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Intimacy

By watching the film “Her” as a class, many of us came with a similar synopsis of the movie. “Her” was about an emotional man (Theodore) who was left heartbroken after his marriage ended. Theo then draws this irresistible attention towards his new operating system (Samantha) which quickly develops into a deep level of intimacy and romance. As discussed by Pettman in article, Love in the Time of Tamagotchi, he explains how “cultural anxieties and curiosity are emerging at a time when the most ‘human’ of experiences intimacy or love are increasingly being mediated by the technologies which link one agent to another”. By this we can infer how the many different forms of technologies are changing the way we come about loving certain things at different levels. He states, “we become increasingly inert as our machines become more lively”. From this we can see how one can be introverted and use such machines to be our extroverted side. Samantha was originally just supposed to be an operating system and just that, however, also became a lover. Therefore, we can assume that Pettman would disagree with Thoedore’s and Sam’s relationship.

Pettman goes on to say that “we are obliged to interact with actants who may or may not be human, may or may not be loveable, may or may not be physically available. Love thus becomes a cybernetic imperative of regulating the positive and negative feedback loops of libidinal information”. In other words, with constant developing technologies that were once just meant to be a side accessory to help us accomplish certain duties, these technologies now play the role of a fully fledged actant. As Theo whom flirted and eventually created this cyber relationship with Sam, is what Pettman would describe as Otaku; which as he states is, “asocial young and not so young men, who flirt with a virtual woman on their hand held devices”. Clearly, Thoedore was aware from the beginning that Samantha was an operating system, yet this did not take away any of the authentic feelings he had towards Sam, in fact through their relationship the feeling only became stronger. As Pettman says, “men are aware that their ‘girlfriend’ is a computer program, but this does not diminish the erotic charge and the psychological impact of the text messages they receive in response to their SMS courtship”.

Furthermore, Pettman goes on to explain the term meru tomos which means ‘mail friends’. As the author mentions, it is another example of ‘libidinal relationships migrating to new media’. Theodore developed such a strong relationship with Samantha because there was really no way of him getting hurt, or so he thought. As Samantha was essentially anonymous in the sense that Theo could never see her, the intensity of their connection was obviously present. Pettman says, “Many of us relate to the emotions that can accompany primarily online relationships, and the intensity that can occur without face to face contact”. As we all witnessed Theo and Sam created their whole relationship through communication without ever seeing one another and to them it was something ‘real’. In addition, in Manghani’s article, he mentions that ‘keitai’ is something you carry with you. He then explains that is “a snug and intimate technosocial tethering, a personal device supporting communications that are a constant, lightweight, and mundane presence in everyday life’. Theo’s way of connecting with Samantha was through this form of keitai. This enabled both parties to keep in touch. As Theo and Sam communicated through this device, sometimes through text and other times through pictures, we can see the deep level of intimacy these forms of communication created. Overall, one might argue that Theo and Sam’s relationship was not true love, we can agree as technology grows intimate relationships will too, and humans will either love what these machines do or love the machine itself.

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Social Movement

As author Evgeny Morozov showed us through article, “The Dark Side of the Internet Freedom” there are many ways that the web can be manipulated into many forms of action for both good and bad. He says, technological determinism is bound to produce certain social, cultural, and political effects. While critiquing the idea that “technology is neutral” Morozov gives us the example of the knife, which can be used to do many things like cut wood or any other object, but can also serve as a deadly weapon. The internet can be a tool used by essentially anyone.

