I feel more freedom to use it because not many potential employers or creepers out there can stalk, or perhaps even know the existence of my Instagram account. As Facebook attracts more and more users, potentially employers will use Facebook as their hunting tool to look for information for their potential employees. Also, more stalkers and creepers use Facebook more rather than Instagram as their number one tool for potential victims, which backs up my argument that my online identity in Facebook is more discreet in comparison to my Instagram.
Screenshots embedded from my personal
Facebook and Instagram accounts respectively.
In Facebook, I choose only the necessary information for the use of my online identity that I will allow to show to the audience (my friends). As Facebook has more information options that I can use rather than Instagram, I'm being more choosy. In Instagram, your 'followers' can only see your contents and not your information (age, gender, school, hometown, etc.) compare to Facebook. In Facebook, your friends can look, like and comment on your profile picture but not so on Instagram, as they can only see the profile picture but not like nor comment on it, thus creating more security to those who are insecure of their profile pictures in social media. In terms of communication (chatting), Facebook allows it, which symbolises your online identity to a whole new level, whereas in Instagram the way you 'communicate' is simply by commenting on one of the pictures and hoping for the conversation to be alive and continuous. As in the 21st century, more and more people are using Internet instead of watching TV (especially Generation Y and Z), people becomes more aware of their identity in the online world and not so easily disclose information that could lead to themselves being harassed or harmed in that matter. Users now see themselves in the online world as a " recognition that these sites and the exchanges that develop on them are extensions in the production of the self and are vital to the maintenance of one's identity." (Marshall 2010, p. 42). These social media sites, whether it would be Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube or LinkedIn now works as tools that we use to shape who we are in the online world.
According to Claypoole (2012), " we are all entertainers and publishers now. We can all send thoughts, opinions and videos of ourselves throughout the world with the click of a mouse or tap of a finger." (Claypoole 2012, p.3). I totally agree with this argument as for all the power that comes within the Internet, it also gives us huge responsibilities with it, having said that we need to consider how easy it is for that power to be manipulated and for someone else to steal our identity and uses it for their satisfaction, thus giving a whole new meaning for the term 'online identity/identities'.
References:
Marshall, PD 2010, ‘The promotion and presentation of the self: celebrity as
marker of presentational media’, Celebrity Studies, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 35-48.
Smith, S and Watson, J 2014, 'Virtually Me: A Toolbox about Online Self-Presentation', in Poletti , A and Rak, J, Identity Technologies: Constructing the Self Online, The University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, pp. 70-95.
Claypoole, T 2012, 'How did you get naked?', Protecting your internet identity: are you naked online?, Lanham, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, pp. 1-18.
I believe to the fact that everyone have a right to their own privacy. In under no circumstances, that anyone can invade it for whatever reason it may be. Edward Snowden believes in this code and uses it to his advantage and equally manage our human rights under the surveillance of American security agencies.
Dedicated as a hero, Snowden should be praised and glorified as our global patriot. Having the courage and confidence to expose all those secret files to the population of the world, he received such compliments from nearly everyone. Except, obviously, to some agents that worked behind the scenes in these agencies that are fully disgusted and contemptuous. The world responded greatly of Snowden's actions and there are even movements being formed for the causes of human rights and the repudiation of espionage. Demonstrations also occur from many places around the world regarding the action the U.S should take in their reverberation for Edward Snowden.
Personally, maybe indefinitely, I can't speak for other people but, in my opinion, I will feel very intimidated and threatened if my privacy is invaded. I believe to the ideology that every one of us deserve a space where we are comfortable to do anything and everything without someone watching us every step of the way. The truth, in the end, is the most valuable thing anyone can have in terms of invasion of privacy and secrets. The U.S. Government will always deny this statement as they believe that monitoring their citizens and exposing their emails are the best strategies to look at other people's lives and eventually ruining it.
