Folks,
Just to remind you, your participation here counts as your blog entry for the readings this week. So spend some time crafting your own response, and browse and respond to others' postings as well. Enjoy!
Shirky focuses mainly on the political and the economic in Here Comes Everybody, looking at the ways people are using social media to change the paradigm of publishing, for example, or to establish or promote a political movement. The link I'm posting here extends a different view of the ways social media might be changing our culture. Taming Spring Break is kind of a funny article, but it's implications could be profound. "Here comes everybody" could be understood in a whole different way when we look at this phenomenon.
What do you think about the ways this article might extend Shirky's analysis? What other examples do you see or have you experienced that either confirm the Times article or contradict it? How are social media changing your assumptions about how you live your life in public? Is that a good thing or not? The field for discussion is wide open--have at it!
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I definitely agree that some people do use social media to sometimes promote a social movement. The article proves this point well. For example, a few years ago there was this website that kept coming up in the Somali community that posted pictures stolen from facebook/myspace about Somali youths. It would target anyone that was not following the old fashion Somali traditions whether it was partying, dating, not dressing in the proper attire, this website put them on blast. After some legal action it would disappear and comeback every now and then.
ReplyDeleteSo Its not just spring break or college students that tame their behavior because it might end up on Facebook or other websites. My friends and i try to make sure we are not caught off guard that we are bordering on paranoia. The first thing i did when i got my apartment is check for hidden cameras when i saw some bumps on the wall. I dont trust hotels when traveling. I avoid public bathrooms and one of my friends doesn't even hangout in public places. Some of my friends think am crazy and the others are just as paranoid about it as i am. Its like where living in voyeuristic world, no one really has any privacy when it comes down to it. It changes behavior and we all act according to societal rules because if we dont then we are labeled as deviant. Another example would be the Rutgers case where a promising college student committed suicide after his roommate secretly taped and broadcasted a homosexual encounter with another man. You dont even have to kill someone anymore physically, you can drive them to do it.
Anyways, the point is what can be used for good can be used for evil. Social networking sites bring people together but under the wrong hands it can destroy families, lives and so much more. People can use it to drive a certain agenda home. It can be another way to teach people to obey and conform to societal rules.
I think "Taming Spring Break" reinforces Shirky's point about the line between public and private information. Students are uncomfortable about the prospect of photographs because it removes part of their digital narrative from their control. I know many students who will talk (or post) about being drunk or partying but are completely mortified when a picture of them "in the act" makes its way onto Facebook. The appealing thing about Facebook is that
ReplyDeleteOne night a friend invited me to LaserMob in Pullman and I declined- mostly because, as an introvert, it isn't really my scene. However, I also wanted to avoid appearing in photos I did not have control over because, without control, my presence in a photo could be easily misinterpreted. I do not drink or use any illegal substances but someone could see me in a picture (tagged or not) and say "I didn't know that was Mikko's scene. He seems so well-behaved." The mere appearance in a "party photo" would lead the viewer to assume a number of things that are not true- if a student is photographed at a party where people are drinking, it will be assumed they drink also. I am underage and work with young children so such an accusation, even if proven false, could be sufficient for me to be removed from my position.
My policy of "pre-emptive" damage control is, in my mind, a matter of being prudent: I do not want to put myself in a situation that can be misinterpreted in a potentially damaging way. When I explained that to my friends freshman year (and up until the present), I sometimes got strange looks and reminders that the "untag" button exists. However, the untag button is not enough. Photographs were damaging long before Facebook gave us a tagging feature because, if the user is identifiable, it does not matter whether or not they are tagged. In fact, if they are untagged, the subject can be unaware of any controversies surrounding the photo.
My personal policy, therefore, has been to avoid situations where I would have to explain myself to someone who viewed my photo. Shirky summarizes this fear of photos perfectly when he said "much of what gets posted on any given day is in public but not for the public" ( 90). Also, in the previous paragraph, Shirky says that "public" media like LiveJournal actually give users a platform to speak to a smaller audience and this fear of photos- of being placed before a larger audience, reflects this.
