On January 25th 2011 protests erupted in Cairo and many cities throughout Egypt as the people of Egypt sought to overthrow President Hosni Mubarak, who had ruled the country for 29 years. As a result Mubarak announced on February 1st that he would not contest the next presidential election due to be held in September 2011. However the civil unrest continued as the anti-Mubarak protesters had hoped he would relinquish his office directly following the protest. On February 2nd violent clashes occurred between the anti-Mubarak protesters and supporters of his regime, which continued culminating in vice president Omar Suleiman announcing on February 11th that Hosni Mubarak had in fact resigned.
Following and indeed during the uprising in Egypt, many of those following the events had cited websites like youtube.com and social networking sites like twitter.com as being a major catalyst for the events that took place. While it’s obvious that one can’t hold these websites responsible for the protesters taking to the streets it’s undeniable that they sped up the process; to such an extent in fact that the government even tried not only to block the offending sites but to also try and block the entire internet service from the public.
It was thanks to the peoples use of social networking sites like facebook, twitter and various blogging sites that protesters were able to quickly organise and arrange locations; they also gave people courage to go out and stand up for their rights knowing that there were many others of the same opinion who would also be there standing up for what they believe in.
But the websites were not only instrumental in the organisation of the protesters but, arguably more instrumental in relaying the information of what was happening in Egypt to the rest of the world. It was the use of blogs and twitter that outed the pro-Mubarak supporters who clashed with the anti-Mubarak protesters as being thieves and plain clothes police, planted there to make the country appear to be split. While sources like twitter and blogs can’t validate claims made by its users the doubt they instil can sway public support and political opinion; although some would argue that the sheer volume of reports from Egypt over the internet was validation in itself. But it would not be the first time that corrupt regimes planted those to instil vigilante behaviour in order to make protests appear to be getting out of hand, thus resulting in police having a reason to start arresting protesters.
The popularity of social networking websites has exploded in the past few years; simply take a look at some of the staggering statistics below attached to some of the most popular social networking websites:
Facebook, which launched in 2004 currently has at least 500,000,000 users, and is ranked as globally the 2nd most viewed page on the internet after Google (www.alexa.com/topsites).
Twitter, which launched in 2006 currently has at least 175,000,000 registered users and is ranked globally as the 9th most viewed page on the internet (www.alexa.com/topsites).
MySpace, which launched in 2003 currently has at least 100,000,000 registered users and is ranked globally as the 65th most viewed page on the internet (www.alexa.com/topsites).
Bebo, which launched in 2005, currently has at least 117,000,000 registered users. However it is now ranked only as the 1,986th most viewed page globally (www.alexa.com/topsites) on the internet as many of its users have switched to sites like Facebook.
With gargantuan human traffic like this, it’s possible that people may underestimate the potential views their pages receive. It was this underestimation which led to a moral panic to break out among parents after houses were destroyed after teenagers had advertised a house party to their friends on social networking sites, only to find hordes of drunken teenagers turning up destroying property and causing all-round chaos.
The media’s coverage of these parties, which in the UK became known as ‘Skins Parties’ after the popular television show, caused parents to become increasingly concerned as to how their children were behaving online due to the resulting ‘real world’ chaos. However the moral panic surrounding social networking sites did not just centre on parties, and parents lack of understanding of their workings. In the UK a young girl was murdered after meeting up with a man she met on Facebook http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1224130/Mother-Ashleigh-Hall-killed-meeting-man-Facebook-calls-ban-false-online-profiles.html, and also in the UK a man who murdered his wife claimed he did so after she changed her Facebook relationship status to ‘single http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/facebook_murder_reflects_drama.php. Social networking sites have also been known to house cases of online bullying and have even resulted in the suicide of a girl who had a facebook group started antagonising her. The general panic surrounding social networking sites has caused America’s House of Representatives to pass The Deleting Online Predators Act in a bid to ban children from using certain social networking sites amid fears of prowling sexual predators http://www.technologyreview.com/Infotech/17266/?a=f.
But while all of the above-mentioned cases have spread fear and panic among users and non-users of the sites their popularity still continues to soar, and given the number of users per social networking site the number of crime related to them pales in comparison to that of a county with the same number of living inhabitants. So while social networking websites have been responsible in the above cases, similar activities have occurred long before the introduction of social networking sites and it could be argued that they are merely an extension of our lives and the events that surround them.
