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Online shopping, more than just  cheap..

Walk through my local mall on a weekday, in outer suburban Sydney, and you’d think it had closed. Foot traffic is down but most alarming, is the ack of ‘buzz’ — the sound of people, trolleys, registers and money changing hands. In 2019 and Australia’s low-interest rate, low unemployment economy, people are keeping their wallets closed.

Where are the people?

The death of retail has been imminent since online shopping became the norm.  Niche stores would be swept aside by the internet’s low overheads and convenience, but I see something different.  At my local mall, it’s the fruit shops, cafes and food outlets that are closing. Businesses that depend on other businesses to bring customers to them.  That tells me traffic through the entire centre is down.

Why’s this matter?

In the suburbs, malls are more than just shopping. People meet for food and coffee and bump into each other for a chat. They’re today’s town square, a shared space for communities. They’re a place for first jobs, where people new or returning to the workforce would pack groceries or stock shelves.  

People build new homes with access to shops, so they anchor residential investment. Their performance drives property sector investment returns.  Sydney is an urban sprawl of 50km in every direction, take shopping centres out of that picture, and you destabilise 4 million people.

Online shopping - is there an upside?

Sure there’s an upside.   Retail stores weight inventories toward the middle and there’s an advantage in broader selection. Outliers on the tall or short side, people wanting unusual fashion or even items outside the season, are best served online.  And there’s always the cost factor.  A friend at the gym says online shopping is the key to her finding time for work, study, kids and exercise, and never paying full price for clothes and shoes again! That’s hard for time and cash poor customers to go past.

Pros and Cons

Pros  

Greater selection

Time savings

Cost savings

Cons

Disappearing social spaces

Disappearing entry-level retail jobs

Property sector impacts

What would the disappearance of local retail stores mean to you and your community?

#onlineshopping #online clothes shopping #online shopping sydney #online shopping australia #retail #retail shopping #mall #disruption #business trends #competition #social trends #employment #money saving tips

[ljt245]

What's a side hustle, and why do you need it?

Money. Who's got it?  Who wants it?  Even if we have it, we always seem to need more.  Side hustles. They're a chance to use the skills and knowledge you have, and it's never been easier to put them to work than in the digital age.

Skills

The new millennium tells us to expect seven careers in a lifetime, that's a lot of skill and knowledge and a resource worth mining.  Did a communications subject at college? You've got internet content knowledge.  Started out temping? You've got phone and customer skills.  Maybe you moved on to an engineering firm? You've got product and project skills.  Today, outsourcing is an essential part of business, and it will give you a market somewhere.

Dropshipping

Manufacturers making a great product don't necessarily want the overheads of a marketing and customer service department.  If you've got excellent communication skills, a digital presence and a website, you can fill the gap for them, and charge for it. It's a simple premise, partner with the manufacture and sell their product on your website.  Buyers pay retail  to you, you pay wholesale to the maker, and they ship the project to the customer.  Sites like Salehoo.com can put you in touch with legitimate manufacturers.

Brand affiliation

Generate traffic on the internet?  You can make money out of that!  Five hundred followers on your blog, Instagram or Facebook account qualifies you for amazon.com affiliation.  Brand affiliation lets people use their online presence to drive product leads.   Post product links on your site and receives a commission for every sale the seller makes.

Content writing

If you love to write, there are people interested in you.  The internet runs on words, site content, search engine optimisation, blog entries, ghostwriting.  Sites like upwork.com act as the middle man putting you in touch with paying customers needing original words for their website.

Side hustles.  If you've got a few hours each week, and a digital presence, you've got a way to make some money at home.  You might not get rich, but you will put the skills and knowledge you have to good use.  Why not take 5 minutes and think about your side hustle?  Who knows where it will take you!

#side hustle #workathome #work from home #make money #social media marketing #ideas to make money

[ljt245]

T420S

My current laptop is a beat up old Lenovo.  I’m guessing it’s about 5 years old.  I bought it 2nd hand off ebay, an office machine probably bought in bulk and onsold but it’s got great specs and an excellent keyboard.  It’s an i5 and gets about 2-3hrs battery life.  My old macbook pro had died while I was studying, after almost 10 years.  I was getting so sick of spending money even though I would have loved a cool macbook air like students use in my head.  Anyway, this is what I’ve ended up with and it’s serving me well.

