What Interest Tokens Tell us about Societal Relationships: Connecting online and the real world

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In Hugo Liu’s “Social Network Profiles as Taste Performers,” Liu describes the system of the personalization of social network sites as the way we create online identities through taste and interest tokens. Although I don’t have a MySpace, I do have a Facebook. I construct my Facebook identity by saying my favorite author is John Green and my favorite shows are The Office and Breaking Bad. Liu, along with other researchers, found that interest tokens serve as indicators of subcultures in online communities. The creation of interest tokens through the personalization of profiles does not only serve to indicate subcultures, but also socioeconomic and aesthetic factors. Cultural capital varies in different socioeconomic cultures, therefore these tastes and interests are indicative of important characteristics of a person like where they come from. Three hypotheses were created from the research: “MySpace users will craft their SNP lists of interests so as to assert their prestige.” “MySpace users will craft their SNP lists of interests so as to differentiate themselves from their peers” and “Variation in the taste norms of various demographic groups on MySpace can be accounted for by the socioeconomic capital associated with each group” (Liu, 256). In the future, there will be more indicators of these types of relationships. In the mean time, MySpace CEO Mike Jones announced there will be profile data sharing from Myspace to Facebook making it so users can link the interests on their profiles. From the research conducted towards Hugo Liu’s hypotheses, we can understand that these online social demographics play a larger role of importance that previously thought. They are not just a way for users to construct identity in an online setting, but they can tell us more about individuals and subcultures and their relations in society than most other things.

 

“I don’t really know her though, we’re just Facebook friends”

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In Danah Boyd’s article, “Friends, Friendsters, and MySpace Top 8,” Boyd writes about the cultural and social implications that are formed through online social networks and the way that people interact with one another. While her studies are mainly focused on Friendster and MySpace, I automatically thought of other sites such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter upon reading her article. People have varying incentives for “friending” others on social networking sites. Boyd touches upon the social or commercial uses as well as the reasoning behind clicking the “add friend” option when stumbling or searching someone’s online profile. While social networking sites may differ aesthetically or functionally, they have certain things in common. “There are significant costs to rejecting someone” (Boyd, 9). “Because of how these sites function, there is no distinction between siblings, lovers, schoolmates, and strangers. They are all lumped into one category: Friends” (Boyd, 10) and lastly, these sites are all a “space for people to engage in identity performance” (Boyd, 13). While social networking sites vary in terms of their platforms and audiences, they all seem to share the aforementioned elements that Boyd writes about. I can attest to this from personal experience. For example, I am often inclined to accept a Facebook friend request from a fellow Wheaton student, even if I’ve never talked to that person. Whether this is a good or bad thing, it says a lot about the influence that social media culture has on our decision-making. We create identities through our friends and our personalized profiles, we network in both miniscule and vast ways, and we create social contexts within the social media world we live in. Boyd makes the reader reflect upon what it means to be “friends” or friends. Is there a new type of friend that can be put into a solely online category? I think so.

In Bridget Lappert’s article she shares her opinion on quality vs. quantity when it comes to Facebook friends and getting back to reality by taking a break from the online networking world

Crowdsourcing: essential or exploitive? Or both?

In an article written for the Wire, Jeff Howe defined crowdsourcing as applied to Web 2.0 as “the new pool of cheap labour: everyday people using their spare resources to create content, solve problems, even do corporate R & D.” In Kleeman’s article, “Un(der)paid Innovators: The Commercial Utilization of Consumer Work through Crowdsourcing, “ Kleeman writes about how Web 2.0 made massive crowdsourcing possible, taking jobs that were once designated by specific employees and translating it into an unpaid open call to the public (Kleeman, 9-10). The sets of consumer and producer roles blended together over time until the roles became interchangeable. While the act of crowdsourcing saves money and resources while adding creative vitality and productivity to any given online environment, some people are bothered by the somewhat exploitive nature of it. Kleeman says, “The problematic possibility that firms may be able to manipulate individuals’ cost-benefit calculations falls outside the paradigm” (Kleeman, 11). On the other end of it, many people define crowdsourcing as the exchange of services where the consumer may not expect or need to receive any type of benefit for their work. This may be very well true, so should it be considered exploitation if they are willingly giving up their talents and information just because they want to? Crowdsourcing calls are often very successful in achieving innovative contributions from people all over the world, employing unique marketing strategies and product awareness along the way. So is crowdsourcing a form of exploitation, or just innovative marketing prowess? I believe it is both things. By nature, it is exploitive and can be defined as a way to take advantage of eager consumers. However, Web 2.0 and the development of marketing everywhere would not be the same without it. The creative success stemming from crowdsourcing is undeniable.

