Social Media - A Weapon of Mass Destruction?

As the end of another unit approaches me, the end of a friendship, a relationship or even more seriously the end of a life happens every day and some of this can be caused by social media. 

Cyber bullying, hacking and cyber terrorism are all different tools to exert power over another person or group of people to create fear and self doubt through the use of social medias such as mobile phones and social media sites. This is happening too much with deaths related to cyber bullying on the rise. 

The FACTS about Cyber bullying

' Nearly 43% of kids have been bullied online' (Cyberbullying statistics, 2014).

Only 1 in 10 victims will report their abuse (Dosomething.org, 2013).

'Bullying victims are 2 to 9 times more likely to consider committing suicide.' (Dosomething.org, 2013).

Girls are more likely than boys to be victims of cyber bullying (Cyberbullying statistics, 2014).

The Generation F (Facebook) admit to checking Facebook several times a day, and inevitably stalking is bound to happen. Scary huh! This creates a mixture of emotions, when people see their friends hanging out and they were not invited or when a message on Facebook is 'seen' but there is no reply which makes people doubt their friendships and their self esteem decreases ultimately destroying relationships.

Teen Death caused from Cyber bullying - This story highlights the effects of cyber bullying which is quite provoking and alarming.

Along with cyber bullying, addiction to the cyber world is becoming more prominent in society.

68% of people admit to using social media more than 10 times a day and 45% of people admit that eating was one of the most popular times to view their social media sites and update statuses. An eye opening statistic for teachers shows that 37% of people are updating social networking sites rather than listening in the classroom. (PrLog, 2012).

It is evident from these findings that social media is taking a toll on the lives of people in society with it becoming like any bad habit such as smoking, drinking or drug abuse. However this issue is not looked at with stigma like these other bad habits that have been listed.

We have discussed cyber bullying and addiction in relation to social media being weapons of mass destruction, another issue we all face is the issue of E-Extremism. Extremist groups are now using social media as a tool to bring large audiences together to recruit people into their cause (Gerstendfeld, Grant & Chiang, 2003). An example of this is the Westboro Baptist Church who hate gay and lesbian people. Check out their site here. This is quite disturbing. Another example of this is organisations like the KKK and terrorist groups. 

So now the time has come for you to tell me what you think. Is social media a good thing or is it a weapon of mass destruction?

Signing out for now, KM!



References

Bullying Statistics (2014) Viewed 8^th February 2014 from http://www.bullyingstatistics.org/content/cyber-bullying-statistics.html

Dosomething.org (2013) 11 Facts about cyber bullying, viewed 7^th February 2014, from http://www.dosomething.org/tipsandtools/11-facts-about-cyber-bullying

Gerstendfeld. P., Grant, D., & Chiang. C (2003) Hate Online: A Content Analysis of Extremist

Internet Sites, Analyses of Social Issues & Public Policy, Vol 3 (1), p29-44.

Prlog,  (2012) Cyber bulling Statistcs, viewed 8^th February 2014 from http://www.prlog.org/11971493-statistics-show-real-social-media-addiction.html

Production + Usage = Produsage

Produsage is the concept of being both a user and producer of digital content (Bruns, 2007)

This new and profound concept is not actually new, and this idea was coined in the early 1970's by Alvin Toffler who prophesised a future where a consumer would also be a producer and a producer would be a consumer (Bruns, 2007). 

There are four characteristics of produsage.

These characteristics are explained in detail below.
Open Participation - One important feature of produsage is that contributors openly participate with each other to create the content which ensures the content goes under constant evaluations and developments (Bruns, 2008).

Fluid Heterarchy and Holoptism - Continuing on from open participation, we have fluid heterarchy and holoptism which allows an equal balance of participants which forms a cohesive discussion to help produsage sites function. There is no hierarchy but leaders are chosen based on merits which is only probationary in a sense (Bruns, 2007). 

Palimpsestic artifacts and granularity - In support of the previous two features, this characteristic identifies that content is often unfinished or in other words raw. There is constant need to improve upon this and requires a coordinated collaboration.  By having the feature of palimpsest, it allows users to repeatedly add to information already provided. The palimpsestic feature allows users of diverse backgrounds and areas to contribute (Bauwens, n.d). 

Common Property, Individual rewards - The last feature relates to participants receiving rewards and recognition of their input otherwise it will most likely halt the production of produsage sites. By making content common property, each contributor is able to receive rewards. Not normally monetary but it is something of merit (Bruns, 2007). 

Examples of Produsage sites include

Although produsage has its advantages of allowing diverse views from different cultures to be shared and providing an environment where people contribute, it also has its disadvantages which include questioning of the authenticity of the information divulged and even though people are connected, they lose a social/physical connection. 

According to Jenkins (2006) participatory culture views, advancements in technology allows new tools and avenues for collaboration and sharing ideas. As produsage is a cheap and effective way to share a message, it has become more significant in a growing number of peoples lives. Produsage can be done by anyone, anywhere at any time which invites other people to participate and shared common interests about certain information. Even businesses are honing in on this useful tool as a cheap and effective way to advertise.

Whilst produsage, is a very powerful and collective way of providing content, what will happen if this gets taken over by one or a few powerful entities, perhaps the government and is then controlled by them. What then for produsage? 

I leave you now with an excellent produsage parody.

Signing out for now, See you next week, KM!



References

Bauwens, Michael. "Peer to Peer and Human Happiness

Bruns, Axel (2007) Produsage: Towards a Broader Framework for User-Led Content 

Creation. In Proceedings Creativity & Cognition 6, Washington, DC.

Bruns, Axel (2008). Blogs, Wikipedia, Second Life, and Beyond. From Production to Produsage. Peter Lang. p. 21

Bruns, Axel (2008). "The Future Is User-Led: The Path towards Widespread Produsage". Fiber Cultural Journal 11. Retrieved 16 February 2013.

Jenkins, Henry (2006) Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide, New York University Press

Produsage Remix Engage - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcRTVk2ZC4Y viewed 5th February 2014