How has Social media Impacted our lives?

As a social breed, a vital part of our existance is to associate and interact with others around us; friendship is something we need. However it could be said that due to developments in recent years the word ‘Friend’ can have completely different connotations than what it did ten years before.
In terms of embracing the digital age it must be understood that a friend isn’t necessarily a specific person you hold with fondness or love, but it can be regarded as a statistic.As of April 2012 the average 18 – 24 year old has just over 510 friends.

Essentially what platforms such as facebook does, is offer this intense concept of mass social unification. Over 1.19 Billion of us are connected through this medium and being over a sixth of the population of the globe, that statistic is overwhelming. (Protalinski, E. 2013)

A way in which this communication has impacted societies all over the world is through the ‘Digital Footprint’ idiom, and a digital footprint is a device that someone can’t easily be rid of.Once an individual even interacts with the internet, let alone post a personal profile of themselve online, the activity is quite literally imprinted into it, and the more active someone is online, the bigger their ‘Online Presence’ and Digital Footprint, the easier is for them to be digitally taken advantage of. There are many ways in which this online existance can be exploited.

Through mass social interaction, it is now noted that through the expression of behaviour on personalised media platforms an individual can be tracked by various employers. According to a 2010 article which featured in the telegraph, 38 percent of jobseekers get “Knocked Back” once employers research into their profiles. (Author Unknown, 2010)

However it isn’t just the aspect of employability that social media has impacted. Through a digital footprint, even the authorities have certain facilities that specialise in monitoring criminal activity with known results.

In a similiar way used to tackle the 2011 riots, use of social media helped police in America proved vital in the capture of Melvin Colon, a new york ganster who posted images of himself making gang signs. Colon was apprehended after accepting a friend request of police who had created a fake profile. (Kelly, H. 2012)

Whereas detecting criminals and utilizing Social Media from an emplyability aspect. The use of Social Media has impacted social communities on a far more personal scale.
Due to the incredible ease of attaining information, there is a certainly a vulnerablilty of identity. Since the introduction of mass media websites there has always been an underlying threat of indenty theft, but not in sense we have grown to know as the process credit card fraud or money theft, but literal online impersonation.

Profile faking has been significant since the start of the use of Social Media platforms, and instances and stories of these occurances have been continuously increasing, It is estimated that 8.7% of 83 million users have fake profiles.
The majority of these are faked using information and images of other people who individuals deem more attractive than themselves in order to engage in online relationships.
These fakes have now been exploited in popular culture, as the increasingly popular MTV show ‘Catfish’centers around tracking these profiles and using other aspects of Social Media investigatively to root out the ‘Catfish’ who are faking identies.

Social Media has a direct effect most of us, to many it is a social addiction. Whether the attractive elements are reading into the lives of others, or the benefit of being a user in social media for the benefit of conversation. Evidence of social media being used as a tool suggests that social media is at it’s peak, and will continue to be relevent for years to come.

Sources:

Kelly, H. (2012) Police embrace social media as crime fighting tool, CNN News [Online] Available at: http://edition.cnn.com/2012/08/30/tech/social-media/fighting-crime-social-media/ Accessed November 26th 2013

Protalinksi, E. (2013) Facebook passes 1.19 billion monthly active users, 874 million mobile users and 728 million daily users. The Next Web [Online] available at: http://thenextweb.com/facebook/2013/10/30/facebook-passes-1-19-billion-monthly-active-users-874-million-mobile-users-728-million-daily-users/#!pCR66. Accessed November 26th, 2013.

Unknown Author. (2010) Half of employers ‘reject potential worker after look at Facebook page,’The Telegraph. [Online] Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/facebook/6968320/Half-of-employers-reject-potential-worker-after-look-at-Facebook-page.html. Accessed November 26th, 2013.

In which way does Social Media impact upon the way we vote?

Because of its prolification in the 21st century, Social Media has been utilized for a number of different uses because of its connectivity. Due to the overall potency of the medium, it has now been used from a political perspective to aid in the election process by a number of different political parties, in order to reach out the population of the digital age.

Dr Pamela Rutledge, director of the media psychology research centre, writes how the idea of political progression has changed within the advancements of social media; how it has changed from being almost a controlling political faculty to offering the control to the people, and how this change allows a far more democratic political response.

‘Social media creates a new politcal dialogue, it takes the power of political messaging away from mass media, and places it firmly into peer to peer discourse.’ (Rutledge, P. 2013)

Perhaps the most famous and successful examples of the use of online politcal campaign is that of Barack Obama’s in his 2008 and 2012 elections, but not only has it gathered fame due to its success but because he was the first presidential candidate to use Social Media in an effective way as part of a major campaign strategy.

