Social ME-dia- LJ3
The readings from the past couple of weeks have been interesting and informative. I had never before compared blogs and wikis as different ways to provide information and form communities. To me, wikis and blogs had been two completely separate spheres of the internet. I thought of wikis as information and blogs as personal. However, reading about how both can be used for similar purposes changed my perspective. I hadn't thought about using blogs in an informative manner, and I hadn't thought about the community surrounding wikis. When Byington (2011) included a table comparing wikis and blogs, it was unexpected. However, comparing wikis to blogs made me consider how they can be used to connect groups through collaborative information sharing and project work. I hadn't considered it, but it opened my eyes that I already use wikis as a community-forming platform. My friends and I have been working on a wiki for a story we plan to co-write, and building community around it and planning the project are exactly what Byington (2011) used to table to discuss.
I was already familiar with the numbers relating to social media versus traditional media use before these readings, but it hadn't crossed my mind how other countries use social media. Chapter six in our textbook made me think more about what sorts of people other countries follow on social media. Even though I know people in the United States look to celebrities and sports stars on social media, I hadn't considered the most popular social media accounts in other countries would be linked to football (soccer) players (Lipschultz 2021). This helps me be more mindful of what other people use social media for and how cultural differences influence how social media is used around the globe.
It's so interesting to read about social media sites from an academic, outsider point of view. Hearing about Twitter outside of memes and culture or reading a Wikipedia article that attempts to describe Tumblr while completely missing what makes Tumblr "Tumblr" is a surreal experience. I've known Tumblr from the internet perspective. The meme perspective. To me, Tumblr meant craziness and fandom. Fandom and weirdos. Porn and fetishes. In this way, Tumblr was immensely interesting, yet immensely off-putting, almost a cryptid of the internet. However, reading the Wikipedia article about it does not hold the same mysticism. Even its discussion of "Adult Content" is dry and factual. The section about the NSFW ban, described as "all images and videos depicting sex acts, and real-life images and videos depicting human genitalia or "female-presenting" nipples, would be banned from the service" lacks the vitality and sheer outrage over this ban. It feels trivial to Tumblr history when it was often touted as Tumblr's demise. Again, this is just incredibly surreal.
In the end, the greatest thing I've learned from these readings, especially "We Are Data", is to not care as much about what algorithms think of me or how my online activity defines me. I've began to care less if I am viewed as male or female, young or old, by something trying track me, store me, and sell to me. It only matters what the people I interact with think.
Hi Mikael,
ReplyDeleteThat was an extremely well-written post and was very interesting to read. The materials on blogs and wikis was very eye-opening to me as well and definitely helped me to see blogs in a new light. Your thoughts on Tumblr were also very interesting because I had never really used it before, although I do have friends that would occasionally share links to it. Recently I've found plenty of "craziness and fandom" exist on Deviant Art, which has been really cool to explore, and of course Reddit has a little bit of everything. Good luck on your story and community project!
Thanks! I'm all too familiar with the craziness that is DeviantArt. Imagine how nutty it was before the major site changes drove a lot of people away.
DeleteI too was clueless about blogs and wikis before attending this course. my thought of wikis were simply Wikipedia, and blogs as Reddit. I thought they were something unrelated to education at all which drew confusion in me when I seen that we had a whole module dedicated to the topic. After completing the module, I had a totally different view of the subject and will probably even use wikis a lot more in the upcoming future to organize things easier.
ReplyDeleteHi Mikael! I found it interesting that this reading helped you realize just how many countries use social media. I have lived in various countries over the years, so it comes to me as no surprise that people outside of my current scope (the United States), are often the most popular. Lipschultz (2020) states that "the exploratory efforts to measure social media behavior are important in identifying general strengths and weaknesses" (p.169). I feel that by trying to measure likes and followers of people this can lead us to make such conclusions, such as people we've never heard of or don't live in our country being the most "famous" online.
ReplyDeletehey michael, I was also blown away when I found out that wikis and blogs are used for similar reasons and are more similar than different. I have a good idea about the community surrounding wikis, if you are into gaming you will find lots of gaming communities surrounding one video game title.
ReplyDeleteHello Mikael,
ReplyDeleteI think you concluded your entry with a very wise piece of advice. There's not much point trying to control or stress over what the algorithms think we are, because at the end of the day, there's little we can do to change these perceptions. I think we should just focus on how we interact with actual humans on the Internet, and try our best to remain aware who, what, where, and when we find ourselves tracked.
The key word I took from your blog was perspective. I appreciate that you got an outsiders perspective of all sorts of aspects of social media. Gaining those insights about it beyond just as a consumer is important for people to learn about how social media works and how to use it. I think this is important because social media is only going to get bigger and impact our lives more.
ReplyDeleteI also think its great that your leveraging a wiki as collaborative tool to do something creative by writing a story with your friends. Would love to read it when it’s finished.