In my opinion, I believe that Edward Snowden deserve a medal for what he did. He truly justified the term ' privacy and human rights ' into the world. And people can see that, which is why exactly rallies are created to stop NSA and CIA to prosecute Snowden. When asked of his motivations to his actions, Snowden explained that " I have no intention of hiding who I am because I know I have done nothing wrong." I fully supported this statement and one hundred percent agree. Great minds think alike, they say. And I do believe that Edward Snowden's concept of privacy and human rights are no different than mine.
Edward Snowden has to live in pain and pay the price (reputation, recognition, respect) in order to stood up for something that he believed in. He did that for all of us, as he also knows that he holds one of the major power to uncover the truth of what the U.S. Government is doing to humanity.
Even his father says that he did the right there. Further argument can be found here. Further to my research, I also found that Edward Snowden has been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize by a Swedish sociology professor. The article can be viewed here. Many people knows that he did the right thing and they also acted and supported his actions and decisions by creating political rallies and demonstration around the world to show their signs and that they are behind Snowden all the way.
"I think that the public is owed an explanation of the motivations behind the people who make these disclosures that are outside of the democratic model" was Snowden's response when asked what motivated him to do what he did. As one of many supporters of Snowden, I strongly argue that he did the right thing and intentions to deliver his message to everyone globally. Although with great power comes great responsibility, obviously Snowden will receive great critics and consequences from U.S. government.
I find it very ironic how the United States is the oldest country in the world that has the oldest regime, rules and convention about Human Rights but it is their own government that contradict their own laws. Imagine how Americans feel knowing that every single day they wake up, that they are not free even though it's a "free country". So many conflicts and issues are surrounding the U.S government and its citizens due to their disloyalty and dishonour for the people of U.S.A.
Snowden believes that his greatest fear, after all disclosures of the classified documents and evidence, is that nothing will change. He stated in the video below, in the interview, that despite everything he's been into and leaving everything behind, he's afraid that the people (civilians) will not put in enough efforts to fight for what they believe in and force their representatives to take a stand against the U.S. government for what they did to the American public. Snowden also declared how the in the future, if the people did nothing against this absurdity, that the power and policy will get even stronger, and by that time, there's nothing that even the citizens can do anything about it.
Through all his troubles, Snowden did received many supporters, which can be seen here. They all believe and approve his move towards the humanity, privacy and human rights of the people of America. The U.S. citizens obviously seen the damage their government did to their country and they thanked their hero for doing the right thing.
I also would do the same thing if I live in the U.S. As a democrat myself, I believe in the privacy rights of the citizen. And I do regard to the fact that if these such things would continue to happen in the future, eventually as technology get more advanced, the surveillance and filtering will be unstoppable. People will eventually live in fear and anxiety because they're afraid that no matter what, when, how and where they live their everyday lives, someone will always be watching. And it is an extremely uncomfortable feeling and bitter environment we would live in.
" I don't want to live in a society that does these sorts of things [surveillance on its citizens]. . . . I do not want to live in a world where everything I do and say is recorded. . . My sole motive is to inform the public as to that which is done in their name and that which is done against them." That was Snowden's explanation to the regards of his actions. Two of the most extremely powerful reasons why he did what he did. And I truly back that up. We, as the conscious united population of the world, should know and understand this idea and apply it to our everyday life by showing our gratitude and acknowledgment to our globalised patriot Edward Snowden. Without whom, we would not be as free and exempt from the surveillance of these contradictory U.S. agencies. We should hail our hero. We should support and defend him together as we are stronger if we're united as the population of the world. Long live Edward Snowden.
References:
Ritzer, George and Jurgenson, Nathan 2010 'Production, Consumption, Prosumption: The nature of capitalism in the age of the digital 'prosumer', Journal of Consumer Culture , vol. 10 no. 1, pp. 13-36.
