Hashtag Twitter

I love social media but I am yet to get on board with Twitter. There's something about it which does not interest me. I rarely update my status on Facebook so perhaps I just don't have enough thoughts to put out to the world. Funny thing is I am constantly thinking, and I think I am quite funny and have a lot to say but I just don't feel the need to tell the world my every waking pointless thought or brag about what fun stuff I am doing or every move I am making. I am more an Instagram girl - photos instead of words. I am not shallow but I find Twitter less interesting and more annoying. 

Okay, who uses Twitter?
I had the opportunity to work in a lovely group while we analysed Twitter for our assessment. According to World Factualy Justin Bieber, Katy Perry and Barack Obama are in the top 10 most followed celebrities on Twitter. Products, brands and politicians are also amongst the Twitter users. It gives them 140 or less characters to promote themselves, make a statement or just random dribble. It is a great marketing tool though! If I had my own business, I would be jumping straight on to Twitter. I would send my product to people semi-famous but had enough followers, get them to tweet my product with a photo and hopefully that will cause traffic to my Twitter and then to my business. 
Besides famous people, there are everyday people who are addicted to re-tweeting, gaining followers, telling the world about their thoughts, feelings, opinions and movements. I am still not going to go jump on to Twitter and make an account but when I think about it I can see the good to it, however I still see the bad to it.

Rheingolds' Theory:
Rheingold believes that online interaction impacts negatively in the offline world and that there are many consequences of a virtual community.
Twitter is an example of virtual community where people create relationships through technology. 
I think he has hit the nail on the head with this. After reading his theories, my thoughts are that we create virtual communities through social media. We are linked through devices and can share something in that moment to our "audience" hoping we come off in a certain way. Face-to-face contact is being taken over by the use of contact through computers and devices. 

Jenkins believes participatory culture to be " Key elements include low barriers to participation, strong support for sharing, informal mentorship, members who feel that their contributions matter, and who care about others' participation. Participatory cultures reward participation. 'Not everyone must participate, but everyone must believe that if they participate it will be valued.'

Sasha Constanza-Chock (November 7, 2012) Henry Jenkins: Participatory culture, politics and learning. Retrieved from: http://civic.mit.edu/blog/schock/henry-jenkins-participatory-culture-politics-and-learning

In this video Jenkins speaks about how students can use the skills of social media to educate themselves and to not only be distributors of media but to also be consumers. 


It's not all bad:
I do believe though that even though there is the social downside and upsides to it, one of Twitters biggest upsides is brand interaction. According to Convince and Convert 
one of the 7 surprising statistics about Twitter is that brand interaction is a major part of life on Twitter! Did you know that 42% of Twitter users learn about products and services through Twitter, 41% provide opinions about them and 19% use it to seek customer support? I think on Twitter the customer service is so much more efficient. A customer can make a complaint for the whole world to see so the company have no choice but to fix this matter or it looks bad on them. I think Twitter is a major way to interact with brands.

Anyway, I hope this was interesting and informative :)

Our connection to mobile devices

I have sat here for a while trying to gather my head around this and feel I finally have something worthy of posting.

My laptop broke in February this year and I immediately thought it was the end of the world as I knew it! I did not have enough money to purchase a new one so my iPhone 4S became my life. It was my laptop and phone. However, I feel as though it connected to me to the world but also somehow disconnected me too. I realised I can live without a laptop and that I do not need one until I return to uni but I became so reliant on my iPhone that I spent so much time on it as I needed it for everything. My phone has the ability to do most things and at a quicker pace. It has access to almost everything I needed from my laptop (besides Microsoft) and I slowly realised I did not need to depend on a laptop anymore.

It seems as though we are all reliant on phones and become addicted to the use of it. Whenever I am out somewhere, I see people on their phones:

• walking and on their phone
• sitting and on their phone
• eating and on their phone
• with people and still on their phone

This got me thinking, how many people do have smart phones? According to a Frost & Sullivan report 73% of Australians from the age of 15-65 currently own a smartphone. This is expected to rise to 93% of people by 2018. This report mentions that phones have transitioned from being mainly used for phone calls to now being used for multifunctional reasons. Ring a bell? Making phone calls is not in the top 3 things I use my phone for. This report also mentioned that tablets in Australian households will increase from 49% in 2013 to 80% in 2018. Scary? Isn't a tablet basically just a massive phone that can't make phone calls, unless using call apps such as Skype.  I love social media so I have an interest in these things but I can't understand what the use of a tablet is. My brother has an iPhone5, MacBook Pro and an iPad. Which all just sit around him on his bed. He is a big Apple fan and a genius with these things but I am yet to know why all three are needed.

I think all these devices are making us feel "connected" but really disconnecting us. I think socially it is killing our social skills, people feel the need to contact other friends on their phones, when they are in the actual real life presence of people. I must admit I am guilty of doing this as are my friends. Last year while I traveled Europe, as soon we as were in a WiFi connection we all went silent and caught up on our social media, emails and texts. In complete silence! I think our personal identities have changed due to mobile devices - I feel as though we think we have some sort of social obligation to be in connection with it and updating constantly. I have sometimes referred to it as the "smokers hand addiction". Smokers crave that hand action of holding a cigarette and I think we feel this with our devices. As professor Sherry Turkle discussed in her "Connected, but alone?" video, devices not only change how we connect to each other but also how we connect to ourselves. She believes we are getting used to being alone together and I would like to take you back quickly to what I mentioned just sentences ago about how my friends and I would completely disconnect with each other as soon as we got into WiFi in Europe and connect into our mobile device. I feel as though it is sometimes an extra stress! If I am out with friends and upload a photo to Instagram I will constantly check the "likes" and comments, while tuning out of interaction with my friends. As sad and embarrassing as that is!

I think mobile devices will evolve. I am not sure how though but I do believe one thing that will keep evolving is the unfortunate fact that we are becoming more disconnected and diving into this lonely world of social media/mobile devices. I believe we feel demanded to be in touch and to be captivated by this world. It takes you hostage and you feel as though you need to manage your social life through these devices. How many of you are worried about your image online? It has changed our level of intimacy with people; it can be fake, forced and all for show. Just one little device has changed the way you live, the way you feel and your social life. I will leave you with this video which I think sums up what these devices have brought to our lives.