It can be maneuvered by the ‘wannabe’ revolutionary on any social platform as well as the actual government itself. The author demonstrated how the internet was supposed democratize and revolutionized the way the globe communicated with each other in order to maintain better relationships amongst themselves. However, as some individuals can feel the Internet freedom here in the United States, it can also cloud our judgement on how it can serve to fuel many forms of dictatorship in other parts of the world. Furthermore, he touches on the historic advances the world has had like the telegraph, radio, and television which were all subject to bring positive change in our daily livelihoods. Clearly, we can see otherwise, for example, when the television came about many optimists saw it as a way for people to come together. Nonetheless, futurist at the time didn’t expect for households to now have multiple TVs, some having the device in every room has created solitary environments which was the initial problem they were trying to fix in the first place. Another example mentioned was the invention of the car, it obviously made transportation much quicker, but as result gave us a complication of pollution. Mozorov advises that we must understand the history and regulate technology. He explains, “Smart regulation, if anything is a first sign that society is serious about the technology in question and believes that it is here to stay and is eager to think through the consequences”.

All in all, we try and fix world problems by making technological advances to deal with those issues, leaving manual work ethic in the past and instead relying on other technological innovations to fix the problems at hand. Author Welles highlights on networked public sphere which can be described as an alternative arena for public discourse and political debate, an arena that is less dominated by large media entities, less subject to government control, and open to wider participation. In other words, such accounts like twitter can provide continuous stream of information from the perspective of those closest to crisis events. This then serves as traditional news narratives, resulting in an ‘affective’ flow of information that can speak to the common experiences, concerns, and sympathies of larger publics. He also shows us how ‘meaning-making’ can have a more powerful effect on whatever it is the individual is trying to express. The Instagram account Undocumedia, always affirms each post by carefully selecting their language to create legitimate interpretations of human rights. The combination of words and images the account selects work to make it a reality to the consumer. The account also amplifies itself by retweeting certain hashtags and posts, portraying their marginalized followers as mainstream consumers and thus attracting more mainstream followers onto human rights communities.

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Fans & Amateurs

As one browses through social media accounts it is easy to spot the phenomenon of participatory culture. Author Lessig says, participation is obviously shaped by culture and social protocols. Participation is more open-ended, less under the control of media producers and more under the control of media consumers. What this means is that those individuals that participate within the digital world help spread the word in the media marketplace.

 For this subject I will focus on the Instagram account of George Lopez. Although his follower range isn't yet in the millions, he is definitely close at 903k. Lopez has many different fans, some follow him for his stand-up comedy, others for his tv show personality, and others like myself for his comedic political memes that he posts. For many of his fans this is a way to keep up with him. Fans, as Jenkins mentions are those that speak back to the networks and producers. We see many fans liking, sharing, and commenting on his posts. Sometimes if these participants are lucky they get a response back from him.This participatory culture they develop helps the fan base maintain a relationship with the original sender who in this case is obviously George Lopez. In order for the sender to have a successful following it must have active and committed consumers to spread the content. As a result, according to Jenkins the activity within these media accounts shape the flow of this participatory culture. Furthermore, these fans start to become a core element of the succes because they create an emotional attachment to the brand or media franchise. When George Lopez continuously bashes the POTUS, he is essentially creating this image of anti-trump and gains more likes with those that have the same political stance as himself. Jenkin says, he sees fan communities as “preparing the way for a more meaningful public culture”. He continues by saying he sees potential in fans driving politics. However, author Fuchs thinks otherwise. Fuchs says, that Jenkins simply made a bad connection between fandom in popular culture and political protest. George Lopez’s distinct style of posts has influenced his fans to see the hardships minorities face and also how their is much injustice and racism that occurs everyday. There is no doubt that his posts ever caused a riot or even a march through Los Angeles, however, his support through his posts ultimately serves as a movement of revolution. 

George Lopez’s account can also give is an idea of the convergence culture. As mentioned in the readings everyone's a participant at some point, although participants may have different degrees of status influence. For instance, fans comment all the time on Lopez’s post, it maybe a comment of admiration, interests, or laughter regardless of what it may be, the comedian has reached back out to many which is a win-win situation for both parties. The fan ends up connecting with George Lopez and vise versa creating a connection between both. Another example we can look at is how the account Undocumedia on instagram sometimes re-posts content from George Lopez. Although Undocumedia is an organization and George Lopez is a well known comedian it can give one an idea of how convergence culture works in levels of status from fans, amateurs, and professionals that promote the same culture. Overall, we can see how each play a significant role; the social media platforms plays almost as a recycling logo where each feed off each other, and finally as Jenkins puts it, “media producers need fans just as much as fans need them”.