Also, this article is worth reading:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2017794577_apusjobapplicantsfacebook.html
Like in Shirky and other discussions from class the article supports the idea of diminishing privacy or our private lives being made public or rather, being connected with our professional lives.
ReplyDeleteFacebook has definitely had an impact on the way we act and behave. It has made it extremely easy for potentially anyone to see how people can sometimes behave in a different scene. As a college student, most want to experience ALL that college has to offer which doesn't stop at academics. Social experiences are a large part of the whole college experience and sometimes that social experience involves alcohol, whether legal or not so legal. It doesn't matter whether you're underaged or not, now students are being told to be wary of the content they're uploading because, even if it's aspects of their personal life and consuming alcohol could be completely legal for them, the way they act when they're not professional is being scrutinized. If you're getting too wasted at a party and the pictures are plastered all over your Facebook profile a company may be dissuaded to hire you because if they found it, how easily would it be for clients or partners to find it and have it negatively affect their relationship.
I've seen firsthand individuals here at WSU whose university jobs required them to refrain from drinking alcohol or at least be discrete about it. Anytime a picture was taken at a party it was followed immediately by a "Don't tag me on Facebook" or "Don't post that on Facebook."
With social media, anytime I see something interesting happening I figure I'll be able to find a video of it later on YouTube because someone is bound be recording it on a camera or cellphone. This idea has been planted firmly in the back of my mind. It's like the "If you're mother/father could only see the way you're behaving..." comment when you aren't acting the most respectably, nowadays, the possibility that your mother and father might actually see a video of your behavior quite high.
It's amazing the extent to which online media has affected society and social norms. Although I'm sure locals and other citizens appreciate the "tamed" spring break travelers, from news reports of overdosing/deaths due to drinking, it doesn't sound like social media is having THAT much impact.
ReplyDeleteAlthough Facebook and other social media sites are producing increasingly more civil portrayals of spring break shenanigans, as website articles attempt to assuage, "youth is wasted on the young", still.
According to the article, "To help keep students in check, college Web sites, magazines and blogs post dos and don’ts for spring break. Chief among them is the peril that comes with uninhibited spring break celebrations getting on the Internet and doing long-term damage. “Don’t lower your standards or let your judgment be impeded just because you’re in a different time zone,” one Web site cautioned." This is an interesting shift form the otherwise "here's what to do (crazy things) over spring break" articles that could be found in the 80's or 90's.
Although the trend seems to be towards a more tame vacation cycle, I won't believe it until I see the statistics.
Shirky talks a lot about collective action requiring a shared vision, and in a way this can be applied to spring break travelers. The new concept of social media/web peer pressure could be pro-tame or against tame vacationing--that is, craziness could be encouraged by the masses, or discouraged for the sake of the appearance of the group. For example, a group of friends involved with the student body of a university might take into consideration their public appearances, whereas someone who holds little to no responsibility might have little reason to worry.
The obvious statement, as Shirky highlights in his book, is that social media avenues, although often beneficial and spreading/becoming increasingly influential and popular, depends entirely on the individual user's background and motives.
So, whether your mom is friends with you on Facebook or not, new technologies allow for new group formation, and perhaps the latest is a worried spring break crew.
Facebook, which Shirky mentions, is the obvious example of our generation's tool for an increased flow of sharing between groups. He argues that sharing benefits everyone who is involved in communicating ideas and information. People from all over the world are now able to connect. In later chapters, Shirky doesn't actually claim that these tools can solve social problems - but it can generate the hard questions to solve them. Still, there are downsides to the Facebook phenomenon - it does create problems with "over sharing" as users have the personal-private line blur together.
ReplyDeleteThis article on the other hand has a good point into 'the public viewpoint.' Now that all information is readily available and public, students and youth are more aware of the effects of social media and their future. From the experiences I've seen, it could go both ways - some students seem to think of the future as foreign and distant. These are the ones with beer bongs and tequila shots littering their Facebook. While others are 'smarter,' guarding their Facebook for future employers. In my opinion, it's really about pre-existing personality that decides someone's social media habits. These issues also highlight publicity with social change or a shift in attitude among our generation.
