Social Gaming

He is Australia’s highest paid athlete and has just signed a new contract with the Philadelphia 76ers which is reportedly worth $178 million USD (ESPN 2019), but Ben Simmons like many guys his age of only just 23 love playing computer games. And there is now industries and even sports leagues now dedicated to this growing niche forming all over the world, and there is big money involved. According to data collected in early 2019

According Martin Eden from Melior Games, the global market value of social games has tripled since 2011, and it now features more than $4 billion in revenue.

Precisely, the breakdown by platforms and years looks pretty impressive:

• Internet & Facebook: $265 million in 2016 compared to $412 million in 2019.
• Mobile: $2.7 billion in 2016 compared to $3.9 billion in 2019.
• Other platforms: $1.1 billion in 2016 compared to $687 million in 2019.

With recent prize money running into the millions for young games and now even high school kids being given scholarships to colleges to play e-sports are we now turning a generation into screen junkies?

Ben Simmons with his towering frame of 6’10’’ and uncanny athletic ability is obviously not the ideal example to show as he obviously gets up and runs around outside a little bit, but what will happen to those who don’t have life changing athletic skills like Ben? Are we breeding a generation of people that will lack social skills and find themselves more at home in front of screen than interacting with people?

I sound like my mum and dad, don’t I? But hey I am 38 and I grew up in the age where computers and video games became commonplace, and I also run a digital agency so it is must for me to be in front of computer screen for my career. But growing up I never owned a video game console. I had plenty of friends who did, but I just found it so boring! I would much rather be running around outside and still to this day if I am stuck in the office all day, I crave going outside for some sunshine and fresh air. I really hope we are not training a whole generation of e-sport competitors and drone pilots! I think gaming companies have the social responsibility to make gaming a responsible activity. Maybe we need to put warnings on the packs of video games, or have banners flash up on the screen just like we do with cigarette packets here in Australia now!

References

Fang, B., Zheng, Z., Ye, Q. and Goes, P.B., 2019. Social Influence and Monetization of Freemium Social Games. Journal of Management Information Systems, 36(3), pp.730-754.

Nguyen, B., Nguyen Gaming LLC, 2017. Social gaming. U.S. Patent 9,595,161.

Public Health Campaigns & Communities

Thursday the 12^th of September 2019. National R U OK Day. R U OK? Day’, a national day of action held here in Australia every year to remind people of the importance of connecting with and supporting those around them who may be troubled. A great initiative and an important question but more important are the answers! The social media platforms and channels that I frequent on a daily basis were jammed with people sharing and getting involved in spreading the message of this great campaign. I even had text msgs from different associates. They were obviously a generic text message that was being copy and pasted and forwarded on to their entire contact list but it’s the fact that it was being done is what matters. This is one Public Health or Well Being campaign that I have seen in recent times that really has nailed using social media to get their message spread amongst the population. A study undertaken on this campaign and its effectiveness and written about in the International Journal of Mental Health Promotion in 2016 examined the data from the 2014 R U OK campaign and the effectiveness in promoting its message. The data was gathered in the form of a survey and it approximately two-thirds of participants reported being aware of R U OK? with one in five of these participating in R U OK? Day activities. (Mok, 2016) Overall, the people surveyed believed that the R U OK? campaign has a positive impact on people’s willingness to talk to others about their problems and seek professional help, and in reducing the stigma associated with help-seeking. Although the findings were positive, the report did go onto note that future research work should also investigate outcomes such as knowledge, stigma and help-seeking in order to demonstrate the efficacy of the campaign. My concerns with great causes like this are that they will get lost in the sea of other great causes that we are all asked to spread the word about! My concern lies over the fact that we will become simply desensitised to it being just another thing we are asked to share on our channels and that no real long term concern or thought will be put to it on the other 364 days of the  year when people really might need help! My concern is that having such ease of access to social media not only for the causes but also the masses that get involved is that there is no substantial buy in to the cause itself, it simply becomes the must thing to do on that particular day!

References

Mok, K., Donovan, R., Hocking, B., Maher, B., Lewis, R. and Pirkis, J., 2016. Stimulating community action for suicide prevention: findings on the effectiveness of the Australian RU OK? Campaign. International Journal of Mental Health Promotion, 18(4), pp.213-221.

Crowd Sourcing In Times of Crisis

When Hurricane Katrina swamped New Orleans in 2005, social media was truly in its infancy. Twitter didn’t exist and Facebook wasn’t even a year old. 1,833 lives were lost (Kates, 2006) and to this day the great city of New Orleans is still reeling from the disaster. Although the majority of destruction was done from the cities’ levies breaking and flooding the historic city, the legacy that has continued on from Katrina has been what has been the hardest part for the city to overcome and come back from. God forbid that kind of disaster would happen again but if it did 15 years on would they be better prepared with the help of social media? Would the worlds reaction have been a stronger and more intense one? Although at the time the world’s governments responded with great generosity with whatever they could afford but there is no real data around the private contributions from members of the public. And I am by no way saying it didn’t happen as I am sure plenty of good citizens did give what they could, whether it be money, supplies or simply thoughts of good wishes I am sure social media would have had a profound affect if it was in use on the scale it is in use today.

