The era of Vlogging

In Alice Marwick’s book Status Update she talks about lifestreaming in the chapter “Lifestreaming: We Live in Public”. Lifestreaming is sharing information constantly to an audience and this creates a digital network about one’s thoughts and actions. Lifestreaming may seem fun and easy but it is far from that. Lifestreaming requires lots of thought and labour. Lifestreamers constantly have to think about what their viewers want to see that also matches and fits with the persona that they have created online. The audience is a main part of lifestreaming as they are able to interact with the lifestreamer as well by posting comments or liking the video/picture.

An example of lifestreamers that I follow were Jesse Wellens and Jeana Smith. They are youtubers for the channels BFvsGF and PrankvsPrank. PrankvsPrank is a channel about them pulling pranks on each other and BFvsGF is a channel where they do daily vlogs. Vlogs are blogs which are displayed in videos. They have been dating for 10 years and just recently split up. They posted one last video together where they talked about the reasons on why they broke up and one of them was because of vlogging. They said that vlogging put a lot of pressure and stress on them because they had to find creative and fun things to post about every day and they became consumed about their public image and did not have time to focus on each other.

Here is a video where they announce their breakup:

My question is “do you think vlogging is ruining lives and why?”

What's your pitch?

An important strategy for Web 2.0 is self-branding. Alice Marwick’s chapter “Self-Branding: The (Safe for Work) Self” in her book Status Update discusses the “promotional culture” that we live in. Self-branding is using marketing technique on one’s self. This is to promote our self to future employers and other people. To do this, we need to take part in emotional labour and self-surveillance. However, self-branding is contradictory as because we appear to be authentic and true but we are not actually our true self as we have to monitor everything that we do. We sell ourselves as commodities to potential managers.

Networking is also part of self-branding. During our everyday interactions with other people, we think about the possibilities of what something can lead to. Networking requires each person to pitch an idea or topic to the other person and this in turn leads to discussions (Marwick, 189). Having a good pitch is what will get you noticed and establish your own brand.

My question is “what do you consider to be a good pitch?” and "do you have a pitch?"

Apps and Drive

          Jodi Dean in her article discusses the roles that apps play in customizing and enhancing our experience when using the mobile technologies and devices that these apps are stored in. She points out that there are 4 ways that apps create drive through people’s interactions with these technologies. The 4 ways that apps try to create drive are through processes of the individualization of their apps to their users in order to allow them to feel more connected to what they do with these apps. Apps try to create a sense of Isolation in the users experience with the app where the person is taken from one reality and immersed in another one. Apps also try to create personalization and responsibilization by allowing certain options or operations available for a more customized experience as well as affirming individual fantasy of omniscience and autonomy, where a person is able to do things for themselves without the need for assistance. They also find ways to identify with their users where they closely monitor and then identify the usage habits of their users in order to provide them with more features and services that will support their interests.

          

          Apps are what make these mobile devices like IPhones, IPads, tablets, that we identify with so successful in the world that we live in. They are able to create feelings of joy and pleasure in us when we are using or experiencing them, these feelings have the ability to fasten us to our devices and create interdependent relationships between user and device where individuals cannot live without their mobile technology. Without the many services apps present and the tasks that they help us carry out and complete, we will not see the same amount of craze and interest that forms when newer versions come out of the mobile technologies we hold so close to us. Do you think you would have an IPhone if it didn’t have the apps that we use so much today like banking, social media, health apps or game apps?

The Fabulous Lives of Micro-Celebrities

Alice Marwick’s chapter "The Fabulous Lives of Micro-Celebrities," in her book Status Update talks about micro-celebrities and she describes the two ways that one can be a micro-celebrity. The first being arranging yourself to be recognized and the second being ascribed fame because of your own success. Authenticity is needed for both ways. Many people have started building careers using their online fame.

Companies will give you a coupon code with your name that you share with your followers and they will get 15% off if they use the code RENA for example. It is also easy to share information through various different platforms, you can link your youtube account to your instagram so it's always easy to access all the content. As well as having post notifications on, you're constantly being updated whenever someone posts a new video or picture. A guy that went to my highschool created a very successful bodybuilding instagram account and now he is making a lot of money for posting videos and pictures of him working out and tip and tricks. In addition he has partnered with companies that give him coupon codes for supplements and protein powder. He also created a youtube channel and will post Instagram stories telling you go check out his new video and he linked it so that you can just swipe up and it’ll take you directly to youtube.

My question is “What micro-celebrities do you follow and why?”