Shirky raises several issues regarding the new freedoms due to this online connection including loss of jobs to specialists and loss of governmental control of media output. With these technologies, networked organizations are more outspoken as a result of better communication tools and flexible social structures. However, this is as true of terrorist networks or criminal gangs as of Wikipedians or student protestors.
In the light of things, what are we going to do about the negative effects of freedom? It was once hard to have masses assemble and easy for existing groups to fall apart. Now assembling groups is simple, and the groups can be quite robust in the face of opposition from society. When it is hard to form groups, both good and bad groups are prevented from forming. When forming groups becomes simple, we get both the good and the bad ones. This is going to force society to shift from simply preventing groups from forming to actively deciding which existing ones to oppose.
I feel that everything is a bit exaggerated. Getting into the technical aspects of facebook, you can set your profile to private and in addition, you can check off an option that makes your facebook not searchable online. Like Google+, you can make your posts invisible to a group of people or individual person, you can set an option to review posts friends tag you in before they appear on facebook. Or you can create a facebook with a fake name or nickname. Because of these privacy settings that many people are putting their facebook under these days, according the the evergreen that i read today, employers are now starting to ask for people's facebook usernames and passwords so they can look into their profiles. There's heated debate over whether employers can do this or not but it goes to show that these privacy settings are working, employers can look into your profile if it's set to private, unless you become friends with one of them. Of course, it is YOUR responsibility to make these privacy changes, facebook just provides them for you.
ReplyDeleteThis article interestingly parallels with Shirky’s analysis for promoting views and it touches on the way social media may be affecting our current culture. However, this article takes on a completely different perspective than that of Shirky’s. This article intends to argue that social media networks, such as Facebook, have actually affected our young population, potentially in a positive manner. This is a different perspective and observation from the ones normally touched on by the media itself. The idea that Facebook is helping tame crazy college students from going wild during spring break is a foreign concept for many. It seems that more people are posting up inappropriate pictures. However it seems that those students who have had their crazy experiences and are heading out into the real world are starting to consider the affects of having inappropriate pictures online. As a result, they are choosing to “lay low” and avoid crazy party scenes, for the sake of keeping those images off line. My personal experience, as college student contradicts this NYT article. Studying in Barcelona for a semester and co-living with 4 “California” girls does little justice in supporting this article. The fact that their pictures were going up on Facebook did not hinder their actions, on the contrary they seemed to take excessive pictures for the sole purpose of posting them on Facebook for their friends at home to see. The social media is not changing the way I live my life in public, however I am not one who is known for partying so I really don’t have anything to hide on Facebook. I do agree that social media is changing our culture, and perhaps in some cases it is hindering young folks from going crazy during spring break. But I believe it is only a handful who actually act differently due to this factor.
ReplyDeleteI definitely have to agree that social media is changing the way we act, after all it IS about being social. The taming of spring breakers really comes as no surprise, especially since the line between our private and public lives on the net is so blurry. This extends Shirky's argument that the net is changing who publishes and how we react to current events.
ReplyDeleteRecently, I have cleaned up my Facebook page since I am looking for work. I don't necessarily act differently in public, but I do closely monitor what goes on my page. I definitely don't post any photos where myself or my friends may be viewed poorly, and my friends do the same. In my case it's a matter of trusting who I am with not to post questionable photos. Especially with the job market being so competitive, employers are looking at more ways to pick out who they will hire, including going through someone's Facebook page. It's sort of a new way to see someone's reputation, but with evidence.
I must agree that after many photos are taken a popular phrase is "don't tag me in that" or "don't post that," since jobs can more closely monitor their employees. I have a friend who was an R.A., and one night we had some margaritas with a few friends and she asked that we not even post it anywhere, though we were all of legal drinking age. She knew if it were even posted she could possibly get in trouble. It's almost as if we feel we're always being watched by someone on Facebook, and that someone could determine our future.
I definitely think that gradually over time we will see the way young people act in public change to being more reserved, since we are constantly made more aware that our every move could be posted to the Internet at any time. AND now I sound paranoid.
This Spring Break article is just adding to the capabilities of social media that Shirky explains. Shirky talks about how large the audience of social media has the capability to be. As the article and my blog mention, employers are looking at people’s social media sites. I don’t think that people’s half naked photos are only reaching their intended audience. But hey, luckily Facebook takes down reported and overly inappropriate photos… I wouldn’t rely on that though.