#laptop lenovo t420s

[ljt245]

Oh hello

Made a great find with the band, the 'oh hellos'. A brother and sister combo with a cast of what seems like hundreds playing alongside. A mix of folk, Gaelic and hipster country. See for yourself...

#greatband #ohhellos

[ljt245]

Hello Sunday Morning

A plug for this community, helping those wanting to moderate / give up alcohol.  I’m on there do the moderation thing and actually getting some benefit from it - coming to terms with drinking in my life, and putting it back in its place.  

https://www.hellosundaymorning.org

#alcohol #moderation #digital community

[ljt245]

A review of AC Newman’s ‘Shut down the streets’, or, portrait of the artist getting older.  There’s some insight here, into how a love of music changes as time marches on.  Worth a read.

‘I’m not talking’ from Shut Down the Streets (live version)

#new pornographers #ac newman #music #music review #shut down the streets #popmatters

[ljt245]

College football comes to Sydney

College football came to Sydney last weekend.  The Californian Golden Bears playing the Hawaii Rainbow Warriors at ANZ stadium on 27 August 2016. They had a decent crowd on hand - over 60000, the stadium about 3/4 full.  I've got to hand it to America, they do sporting entertainment right.  A hundred on field performers, band, music, audience cams in the breaks.  This is their college competition - we could learn a few lessons I think. NRL I'm looking at you...

Opening entertainment

Half time footage

I had a fair idea of the game.  4 downs to get 10 yards and relied on my son for the finer points.  I enjoyed it and will watch more NFL.  Jarrad Hayne, former Parramatta eel now Gold Coast Titan raised the profile of the game in Oz when he played a few games for San Francisco last season, and, lets face it, it's a great game.  Fast, slick, built from 1 on 1 match ups within a structured team contest.  

A beginners guide to American Football

My son - 'O' took a shoulder injury in league this year and will take our gridiron season off to recover.  What I realise, and what he doesn't is that he's at the age where off field distractions slowly reduce commitment to sport.  Girls, work, cars, friends, all start to take precedence over sport, school, family life.  That's growing up I guess, and, everyone goes through it.

Field of dreams re sport, and fathers, and sons

I secretly liked driving O all over Sydney for gridiron last summer.  It gave us an excuse to be together and interact through sport - neutral territory in the often difficult land of teenager/parent relations.  Anyway, I guess we can still watch from the stands.

#college football #sydney cup #sydney #sport #gridiron #fathers and sons #growing up #anz stadium #homebush

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Ben Folds and Ymusic, Opera House, 20/8/16

Folds has provided a large part of the soundtrack to my life from my late teens to my mid forties.  I love the energy he puts through a piano, lyrics about growing up and relationships.  Bacharchian horns, the experiments with orchestral, a Capella and now Ymusic's adventurous, crossover sextet.  This was a chance to see him at the opera house again.  Perfect seats, middle of house, eye level about twenty rows back.  A multi stop international tour, with an upright piano between him and the audience with the sextet in a semi circle at front of stage.  He played almost all of the new album, 'So There' as well as the hits and favs from his long career.  A decent selection from the Folds Five catalogue as well, some of them really stood out - 'Stephen's last night on earth', 'last polka', 'boxing's been good to me'.  Ymusic were impressive, a multi instrumentalists sextet of strings, horns, clarinet flute and voice.  Classical with energy!  I particularly liked the flautist's vocal parts complete with Brooklyn accent.  

Stephen’s last night in town - Ben Folds and Ymusic...

The opera house is always great.  The main concert hall really is an iconic place to see a band, it's formality keeping people seated but not reserved.  People get dressed up a little to be there, there's a sense of occasion and the time spent at the quay before and after is always fine for people watching.  We saw him about 5 years ago and despite a full orchestra then I felt it was more about Ben than it was here.  This time around Ymusic were equal collaborators, maybe even more so - a Ben Folds six perhaps.  Folds fantastic again, so there.

Setlist...

