“Yet, even when they are conducted
primarily online, relationships cannot be purely digital.”
This quote really interested me. In the
context of the reading, its author was writing about relationships through
social media, presumably positive ones such a romantic or platonic friendships.
However, this line made me think about cyber-bullying and how the removal of
oneself from the real world can make you feel as though your actions don’t impact
anyone in the real world. People often talk about ‘victimless crimes’, when you
are not confronted with another person, anything you say or do in your eyes
could seem victimless. I would be interested to read more into cyber-bullying from
the perspective of the cyberbully, what goes through their heads, if anything,
when they target their victim.
At first when going through this weeks
reading, I didn’t really understand what was meant when digital ethnography was
described as ‘open’. After thinking about it I’ve come to realise, the reach of
the digital world transcends the boundaries of that of the real world. I’m part
of multiple Facebook groups for photography, different television programs, politics,
film, the other members of these groups spanning from countless reaches of the
globe. This seems like a simple preach of the joys of social media, however
when you look deeper into it, each group is entirely different. The unwritten
rules and social norms of each group differ drastically, I couldn’t speak the
same way on a page about Ruth Bader Ginsburg that I do on a page about cartoons
from my childhood. The kind of posts
differ massively too, the collective for every group having an understand of
what the audience wants.
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