Online Lifeline

Let me get one quick thing off of my chest before I begin, Second Life is NOT a video game, it is an online life simulator. Whew there go, now on to the topic. Well actual that is partially my topic here, people living simulated lives. Most of us do it every day. When you choose to tweet something or change your Facebook status you have chosen to relay a certain part of your life, but not all of it, thereby having chosen to simulate your online life.

That means that even if you have never played second life or anything similar, if you have no Facebook, Twitter or YouTube account, as long as you have done something online somewhere, you have, in essence, lived a simulated life. By making the choice to do whatever you did online, you chose to take time out of your real life and move about over the internet (a virtual space) and leave your virtual footprint on whichever site or sites you chose to visit on your virtual vacation from reality.

This includes using Google maps, in real life you a street directory. It includes using a search engine, libraries still exist you know. It includes having a real time chat on Facebook or msn, you have a phone that you could text them from or even, heaven forbid, call them and talk. If you have Skyped someone, you could have gone to their house or they come to yours. If you watched a video, I presume most people have at least 1 TV at their house, yes? Even buying a song on iTunes or a book through Kindle, you could have gone and bought the physical item from an actual store.

But you didn’t. You are here reading the virtual ramblings of a crazy man, and you love it. So do I. It’s why I have all my accounts on Twitter (@Dragon30125), my account and page (Hob-Z) on Facebook, my Youtube channel (Dragon30125) and my show with barely 1000 views over my 10 videos. It’s because I love how my virtual life is connected. And so do you.

Mobile Media

I need my phone. I do. No really I need it…I do not have a problem! It’s what I use to upload photos to Facebook and then comment on it and my status whilst I talk to them over Facebook whilst I also like photos that my friends post there.

It’s how I am able to contact my boss when I feel sick or when I can’t remember when my next shift is. It’s how my boss is able to get in contact with me to find out if I am able to cover someone else’s shift, or to find out something that might have happened in a previous shift. It’s how I am able to get in touch with my mum or dad if I need some information from them or if something has happened to me, and vice versa. It’s what I use to entertain myself when I am waiting for my friends to show up at the meeting location, or when I’m on the toilet and need…something to… … ignore that last part, the point is that I need my mobile phone.

It’s not like I’m addicted to it, I mean after all I do have an X-Box 360, a Play Station 3, a laptop, a computer, an iPod, a Blu-Ray Player, Foxtel and sooooooo much more in terms of technology. BUT I still need my phone, and so do you. Even if for more reasons than in my previous paragraph stated, you know you need it. You need it for those 5 minute calls with your friends, the 2-hour texting wars with them, the message from your boss asking why you’re late for work, or to keep all your contact numbers in it. You need your mobile phone.

Now if only it was an iPhone…

Social Politics

Barack Obama is the most popular president of the United States Ever. Or at least he is in the social media world. The references that are made to him in online memes, the amount of video game Easter Eggs (secrets) that he is in and the size of the support he has online outside of the US is simply remarkable.

He has a Facebook page with 26, 814, 096 likes. He has 16,106,318 followers on Twitter. He is the current President of the United States of America, the leader of the free world. He is up for re-election and these are the stats he brings to the table in terms of popularity on the internet and social media. It are these stats which many argue won him the 2008 election, and show the power of social media behind political changes and matters. If social media is able to help someone win an election in one of the most populated countries in the world, then what else can it accomplish.

Well how about putting down a bill that seemed certain to pass? That’s what happened in late January this year, a bill called SOPA that aimed to stop all uses of copyrighted material from appearing anywhere online seemed certain to pass in the US senate…until social media got wind of it, through a 24 hour blackout protest by Wikipedia. Less than 24 hours after that the bill was taken down by its writer and co-sponsors.

This is what social media can accomplish in this day and age. Help to elect a certain presidential candidate and help to quell the passing of a strict law. This is the dawn of the social media age, so image the political ramifications that are yet to come. Perhaps we will all eventual become one nation and everyone will be able to cast their vote on an issue through twitter. Politics and social media, oh the possibilities…

Produsage and Gaming

I am a gamer, though that’s kind of obvious no? Well one of the benefits of being a gamer is seeing how well game developers and gamers can get along leading to 2 of the best creations from YouTube video producers: “Let’s Play” and “Machinima” videos. These 2 video types demonstrate how well the original creators of new media can get along with the enjoyers of that media, and allow them to do things with it that its creators didn’t even think of, creating an entirely new form of media with it. Let us begin by talking about Let’s Play’s. These are videos in which someone is playing a game whilst talking about either: things they are doing in the game, why they are doing them, what benefits they’ll have, how to do them and so on or just plain commenting on what is in the game, the way it looks, how well the controls feel, whether it’s entertaining them and so on. This gives the game a new perspective on how it is viewed, or might convince those who decided not to buy the game or on the fence about buying it, to actually buy the game. Now what the heck is Machinima was probably your next question. And put quite simply Machinima is where a video game is used to create a video that with its own story or experience separate from that of the game it’s based off of using footage captured through mostly, if not all in-game footage. These series are not only allowed to exist by the game’s creators, but are in most cases embraced by their creators as it not only shows what can be creatively done inside games, but is in and of itself and ad to buy the game. These 2 video types are prime examples of what produsage could do in the future, and to think, these are 2 of the first things we have created through this media…

