A Kony Confession.

I have a confession.

I shared the Kony 2012 video. After seeing it appear multiple times in my Facebook newsfeed I decided to see what all the fuss was about. After watching the 30 minute footage about African war load Joseph Kony, I too wanted to share the video amongst my friends. It moved me, I was enthralled and I wanted to raise awareness. Would I go march down the street in support of the campaign? No, probably not. But for some reason the fact that I 'liked' and 'shared' the video did leave me feeling as if I was at least doing something to help the wider cause.

Australian columnist Sam De Brito says, 'we constantly criticise Generation Y for being apathetic and having short attention spans, yet when hundreds of thousands of young people do get together to try to make a difference, we then call them 'naive' or 'slacktivists' whose idea of social change is sharing a video on Facebook.' De Brito is right, my generations idea of social change does involve social media. It is for this reason that social media will play an integral role with digital activism in the future as it is what our youth are accustom to.

Just as social media being used as a vehicle for digital activists, culture jamming has emerged as an intriguing form of political communication in response to the commercial isolation of public life. People that participate in culture jamming play with branded images and icons of consumer culture in an attempt to challenge some larger aspect of the political culture of corporate domination. For Kalle Lasn, one of the founders of Adbusters, the best culture jam is once that succeeds with this attempt but through a two level message that punctures a specific commercial image (Centre for Communication and Civic Engagement).

Source: Adbusters

Culture jamming was popularised by American cultural critic Mark Dery who presents it as a form of 'tactical media.' With most corporate content being covered by copyright , there in endless legality that surrounds culture jamming. However those who participate in culture jamming wouldn't think twice about the problematic processes as it's the end result of obtaining the public's attention that they're after. From performance art, graffiti art, hactivism and adbusting - culture jamming is very much a popular way of disrupting dominant cultural influences.

Twitter: A Game Changer

I have tried my very hardest to throw myself into the Twitter world, I even attempted the ‘5 tweets a day’ rule but to no success have I been transformed into a Twitter junkie. I understand how it works for some (or should I say millions of people) but to me, updating people I barely know with my thoughts and opinions on a regular basis just isn’t appealing. I must admit, I do enjoy trawling through my feed that’s filled with the words of celebrities, businesses I admire and professionals of my chosen career – it can be somewhat inspiring. I’m just more than happy to just skip the part where I hit ‘tweet.’

Twitter’s potential to influence the social, political and cultural landscapes of our society on a global scale is mind blowing. In a digital age, where we are constantly consuming information from an immense amount of different mediums, Twitter’s 140 character limit allows users to quickly take in what they need and glance over what they don’t. Twitter reflects what theorist Henry Jenkins calls the ‘technology of collective intelligence.’ (HCDMediagroup, 2009). It has the ability to provide information in real time which is an important contribution to the new ‘participatory culture’ of our society. (HCDMediagroup, 2009). Howard Rheingold, one of the leading commentators and theorists on cyberspace, has written widely on his views on virtual communities and the importance of collaboration. Rheingold explains that virtual communities are created when people interact with public discussions long enough with sufficient human feeling to form webs of personal relationships in cyberspace. (Rouse, 2006) Twitter fits perfectly with this theory as people ‘follow’ each other’s posts and build relationships based on interacting with each other in an online environment.

Twitter has become a necessary platform for organisations to communicate with stakeholders during a crisis. Allan Schoenberg, of CME Group says, ‘the real time aspect of Twitter is a game changer for PR.’ (Perez, 2011). It enables organisations to reach out to a large audience, at no cost, making it an ideal environment to deliver breaking news. The ‘hash tagging’ tool brings people together to update on the crisis, and gives users the opportunity to add their opinions in a shared space. Twitter needs to be a part of an organisations broader strategy to be used effectively. “Twitter is as much about preventing an isolated issue from becoming a full-blown crisis as it is about communicating quickly to key stakeholders and the public once a crisis has happened.” (Clark, 2011).

As I am not an avid user of Twitter, I am somewhat sceptical on the social media platform’s lifespan. I don’t think at this stage of the game it is a ‘vital’ tool for people living in a crisis, but a necessary one. I don’t think it will ever become ‘vital’ as there will always be something more new and shiny for people to be attracted to in our technological society.

The Apple and The Cyborg

Four years ago I was sucked straight into the world of all things Apple. I rely heavily on my iPhone to get through the day, and if I had to give it up for even a week I would be living with severe withdrawals. What would I reach over to look at first thing in the morning, a newspaper? My iPhone is the home of my music collection so for me, it’s my source of relaxation. My iPhone has fixated itself into my daily lifestyle, like an added appendage (Richardson, 2007) and it wasn’t until I sat down to write this blog post that I actually thought, what would I do without it? My answer: finally get round to buying an ipad.  

The social costs of mobile devices are that they act as a necessity in many people’s lives, especially within younger generations. Sherry Turkle, a psychologist and director of the MIT Initiative on Technology and Self says that “there’s this sense that you can have the illusion of companionship without the demands of friendship.” (Turkle, 2009) She also makes the interesting point that our youth are using technology to cut corners on the demands of friendship and the intimacy that comes with those relationships. The reliance of text messaging and social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram are acting as barriers for face to face contact and come at huge social costs. We are losing touch with how to interact with each other in person.

Our personal identities are heavily influenced by mobile devices due to our reliance on their capabilities. Online communication and collaboration technologies can be facilitated through mobile devices which on one hand is enriching as we are not just being influenced by our physical surrounds. (Gluesing, 2009) However, the impact they have on our personal identities can also have a ‘cyborg’ effect as we are now relying on these mobile devices to be an external brain. Amber Case says that technology is evolving us, “as we become a screen staring, button clicking new version of homo sapiens.” (Case, 2010) 

I agree with Amber Case and can too see us as a generation of cyborgs and that as we move forward, mobile devices will continue to embed themselves into our daily rituals – allowing for rapid learning and communication between individuals and community.  

Turkle, 2010, ‘Interview with Sherry Turkle,’ Frontline, viewed December 2 2012, <http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/digitalnation/interviews/turkle.html>

Richardson, 2007, ‘Pocket Technospaces: The Bodily Incorporation of Mobile Media,' Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies, Routledge

Case, 2010, ‘Amber case: We are all cyborgs now,’ TED, viewed December 2 2012, <http://www.ted.com/talks/amber_case_we_are_all_cyborgs_now.html>.

Gluesing, 2009, 'Identity in a virtual world: The Coevolution of Technology, Work and Lifestyle,’ Mobile Work, Mobile Lives: Cultural Accounts of Lived Experiences, Wiley-Blackwell.