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Social media drove the Arab Spring, the story goes. If it weren’t for viral posts in Tunisia setting off a cascade of dominoes across the region change would never have arrived. For a brief period, the arrival of social media giant Facebook in countries with low connectivity or strict freedom of the press and internet meant change was afoot.
There are very few examples of companies that have been able to genuinely change when confronted with new circumstances. It looks increasingly that Facebook and Google are approaching this situation. The challenge is likely to come from some quarter that is new and surprising, just as the demolition of conventional media came from companies that could have barely been imagined 20 years ago.
Social media requires us to produce 'profiles' of ourselves that represent our cultural aspirations; not only who we are, but who we imagine we would like to be. This is often liberating and creative. But the digital sphere is not as innocent as mere self-expression. The more we believe that we are inherently self-made, essential beings, our capacity to recognise the cultural and economic forces greater than us suffers.
Last weekend's Muslim riot in Sydney, prompted by a YouTube trailer for an anti-Muslim film, illustrated the disturbing power of new media. As secretary of the Vatican department responsible for the Church's social communications, Monsignor Paul Tighe grapples daily with the dilemmas and promises of new media.
A lot of people say they committed Facebook suicide – deleting their profile – after seeing the new American documentary Catfish. 'Even I've scaled back,' says co-director Ariel Schulman. 'If a "virtual relationship" affects you emotionally, then it's not virtual at all.'
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is reportedly displeased with the film. The decay of his friendship with co-founder Eduardo Savarin during the creation of a site predicated on accumulating 'friends' is the film's greatest irony, and greatest tragedy.
You never read anything good about Facebook. A headline in the Sydney Morning Herald this week declared there are no rules. It has a reputation for superficiality and promiscuous over-sharing. But I haven't had so much fun in years. And I have never felt less alone.
Australian online and wireless games constitute a rapidly-growing, billion-dollar industry, and sites such as Facebook increasingly dominate our social networks. Have we taken the first step towards 'trusting the computer' too much? October 2009
Australian online and wireless games constitute a rapidly-growing, billion-dollar industry, and sites such as Facebook increasingly dominate our social networks. Have we taken the first step towards 'trusting the computer' too much?
So in the long journey of nearly five years since the Australian federal government's renewed search for a national radioactive waste facility, it seems a new stage has been reached.
It would be really easy to ‘both-sides’ these debates, but that would present a false equivalence. Surely, if we have learned anything from this year’s lockdowns, we should have gained a far greater appreciation of the importance of community access to outdoor space — and, therefore, of spatial justice?
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