Dear Facebook,

Dear Facebook,
BA1002                                  Kendall Munro                          Monday 3pm

This week’s McNeil (2011) reading suggested that social networking sites were the modern day diary. Over my years as a Facebook user I have noticed the way in which people are “writing and publishing serial chronicles of daily life” (McNeil, 2011, p.313) and how I, at times, also take part in documenting my daily routines. However, McNeil (2011) also notes that the 20^th century introduced the common notion that a diary is “intensely personal and confessional, the sorts of secrets that should be hidden away under lock and key... meant only for the diarist’s eyes” (p.315). Looking back to the week 3 lecture, Van Luyn (2013) described the way in which it was common for people to portray a positive image, such as wealth, success, and happiness, through social networking sites which may mislead people into creating a false perception of us. With this in mind, I believe that social networking sites resemble a timeline of an individual’s daily activities and significant life events rather than a diary, as human nature persuades us to keep the deeper, personal aspects of our lives from the public’s view.

The urgency to keep private matters behind closed doors can be seen through the Facebook profiles of politicians Kevin Rudd and Tony Abbott in the lead up to this year’s election. Although this is on a much larger scale than everyday people, it does reflect the way in which people will be more inclined to share the positives and how they will actively defend them self when they are challenged or sensitive information about them is shared. Both parties would share details of their government policies and the positive effects they will have on Australia, and rarely shared any negative aspects of their own policies. However, they would readily share the consequences of electing the opposite government into power.  Facebook profiles are autobiographies, edited, updated and published on a daily basis; only ever displaying the details we decide will influence our readers to perceive us in the way that best suits us.

The following video clip mocks the way people use Facebook to document their daily activities: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0E8QkHwK1s

Reference List:

McNeill, L. (2011). Diary 2.0?: A genre moves from page to screen. In Language and New Media. (C.Rowe & E.L Wyss, Ed.). Creskill, NJ: Hampton Press Inc.

Van Luyn, A. (2013). BA1002: Our Space: Networks, Narrratives and The Making Of Place, Lecture 4: Narrative. [Notes] Retrieved from: http://learnjcu.edu.au

Image Credit:

http://cdn.socialnewsdaily.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Facebook-and-Diary-Confusion.jpg

The Virtuality of Food, Cultures and Origins

 

# Blog 5: The Virtuality of Food, Cultures and Origins.

Image From:  http://newspagedesigner.org/photo/food-origins?context=user#!/photo/food-origins?context=user

Food isn’t just food; it is a symbol that can represent a transformation of a culture and ethnic groups that may be associated with various regions, allowing adaptations and change to be dependent on the virtuality and reality of food as well as its culture. (Kuttainen, 2013). Habbo Hotel has the ability to allow the virtual avatar to eat, drink, and socialise with others in many different arenas and rooms associated in the hotel. Some of these rooms and arenas include cafes’, night clubs, and restaurants. This is defiantly a key factor which Patel talk about in this week’s reading; that Habbo Hotel can be viewed as a large corporation of power through the consumption of food advertisements that are associated throughout the websites home page and the socialization towards other virtual characters and their environment. 

Drawing on this week’s reading of Atkins & Bowler (2001) they discuss that “ironically, there is no guarantee that food which has place in the association of mind to the consumer can be found amongst its true regional specialities.” This allowed me to look at my social network and discover how and why food what present and its impact on the virtual character I have created to social in an online community. This has showed me that all types of food as well as the different cultural food are being used in Habbo Hotel.

Like all social networking sites they all had to start somewhere, fond, a creator and be known through the virtual world. Google is one of the most well-known sites around the world that has been the key base of common social networking sites. And now within the company Google you are able to access web mail through what is called “Gmail”. Habbo Hotel is not only a socially, global network that allows users to interact online it also forms an identity (ID) that can be less recognisable, making it the virtual world seem somewhat optimistic. Habbo Hotel is owned and operated by Sulake Corporation; which also co-funds other virtual networks such as lost monkey, niko and press. On http://www.sulake.com/habbo/ is a further detail explanation of what the creator of Habbo Hotel and other social networks that Sulake Corporations have interconnected.