ReplyDeleteI can definitely relate to this article. When I was in high school, everyone was getting camera phones, everyone had a Myspace, and people were beginning to get Facebook accounts.
If you were an athlete, you signed an agreement at the beginning of the season that you wouldn’t consume alcohol or illegal substances. It was called the “athletic code”.
There were parties all the time and yes the athletes were going to them. People would take pictures and post them on social media sites without thinking of the consequences. People from the community would send anonymous envelopes of pictures they had printed from the internet. The pictures were of students, usually athletes, breaking the “athletic code” agreement. Those athletes had to miss games or seasons depending on how many infractions they had committed.
One party resulted in 18 varsity athlete suspensions. After that, students were way more careful. There was even a no camera policy at most of the parties. Social media can be pretty destructive to reputations.
I’m pretty careful about my social media sites. Yes, my mom is my Facebook friend and no, she isn’t restricted at all. I figure, if I wouldn’t show my mom this, then it doesn’t need to be on here. I think it’s a good thing. I’m not worried about an employer checking my social media sites. I read an article recently about how they can tell what kind of person you are by your “about me” section and statuses. I’d hope my fb wouldn’t be damaging. I may even be able to use it to my advantage!
What I believe a portion of the internet has become is what Shirky outlined in his chapter about ‘publish then filter.’ Texts used to require to be poured over and edited numerous times to become fit to print, which is the opposite of what some use most of the Internet web space for today. Just because we have the resources to globally connect social media doesn’t mean you have to post every little thing about yourself on the web. Most of this information never really goes away, even if you delete your account.
ReplyDeleteI believe that this sort of media can help and hurt people in many ways. A pro are global connections of a variety of ages, but acquisition of so much media at one time can make people paranoid. For example with the article above, spring break has reportedly calmed down due to the outreaching effect of social media. It’s called social media for a reason, another way to communicate with others. The social part should be conversing with others and meeting others rather than having the most pictures or putting up photos of what you do every day (unless you like seeing that all over Facebook then go ahead).
The second part of the amount of media that travels around the world is that it creates a paranoia or a low hum of worrying. I consider myself quite the worrier, sometimes even over little things, and when I see repeated news about something bad happening in other places, like natural disasters, I feel worried for the people there. Obviously I have nothing to change that and I also can’t change my worrying. Same might go for those spring breakers who don’t want their photos posted online; honestly it would probably be easier to just enjoy your time without pulling out a camera or phone to take a photo of everything you’re doing.
The aspect that social media is affecting a lot on how things are being done in our current society is helping out with results. Like the article on Spring break describes the way Facebook is used to spread the word on things going on during Spring break and informing people or friends where things will be happening. At these events people are camera crazy taking many photos both inappropriate and appropriate. People that post these pictures think they are okay photos to post up but when others view these photos, they see these people different because of their actions in photos. People need to using the privacy setting more often and get more familiar with them because there are a lot of family members of people that see these things and companies also look over Facebook before hiring.
ReplyDeleteMy experience with this is not a bad experience at all because I am familiar with the privacy settings but I don’t put anything inappropriate on Facebook anyways because I am actually not a big fan of Facebook. I just go on it to view group discussions so I have no personal experience really.
This article just reminds me of the novel "1984" in which the famous quote arose, "Big Brother is Watching". It is difficult to live the freedom that we are given as Americans because we must sensor our everyday actions in hopes that someone from the technological world will capture us at our worst.
ReplyDeleteIn relations to Shirky, this creates a total un-balance to the political atmosphere in America. There are either going to be people who are clean as can be and focus on morals or ethics, or there will be nation leaders that bring up controversy. Just think of the politician from New York who sent a picture of his (yoohoo) to a women. Not only did that picture end in his removal of his position, it also lost him the woman and made national news; that picture is also, you guessed it, still online for people to always view at their convenience.
Social Media is a part of our culture now, and we need to prepare ourselves for how we will handle this reality in the future. Perhaps our personal values and character will be a little bit more important in the future; thank you social media.