Marwick & Self Branding

Alice Marwick in Status Update: discusses how labor is both in-material and emotional. From the standpoint of Self-branding, the in-material labor that Markwick refers to is the process that users go through online to produce content that can interpreted by other users, ``revealing vulnerable information in a performance of authenticity, and complete identification with the enterprise subject.`` (Marwick, 58), which encourages audiences viewing our content to interact with us more frequently. The other concept that Marwick talks about is the emotional aspect of labor, which ultimately describes that the content that we post online, or how we brand ourselves, in which we do what Marwick quotes as ``induce or suppress feelings in order to sustain the outward countenance that produces the proper state of mind in others`` (Marwick, 351), suggesting we are different online than in real life.  One of the labouring processes of identity that comes to mind with these concepts are social media websites Facebook and Instagram. More specifically, how we upload pictures and videos of us doing things that we want to show people we are connected with online. My question is with regards to branding, have you ever attempted to create your own self brand online? What methods do you think have worked? Do you think there are users of social media who do in fact hinder the perceptions of other users in order to get what they want? 

Jodi Dean - Apps and Drive

Jodi Dean's article Apps and Drive examines how applications on smartphones increase communicative capitalism, individualist and individualizing fantasies. Dean focuses on how apps cause us to feel a need to own a smartphone, provides the consumer with a way to stay connected and a way for one to interact. She also says that the fascination with apps derives from "the affective attachment point tethering complex chains of production in which the app is less a product than itself another means of production". Essentially she is saying how the app is not really a product but another way of production fulfilling capitalistic goals.

The focus of the article can be broken down into four components of individualization that fulfil individualist desires as Dean says, the four are: isolation, personalization, responsibilization and identification. I think the most intriguing aspect is identification due to how prominent this concept has been throughout fourth year communications seminars. Specifically the focus on what can be seen as one's personal data such as, location and browsing history I find to be important. This is because this is what allows companies to target consumers based on their preferences, it allows for a greater chance of purchases if you're targeting the consumers preferred tastes.

Do you think that you are more inclined to purchase within app to further yourself along in the app? or do you think you are more likely to purchase items seen on the side bar? For instance some online shopping you have inquired about that is now subject to your screen due to identification.

Sharma and the use of time with Taxi`s

 In Sarah Sharma`s Temporal Labour and The TaxiCab: Maintaining The Time of Others, she discusses the concept of affective labour, which is the idea of an subject establishing a link within space, essentially having that subject make time for other subjects. In relation to Taxis, Sharma believes they are constrained by giving the potential customer their services by driving them to their destinations. Are there any other instances where a subject`s time is being used in order to ensure the success of another subject? For instance, the recent taxi app Uber has drivers that voluntarily use their own free time to drive people in order to make a profit.      

Mobile Web 2.0

In Gerard Goggin's article Mobile Web 2.0 - New Imaginaries of Mobile Internet focuses on how the mobile internet has been formed through the innovation and adaption of the mobile and the internet. Goggin says that the mobile and the internet co-create what we now know as the mobile internet. Without mobile phones and capability of the internet on mobiles the rise of social media and apps seem very unlikely. Specifically the article begins to focus on the concept of sharing and how individuals are able to communicate through platforms accessible through the mobile internet.

The concept of sharing as Goggin explains it is how individuals use social media to broadcast their experiences, it allows others to view another as if they are there together. An interesting point Goggin makes is how the mobile phones were meant for one person but in advertisements today two people are displayed on mobile phones. Most times they are showing each other something on social media.  He examines aspects such as photos and how one can have a full album on their mobile, allowing them to post the photo on various platforms. This reiterates the concept of sharing and influences individuals to stay connected.

In today's society what would you say you use your mobile for exclusively? Do you think that the primary function of the mobile has been used for Goggin's concept of sharing? and lastly, What influences do you as a consumer believe have contributed to the attachment of the mobile for  individuals in social settings?

Strategies for Materializing Communication

In Jeremy Packer and Stephen B. Crofts Wiley article Strategies for Materializing Communication the influence of Foucault is focused on. The article focuses on five themes in works that seek to improve materialist understandings of communication through economy, technology, space, body and discourse. In regards to Foucault specifically, the article states, "media technologies are envisioned as part of a series of historical attempts to implement differing governmental rationalities wherein media are mechanisms for extending and organizing governance and the formation of subjects", as well as the quote "a practical rationality governed by a conscious goal". What one can take from these two quotes is the desire and focus of how media acts to govern individuals as well as society. 

We can directly relate to this concept because individuals of society are products of the media. This is true due to how individuals comprehend information presented through the media. For example how someone interprets one article on a topic may interpret another article on the same topic differently due to bias of the authors point of view. This allows for media to govern individuals to feeling or thinking a certain way in regards to a topic. This concept is prevalent in advertisements, for instance one's style or preference for hair products can be tailored towards how the media markets their product. 

