T5 - relationships & digital communications

• Miller (positive)

  • Facebook helps people maintain good relationships and compensate for geographical distance  
  • Good for finding and cultivating relationships and networks
• Miller - Why We Post (positive)

  1. New groups - Mumsnet, GirlsAskGuys
  2. Maintain long distance family relationships
  3. Grow business links - ASOS's #AsSeenOnMe on Instagram increased their exposure
  4. Help women create lives independent of patriarchal control - Women Of Eight is a Facebook group for women to share their experiences as a result of the abortion ban in Ireland
• Boellstroff

  • Virtual world Second Life followed a liberal capitalist model and can be liberating place of interaction and complex relationships (falling in love and running a political campaign) 
• Youthnet

  • Young people grew up using social media as ‘digital natives’ and felt comfortable and natural in the virtual world 
  • Allows them to be creative and empowers them; 45% of sample felt happiest online, 75% said they couldn’t live without the internet 
• Zhao critiques positive interpretations because whether your relationships are enhanced or damaged by the internet depends on how you use it - e.g LinkedIn vs TikTok
• Turkle

  • Face to face communication has been lost, attention spans reduced, and people skills are being lost, she calls this ‘alone together’ 
  • Society is vulnerable as we expect more from technology and less of each other 
  • Gives us the feeling of interconnectedness and control but in reality, we are lonely and isolated 
  • ‘Post familial’ family who are no longer familiar with each other because they do not share experiences or talk intimately, they spend time on digital devices instead.
• Example of 'alone together' (Turkle)

  Estimated to be over 500,000 Hikikomori youth who haven't left their home in a year, carrying out their lives online instead.
• Smith et al

  • 20% of their sample had experienced cyberbullying within the last two months 
  • Found in the form of texts, calls, emails, and some chat rooms 
  • Few children told anyone about it and in most cases, it stopped after a few weeks 
• Extreme examples of cyberbullying (Smith et al)

  Cases of suicide: Megan Meier and Ryan Halligan 
• Cross (negative)

  • Less diverse views of the world, entrenched in our preexisting beliefs due to the narrowing down of media intake by choosing certain news and sites to visit.  
  • Creates ‘tribes’ as the filter bubble locks users into personalized feedback loops  
  • Keeps us clicking from one self-affirmation to another, which some people call an ‘echo chamber’ effect