Obama first developed his campaign in 2008 by employing a team that had had an understanding of the concept of networking, and in his 2012 campaign he spent a huge 47 million on furthing his presidential application digitally. Obamas links with mass media platforms are evident, as his website ‘Barackobama.com’ is run by Chris Hughes, who is one of the co founders of facebook. Hughes himself has described the website as a ‘Sort of social network.’ (Lewin, J. 2008)

In 2007 prior to Obamas campign, a link was created between a users account on the Barack Obama official website and Facebook, which allowed the user to share information via the mass media platform so that post sharing was quick, easy and widespread amoungst the active Facebook community.
On twitter in 2011 Obama had managed to attract the amount of followers on any other account on the site. He was also the thirs user to reach 10 million followers.

Due to the success of Obamas 2008 election, he began influencing other politicians to do the same. Including his opposing candidate Mitt Romney. Romney attempted to create a digital campaign realising the success of the 2008 Campaign, however it fell inferior to Obamas, after only 4.7 was spent on it.
Due to the results that utilizing Social Media brings it has become a mandatory aspect of the politcal process. As Dr rutledge mentions that Social media is ‘No longer an exciting new frontier’ for politcal campaigning, and that ‘Social media is a now a normal, and central form of communication.’ (Rutledge, P. 2013)

This evidence demonstrates that although initially the use of Social Networking proved key in polical voting campaigns, the relevence of it has demonstrated that it now is simply an expected aspect of a strong campaign, and it has become a necessity in the modern politcal campaign.

Sources:

Lewin, J. 2008. Is social media behind Obama’s Success? New Media update. [Online] Available at: http://www.podcastingnews.com/content/2008/06/is-social-media-behind-barack-obamas-success/ Accessed November 29th, 2013.

Rutledge, P. 2013. How Obama Won the Social Media Battle in the 2012 Presidential Campaign. The media psychology blog. [online] Available at: http://mprcenter.org/blog/2013/01/25/how-obama-won-the-social-media-battle-in-the-2012-presidential-campaign/ Accessed: November 29th, 2013.

What effect does social media have on political protests around the world?

Upon its creation, the concept of the method of interactivity that is Social Networking would perhaps be thought of as a method of communication purely on the grounds of social interaction.
In many cases this was the original intention.

Facebook, for example was created by Mark Zuchaberg as a way for students attending Havard University to maintain contact with each other on a purely social level. However, The progression of Social Media over the years has demonstrated that it has a far bigger role to play than to simply update personal status’ and broadcast what it is you’re having for dinner.
I look at the snowball effect that has emerged in the form of ‘Social Media Activism.’

Since November 2013 there are a measured 1.19 Billion users. (Protalisnki, E. 2013) The concept of ‘Sharing’ allows users (who on average are 18 – 24 year olds) to pass on a piece of information to an average 510 people or ‘friends’ in one click. This level of connectivity naturually allows news to spread very quickly.
In terms of activism this concept can be utilized to promote an ideology with incredible ease and not only to present ideas but also to attract a following.

Once a user has an account on a Mass Social Media platform, facebook in particular, the intital sign-up to the website be giving few personal details is the only form that needs to filled.
In terms of social activism the simplicity is used to an advantage. After this joining process a user is immediatly part of an inter-social community, where constant updates are recieved and current progress of the active group which is devoted to furthering the particular cause is recorded and sent straight to the user.

After this phase of information dispersion is made, it is followed by in many cases the organisation of an actual political protest which is driven by that specific social community.
An example of this is the events that inspired the 2011 England riots.

On the 4th of August in that year Mark Duggan was shot by a Metropolitan police subdivision called ‘Operation Trident’ which was a division primarily used to tackle gun crime in black communities throughout London. (Barkam, P. Henley J. 2011) It is this shooting which was regarded by many as the unlawful catalyst which caused the riots, due to to the furious publication on social networking platforms.
Young people all of the United Kingdom utilized the platforms not only to discuss the events and rally together but to even organise and to share strategies of protests. The connectivity of Blackberry messenger is known to have been used as a tool to execute meetings and mass lootings at particular times.

As the relevence of social media in this particular context increases, so does the vigilence of Authorities of the Government, Megan Boler regarded the Platforms as “Ubiquitous Technology.” (Yelaja, P. 2011) It was this communication on blackberry messenger that allowed police to intercept certain messages and tackle the rioters head on.

The nature of events such as the 2011 England riots demonstrates the truth of the matter – That as the relevence of of social media and the increase of its popularity of use as a tool corresponds directly to the rate in which internet Social-Politcal protest will increase in both speed and size.

Sources:

Barkham, P. Henley, J. (2011) Mark Duggan: Profile of Tottenham police shooting victim. The guardian [Online] available at: http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2011/aug/08/mark-duggan-profile-tottenham-shooting. Accessed on November 21, 2013.

Protalinksi, E. (2013) Facebook passes 1.19 billion monthly active users, 874 million mobile users, and 728 million daily users. The Next Web [Online] available at: http://thenextweb.com/facebook/2013/10/30/facebook-passes-1-19-billion-monthly-active-users-874-million-mobile-users-728-million-daily-users/#!pCR66. Accessed November 26th, 2013.

Yelaja, P. (2011) UK riots reveal Social Media Double Standards. CBC News. [Online] available at:http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/u-k-riots-reveal-social-media-double-standard-1.977131. Accessed November 26th, 2013.