I blog and I vote.

New media is changing how the powers that be operate. The development and increase in popularity of blogging, social networks, Wikipedia and Youtube has empowered us, the voters, and has Governments running scared. 

The minimal effort involved in posting, editing and uploading opinions to the internet is being utilised by the masses. Anyone can voice their opinion and if it is interesting or entertaining enough it can be seen by millions within a matter of hours. 

This brings with it an air of excitement as the voting public can respond and retaliate to the decisions of their Government in a manner that can actually have an effect. The physical protest is being superseded by this online model and it has the potential to go anywhere. 

Facebook and Twitter have both been adopted by political members to get in touch with a younger market but do you really think Wayne Swan cares that I had a ham sandwich for lunch? Of course not, it is simply a tool to look "cool" and derive votes from those who are stereotyped as not caring about politics.

The advancement of new media will continue to be used by politicians, their respective parties and the voting public to manipulate each other and I personally find this both exciting and liberating. Vote 1 for freedom of speech finally reaching its potential.

Shake to Shuffle

In this week’s reading, Levy (2006) discusses the notion that one’s iPod playlist is a strong reflection of their personality and a key indicator to their level of “cool.” Being the first to like a band and stumbling upon a rare b-side place you at the top of the heap but whipping your hair along to Willow Smith will have your reputation falling faster than you can say Kings of Leon.

This is where the iPod’s privacy comes in handy. What you’re listening to is a deep dark secret and for fear excruciating, sometimes permanent judgement you choose to keep it that way.

I am prepared to go out on a limb and use myself as an experiment, by listing here the first five songs to appear on my shuffle playlist. Hopefully my faith in my library and the shuffle function pays off as this small sample (5/14540 songs) will now be public, but we all have our guilty pleasures.

Tame Impala – Lucidity

The Strokes – Metabolism

Nirvana – Negative Creep

Letter to Spain – Here Come The Capsize

TISM – Whatareya

That was a nervous few touches of the screen, but ultimately it portrays as accurate a reflection of my library as I could hope for. Thank God (or Jack White) that Ke$ha didn’t appear, or I would have to leave the country and change my name.

References

Levy, Steven. 2006. The perfect thing: How the iPod shuffles commerce, culture and                       coolness. New York: Simon & Schuster.

(un)true display of character.

Status update: Patrick Ryan is…..pretending to be something he’s not. Let’s be brutally honest, we all are. Facebook isn’t about showing who we are; it’s about showing people how we wish to be perceived.

Pearson (2009) suggests that Facebook users are similar to actors in a performance. I believe over-actors is a better term. The ability to un-tag and crop photos allows the Facebook user/director/puppet-master to control how they appear to the wider public physically, but this is merely scratching the surface of the plastic personality problem that appears on the popular social networking website.

Status updates, check-ins, comments and events are entirely user-driven, leaving them in control of what they are doing and with the ability to tweak their life and opinions to enhance their reputation and social status.

I’m not going to lie, I love Facebook and what you can do with it. I carefully select and crop profile pics, post links that garner attention and update my status with the sole intention of gaining likes, but to take one’s online personality as truth is almost certain to be the wrong decision.

Next time you see a status update fishing for questions and help after a rough day, pick up the phone or meet them somewhere for a coffee, because it is our imperfections that make us different to each other.


Reference List

Facebook 2011. Accessed 11 March 2011 at www.facebook.com

Pearson, Erika. 2009. "All the World Wide Web's a stage: the Performance of Identity in Online Social Networks" in First Monday, Volume 14, Number 3. Accessed March 14, 2011. http://blackboard.qut.edu.au/webapps/blackboard/content/contentWrapper.jsp?content_id=_3612480_1&displayName=Week+2+Readings&course_id=_74007_1&navItem=content&href=http%3A%2F%2Ffirstmonday.org%2Fhtbin%2Fcgiwrap%2Fbin%2Fojs%2Findex.php%2Ffm%2Farticle%2Fview%2F2162%2F2127.