#ben folds #concert #opera house #sydney #ymusic #music #concert review

[ljt245]

The joys of b-grade television

Looking for something to watch on Australia's fledgling streaming TV I came across the last ship on Stan.  After a rocky start, and mild panic seeing Michael Bay's name in the credits, somewhere in the first season I found I was really enjoying it.  A solid square jawed lead in Eric Dane, playing off against Rona Mitra's desperate, dignified doctor on the ‘Nathan James’ - a naval vessel sailing back to a broken world.  Generous helpings of US of A types and recognisable plot pacing makes for a fun 'crisis of the week' show.

This is B grade TV.  The home of Trek, Stargate and Law and Order.  Where the limitations of budget, effects and deadline constrain story, casting and location.  It is quite different from first class offerings such as House of cards and Game of Thrones, massive undertakings accessing movie actors, massive budgets and adopting non traditional tropes, arcs and pacing.

I don’t say B grade as a criticism either.  More an irreverent tribute to television that's comfortable, easily consumed and done well.  The stuff you look forward to when you want to switch off and relax.  I'd put some of my fav shows in the category - Life, Friday night lights, Frasier, I’m happy to add The Last Ship to that list!  

#the last ship #television #comfortable #easy viewing

[ljt245]

Back to blog

My earlier posts here come from a media elective I took, that required weekly posts on readings and the work of others.  A sort of 400 word reflection on what I was thinking about at the time.  Now, my studies are done but I find I’m missing the mental activity involved in writing, particularly, the reflective writing.  So, why not write again?

Here’s a promise, to myself and the possible reader.  To regularly write about my day to day, the media I’m interested in, my ideas and the ideas of others. If it sounds done to death that’s ok - because it’s for me that I’m doing this - focus, agency, identity and all that good stuff :).  The world’s full of personal blogs, I’ll add mine to the list.  

‘a promise, to myself and the possible reader.  To regularly write...’

What I’m listening to...

A nice cover of Aphex Twin’s ‘Avril 14th’.

#blogger #day to day life #personal story #positive #promise

[ljt245]

Global Social Media: China

Supplement blog post for week 11, activity 1.

“What have you learnt about social media in China? Any surprises?Do you agree/disagree with Chiu, Lin and Silverman's (2013, p. 1) claim that 'Social media is exploding worldwide, and China is leading the way”.

China really lends itself to an examination of social media being comparatively new to the digital landscape and the freedoms afforded by them.  I was lucky enough to travel to Beijing and Shanghai last year and found it a fascinating experience.  I admit to taking a West-centric view with me.  I went over judging them by our Australian standards of freedom and behaviour and was outraged by the need to use a VPN to message back home and the government censorship on cable news reporting.  

What I found was a people absorbing capitalist ideas into a very old and stable plural society.  Everyone had a phone, everyone had a vpn to go outside China, though rarely felt the need.  Everyone was focused on how to get better educated or how to turn a dollar.  Freedom and obligation were being ingrained in their society and I think only China, with it’s Taoist notions of flow and harmony could manage such a dichotomy.

China, old and new (Turner 2014, 2 December).

WeChat was the most prevalent social media network at that time.  Similar to our WhatsApp it was available on every platform and was used by cab drivers, doorman, business leaders – it was everywhere.  It’s success was built on a flood of handheld devices (DLDconference 2013).  Cheap networked phones that used a visual interface to bridge the country’s rural, city and education divides to bring the majority together.  

The American in the DLD Conference video (2013) really typifies the tension in a western understanding of the Chinese reality.  He manages to tease about censorship, copyright infringement, competition and jokes about ‘them’ and ‘Chinese food’ and the need for vpn in quite cringeful ways.  But when he mentions that China is a digital people being led by an analogue government he’s getting close to the truth.  This is a curious people at an open door, respectful of western cultures in as much as being eagre to absorb it’s best parts – innovation and collaboration – and taking their government along for the ride.

How Social Media is changing China and Asia (DLDconference 2013).

Western social media must stop assuming the Chinese want to come to them and start thinking about how they should come to the Chinese, if it’s not already too late.

References.

DLDconference 2013, DLD13 - How Social Media is changing China and Asia, 7 February, viewed 24 September 2015, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rG3z2ucaR6A>.

#MDA20009

[ljt245]

Week 10 response

Hi Luke, I still don't seem to be able to re-blog your entries so I will comment here.