Re-Assange-olution

Julian Assange has used media and the internet like no-one else before him has, and in doing so he probably revolutionized the ideas of public knowledge and freedom of speech. By revealing all that he has on the actions of multiple governments through his website, he has made the public outraged at what was going on behind the closed doors of politics whilst sending even countries such as the United States into Category 1 damage control over the private and confidential documents they had in hiding. By revealing these documents to the world at large, Julian showed just how little certain countries’ people knew about what was going on, this in and of itself should have, and did, cause many people to question their governments actions and what else they might be hiding from their public, creating not only a desire but also a forum for governments to be as candid as possible in future endeavours and arrangements. Whilst this may not have progressed to the point that most people would be happy with, it has started the progression. As for Freedom of speech, the fact is that Assange got away with revealing multiple secrets, from multiple governments, that where all confidential and not for the public to ever see. Yet Assange revealed them, publicly, for the entire world to see, and was hit with zero consequences (His trial on “crimes against women” not-withstanding). This feat in and of itself is a triumph of Free-speech and a sign of good things to come for the pursuers of the ability to state your opinion on any and all subjects. Though these may not be the traditional meanings of revolutions, it is important to remember that all revolutions started somewhere.

Extremist Groups Online

Extremist groups have begun, like many others, to embrace social media in the attempt to spread their message to the “uneducated masses”. They do this through many mediums but it is through their representation online that they are able to gain the most converts to their cause, as they are able to represent themselves in the most positive way possible for them. Something they cannot do through media outlets such as TV, radio or the newspapers as they are controlled by people who wish to push their own agendas. But let us not get off topic here. Most of these so called extremist groups have Facebook pages or twitter accounts, with nearly all of them having websites, and why not? Didn’t think I was going there did you? Why shouldn’t these people be allowed to say and do what they want in such a free and open environment for their ideas like the internet? Because it will poison the minds of the next generation? Because it will distort what is perceived and allowed on the social environment of the real world as acceptable? I personally don’t think that either of those are the case. In my opinion these people are well within their rights to say or do whatever they want to whomever they want on the internet (short of killing, raping or beating someone of course) as that is one of the reasons the internet exists, to allow people the right and the forum to have adult conversations with next to bars on the language or the importance of their conversation in relation to everyday life. (Well that and porn, jk jk.) If that means that One million moms can go around saying that having Ellen DeGeneres as the face of a Major clothing line is wrong, so be it. If that means that Fox News is allowed to spew out all the propaganda against the left-wing politic representatives as it wants, so be it. So long as we, the people, are allowed to share our viewpoints as well and have companies or groups *cough* Anonymous *cough* to defend us then why not let people preach all they want on the internet. That way everyone will indeed practice what they preach. (Online)

Twitter

Is it vital? Do you have it? I do (@dragon30125) but yet I rarely tweet once a week, if that. Twitter's use in crisis', politics, journalism and for celebrities has been beyond proven and I am not going to sit here, type and link you to a thousand facts that you've heard or seen before. But I really want you to think about whether or not we NEED Twitter.
Forget that it allows a celebrity to possibly respond to your question, forget that multiple business' are now advertising through twitter accounts forget about the joke accounts like @God_Damn_Batman that may cause you to laugh or chuckle, heck maybe even “lol” or “rofl”. Ask yourself do we need twitter? We have phones that can text at 10 more characters, Facebook where our favourite celebs have official fan pages for us to follow and YouTube where joke videos are posted all the time that make us “roflmao”. So if we have all of those that already cover the grounds that Twitter does, then what use is Twitter?
I am not saying that twitter is useless, after all it does combine texting, Facebook and YouTube into one big old ball of one-stop-shop. Twitter does allow us to seem like complete morons to the Celebs that we idolise whilst offering the chance for them to get to know us, hence why we follow them. Twitter does allow us to quickly hit up our friends if we’ve gone over the cap on our mobiles and make us seem like complete morons to them, hence why we follow them. And Twitter does have many people who are willing to make fake accounts and tell jokes for nothing more than amusement for their followers who reply to make sure the entertainer knows they are a complete moron, hence why we follow them.
So that is why I ask you if we need twitter, or do we want it? That is what I want to know that is the crux of my question, why I raise all these points to ask you: Is Twitter vital?