Fast forward four years and the Black Saturday bushfires that happened in Victoria on the 7^th February 2009. The fires burned about 300,000 hectares in a single day, 173 human lives were lost, and more than 2,000 houses were destroyed in one afternoon. Social media was becoming more popular, but it took an event on this scale and then an ensuing royal commission (McLennan, 2012) to reframe the responsibility-sharing away from an emphasis on the self-reliance of at-risk communities towards a greater degree of responsibility for government emergency management agencies. This is where I see using social media channels to become powerful communications channels in times of emergency to pre-warn people of the approaching danger should be one of their highest priorities in pre displan event planning. A study undertaken by 3 Swinburne University in alumni 2010, analysed the tweets that were posted during the Black Saturday disaster and found that the tweets made during Black Saturday were laden with actionable factual information which could have been of great assistance at the time if used properly. The study by Suku Sinnappan and colleagues, went on to propose a new coding scheme for tweets during crisis and to also propose further research into how Twitter can be used as an alternative communication tool during a crisis such as Black Saturday to support official emergency communications.

Would a forward-thinking government take it one step further and start their own social media alert channel, with their own native app? Or should platforms such as Facebook give more access in times of emergency to allow emergency services to take over certain geographic areas to be able to broadcast messages? I think in all the topics we are discussing in this teaching period call for a greater co-operation between social media companies and governments for a great use (not control) of what is an awesome development in our communication channels.

References

Kates, R.W., Colten, C.E., Laska, S. and Leatherman, S.P., 2006. Reconstruction of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina: a research perspective. Proceedings of the national Academy of Sciences, 103(40),

Kilmer, R.P., Gil-Rivas, V.E., Tedeschi, R.G. and Calhoun, L.G., 2010. Helping families and communities recover from disaster: Lessons learned from hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. American Psychological Association.

McLennan, B.J. and Handmer, J., 2012. Reframing responsibility-sharing for bushfire risk management in Australia after Black Saturday. Environmental Hazards, 11(1), pp.1-15.

Sinnappan, S., Farrell, C. and Stewart, E., 2010. Priceless tweets! A study on Twitter messages posted during crisis: Black Saturday. ACIS 2010 Proceedings, 39.

Whittaker, J., Haynes, K., Handmer, J. and McLennan, J., 2013. Community safety during the 2009 Australian ‘Black Saturday’s bushfires: an analysis of household preparedness and response. International journal of wildland fire, 22(6), pp.841-849.

Trolling and Social Media Conflict

Trolling is defined as creating discord on the Internet by starting quarrels or upsetting people by posting inflammatory or off-topic messages in an online community.

Basically, a social media troll is someone who purposely says something controversial in order to get a rise out of other users. Essentially, they are a schoolyard bully. And like school yard bullies who grow up and continue plying their trade trolling can be found in the playgrounds of our professional lives. As I had previously mentioned in the discussion board on this particular topic I myself have been the victim of professional trolling. It was industry based and the person in particular who had taken the time out their day to make accusations against me on different social media channels had an industry decision not go in his favour and which had led him to believe I was the root of his particular problems. Working in an industry where reputations are important, I was left with no choice but to seek legal action. What surprised me the most out of this situation was the uncooperating attitude of one of the social media platforms at the time. When contacted by my legal team they were unwilling to have the posts removed. Sighting reasons of free speech they were unwilling to assist in having the material pulled down. Instead having to deal directly with the perpetrator to have the material not only pulled down but also having an apology posted,

That leads me to my point and that is how do we better police and manage trolls on social media? Again, it comes down to the idea of a small minority spoiling these platforms for the greater good who actually use them for their core positive intentions but there are some awful stories coming from phycological damage being done to people who are the victims of these trolls. The cyber playground can’t be patrolled like the schoolyard can by a teacher, but just like in the playground trolls look for work arounds so they operate out of the view of the teacher! Trolls go to the next level on the cyber playground as well. Watching where platforms such as Facebook go with curtailing these issues on a more proactive basis will be quite interesting, because although they have improved their reactions to such incidents when they are pointed out to them, being on step ahead of the pack might just save some more serious incidents along the track. How they do this I am not sure and will be the space to be watched.

Activism and Protest

Being able to speak out has always been an issue for some people, not because they don’t want to but because they haven’t been able to. Their voices wouldn’t have been heard. Or they wouldn’t have been able to gather enough support to make a difference. Although bigger social issues of history have been able to garner support and momentum over time the instant coverage and exposure that social media platforms of today can provide a person are what has driven some of the issues, we have looked at recently. For example, #metoo and #muterkelly and of course #blacklivesmatter. It has allowed those who previously wouldn’t of been able to voice up against an issue to do exactly that. It allows everyone to have a platform.