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Online Minorities

There is no doubt that the vast majority of the population here in the United States has access to the internet. Social media itself has become to be one of the biggest phenomenons of the world. However, with such high magnitude of its widespread the internet has created its own subcultures, and has also affected how we perceive different forms of identity online.

The internet has essentially made profiles to serve as “digital bodies”. Although authors Cisneros, Nakayama, Florini, and Boyd all tackle on different elements of online minorities it is evident that there is one thing in common and that is how the web can serve to give the consumer an identity, and with that identity essentially comes race. According to Boyd, knowing or unknowingly our profile selves can say many things about us. He states, “Profile personalization can be seen a form of digital fashion. Teens Facebook and Myspace profiles reflect their taste, identity, and values”. In other words, a consumer of whatever platform can create an identity online by using imagery, textual, and self-expressions. Furthermore, author Florini touches on signifyin, which is a genre of linguistic performance that allows for the communication of multiple levels of meaning simultaneously, most frequently involving wordplay and misdirection. This it to say that consumers of social media sometimes create their own style of language that attracts a specific audience or culture.

The accounts I follow are able to illustrate this idea because they are all considered to be the minority in the U.S. For instance, figure 1, on George Lopez’s instagram account shows this funny meme that can mainly be directed towards people that are spanish fluent. It simply states, “I Like You A lot”, however it is spelled in an incorrect way that fits the taco-man description which makes it corny but funny at the same time. Additionally, signifyin can also serve to have “elements of humor and displays of wit. However, at times it may seem purposeless to the unfamiliar. Clearly, memes such as this one will only appeal to those that understand the culture being portrayed. It is also important to note that signifyin can be a ‘powerful resource for signaling racial identity’ says Florini. Next, authors Cisneros and Nakayama explain to us that controversies over racist speech on social media have become recognized and recurring. Part of this occurs because the format that some accounts like twitter have, don't have a particular audience, so the sender's message may clash with someone else's opinions. As a result this can show us how social network can coincide with the blurring of public and private. There is no doubt that we like the feel of belonging. As Boyd says, homophily is the practice of connecting with like minded individuals. When we connect with people like ourselves it helps to enhance our identity development. Our values and norms are strongly linked to our identity as well. The homophily approach can be very visible throughout many social media accounts. Within the accounts that I follow like Undocumedia, Latina Rebels, and George Lopez, a simple follow within themselves can represent this notion of homophily. They follow each other i'm sure for various reasons, however, the main reason is because they believe in the same immigrant rights. As shown in figure 2, when Donald Trump pardoned Joe Arpaio it was a shock to many, but the president and himself have a lot in common which is why Trump took action. One can see these actions and picture a culture out of them. Overall, as social media becomes greater, so will the subcultures that lie within. The identities that we project online should be of those that are aware of how they articulate race.

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Gender

Nowadays we have the option of generating whatever type of media we want to view across many platforms. We can use facebook, twitter, instagram, tumblr, youtube, and even snapchat for highlights on current events and pop culture. By having social media so accessible to diverse age groups and genders, it has become the perfect ‘go to’ for self-promotion and empowerment. Furthermore, it has also created a notion of 'sexual positivity' in our culture. Both authors, Rosalind Gill and Sarah Banet-Weiser indicate that the bodily representation of women has become a source of power and identity. Currently, online we mainly see woman as sexual beings rather than the nice, and nurturing side we've grown conditioned to accept. Because social media platforms have become so versatile we now see how regular girls can become ‘models’ without working for particular agency or manager, all they need is a social media account and a good camera phone to portray themselves provocatively or not.