Great Blog.

The mention of online gaming as a gateway to gambling is quite accurate. A pre-Farmville MMORPG with very similar development structure in game to Farmville, however including combat, allowed players to spend big to enhance in a bid to become more powerful than everyone else, the trap is, everyone buys, no one is more powerful for long and everything that has been bought can be lost to a superior player. So while the game siphoned money it also made it pretty clear that you would be better of gambling because there was an actual chance (as miniscule as it is) that you would win rather than pay and have everything taken from you.

Aside from this aspect, Evony epitomises every undesirable aspect of online gaming, paid accounts, bots, anonymity, and with it a worldwide chat pretty much full of abuse of every conceivable sort, and, live time play so players can be attacked and wiped out while they are offline.

Cheers,

Cameron

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Hi cameonmda20009,

You have made the argument well, that behaviours to counter the negatives of online spaces can and should be taught – mark me down as converted.  I think it’s the only way to keep people safe and retain the fundamental freedom of online spaces.  I also agree that the gaming community has been navigating dilemmas that other online communities are now experiencing for years, but have been largely discounted. Populated by young, tech savvy users I wonder if their experiences will naturally inform the maintenance of online communities as they grow up, get educated and take up positions that allow them to influence such spaces.  

Thanks for the read!

,    �Trנ�e

Week 10: Social gaming: playing the crowd

I play online games, mostly ddo (Dungeons & Dragons Online) although my connection speed makes it a painful experience on occasion.

I have also introduced the kids to a collaborative online came called Arcane Legends to try and get them used to the concept of working together instead of alone, so far so good, although they still prefer Minecraft (which is fine, it is a good platform for demonstrating expression through construction). They also think it is funny to say that their dad kicks ass on Lego Play Station games that I play with them.

One of the things that they are developing through their guided journey in a MMORPG with my assistance, is when to spot trolling and time wasters, and who to respond to and who to ignore. If anyone contacts the littlest one (who is 7) she gives me the ipad to read the comment and I decide if it needs blocking etc, and I explain what and why I have decided to either allow communication or block it. I hope that this is helping them to develop their own sense of how to navigate an online environment.

Humphries and de Zwart cite an argument of Pargman and Jakobsson (2014 p. 5) where gamers move between frames while communicating, from an individual player, to an embodied person (that has physical needs) to being ‘in character’ as a role playing toon or avatar. This is the case, however, the individuals doing so are not born knowing how to socialise through these scenarios, they are socialised into an online gaming paradigm, through learning and experience, different and separate from face to face physical reality.

This is an argument that I have made pretty much the entire unit duration (sorry if I am boring my public!), that socialisation, dealing with trolls and bullies online, crowdsourcing information and participation in providing data are learned social activities that require guidance and experience to navigate, not government regulation or protection. 

A reinforcing point that seems to be lacking in discourse surrounding other online behaviour is the identification of the fact that individuals bring their own ethnocentric ideals and behaviour to the games and online interaction as well as “their cultural background, their education levels, their gender, their age and their own individual moral compass.” (de Zwart & Humphries 2014, p. 17).

Here is an interesting twist on RPG that has, I believe, just been released.

Online games provide a brilliant resource for other online fields to study established communities that have already experienced the problems that mainstream networked communities are only just starting to experience. Funnily though, up until recently gamers were ignored or thought of as aberrant due to their commitment to the gaming worlds.

References de Zwart, M & Humphreys, S 2014,’ The Lawless Frontier of Deep Space: Code as Law in EVE Online’, Cultural Studies Review, vol. 20, no. 1, pp. 77-99.

Suzor, N & Woodford, D 2013, ‘Evaluating consent and legitimacy amongst shifting community norms: An EVE Online case study’, Journal of Virtual Worlds Research, vol. 6, no. 3, pp. 1-14.

#mda20009

[ljt245]

Hi Aleksnajd, 

Thanks for the insight into gaming culture.  I happen to be playing through Halo 5 at the moment and have followed the Halo series all the way through.  It’s about the only game I’m interested as it suits the amount of time I have available to play games in a sitting, say 15-30minutes at a time.  I used your list of reasons to confront why I play it and have decided that for me, it’s escapism, a good story with the element of interaction providing a extra level of immersion.  This and the last instalment have really lifted their game story wise and the technology is at a level where the production values are as good as an animated movie.  