Reference List:

Atkins, P., & Bowler, I. (2001). Food in Society: Economy, Culture, Geography. London, England: Arnold. a member of the Hodder Headline Group

Kuttainen, V (2013) BA1002: Our Space: Networks, Narratives and the Making Of Place, Lecture 7: Part 2/3 Food Networks [PowerPoint Slide Notes]. Retrieved From: http://learnjcu.edu.au

Image Credit:

Douglas Okasaki (27.06.2011). Food Origins. Retrieved From: http://newspagedesigner.org/photo/food-origins?context=user#!/photo/food-origins?context=user

Genre and the sub-category of Parodies

(Today’s image is Dwayne Johnson dressing up as Miley Cyrus. This image is form of parody which will be explained)

This week’s topic that I am focusing on is Genre. Van Luyn defined genre as “cultural products that can be grouped into classes based on the similarities they hold and it can be said that genre can both enable and restrict the meaning of the product' (2013). Other terms for genre include category or textual type. There are also sub-genres, which are when things are categorized further in the over arching genre; for example, the genre horror has the sub-genre or category of slasher.

YouTube has multiple major genres such as; Music, Pets & Animals, Gaming, Howto & Style ect; that can be accessed on the homepage of YouTube. However, it also has sub-categories that are found when a word is typed into the YouTube search bar, which allows every video that either has that word in the title, or has the word tagged as apart or feature of the video, is listed.

I am going to speak briefly on the genre (or sub-category to some) of parodies. Parodies are found frequently and on almost every topic of any other genre or sub-category found, on YouTube. Parodies are “any humorous, satirical, or [ridiculous] imitation, of a person, group, event, etc” (Dictionary.com). Parodies may be often humours, but they can also be beneficial in some ways. Diyanni said “break the rules in a quest to be engaging, persuasive and interesting” (2005), and in the sense of parodies, this works almost every time.

Wiki’s ‘How to Write a Song Parody’ suggests picking a song that is “disliked, as it will be easier to parody.” Society has very high standards and opinions, and if society dislikes something, it can almost be guaranteed to become a parody of some form (often through song, but there are also sketches); for instance Carly Rae Jepson’s ‘Call Me Maybe’ as a parody has over 915,000 results, and One Direction’s ‘What Makes You Beautiful’ as a parody has over 456,000 results. But songs are not the only targets of parody makers; witty and quirky comments (for example ‘Ain’t nobody got time for that’) or even political issues and people aren’t even safe.

If you want to try your hand at writing a song parody, here is the link http://www.wikihow.com/Write-a-Song-Parody

Today’s image is Dwayne Johnson dressing up as Miley Cyrus. This image is another form of parody.

References

Dictionary.com (N/A). Parody. Retrived from http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/parody

 Diyanni, R. (2005). ‘Introduction: reading and writing essays.’ New York University: Penguin Academics.

Van Luyn, A. (2013). BA1002: Our Space: Networks, Narratives and The Making Of Place, Lecture 6: Genre. Retrieved from http://learnjcu.edu.au

Image

http://img2.owned.com/media/images/1/4/0/3/14032/the_rock_vs_miley_cyrus_who_wore_the_dress_better_540.jpg

The evolution of the diary in the digital age.

Image:  Day 9: Avoid the beach ball of doom.

The format of the diary is once again undergoing a period of evolution with the growing influence of the digital age with its ability to allow the author to network with a vast array of readers via the new form of digital diary known as a blog (McNeill, 2011). This transition has however carried along with it the idea that blogs are not all similar but fit into many and varied types of genre.

The idea that a genre is based on similarities and conventions (Van Lyun, 2013) may be seen in the different sub forums within MacRumors. The development of the genre from diary into the essay into blogs has created a new form of writing which allows for the grouping of ideas and the use of hyperlinks as these are often used to allow the reader to explore the topic discussed in much greater detail.

The form of diary now known as a blog is evolving at an astonishing rate. No longer is a blog just a single entity but part of a much larger networked community of online social network sites that are increasingly becoming interwoven with each other. The power of the ideas expressed by the contributors on MacRumors is further enhanced by the provision of links to Facebook and Twitter on the front page of the site which it is possible to follow by use of the link  https://www.facebook.com/MacRumors

References

McNeill, L. (2011). Diary 2.0?  A Genre Moves from Page to Screen. In C. Rowe & E Wyss (Eds).  Language and New Media: Linguistic, Cultural, and Technological Evolutions.