 Arab Spring is an example of the way that crowdsourcing can contribute immensely to an online community, translating into the lives of those people, specifically in the case of the voting experience for Egypt. News coverage through crowdsourcing also took place in the Japan Earthquake of 2011.

While the above links are examples of crowd sourcing which benefit a number of people, and specifically a community in need (in the case of the Japan Earthquake and emergency news) it seems there can be no qualms associated with this version of citizen reporting and content contribution. However, more controversial aspects of crowd sourcing can be seen through the practices of Arianna Huffington. Should writers simply stop agreeing to write for her for the “exposure aspect” and demand pay or leave? Should they be entitled to compensation for the profit she makes off of them? This is where crowd sourcing and the ethics behind it become cloudy and harder to interpret.

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Online communities: the sky is the limit

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In Henry Jenkin’s “Spoiling Survivor: The Anatomy of a Knowledge Community,” Jenkins writes about collective intelligence, and specifically it’s role in efforts of a particular group to spoil the results of the popular TV show “Survivor.” “As we have seen, the age of media convergence enables communal, rather than individualistic, modes of reception” (Jenkins, 26). Collective Intelligence refers to the group-oriented process of problem solving and collaboration in an online environment. The survivor spoilers are a group of media scholars, historians, travel agents, and tech wizzes who all bring something different to the table. Spoilers build contacts through networking. Like any successful group with a common goal, there must be an organizing leader who confirms accuracy of information and propels efforts forward. On page 29, Pierre Levy makes the point that knowledge communities like that of the Survivor spoilers are not just relevant in regards to the ultimate fandom of a TV show, but are also applicable in cases of economic and political power. Levy references democratic citizenship and how knowledge communities can help to restore or balance power to the people. We can compare the production companies to the government and the spoilers to average citizens. In a way, the ambitions behind creating networks through this culture are motivated by the distrust of hierarchal systems. Distrust of TV producers vs. distrust of big government? Either way you want to spin it, it deals with a coalition of people with inherently lesser power working together so they can obtain the knowledge that the higher power tries to keep from them. We live in a day in age where media devices and online global networks allow us to rapidly share information. Using collective intelligence to perpetuate knowledge culture is so powerful because the possibilities are endless. Logically, the sharing of knowledge and skills results in an overall increase of various knowledge and skills. Additionally, since everyone’s minds are hardwired differently, everyone interprets information and solves problems in their own way. This is a very good thing. Why? Because, as Jenkins points out, through knowledge communities we can reach people all around the world, who each have unique contributions to the task at hand. In addition to the various knowledge and expertise each individual possesses, no one person is going to critically analyze information in the same exact way as another. The key concept that jumped out at me from Jenkins’ piece was that more minds equals better results. When applied to the concept of classified knowledge unavailable to the public, collective intelligence and knowledge communities give a group of individuals the ability to check and balance their superiors, and then spread awareness to a global network if they are not happy with what they discover.

In the popular Netflix original TV series, “House of Cards,” the character of journalist Lucas Goodwin enlists the help of an online community of skilled database hackers in order to learn how to hack into cell phone records. His goal is to expose a powerful politician of a heinous crime that Goodwin suspects the man committed. Although fictional, this is an example of how information sharing through knowledge communities can disable hegemonic structures and give people the means to hold their superiors accountable, putting everyone on the same playing field.

