assessment Flashcards
with ref to sources explain how social media has positive effect on identity (9)
KA1: BOYLE — prosumers
KA2: BJORKLAND — autobiography
w ref to source, to what extent have digital social comms weakened social relationships? (10)
ka1: TURKLE “accessed on the move as well as in the home”
ca1: MILLER “online virtual communities”
ka2: SMITH ET AL ppl feel forced to “invent themselves new identities online”
ca2: McLUHAN global villages
“New global digital communications provide opportunities for the working class” Evaluate (16)
ka1: CASTELLS
ca1: FRANKFURT SCHOOL, MARXISM (twisted reality)
ka2: GIDDENS
ca2: ADORNO
cc: FRANKFURT SCHOOL, MARXISM (data harvestation)
define digital communications
communicating / interacting
with others
via new forms of digital tech
Boyle
— digital comms provides NEW OPPORTUNITIES, access to new info
— creativity 🎨 as digital media is made by the users (Youtube ▶️)
- Pewdiepie youtube worth millions
- Kyle Thomas tiktok 31 million followers
— PROSUMERS: produce and consume media
BUT: many prosumers like Pewdiepie come from privileged 💵 backgrounds
—> digital revolution only benefits the wealthy who have technology + skill
Bjorklund
— media used to create CURATED IDENTITY 🎨 🖌
— social media = autobiographical (Facebook)
— recording life events + constructing fluid online identity is enjoyable 🤩
— life can be edited at will
Turkle
ALONE TOGETHER
Digital world + addiction to social media isolates us —> less satisfying communication —> breakdown of face-to-face relationships.
Parents = bad role models, using phones too much in front of children. Setting disconnectedness as the NORM! (post-familial family)
Goldilocks Effect: physically together, mentally alone. Relationships are in the inbetween.
Miller
— wider pool 🏊♀️💧 of potential contacts and VIRTUAL COMMUNITIES 👥📱
— common interests, keeping in touch with friends/fam
e.g. DeafPassions.com (dating site for deaf 🧏♀️ people 💕)
Chile: husbands off mining used social media to contact family
Smith et al
CYBERBULLYING.
Peer groups HIGHLY influential, both +tive and -tive
20% teens experienced CYBUL.
1/3 victims kept CYBUL. secret.
Girls more than boys.
Sample: questionnaire 100 teens in 14 schools, yr 7-10.
Megan Meier, Ryan Halligan, Rebbeca Sedwick all committed suicide bc of cyberbullying
McLuhan
🌍 🏡 ☺️
Global culture BRINGS PEOPLE TOGETHER, increasing FREEDOM + CULTURAL EXCHANGE
GLOBAL VILLAGE: widespread sense of community. Young people interact in worldwide gaming communities like kids playing on village green together :)
world has SHRUNK, geographical distance no longer a barrier
Castells
DIGITAL REVOLUTION: empowers 💪 masses
Arab uprisings: digital social networks helped organise ideas, protests, new forms of info sharing
—> videos of police brutality on youtube
proletariat access more info 🧠 , can organise revolutions
tackles inequalities, more even distribution of power
Frankfurt school (twisted reality)
ppl who control media PRESENT IT AS THE ONLY VERSION OF REALITY
— e.g. Facebook is controlled by Mark Zuckerberg who hugely controls what is published
— alternative views are censored 🤬
— fake news is circulated to confuse population: stultifies political action?
Frankfurt school (data harvestation)
- when using digital media we leave DIGITAL FOOTPRINT 👣
- big data = millions of records bundled together 📊
- data may be used by companies or sold to others
- CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA illegally harvested data from 50 million Facebook accounts to use in election campaigns
EDWARD SNOWDEN ❄️
- worked for US secret service
- discovered that Western governments were breaking law, illegally spying on citizens’ internet/phone activity
- leaked thousands of files
Rise in digital tech hasn’t revolutionised society as much as we think: powerful still control flow of info
Giddens
digital democratisation of society
—> everyone has access to info and can voice opinions e.g. twitter 📢 🐦 #BLM #metoo
—> STATISTA: 1 billion on tiktok 2021
2.6 billion on facebook 2020
global political movements show amplified voices
Adorno
media makes ppl less likely to become politically active + class conscious
— digital media takes up time ⏰ and dumbs down thinking 🧠
— trivial media takes precedence (cat videos etc) over important issues
— addictive social media algorithms prevent working class from being politically conscious
spending time online alone divides ➗ proletariat community (divide and rule)