 (pp 313-325) . Hamilton Press Inc, Cresskill, NJ.

Van Luyn, A (2013). BA1102: Networks, Narratives and the Making of Place, Week 6 Notes (PowerPoint). Retrieved from http//learnjcu.edu.au

Image Credits:

 Day 9: Avoid the beach ball of doom. Image (2013). Retrieved from http://geeksugar.com/How-Speed-Up-Your-Mac-Computer 26314589

Online Audience

Throughout the last decade, online diaries have gained notable popularity and are now a daily routine for thousands worldwide. Since the introduction of the internet, the diary has had a complete re-invention in both format and the generic features that create the diary itself. What was once an intimate and private journal, has now transformed into a public account, visible to the eyes of a wide audience of internet users. Instagram, the social networking site I have been researching throughout the past few weeks, is a prime example of how the both the format and genre specific conventions of the diary have developed with the introduction of the internet.

With a lack of a post feature, to allow users to verbally express themselves, it is hard to classify Instagram as an online diary, however, the genre conventions would say different. The lasting popularity of the diary genre is no doubt due “to its seemingly endless flexibility” (McNeill 2011), which has led to the current generation, posting their feelings, opinions and experiences on the World Wide Web. This change leaves almost no evidence of the once private, journal that was handwritten and hidden from friends and family, raising matters about the authenticity of the online diary. This public outlet for emotions and events, lacks the intimate and personal touch that made the idea of a diary so attractive for so many in the first place. When using Instagram for example, uploading photos and emoticons are the only way to convey how a user is feeling, users are not there authentic selves when posting, as there users are trying to appeal to their followers. Here is an excerpt of an essay by Bruce Merry, discussing the diary as genre. http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/20556925?uid=3737536&uid=2&uid=4&sid=21102608501877

 Just by looking at the presentation in which Instagram is displayed, the evolution of the diary becomes clear, transforming the design and the concept. But how can this new form the diary genre has undertaken be classed as authentic? There is no privacy on the internet, users are sharing their thoughts and opinions with a worldwide audience, hence defeating the purpose of the personal diary.

References:

McNeill, L. (2011). Diary 2.0?: A genre moves from page to screen, in Rowe, C. & Wyss, E.L. (Eds). Language and new media. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton. 

Internet Diaries and Genres

# Blog 4: Internet Diaries and Genres

 

Image From: http://confessionsofanaspergersmom.blogspot.com.au/2011_10_01_archive.html

Genres are socially based. They are dialogues that form links in the chain of speech communication and are a set of conventional, highly, organised constraints that produce interpretation and meaning. (Van Luyn, 2013). It is often seen that genres are normally categorised by certain contexts and can be formed to identify different groups. Over the past four weeks’ of being a part of Habbo Hotel I have expanded my virtual networking abilities to observe what other online users may call their reality world. Essentially, genres are included within online communication devices that can evolve a form of text. Unlike the majority of social networking sites, Habbo Hotel has the ability for your virtual avatar to become a part chats rooms, private messaging, and to be able to post “post-it notes” on the walls of a particular message room within the hotel. This defiantly shows that Habbo Hotel is an “internet diary” that various users around the world can observe, read, and have the opportunity to access several details,  just as McNeill describes in this week’s readings.   

McNeill (2011) discusses that diaries have been around since the late 1990s. The idea of a diary from than to now has broadly expanded, “internet diaries” (also known as “blogs”) give access to lives in progress to a potential audience of thousands. After spending time in my virtual network, I noticed different genres that are formed around the base power this can be known as the convention (set rules) that may apply when the user is online. Another form of noticing genres throughout social network societies can be by their distinctive authenticity, in Habbo Hotel this can be looked at through your avatar which is represents you when you are online. However, Habbo Hotel does allow the user to post and display information freely depending on what they choose and not choose to share online is merely the user’s choice.

As analysing the behaviour on Habbo Hotel, many key phrases, slang is used to shorten the meaning of words. An example of this is “ASL”, meaning your age, sex and location and many other well-known cyber slang which is almost in every social network. Power can be easily gained to construct a central meaning in a particular network. Discussed on http://www.socialbakers.com/resource-center/808-article-the-20-most-interesting-social-networks is a further explanation on social networking sites and the 20 most popular sites to visit.