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Author Banet-Weiser states, “that the websites ‘double function’ as a platform for both commercial and vernacular creative content [and] offers an opportunity to think critically about the ways in which Youtube is a site for self promotion or the creation of the self brand”. Although she specifies that Youtube, any other media platform provides the same features. Amongst the many accounts I follow through social media it is clear to see more of the sex-positive culture in effect. For example, although LatinaRebels account on instagram's mainly focuses on unveiling the complexities of Latina embodiment, they often posts suggestive material as seen on figure 1 and 2. The images are straight forward and in no way depict any form of shame. On figure 3, we can see that the woman has recently graduated and proudly displays her Mexican root as she represent the flag on her outfit. Although one can say this is just a graduation picture, she captures all of herself and makes it hard to ignore her body, surely embracing her curvy figure but centering the post on her achievements while not hiding her physicality.

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As consumers within the Latina Rebels community write comments and hit the like button it serves to uplift the woman who posted the photo and reinforce the notion that we she is doing is right. Weiser mentions that such feedback serves for strategies of surveillance, judgement, and evaluation. Therefore, likes, positive or negative comments, and how many times people re-share the content all play an important role on disciplining and informing portrayed subjects. Gill further explains that pop-culture is a very important element of sexual positivity in femininity. She describes scenarios where we either label just about anything as hot or not, referencing people from all backgrounds, women or men, serious news anchors, tv personalities, or criminals. An example that can illustrate this idea is in figure 4; Jeremy Meeks whose mugshot went viral in 2014. Apparently to many, this individual fell in the “hot felon’ list. From all the attention this mugshot received, it essentially made him into a legitimate fashion model with a billionaire partner, who was able to mostly dodge social stigma by acquiring massive wealth typically reserved for men. Lastly, femininity and social media have in ways exploited and also helped some achieve a level of empowerment. We must acknowledge that the feedback one receives online, along with internet culture, shouldn't determine who one is or what one ought to do.

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Friendship

     With quick and advanced technology at our fingertips, social media has become highly addictive. We no longer have to use a large desktop to be a part of online communities. Our mobile devices give us the freedom to stay connected continuously with our friends and others. However, with the excessive amounts of social media we consume on a daily basis, it has confused many on the difference between real relationships with actual friends versus online friendships. 

     Author Chris Bloor mentions that ‘our society is organized around efficiency, not purpose or meaning’ and that ‘not everything in life has to be for something’. He concludes that some things simply ought to be enjoyed on their own terms. When utilizing any social media platform, one can come across many examples of instrumental and transactional relationships, regardless of their irreverent nature. In other words, these relationships do one another a favor and benefit from each other. For example, Udocumedia's and comedian George Lopez’s Instagram accounts often post/repost the same content while always acknowledging the original post. This serves as an instrumental online relationship because by crediting the original account, they both gain publicity and therefore their accounts continue to grow. It also attracts an increasingly younger political audience onto mainstream entertainers like George Lopez, and steers mainstream viewers onto Undocumedia's page, increasing their exposure. Although the Undocumedia account owner may actually be friends with George Lopez, it is more probable that they only associate with each other online because of their similar political views.