Companies try to create a consistent message with their products in order to create a notion of how one should appear or act. An example of this is how the media uses women who all look similar to advertise products or how workout advertisements use people who are extremely in shape and more muscular then the average person. 

The media governs society as it subconsciously tells consumers what not to do and what to do, as the media depicts what is acceptable in a particular view. Other then beauty product advertisements and advertisements in general, what other ways do the media govern society? 

Blackberry's rise and fall

As discussed in lecture, one key facet of life in Waterloo and with the universities in surrounds, is the company Blackberry. Needless to say, the company suffered major downfalls over the past few years. What changed in society is the representation of smartphones, and greater user-generated content that is far more accessible to the quotidian individual. Ubiquitous connectivity has made its way into the realm of socializing and has grown through its monopolies to generate significant amounts of revenue. Blackberry is pushing forward and attempting to adapt in a system that favours trends. Can Blackberry alter its image to meet demands of the public? Can it grow like Facebook has over the years and change its interface and image, or is remaining a known brand that does not fall to commodity fetishism, ubiquity, and standardization remain the greater reality in this company's future?

Slow Living

The presentation in class on the topic of slow living was rather intriguing and revitalizing in a sense. The progress that one town can develop and the recognition as being a slow-life area is something that could alter the outlooks on life for years to come. The point that I found to be questionable was when the presenter asked whether or not it is somewhat of a disturbance to the lifestyle of those in the town when people from out of town visit and are looking for the quick, economically budget-fitting deals that a Walmart can offer. Not everyone can be aware of the ways in which each town operates, and a lifestyle that is far more noticeable is often favoured by the government and diplomats when implementing business and when efforts and opportunities to make money are at stake.

Will slow living trend into something greater across not just the nation, but grow throughout the world, even greater than the examples brought to attention such as the centre in Japan? In other words, is such a lifestyle feasible?

Wikipedia's Spanish Fork Labour Strike

Throughout the course and throughout the semester of studying imaginaries and materialities, the discussion of free labour and our own personal objectifications and oppositions to shared free media has been underlined as being quite central to the themes of the course. This is not the first time Gehl has been considered as having profound impacts on the ways in which we legitimize our behaviours and actions in the public sphere as well as online. In the article, Gehl’s main points are centred on a few main topics. First and foremost, he speaks most specifically on the idea of free labour, and in this article’s case, the case of Wikipedia and the Spanish Fork Labour Strike is most pervasive. As well, his points are fixated quite dominantly on Marxist theories, and the design of class structure in society, and in particular the political economy of communication and social media. Much of what he discusses in regards to social media is incredibly, “…pervasive and endemic to late capitalism…” (Gehl, 118) Meaning there are those operating and performing the labour, and those managing, owning, and reaping the benefits of the means of production (a bourgeoisie – proletariat distinction). The most salient threads and framing issues of this text are: networked capitalism, labour strikes, and essentially labour rights. In the article, Gehl states, “…historical and sociological studies have shown that class consciousness does not inevitably arise as capitalism polarizes people into the two grand competing groups, owners and workers” (Gehl, 124). People are aware of their stance in society, and people are often attempting to make themselves more stable and fortunate, however, I believe that an altercation to one's rights and ownership of information is far more pervasive than the fact that one is living in a two bedroom or seven bedroom house.

Do you agree that is was right for the worker in Spain to stand forth and present his objections, diminishing the outlook on the entire enterprise, established by the owners and founders of Wikipedia?

The Debate on Privacy

The idea of Privacy vs. Publicity comes up a few times throughout the book Status Update. The internet has created a breach between the two through the constant monitoring of people through social media. We feel connected to the people we follow and therefore there can be a disconnect in what is considered private and public. When someone chooses to live their life publicly online, they get the side effect of having less of a private life.

When do you think following a person on social media goes too far?

Social media stars have made YouTube videos and posed tweets and so on about a breach in their privacy such as a fan showing up to their front door when they never disclosed their address and so on. A lot of the time we see this in the Hollywood world when celebrities have private photographs leaked or when emails get hacked and shared on the Internet. We can look at the huge Ashley Madison hack that exposed all of the sites users. These are all examples of a breach in privacy.

See here a video of the popular YouTuber TheSyndicateProject who talks about fans showing up to wherever he is staying and simply asks for privacy.

Can someone who has chosen to live their life publicly ever truly have a private life?

When someone publicizes something they are wanting the whole world to see. Whereas when someone posts to their private Facebook they have in mind that that post will stay between them and their friends list. But since we are posting things onto a public platform, is everything fair game for anyone to post or share?