"One of globalization's most important consequences is the increasing difficulty in making clear distinctions between what is a local Asian film and what is a global Hollywood film, at both the material and the aesthetic level" (Klein, 2004)
I personally agree on what Klein has mentioned in response of the Hollywoodisation of Asian films in the entertainment industry. There are too many of them out there. Here are a few examples. Although the greatest example (in my opinion) that I could find, is the remake of "Infernal Affairs" a Japanese cat-and-mouse movie into the American blockbuster "The Departed". Martin Scorsese, the director of The Departed, received few negative criticisms from movie reviewers of how he tried to gain profit by remaking an idea that's already been done beforehand. Although the movie did won 4 Academy Awards including Best Director for Scorsese, many fans and reviewers still believed that Scorsese did this in pure intention to benefit himself a higher reputation and profit.
There are many advantages and disadvantages of Hollywood to try and do remakes of Asian cinemas. One of the advantages is to try and gain more viewers globally. As Asian films nowadays do not receive many worldwide recognition, Hollywood can bring that reputation to them. One of the disadvantages is that Hollywood can obtain more profit and fame for something that's not entirely original. It still happen onto this day because Hollywood see this as an easy target to bring more money (to keep their business alive) they see there are no dishonour in doing so.
The image below is also another interpretation of how "The Departed" came so close to re-model "Infernal Affairs". We can see clearly the scene from "Infernal Affairs" where both characters standing on the rooftop and the good guy is trying to kill the bad guy. "The Departed" also did exactly that. Again, I personally think lowly of Hollywood to keep remaking Asian films as there is completely no need for such a thing. But seems like, it will keep going in the future and will never stop. Whether it is for potential market gain or popularity recognition, it is still not an original idea therefore could be described as stealing because they try to remake something that's already been done.
References:
Klein, Christina 2004, 'Martial arts and globalisation of US and Asian film industries', Comparative America Studies, vol. 2, no. 3, pp. 360-384.
Specular Economy, as Marshall (2010) puts it is "where we collectively becoming more conscious of how we present ourselves and how others perceive us." The way I see it, is how I imagine someone thinking of me, thinking of them while thinking of me. It's a bit confusing, I know. Hence, it's called Specular as it's a reflection of impressions to other people of how we look and vice versa.
Facebook is a very useful tool that I will use an example. It's the most addictive social networking site in the world. With over 1.15 billion active users monthly, it has become quite clear why it's the number one social media app in this day and age. I am one of those 1.15 billion users. I perceive myself as a popular celebrity in the Facebook world among my friends. Funny enough, while reading Marshall (2010), I thought he was describing me. I, too, perceive others how they think of me and the way I present myself on Facebook has got me thinking quite clearly of what I should post. My personality and my 'Facebook persona' is quite different. I always put up positive inputs and thoughts on my Facebook status updates and profile. Even though, the situation in real life may not quite the contrary but I think deep and hard of why I should not combine my reality with my virtual life.
I'm always tempted to just feel like letting it all out on my status update on Facebook whenever I feel that life is getting too hard. I believe that somehow, by typing a few words, I will get sympathies and supports from my fellow friends. But in a way, I thought to myself, it's a bit attention seeking and feels as if I am 'fishing' for likes and comments. Again, I am very careful when it comes to my public image and persona in the Facebook world. Also when it comes to comments, I make sure I delete any negative comments that might compromise my virtual public image. Some of my friends noticed, some don't. This just proves that as much as I love 'likes' and 'comments' on whenever I post a status, I only want the positive ones.
I started to think from another point of view. The way we see mirrors, is that we wanted to be perfect. We wanted to look good and desirable for other people to see and therefore interact with us. Wherever the mirror may be, it gives us this conscious and peace of mind when we know that we look glamour and flashy. Mirrors also helps us point out any weaknesses on and in our body, so we can pinpoint what it is and get rid of it as it ruins our image. The mirror then can be thought of as reconstructing us for its representation on the screen.
Hopefully that illustration and these pictures helps you to understand the specular economy and our daily lives of how we carefully perceive others and present ourselves. Especially online, people might have a lot of different ideas of how they look at us compare to reality. That is the exact reason why we choose carefully for our public image on the web. The specular economy has produced a new regime of personal presentation that we're only beginning to see its profound implications.