Reference List:

McNeill, L. (2011). Diary 2.0?: A genre moves from page to screen. In Language and New Media. (C.Rowe & E.L Wyss, Ed.). Creskill, NJ: Hampton Press Inc.

Van Luyn, A (2013) BA1002: Our Space: Networks, Narratives and the Making Of Place, Lecture 6: Genre [PowerPoint Slide Notes]. Retrieved From: http://learnjcu.edu.au

 

Image Credits:

Confessions of a Aspergers Mom. (2011) Not the expert mom will all the answers… the mom who can’t stop looking for them. Retrieved From: http://confessionsofanaspergersmom.blogspot.com.au/2011_10_01_archive.html

 

 

Online Diaries

Image from: http://technorati.com/social-media/article/me-on-the-web-on-your/

 

When we think of Genre, often our first thoughts are to a type of Music such as Hip Hop, Country, Rock, or to a type of writing such as essay, or annotated bibliography but have we ever given much thought as to what constitutes “Genre”? Van Luyn (2013) discusses genre as “cultural products grouped into classes based on similarities and shared conventions” and is extremely important as it “actively generates and shapes our knowledge of the world”.  

The Diary genre has been around for centuries, originating in print format and associated with the “intensely personal and confessional” (McNeil, 2011, p.314). However with the changing times, there has been a shift to virtual formats with individuals choosing to share their experiences, thoughts and opinions with the world rather than under lock and key. As McNeil (2011) states, “Internet diaries (also known as blogs) give access to lives in progress to a potential audience of thousands” (p.313).

Facebook has become one of the most common online places to share experiences, thoughts and opinions; it itself has become a form of online diary. This has both negative and positive consequences. The positives being that connections between people can be strengthened through sharing of similar experiences, interests, opinions and a multitude of other things. There are however, many negatives to using Facebook as a diary. As discussed on a RaisingTeens blog, there are many potentially harmful effects of writing, in particular, feelings online for the entire world to see.  These expressions can lead to bullying, breakdown of relationships, depression and many other things.  

This leads us to the question, should  the “Diary” genre be kept in print form and under lock and key? Or has the online diaries positives outweigh the negatives?

 

References

McNeil, L. (2011). Diary 2.0?: A genre moves from page to screen. In Rowe, C. &Wyss, E.L. (Eds).               Language and new media: Linguistic, cultural and technological evolutions (pp.313-325).       Cresskill, NJ: Hampton.

Van Luyn, A. (2013). BA1002: Our Space: Networks, Narratives, and the Making of Place, Week 6              Notes (PowerPoint). Retrieved: http://learnjcu.edu.au

Image

Me on the Web (Image). 2011. Retrieved from: http://technorati.com/social-media/article/me-on-the-web-on-your/

 

 

Diaries: A changing genre

Close up of a desk with computer keyboard, pen and coffee cup

This week's lectures and readings have mainly been addressing the idea of genre and, specifically with the reading, the transition of diaries from the page to the screen. Genre as defined by Van Luyn (2013) is "texts or cultural products (such as music, writing, drama, art) grouped into classes based on similarities and shared conventions." (p. 1) This is genre broadly and generally defined and, with the specific case of my social network, genre is used to define and separate all the different interests available and forming them into categories making it easier to find specific items.

StumbleUpon as an online diary is different to how a blog or traditional diary would be set out. In this week's reading it explained that:

Internet diaries (also known as "blogs") give access to lives in progress to a potential audience of thousands. Likely more people then ever are now writing, reading, and talking about diaries, and many Interent diarists have used their "amateur" narratives to achieve "proffessional" writing acclaim.

(McNiell, 2011, p. 315)

StumbleUpon doesn't have a conventional diary/blogging method, but takes a more unusual path. Instead of having written text to portray feelings and personal life, the 'diary' side of this social network relies heavily on the choosing of your interests and of liking the pages that you 'stumble' through. When looking at my profile specifically, there are no written passages or notes, just my likes and my interests. But the best way for people to look at my profile and understand what my preferences are is by observing my Stumble DNA. By taking a quick look at my Stumble DNA it is easy to see what interests me the most (which in this case is home living) and what interests me the least. So in effect StumbleUpon doesn't use conventional methods of an online diary, but utilises unique techniques to protray the personal life of it's 'Stumbler'.