Holistic Health as means of Control - A critique of Sharma's Reading

I would  like to use this blog post to comment on Erika Ymana’s blog post The sedentary lifestyle of the desk worker. I would like to point out this post as I would like to offer a different critique of Sharma’s chapter, “Dharma at the Desk: Recalibrating the sedentary worker”. After reading this chapter I could not help but focus on how holistic wellness approaches to sedentary life may be regarded as a means of control. By such I mean, if workers are never encouraged to question the state of their workplace, they continue to work and comply with the ruling elite’s systems of capitalist power. Although holistic means of control may be more ideal than those of the past, none the less they still act as a means of keeping sedentary bodies from rising up and questioning the conditions in which they work.

Do we not gain more as citizens if we are constantly questioning the state of our being? Must we not always critique the systems of power which shape our daily lives in oder to maintain equality and fairness within such? I have to agree that holistic approaches to control are better than those of the past, but would still argue that as citizens we must not get too comfortable in our sedentary lives as this comfort is exactly what may lead to sites such as social media abusing our sedentary labour.

The Commodification of Identity

After reading Andrew Herman’s article “Production, Consumption and Labor in the Social Media Mode of Communication and Production” one my note that audiences have come to rely social media not only as means of display and purpose, but to serve as an outlet for personal expression. It seems that sites such as Youtube have found their success after encouraging users to “Broadcast yourself”. In the social media age, a person’s ‘brand’ is no longer a way to communicate one’s personal identity traits online, but have become a lucrative way to make money in the social media age. Today, Youtube ‘star’ or ‘vloggers" (video bloggers) can make upwards of 15 million dollars a year, and such is based off of how they use their personal ‘brand’ to sell an advertisers product.

For example, Youtube star Tyler Oakley went from a  popular youtube blogger, to a star of Ellen Degeneres’ own Youtube platform Ellentube. Today Tyler Oakley has created his own accessory line and has made the Forbes list Highest-Earning YouTubers of 2016.

What could a Youtube personality tell us about how capitalist systems have come to seemingly ‘take over’ the identity which social media has allowed users to create?

Audiences in the Digital Marketing Age

As discussed in "Who says Facebook friends aren’t your real friends” by Kylie Jarrett, the value of an audience in the information and digital age has become indispensable to media creators. This is because audiences of the web now have a mutually beneficial relationships with their social media platforms.

What one must consider though is how may this relationship grow with the ever changing internet, and will it eventually result in a relationship that is less beneficial for the user and more exploitative for the social media creator. I ask this question after stumbling upon the article “Save Time and Effort With Facebook Saved Audiences” from Social Times. Not knowing what a ‘saved audience’ was, research into the subject showed that it is a facebook tool for advertisers to use in order to narrow down the exact audience they wish to market too. ‘Save Audiences are “pre-made audience targeting that you can simply insert into your ad sets in the future” (Social Times, 2016). Once you have created this target audience you may narrow such down by choosing the age and gender, interests, behaviours, purchasing habits, income, etc (Social Times, 2016). This pre-made audience setting is now averrable for future use.

I have attached the link to this article below, and urge my classmates to read it. I then ask, what do you think this marketing specific facebook setting tells us about the new relationship between audience and social media?

http://www.adweek.com/socialtimes/jackson-salzman-elite-sem-guest-post-facebook-saved-audiences/647826

Venture Labour

       Gina Neff discusses the course that new business ventures typically take from their acquisition point to their adjourning or failure. She says that network diversity is important because it how fresh, new and different information travels and passes from one node or part to another in order to complete tasks or continue productivity of work. She talks about silicon alley in her article and stated that majority of the companies emerged because the changes in society were becoming very clear; new economic, technology and media values shaped the way the new economy would be defined. Silicon alleys perceived promising future came from 3 beliefs, those were 1. the idea that the internet industry had a certain and positive future, 2. that existing market metrics used to measure market growth were insufficient and 3. That workers had control and autonomy over their work and their choices in the industry. A lot of the reasons why ventures fail and partly the reason why silicon alley faced so many problems and failures of companies in the dot-com bubble, was that businesses in the industry were getting more and more homophilous, meaning they are similar to one another. If these companies are offering the same services, then how do they expect to get ahead and beat their competitors? They need to provide something extra or try something new to propel themselves forward within the market and industry. The problem with this although is that many organizations do not want to make the risk of trying something new only to risk it all and lose the position that they held before.

       The most important point or assertion I found, that Neff makes in this chapter of her book is that “risk is like a choice, it is framed freedom rather than being trapped” the way I understand this is that although risk, in any situation, is looked at as a trap that will only require increased effort and struggle to get out of, it has the ability to be freeing in the sense, when a risk that has been taken proves itself to be beneficial to the interest of the company.