Thanks for the read!

Week 10: Social gaming: playing the crowd

Social gaming today is more than just a game. It is a reality with endless possibilities customization and connection to real people in real time.   Entertainment has always been a major attraction for individuals of all ages. Social gaming is another very popular form of entertainment.

MMORPG:

MMORPG is an abbreviation for Mass Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game where thousands of people play together in an ongoing online world. With the games, a player would start at a low level and then would progress until the player had reached the maximum level.   Players gain new expertise, better gear, skills and excellent access areas in the game that often would require a group of people to help raid to complete (Computer Hope, 2015).

World of Warcraft has over 12 million subscribers, this is because of its social capabilities. So instead of fighting monsters or leveling up a character by yourself, you get to do it with thousands of people and interact with them in many different ways with personal emails to public chats across the whole wide world. World of Warcraft allows you to live in a veritable second life, where boys can pretend to be girls and girls can pretend to be boys. You can make enemies and friends, form relationships and even take a different persona (Jason Schreier, 2011).

In Halo, players take on a first person perspective of a highly equipped super soldier. The series centers on an interstellar war between humanity and a theocratic alliance of the aliens known as the Covenant. The Covenant is led by their religious leaders that are called the Prophets, worship an ancient civilization known as the Forerunners, who perished in combat with the parasitic Flood. The main focus on this franchise is the person who plays Mater Chief John-117, one of a group of super soldiers condemned Spartans, and his artificial intelligence (AI) companion named Cortana (Wikipedia, 2015). Players can play either single player or the multiplayer.

Video Gaming Culture:

People mainly engage with playing video games because it is their medium of entertainment. Many gamers are happy by a storyline or the multiplayer that engages gamer’s emotional and mental buttons, perhaps it is the shooting and eliminating opponents that then attracts and holds the attention to gamers. Gaming nowadays has become a thing we do and a way of life.

Video gaming culture is a way of relating to the world in either an ideal way that some escape the disappointments and responsibilities of real life. It is possible that video games have effects on people but many participants feel like they do not care and continue playing (Addiction blog, 2011).

Examples, why do people play video games:

1. To have Challenges.

2. Entertainment and have fun.

3. Escapism! With video games, people can escape the real world and become anything we want to be.

4. Practice or learn life skills. To create content, make new friends, make hard choices and feel empathy.

5. Stress relief.

6. Difficulties are making friends IRL (In real life).

7. It helps players manage their moods.

References:

Addiction Blog, April 18th, 2011, why people play video games: Top 10 reasons. [Weblog]. Retrieved 26 December 2015, from http://internet.addictionblog.org/why-people-play-video-games-top-10-reasons

Wikipedia, 2015, Halo (series), Retrieved 26 December, 2015, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halo_(series)

Computer Hope, 2015, MMORPG, Retrieved 26th December 2015, from http://www.computerhope.com/jargon/m/mmorpg.htm

Jason Schreier, February 16th 2011, 5 Top Social Games and Why They’re So Successful. [Weblog]. Retrieved 26 December 2015, from http://mashable.com/2011/02/15/top-social-games/

World of Warcraft: http://us.blizzard.com/static/_images/games/wrath/wallpapers/wall1/wall1-1600x1200.jpg

Halo: https://cdn3.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/_g8Ezg1DbGIskFhf7S0vWKw4kP0=/0x0:1920x1080/1600x900/cdn0.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/46549364/h5-guardians-fp-warzone-arc-blast-zone-3dba1a9341134af9ba98b11d15d2e9e7.0.0.jpg

Keep calm and play video games: https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/6e/14/d4/6e14d4d8c99a4c998838d1e0ffb45045.jpg

#mda20009

[ljt245]

Week 10 -  Social Gaming

Blog post 8

Gaming communities are diverse forms of sociality where individuals interact with each other in and around games (Swinburne Online 2015).   With smartphones and app platforms, social gaming leverages access to popular social platforms such as Facebook, recruiting users through friends lists (Lenhart 2015).  Populating these platforms with viral content effects membership and creates profits for developers.  At the other end of the spectrum are Massive Multiplayer Online Games (MMOG’s) such as world of Warcraft and Destiny where players pay for software to access a gaming space shared with other individuals, creating a unique and interactive experience very different from the solo ‘on rails’ campaigns.  