The Internet is known for many cultural and popularity influence to all of us, especially when it comes to social media. In this day and age, it is the source of interactivity for human behaviours towards each other. Beside its huge impact, it also has become a major part of our lives. It is our interactivity with these weapon of mass distractions that influenced us to become more connected virtually and less connected realistically.
With the combination of multimediality, virtuality, interactivity and connectivity, I chose Instagram, YouTube and Facebook to be the strongest influences of social media that has been distracting me from work and uni assignments. With the combination of over 2 billion users of these three powerful social media apps, it has become clear that they are the most powerful weapons of mass distraction in this generation.
Instagram is a social media app that allows its users to post photos and videos of nearly anything and everything that happens in our lives. It also uses a creative marketing strategy called 'hash-tags' which allow its users to type in any words that are relevant to the content we post via using the hash sign. YouTube is a social media website and app that let its users to post videos of any content that they desire, whether for entertainment or education. Other people then can view the videos and choose whether to 'like' or 'dislike' it. They can also comment their opinions based on their theory and/or experiences. Facebook is social media website and app that has overtaken the majority of human population's lives in just a few years. It grants its users to simply post any contents (photos, videos, links) to their friends and families to share with.
With the advancement of technology, users of Facebook and Instagram can now integrate their content via each social media, so if they post a photo on their Instagram account, it may also be posted onto their Facebook profile. Generally, younger people (age 18-29) from across the globe spent nearly triple the amount of time to social networking sites compare to the older age groups. This explains that younger age groups are more connected and have more interactivity with one another in comparison to their parents and/or grandparents.
From my experience, I check my accounts (Facebook, Instagram, YouTube) daily and have become addicted to each of the contents posted by my friends. To me, I mustn't miss a day to not check at least one social media app. Participatory media culture is definitely a growing trend in this day and age and with the use of social networking sites, users can interact and connect with one another without the use of gaming.
References:
Raessens, J. 2005, 'Computer games as participatory media culture', Handbook of Computer Game Studies, MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass, pp. 373-388.
The relationship between Blogosphere and the Public Sphere is interconnected. When we post a blog topic, it is subsequently jointed into the public community. As a matter of fact, I believe that Public Sphere existed because of Blogosphere.
Any content we produced through our blogs, will generally and inevitably be going to the public sector of the community. It is the exact reason why most people write blogs, so they can inspire other people that reads their opinion and be intrigued and interested to see the topic from other's point of view. Although there are advantages and disadvantages of posting blogs online, I will get onto this in a later stage. My definition of the Public Sphere is that it's a network for communicating information and points of view. The ideas stored and given eventually becomes public opinion. Any issue/topic posted in any blog can be raised for a rational debate.
The advantages of posting blogs online to public community are the inspiration to other people using our words and ideas relating to the topic, the motivation and inspiration we can give to others to become more successful and/or confident through our post and it can help people understand us better by explaining our knowledge and experiences through our it. It also helps to gain our reputation through our blogs as more people enjoy their reading means more people will be follow and become more interested. Many bloggers around the world are known for their recognition by how many people reads their content and how many people commented on it.
The disadvantages of posting blogs online to public community are the concern of theft for intellectual property, plagiarism, copyright issues material and threats due to opinion differences. Although some people may not believe it, but these things actually do happen. Either they're lazy or feel intimidated, some people do steal other people's work and publish them as their own (plagiarism). In other cases, there are people that feel threatened by the blog posts as they feel the topic is too vulnerable and too attacking and therefore they retaliate in a threatening manner.
But what we have to think of is that no matter what we do, if we decide to post ANY content online of our work, it inevitably becomes public. Once it's out there, it stays there. None of us can do anything to stop it. We may remove it or report if somebody steals it, but somebody else might beat us to it. It definitely is one of the very first things to consider before we post anything online.
References: Bruns, A., Burgess, J., Highfield, T., and Nicolai, T. 2011 'Mapping the Australian Networked Public Sphere', Social Science Computer Review, vol. 29, no. 3, pp. 277-287.