Until next time,

Aaron



Reference List:

McNiell, L. (2011). Diary 2.0? A genre moves from Page to Screen. In  C. Rowe & E.L. Wyss. (Eds.), Language and New Media: Linguistic, Cultural, and Technoligical Evolutions (pp. 315-325) Retrieved from: https://learnjcu.jcu.edu.au/bbcswebdav/pid-1176479-dt-content-rid-837462_1/courses/13-BA1002-TSV-INT-SP2/McNeill%2C%20L.%20%282011%29.%20Diary%202.0.pdf

Van Luyn, A. (2013). BA1002: Our Space: Networks, narratives and the making of place, Lecture 6: Stories and Places. Week 6 Notes [Powerpoint] Retrieved from http://learnjcu.edu.au

Image Credits:
Close up of a desk with computer keyboard, pen and coffee cup [Image]. (2013) Retrieved from: http://www.123rf.com/photo_10561424_close-up-of-a-desk-with-computer-keyboard-pen-and-coffee-cup.html

Facebook: Genre and Language Conventions

Facebook: Genre and Language Conventions

 

Image retrieved at: http://www.someecards.com/usercards/viewcard/MjAxMi1iNGQyZmI1Yzk2ODZiMTQ1

This week’s reading revolved around the concept of diaries transitioning into the digital era. Diaries were a way to express your feelings onto a page, and were generally kept hidden from the public; but now, “internet diaries (also known as “blogs”) give access to lives in progress to a potential audience of thousands.” (McNeill, 2011). Blogs are the ‘digital diary’ that is often used today, and much like a blog, Facebook has been used to express feelings through the use of the internet. Many people tend to update their status when they have gone through some life event, no matter how insignificant it may seem. A Facebook status gives you the power to tell everyone what you’re doing, and how you feel about it, by using specific genre and language conventions.

As I mentioned last week, Tuan (1991) states that there are different ways by which language contributes toward the making of place. The language and genre choices people make determine how people will interpret what they write on Facebook.  In this week’s lecture, Van Luyn (2013) said “All language use is framed in generic types. Genre is a precondition for communication, for the creation and interpretation of texts.” There are different ways to communicate expressions on Facebook. In a status, people could use emotive language to gain attention from others (sad status makes people worry about them and want to comfort them; angry/swearing statuses make people concerned and want to help them; happy statuses make other people feel happy for them etc). Also, the new feature on Facebook allows people to add emoticons on their status to show how they are feeling. This helps confirm their emotions and allows people to react accordingly. Also, the use of capitals to show frustration or excitement attracts readers, as does adding pictures either to their statuses or even just as a post itself. These conventions will attract peer attention, whether it is positive or negative. This demonstrates the idea of power within Facebook, as the genre and language choices determine how people perceive you online.

Lomborg, S. (2011) wrote an article called ‘Social media as communicative genres’. The Abstract of this article states “This paper establishes and discusses a conceptual framework for defining social media as communicative genres, constituted by the interplay between interactive functionalities configured at the software level and the invocation and appropriation of various software functionalities to achieve specific purposes in and through users’ actual communicative practices.” If you’re interested in reading this article further, go to www.mediekultur.dk for the online version, or http://ojs.statsbiblioteket.dk/index.php/mediekultur/article/download/4012/5034 for the PDF file.

References:

McNeill, L. (2011). ‘Diary 2.0?: A genre moves from page to screen.’ In Language and New Media. (C.Rowe & E.L Wyss, Ed.). Creskill, NJ: Hampton Press Inc.

Tuan, Y. (1991). Annals of the Association of American Geographers. Taylor& Francis, LTD. Retrieved from: http://learnjcu.edu.au

Van Luyn, A. 2013. BA1002: Our Space: Networks, Narratives, and the Making of Place, Week 6 Notes (PowerPoint). Retrieved from: https://learnjcu.jcu.edu.au

Article Link:

http://ojs.statsbiblioteket.dk/index.php/mediekultur/article/download/4012/5034

Image Credits:

Dear diary e-card image retrieved at: http://www.someecards.com/usercards/viewcard/MjAxMi1iNGQyZmI1Yzk2ODZiMTQ1