Starting young – ‘Kids playing candy crush’ (Caceres, R 2015).

I’ve never been an online gamer.  I get little satisfaction from playing the everpresent kids online (not bitter)!  Hsu & Lu (2014, pp. 854-858) however, say the take-up of online gaming comes from an individuals social norms, the degree of technological critical mass present and the individuals desire to achieve a flow state, derived from an immersive world that overcomes the senses to both entertain and occupy.   I recognise this ‘flow state’ from my preference for solo gaming adventures.  Give me complex interactive stories that take me outside of the rules of my own life any day (Perreault 2014)!  

World of Warcraft Fail (Epicfail 2009).

Like other online spaces, there are anxieties.  Social games such as Farmville and Candy Crush have been accused of putting minors on these platforms at risk. The psychological factors of completion, competition and engagement enrol players before progress is ransomed for payment as the game goes on.  The compulsiveness involved, the weighing of outcomes and fund creep acting as gateways to gambling (Gardner 2014).  EVE online’s controversies demonstrate privacy and safety concerns as well, with players real life identities leaked, developers interventions failing to comprehend the dynamic social norms of the gaming space (de Zwart and Humphreys 2014, p. 86).

Gambling starts with games (Salter 2013).

The interests of users, developers and legislators mediate these spaces.  Thus, acceptable behaviour and governance is subject to real life law, the social norms of the user community, rules expressed through the spaces’ architecture and market forces (de Zwart and Humphreys 2014, p. 79).   While convenient, the idea that such negotiated spaces can be regulated by a terms and conditions document rarely read and easily avoided is as fallacious as the idea of users governing themselves.  Real governance requires that developers and legislators recognise the differences between each space and gain consent from the user base on what is acceptable according to accepted norms (Suzor and Woodford 2013, p. 11).  This is an ongoing and difficult process but by sourcing governance from cultural constructs, promises a real chance at creating democratic digital communities.

References.

Caceres, R 2015, Kids playing candy crush, 10 May, viewed 13 January 2016, < https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJrcScRTVyk>.

de Zwart, M & Humphreys, S 2014,' The Lawless Frontier of Deep Space: Code as Law in EVE Online', Cultural Studies Review, vol. 20, no. 1, pp. 77-99.

Epicfail 2009, World of Warcraft Fail, 7 April, viewed 13 January 2016, < http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x9rquv_world-of-warcraft-fail_fun>.

Gardner, J 2014, Could Candy Crush Saga be a gateway to gambling?, SMH, viewed 13 January 2016, <http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/games/could-candy-crush-saga-be-a-gateway-to-gambling-20140424-zqyj7.html>.

Hsu, C & Lu, H 2004, ‘Why do people play on line games?  An extended TAM with social influences and flow experience’, Information Management, vol. 41, no. 7, pp. 853-868.

Lenhart, A 2015, Teens, Social Media & Technology Overview 2015, Pew Research Centre, viewed 13 January 2016, <http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/04/09/teens-social-media-technology-2015/>.

Perrault, G 2014, Why do we love video games?, Huffington Post, viewed 13 January 2016, <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/greg-perreault/why-do-we-love-video-game_b_4740425.html?ir=Australia>.

Salter, B 2013, Gambling starts with games [Image], MMGN, viewed 13 January 2016, < http://mmgn.com/ps4/news--gambling-starts-with-games-sa-government-warn>.

Suzor, N & Woodford, D 2013, 'Evaluating consent and legitimacy amongst shifting community norms: An EVE Online case study', Journal of Virtual Worlds Research, vol. 6, no. 3, pp. 1-14.

Swinburne Online 2015, ‘Week 10: Social Gaming: Playing the Crowd’, MDA20009 Digital Communities, Learning materials on Blackboard, Swinburne University of Technology, viewed 10 January 2016.

#mda20009

[ljt245]

Hi dig-comms-life,

Great blog - it made me reconsider some of my favourite youtubers and how they use videos of affinity to do the work of maintaining and creating connection.  

