Social media

A few social media giants like Facebook and Twitter have claimed ownership of the term, “social media” and have written the first draft that guides most of our ideas about social networking and about socializing online.  Social media and social networking are vast ideas that are just beginning to blossom – and are doing so on very limited terms.

danah boyd speaks and writes about this, too:

“Give me one other part of history where everybody shows up to the same social space. Fragmentation is a more natural state of being.”

-- From http://www.theverge.com/2014/3/13/5488558/danah-boyd-interview-the-era-of-facebook-is-an-anomaly

Unfortunately, these social network mega-corporations have also had time to figure out how to use and harvest our social information for their own ends, like advertising and market research.  

Part of what I want to do is challenge this notion of megalithic social networking sites by introducing non-ego-centric networks.  In other words, I think there can be non-individualistic social networking -- social networking for the greater good rather than for myself.  We can look at these networks (of our friends, peer organizations, or any variation of any kind of entity that exists!) from a different level -- we can look at them from the perspective of a network and interact with them so much differently than we do on Facebook.  It's a little like social movement building -- thinking about key influencers and power brokers within the network.  It's a little like Malcolm Gladwell's ideas on how things spread and cause tipping points.

I also hold as a core belief that we can be social and use technology to connect us without getting stuck in it and without selling our data/information to gigantic companies.  I'd like to write more about this in the future!

Jose Antonio Vargas on Immigration

Instead of watching the presidential debates tonight, I'm reading this article, something that lets me think about immigration rather than be filled with anger toward the two men "debating" and avoiding answering questions.

Quotes from Jose Antonio Vargas' Time Magazine article called "Not Legal, Not Leaving:"

• I am now a walking conversation that most people are uncomfortable having. (Pg. 1)
• The probusiness GOP waves a KEEP OUT flag at the Mexican border and a HELP WANTED sign 100 yards in, since so many industries depend on cheap labor. (Pg. 2)
• Of all the questions I've been asked in the past year, "Why don't you become legal?" is probably the most exasperating. But it speaks to how unfamiliar most Americans are with how the immigration process works. (Pg. 3)
• For all the roadblocks, though, many of us get by thanks to our fellow Americans. We rely on a growing network of citizens — Good Samaritans, our pastors, our co-workers, our teachers who protect and look after us. As I've traveled the country, I've seen how members of this underground railroad are coming out about their support for us too. (Pg. 6)
• Though roughly 59% of the estimated 11.5 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S. are from Mexico, the rest are not. About 1 million come from Asia and the Pacific Islands, about 800,000 from South America and about 300,000 from Europe. (Pg. 6)
• According to the Office of Immigration Statistics at DHS, 86% of undocumented immigrants have been living in the U.S. for seven years or longer. (Pg. 7)
• There are no overall numbers on this, but each day I encounter at least five more openly undocumented people. As a group and as individuals, we are putting faces and names and stories on an issue that is often treated as an abstraction. (Pg. 7)

• Technology, especially social media, has played a big role. Online, people are telling their stories and coming out, asking others to consider life from their perspective and testing everyone's empathy quotient. Some realize the risks of being so public; others, like me, think publicity offers protection. (Pg. 8)
• I am still here. Still in limbo. So are nearly 12 million others like me — enough to populate Ohio. We are working with you, going to school with you, paying taxes with you, worrying about our bills with you. What exactly do you want to do with us? More important, when will you realize that we are one of you? (Pg. 9)

On rape jokes

1 in 4 people.  1 in 4 refers to the number of reported sexual assaults of women on college campuses during their undergraduate years.

This happened. In a nutshell, a comedian, Daniel Tosh, made some sort of rape joke, a woman (COURAGEOUSLY, by the way) stood up and said that, "actually, rape jokes aren't funny," to which Tosh responded along the lines of, "wouldn't it be hilarious if this woman got gang-raped right here."

Then this good article (and several less good ones) was written.

Some key quotes from the Jezebel article include:

• "The world is full of terrible things, including rape, and it is okay to joke about them. But the best comics use their art to call bullshit on those terrible parts of life and make them better, not worse."
• "We censor ourselves all the time, because we are not entitled, sociopathic fucks. ...A comic who doesn't censor himself is just a dude yelling." (*Could be "herself" and "a chick" yelling...)
• "It's really easy to believe that "nothing is sacred" when the sanctity of your body and your freedom are never legitimately threatened."
• "It's like the difference between a black comic telling a joke about how it feels to have white people treat you like you're stupid all the time vs. a white comic telling a joke about how stupid black people are."

The author of the article also has a paragraph that explains the importance of the *context* of sexism and patriarchy that surrounds this joke, by making up an analogy that might help people understand it at some level.

Sexual Objectification

What follows is a nice analysis of sexual objectification with some disturbing (because they're real) examples from pop culture. The post (and blog) are run by a professor of politics. Part one describes objectification and part two shows that "We now have over ten years of research showing that living in an objectifying society is highly toxic for girls and women"
1) http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2012/07/02/sexual-objectification-part-1-what-is-it/
2) http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2012/07/06/sexual-objectification-part-2-the-harm/

 Interestingly, part two cites a study regarding the effects of objectification on political efficacy (I suppose you could think of it as involvement). Here's an excerpt from its abstract:

 "The normalization of female objectification in American culture has given rise to self-objectification, the phenomenon of girls and women seeing themselves as objects of desire for others. ... This research examines the political effects of self-objectification and finds that it is negatively related to both internal and external political efficacy. The democratic implications of this finding are considered." 

A particular quote from the trailer to Miss Representation in the second post sticks with me: "The fact that media are so derogatory to the most powerful women in the country ...then what does it say about media's ability to take any woman seriously."

 Just some food for thought on a steamy Saturday (at least in IL) -- and if you want to continue the conversation or have questions (or outrage!) in response to reading, share your thoughts!