In saying that I think it has also led to a slight breakdown in our society. Today alone I watched several videos posted on different social media channels of people filming police officers while they do their work. This to me is quite concerning because it says to me that there has been a level of trust lost in our society. And yes, you are right in saying well there have been some instances where the police or people in positions of power have done the wrong thing and now in our modern world of camera phones and social media they can’t get away with this, and I would agree with you it does keep these people honest. A good example of this is the Eric Garner situation and the people that do abuse their positions should be held accountable.

But to me a level of trust has eroded because of the platforms and technology we have available to us in this day and age. Police officers filming traffics stops and those people being stopped filming the police who are stopping them, everyone just trying to catch everyone else doing the wrong thing. We have all turned enemy of the state on each other and with no end in sight!

Social media when used for its core function of socialising with people or even when used for good social causes such as those mentioned above is what the essence of why these platforms were invented and built but I think we have inadvertently turned everyone against everyone with a slight inkling of chaos rising out of the situation by everyone having this technology at their disposal. Choose your battles people, don’t just use the soap box for the sake of using the soapbox.

Social Media in Politics and Civic Culture

I am just so fascinated by the penetration and reach in social media in this day in age. Especially how the data that we leave around on different platforms is used. Having watched the recent documentary on Netflix recently titled “The Great Hack” which explored how a data company named Cambridge Analytica came to symbolise the dark side of social media in the wake of the 2016 U.S. presidential election. What really fascinated me was not so much the use of the data in the US elections because nothing surprises me anymore in US politics but more so what it did was open my eyes up and got me thinking about how truly evil regimes could use the services of a company like Cambridge Analytica to persuade communities of people that might not be involved in such a democratic process such as the US or even as to what we are used to and take for granted in Australia.

Now I am strictly being hypothetical here but if any regime or government from really wanted to influence s their country or voting public the data that is available to them is astonishing. Companies like Cambridge Analytica have a commercial purpose and that is to grow their revenue streams and, in some cases, keep their investors and shareholders happy and if their moral compass is not pointed in the right direction then large sums of cash are seen as a very attractive offer. And the data can then be bought and used to an unfair advantage in most of these cases.

Now I know what you are going to say, the platforms like Google and Facebook are the keepers of this data and they are the people that we choose to produce our profiles with and we trust our data with and in turn should be keeping it safe for us and I would agree with you here, but as data becomes such a valuable commodity and is increasing valued more than oil and gold they too will be influenced and driven by keeping their revenue streams in check as well. Everyone has to make a dollar, we all have to work!

So, it comes to my point, I am really sick of people walking around saying oh Facebook shouldn’t have used my data etc! Don’t give it to them! It’s really simple! It really it behoves us as to what we give these platforms! You don’t walk down the street giving your phone number out to strangers, do you? So be careful with the data you submit online!

Sorry to rant there for a bit and stray from the main topic but I feel like it has been one of the main topics of social media and politics for a little while now and it has been a passion topic of mine to watch and read about.

Social Media Platforms and their Affordances

The accessibility of social media platforms and then their power to be able to open up the world to be a more open and communicative place is what I see as the biggest affordance that has been made available by social media in a general sense since its inception. Mark Zuckerberg created Facebook and in the proceeding, years bought Instagram and WhatsApp with that very mission in mind. “The thing that we are trying to do at Facebook, is just help people connect and communicate more efficiently” was stated by Mark as he began to really open up his platforms to the greater world. Although there were other platforms such as Myspace and Friendster before the inception of Facebook and other popular platforms today, I think in my opinion the Zuckerberg empire has had the most profound effect on the social media landscape as he really found a way to commercialise the niche and take it to the millions! He and his founding team found a way to make social media go ‘viral’!

As with anything both positive and negative effects are brought to the table as more of the world creates their social media footprint or person and get online! As with the tragic day in New Zealand earlier this year we saw the ultimate disastrous way in which social media platforms can be used and now we see how governments are now partnering to bring more control around these platforms. It would also be worth having a look at countries like China and North Korea where such platforms are banned. China is a very interesting one in particular as because they have banned western forms of social media such as twitter and Facebook but have created their own internal ecosystem with platform such as WeChat!

Online bullying and social media trolling is one of the more low life acts that has become quite a huge problem on social media in present day and as we saw here in Australia with the AFLW start Tayla Harris and her infamous photo just the extent these trolls can take things. (and also, be exposed!)

With the bad there is good though, with new in platform channels such as IG Stories being used for education and story telling purposes and the channels such as Facebook and Instagram allowing business to ply their trades on a global level rather than just locally, I think there are more positive affordances with being able to make the world a smaller place and connect everyone rather than the minority of negative affordances that make their way to the surface a lot of the time!