Snapchat though - I just can’t take to it and a bbq survey of my 40 something friends says I’m not alone.  For me I just hate the idea of putting a phone camera between me and real life to participate in online interaction, it feels like the prioritisation of the virtual over the offline.  But I wonder If google glass had taken, how I’d feel using a less intrusive conduit?  Perhaps it would feel more natural.  It seem second nature to my kids and I wonder if it’s one of those generational differences I’m finding more and more while studying this subject.  

Thanks for the read!

Week Nine years

Research on computer-mediated communication has commonly pushed forward a binary, black-and-white ‘real life’ vs ‘online’ discourse (Lange 2009, p. 72). The positive effects of the creation, uploading, and sharing of a YouTube video has been buried amongst the notion that online communication is supposedly lacking in a way that face-to-face communication is not.

This week hones in on the concept of ‘networked visuality’; the way that as a network, we communicate visually: through snapshots and images. The rise of social media platform Snapchat has made networked visuality a common thread linking our communicative practices.

One of Snapchat’s key affordances is its ephemerality - the fact that the image we send through a snap lasts for up to ten seconds (Herrman 2014). There is no way for recipients to comment on a Snap, or ‘like’ it. This is a key feature of networked visuality - instead of the selfie or video being a piece of media that people communicate ‘around’, they are solely communicating <i>through</i> the Snapchat video or selfie.

If you had told me about this form of communication a few years ago, as a teenager, I’d have likely laughed and imagined that you had gleaned the concept of Snapchat through a movie or a TV show. But our current reality is one rife with imaging communities; communities where people create content of the visual, aural and haptic variety, in order to communicate directly to people.

Whether this method of communication pales in comparison to offline communication is an opinion that has been explored ad nauseam. This week served to move beyond this discourse, and onto an exploration of the kinds of ways digital imaging serves to draw audience members and content creators together.

In this week’s first reading, Lange discusses 'videos of affinity’ on YouTube. She deems these videos as the types that are made in an attempt to establish a connection with people (Lange 2009, p. 71). They can be 'amateur’ type video blogs, complete with a shaky handheld video camera; yet they can also be professionally made and dispersed to a large audience (Lange 2009, p. 71).

As I was poring through Lange’s reading, I immediately thought of popular Australian YouTube makeup blogger Lauren Curtis. Curtis’ YouTube channel boasts over three million subscribers (Lauren Curtis 2015), and I happen to be one of them!

Curtis’ videos are largely 'professional seeming’ in nature. The lighting is normally close to perfect, there is often a soundtrack or voice over accompanying the video, and Curtis’ camera is trained directly in front of her. She does however, often film and upload videos of affinity. They’re usually titled 'Follow me Around’. Her most recent video of this type, uploaded in December, is called 'Follow Me Around: NEW MAKEUP STORAGE, SEEING OPRAH, ROAD RAGE!’ (Follow Me Around 2014).

The title of the video, 'Follow Me Around’, immediately brings to mind the idea of following Curtis around as she goes about her day. This arguably helps to make audience members feel as though when watching the video, that they are placed in the role of 'Lauren’s friend’, following her around and having a casual chat as friends would.

The video begins with grainy footage of Curtis, makeup free, freshly awoken. She mentions that it had been a while since she had done a video of this nature, and that it was 'well overdue.’ Evidently, Curtis perhaps figured that to retain and form new connections with her followers and potential audience members, it was important to film a video of affinity, to perhaps remind audiences that despite her increasing fame, she is still a real person who isn’t in makeup all day, every day

.

Curtis even references a pimple on her chin, which further serves as an attempt to engage her viewers. Curtis makes a living creating makeup tutorials for her audience members; many of which perhaps want to wear makeup to help them feel better about themselves. By showing her audience that her face isn’t flaw-free, Curtis affiliates’ herself with her audience, assuring them that she is just like them.

Curtis also reorganises her mounds of makeup products during her video. This is an act that is a bit of an inside joke for a large amount of her audience, as she often complains about the extensive amount of makeup she owns and how difficult it is to sift through it all.

Like many videos of affinity, this act also ensures that Curtis’ video lies in the intercies of her other work (Lange 2009, p. 71) - viewers may be amused by the video, but they will also be reminded of who Curtis is, and the makeup tutorials on YouTube that have made her so successful.