Can regulation and innovation coexist?

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In Tarleton Gillespie’s “Designed to ‘effectively frustrate’: copyright, technology and the agency of users,” Gillespie writes about DRM and the creation of “an effectively frustrating” system that’s main goal is to stop infringement in digital technology. Gillespie points out some of the obvious benefits of DRM but also the flaws within the system. The DRM system and robustness rules “encourage a passivity towards the technology itself” (Gillespie, 664). This gets into the operators vs. agents of technology argument, showing that DRM tends to forbid agency rather than encourage it. Many people have issues with DRM because the guidelines and rules emphasize an effectively frustrating system for hackers and even the general public, which often comes at the cost of innovation and new creation. If people aren’t allowed to draw upon digital media and technology, this will seemingly halt further creation. Gillespie talks about open-source software design, “advocates suggest that software is better designed in loosely organized collaborative terms, where code is freely made public to any and all interested contributors” (Gillespie, 659). While there is much support for this type of system, it does not exactly coexist well with all of the DRM system. Is it necessary for us to create a whole new set of rights and laws that better balances creativity and collaboration with protection of the original work? Have regulators gone too far with the monitoring and prohibiting? Sites such as defectivebydesign.org believe DRM restrictions have gone too far, restricting users and their agency too much. This site encourages people to act by cancelling their Netflix and signing petitions against DRM use.

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Ad techniques and Journalism-past and future

For my Pinterest project, I chose to look at different advertising and marketing techniques for one board and the history and future of Journalism for my other board. I was interested in these two topics specifically because I’ve always been interested in the way that companies sell products. I am a huge fan of the show Mad Men but I am also intrigued by modern day advertising like smart billboards. I have heard a lot about the death of the newsprint industry in Journalism and how much trouble its in. I wanted to investigate this more through exploring Pinterest to see if these claims are actually true. My mom is a Journalist, most recently working for Patch, a hyperlocal online news source. Through these two Pinterest boards, I am hoping to organize different types of information I found about these topics in a way that people can follow along with.

With these boards, I am hoping to accomplish the goal of shedding light upon different techniques that are more or less successful in the marketing world. There are so many different types of advertisements that an organization or company can use to effectively convey their message, so I looked for many different types of advertisements to pin ranging from smart billboards to creative advertising which employs the use of graphic design to high-tech radio billboards that personalize ads based on what station you’re listening to. I also took a brief look at the way that women are portrayed in advertisements and the cultural implications and constructions resulting from that. For the journalism board, I was interested in finding out if it was true that the industry was slowly declining/dying out. I hear people talk about the death of print news all the time, so I wanted to investigate and see what types of articles I could find on the topic. I wanted to look at digital journalism vs. print news vs. broadcast journalism, as well as gender segregations within the industry.

For both of my boards, I looked for content mainly through Google, typing in keywords to search that would have to do with my topics. Once I found a worthy article, I would pin it to my board. I also explored a lot of Infographics through Pinterest because I thought they would enhance my board visually and catch people’s attention. I decide whether or not a topic was worthy based on how personally interesting I found it in answering my questions. Using Pinterest for this assignment was an interesting experience. The most valuable aspect of Pinterest is the overload of information you can find, and the connections you can find and make from the information. One complaint I have is that Pinterest does not allow more than a certain amount of words per pin. People who interactively use Pinterest especially for educational purposes should be able to write more than they are allowed to.

Pinterest is a very popular social media tool, with popularity growing constantly. I never used Pinterest for intellectual purposes, however, until this project. I had a Pinterest account but it was filled up with pins of cute puppies and recipes, which I probably wont ever make. I never wrote descriptions myself and just pinned other people’s stuff. This was the first time I had searched for content outside of Pinterest and then pinned it to my board. Pinterest shows that people interact with Web-based content in a way that is fast, efficient, and easy, so as to find information immediately and then move onto the next thing right away.

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