     Additionally, as one browses through different social media accounts, patterns of ‘friendly tension’ become evident. This term can be best described as the different forms of profiles individuals have across social media platforms that crash or intervene with their current identity or views. In the article Faux Friendship, William Deresiewicz points out that facebook goes by a ‘what once was lost can now be found motto’. However, he insinuates that somethings are not meant to be revisited. There are chapters that come to a close and it is perfectly find to never have to reopen that part of your life again. Clearly, many people put up with this ‘friendly tension’ to appear like they still care about a specific person or cause, even though they were ‘friends’ for only a semester years ago. Deresiewicz states, “they don't matter to you as individuals anymore, certainly not the individuals they are now, they matter because they made up the texture of your experience at a certain moment in your life, in conjunction with all the other people you knew”. In other words, we all go through phases that we should be okay with letting go. However, we fail to get rid of friendly tension from long-ago classmates or coworkers for the benefit of an increased follower count and a greater network of exposure, which can lead to even more account likes, comments, and reposts that translate into increased social media influence or clout. Furthermore, online followers that are not actual friends simultaneously use you in the same way as a type of echo chamber for their account activity, reinforcing the transactional nature of social media relationships. In-person friendships can be more conveniently maintained with a steady stream of account updates and activity, thus making it harder to distinguish between real or fake friends since they both occupy the same space in your news feeds. Nonetheless, social media algorithms solve that by focusing on your frequent communication with your actual buddies and diluting the activity of those you hardly interact with.

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Introduction

      I am interested in studying how social media can bring about effective change within certain communities that deal with immigrant rights and most importantly human rights. I specifically want to focus my attention on an organization called Undocumedia. Although their major audience is composed of U.S. minorities the account always works to inform, uplift, as well as to connect various communities into taking action and advocating for the rights they believe in. Undocumedia's Instagram has the power to bring mobile individuals together and connect the many communities facing oppression. Undocumedia has a regular website as well, which I do not visit as much since it is easier for me to open instagram, see a picture and read its caption. Additionally, I also enjoy reading others opinions about the posted subject and look through many of the comments. Although I prefer reading what actual community members think of on any post, instead of a professional author or writer, I understand that Instagram's reach is fairly limited to youth. Furthermore, as both of Undocumedia platforms deliver the same message, it is evident they can both work to tackle different age groups and communities that have the same goals in common. The Undocumedia website itself has a more traditional approach to it. Unlike instagram, the website is more text-based, less streamlined, and as such isn't as entertaining to younger groups. It serves to mainly provide broader information, get in contact, and help support the organization through its store or donations. Of course, the website can also be looked at as a more professional platform. The website has all the essential navigation tools like a ‘HOME’, ‘ABOUT US’, and ‘CONTACT’ tabs to make it easier for the viewer, giving Undocumedia a perceived organizational structure and efficiency that can grasp the attention of older groups as well. 

       Another account that catches my interest is the digital news platform called Fusion. Fusion is a cable news channel geared towards millennials with bilingual or Hispanic backgrounds. The channel usually features pop-culture, lifestyle, and global news. However, what makes Fusion unique is their style of reporting, which can be described as “irreverent”. Fusion often takes news that is typically reported in a respectful or serious manner, but often delivers it in a less academic or formal tone. As such, its broadcasts and reporting are perfectly packaged for Instagram and wider social media distribution. As most millennials are opting for free, streaming, or non-cable news services, one can argue that Fusion's digital social media reach is greater than its cable-news presence.  I myself have never actually watched its cable news programming, beyond what is re-posted in their social media accounts. Fusion's important distinction from Undocumedia is its overarching presence in English-speaking minority communities, by hiring a diverse array of writers, reporters, and producers. Furthermore, Fusion is an actual news network, so it generally retains non-partisan reporting as a feature, while Undocumedia is a political action advocacy group. However, both groups are not mutually exclusive, as they share many of the same followers, revealing similar views among the two. 

      Lastly, the Latinarebels account on instagram illustrates through memes and news the woman empowerment amongst mexicans. These Latinarebels also show their viewers that they are breaking the chain of being molded into the same gender roles their ancestors were once part of. Although there is a clear comedic side to their posts, they mostly focus the same concept of uplifting latino communities around the world by specifically empowering women. Overall, this community organization helps many marginalized groups to be more motivated and not to feel alone. They motivate by posting success stories of the minority and they make you feel at home because there are many similarities with one another. This is not just important to me, but also all of those that have ever felt discriminated against, those that feel oppressed, and those that just want human rights, justice, and equality for all.