Whether the creator of a video of affinity is a well known YouTube celebrity, or a relatively anonymous person whose video receives five views, one fact remains clear: connecting and communicating with people in potentially meaningful ways is no longer relegated to the 'offline world’. Images, whether still or moving, are now used as immediate tools in the act of communication.

We don’t just post an image on Facebook and wait for people to comment on it, we communicate directly to our best friends or YouTube subscribers by looking straight through a lens and speaking to them, as if we would in person. There’s something a little intriguing about that, isn’t there?

REFERENCES

Follow Me Around 2015, Lauren Curtis, December 7, viewed 29 December 2015, http://youtu.be/IMUHgjlbJmA.

Herrman, J 2014, 'Meet the Man who got inside Snapchat’s Head’, Buzzfeed, Jan 28, viewed 29 December 2014, http://www.buzzfeed.com/jwherrman/meet-the-unlikely-academic-behind-snapchats-new-pitch#.wkJqPKPxla.

Lange, P G. 2009, 'Videos of Affinity on YouTube’, The YouTube Reader, National Library of Sweden, Stockholm.

Swinburne Online 2015, 'Week Nine: Visual Communities and Social Imaging’, MDA20009 Digital Communities, Learning Material on Blackboard, Swinburne University of Technology, Teaching Period 3, September 14, viewed December 29 2015.

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[ljt245]

Hi Aleksnajd, 

I remember people first getting caught out on snapchat by people taking screen shots of their posts.  I’m almost sure it couldn’t be done when it first hit the app store but came about through changes in the iphone hardware over time.  Shows the impact a change in affordances can have I guess.  

What a great picture of Cornelius.  He almost look like some sort of mythical creature and unlike many old pics his pose really connects with the viewer.  Holding it for a minute you’ve got to think he picked that pose on purpose - what do you think he’s trying to tell us?

Thanks for the read!.

Week 9: Visual communities and social imaging.

In visual communities and social imaging, there are different ways which we can view visual aspects of people own identifications whether it being on Instagram, Facebook and Tumblr. People use it to engage with others through a way that they can share images to those they choose to connect with (Urban Dictionary, 2016).

In my own experiences, I enjoy tagging photos on social platforms whether it being my trips to Europe or when I am with friends, I like to look back to it as a memory so I don’t forget the good times. It is important to be careful what you post online, because once its uploaded, it’s out there on the web, and there is nothing you can do. Some people aren’t always up to date with social media, and this is smart because they prefer to keep things hidden from people. I have friends on Facebook that have a restriction to what people can post on their walls in case it being inappropriate.

Snapchat is an app on smart phones where you can send images to friends, giving you the ability to write a short message as well as a photo of your surroundings. I myself used it as another means of communications with my friends where you would send random photos or just send a short message to each other. Snapchat is really interesting, although you have to be careful when using it, because photos can be screenshotted and saved on your phone. People that send nude photos can have photos saved through the screenshot function on your phones and it can give the receiver the ability to share this with other people. So be mindful what kind of photos you are sending, it can easily backfire (Elyse betters, 2015).

The first self-portrait to ever been  taken was by Robert Cornelius in 1839 where he took the images by removing the lens cap and then running it into frame where he sat for a minute before covering up the lens again. On the back of the image he wrote, “The first light picture ever taken, 1893” (Wikipedia the Free Encyclopedia, 2016).

References:

Urban Dictionary, 2016, social-imaging, Retrieved 5 January, 2016, from http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=social-imaging

Elyse betters, 26th December 2015, what’s the point of Snapchat and how does it work? Retrieved 5 January, 2016, from http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/131313-what-s-the-point-of-snapchat-and-how-does-it-work

Wikipedia the Free Encyclopedia, 2016, Selfie, Retrieved 5 January, 2016, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selfie

Robert Cornelius, http://petapixel.com/assets/uploads/2013/12/robertcornelius.jpg

Snapchat, http://musically.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Snapchat_logo-2.png

Sexting, http://31.media.tumblr.com/00fc39b8f394059e747e3e2bd5f2693a/tumblr_inline_niryggP8QI1t4xvfm.jpg

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