Global Social Media: Case Study – China

Over the past few weeks I have started looking at social media and social interactions in a different light and already have found myself being more critical of its uses, Because of this, in theory, I will perhaps look at changing the way I approach the use of social media going forward. This image is …

Social Gaming – Interacting in the online world

Social gaming is one of my favourite past times, particularly in recent times in the Online world of Grand Theft Auto. Together with two of my good pals I am the president of the Hells Harambe’s Motorcycle Club. We grow pot, we cut coke and we manufacture meth in a large scale operation which takes …

Visual Communities and Social Imaging

As a society we seem to be desperate to find motivation and/or inspiration wherever we turn. What was once the noble art of photography has become something of a hobby for anyone with an iPhone and there are more photos of peoples pub meals online now than there are pubs in the world (probably). When …

Trolling and Social Media Conflict

For the purpose of this blog post I will be looking at trolling and social media conflict from the perspective of anonymous comments, random attacks and spontaneous posting. Systematic bullying of a known subject is wrong, it is heartless and nobody deserves to be the subject of such victimisation - be it cyber or otherwise. …

Activism or Slacktivism – Digital Communities in times of protest

The role  that social media and digital communities play in aiding activism & protesting has evolved rapidly with the rise of social media culture. Given the sheer enormity of the online world it is impossible not to see the benefits of utilising this medium - which is precisely why it has become the target of many …

Politics & Civic Cultures

The evolution of politics through social media has been a rapid one ever since the rise to power of US President Barack Obama. Employing one of the top heads at Facebook as his social media strategist (Dutta & Fraser 2008) Obama was able to command a legion of young, impressionable voters to the polling booths …

Digital Communities and Social Media – A prequel of sorts

Digital Communities and Social Media. Where to start? For anyone questioning the growing social media culture in which we live I can assure you in the time it has taken me to write these three lines I have closed Facebook and reopened it at least 6 times. What I am trying to determine now – …

An Exploration of Social Gaming: Roleplaying Case Study

The purpose of this case study was to explore social changes in online activities and communities by observing the evolution of the text based social roleplaying game of fantasy wrestling – specifically coinciding the rise of social media culture. This subject was chosen as it is an underrepresented area in the social gaming sphere given …