Released in 2010, the documentary ‘Catfish’ begins by chronicling the friendship that develops between 24 year old professional photographer Yaniv from New York, and talented 8 year old painter Abby from Michigan. Yaniv became aware of Abby when he received a painting of one of his photographs which appeared in ‘The New York Sun’, which had been painted by Abby. Yaniv would send more pictures to Abby to paint and they became friends on facebook, with Yaniv also becoming friends with Abby’s mother, her half-sister Megan Faccio and brothers and even some of their friends. As the movie progresses Yaniv becomes more involved (albeit only online and via telephone) with Abby’s family, most notably with her half sister with whom he seems to be on the verge of beginning a long distance relationship with.
Yaniv, along with his brother Ariel and friend Henry, who are documenting the friendship of Abby and Yaniv, begin to become suspicious of Megan. One night while talking to each other via webchat Megan posts music which she claimed to have performed herself, but which Yaniv found online being performed by another artist. Realising that as he has never actually conversed with Megan, Abby and her family face to face the three decide to drive up to Abby’s family home to investigate how genuine they really are.
The ensuing trip results in the shocking revelation that Abby’s mother Angela has fabricated virtual personas, through which she communicated to Yaniv. It also becomes clear that it is Angela who painted the pictures, not her daughter, and it was Angela pretending to be Megan when he called her on the phone. Angela, who lives with her daughter and husband along with his two handicapped sons, claims that she created this online existence to make up for the life she gave up in order to care for her family.
The documentary exposes the fact that people can and do use the internet to create a persona which not only embodies certain characteristics they wish they had, but can even create entire identities. Even in facebook people will usually choose the most flattering picture of themselves as their profile picture, and will post witty and intelligent quips to extend the better parts of their personality into the virtual world. However Catfish raises a certain amount of ethical questions in that while it appeared that Angela deserved a way to express her lost youth, her fabrications resulted in hurting real-life people. In a virtual world where working in an open-source environment is becoming more and more a part of everyday life where people work with and rely on people who they may never meet in person, certain issues of trust inevitably come up. If face to face interaction is never required then in theory there’s no reason why someone can’t assume an online persona which differs from their own, but you can’t help but be curious about the validity of someone’s credentials when you have never actually met the person yourself.
As interacting with people online while never meeting in person appears to be becoming part of living in the digital age, it will be curious to see how people will present themselves online in the future; will they present honest depictions of themselves, or entirely new identities? If we are to use Catfish to base our theories on then the virtual world could become a place far-removed from everyday life, as opposed to simply and extension of how we live today.
While the above definition of community cannot be described as being inaccurate, it has perhaps become slightly dated now that we live in a digital age where communities can exist online without ever meeting. Although the idea of communities existing while never meeting face-to-face is not something new (as we looked at in some early examples of fanzines in fan culture) their existence now thanks to the internet has exploded with the help of this world-shrinking communicator.
While ‘The Well’ could be considered one of the earliest examples of communities with all of the contributors to its forums, the gaming community is one which has prospered with the advancement of the internet. Early versions of the internet allowed users to engage in various text-based role-playing games, but as technologies progressed (such as the introduction of broadband, and the resulting introduction of Skype) users from all over the world could work together or against each other in communities built around online gaming.
For example nowadays in a game like World of Warcraft, a person can log in from China and co-exist and complete missions with a person from America in real time. It has been disputed that communities which exist online cannot be classed as ‘real’ as there is no physical relationship between any of the parties involved. However psychologists McMillan and Chavis suggested that a ‘sense of community’ can exist if the following elements exist:
1) Membership
2) Influence
3) Integration and Fulfilment of Needs
4) Shared Emotional Connection
The above factors would definitely contribute to a ‘sense of community’ in our regular day-to-day lives so it is worth considering that if the above elements are in existence through an online community then it too surely can be considered a bona fide community.
Another element of belonging to a community is the presence of social capital, something which can only have value in its relevant community. This notion of social capital is also an element which is relevant not only in a real world example, where it benefits somebody to know people to get them jobs/mind their children etc. but also online where in the gaming community people can get others to aid them in completing missions. In fact online social capital today extends beyond the perimeters of the gaming community as social networking sites are creating a new virtual community, whereby the more friends you have the more social capital you have (a situation mimicking real life).
So whether its an element of the life you live in the ‘real world’ or a group you belong to in the ‘virtual world’ both can be considered as strong examples of people existing together in certain communities.
Fan Fiction is defined as “a fictional account written by a fan of a show, movie, book, or video game to explore themes and ideas that will not or cannot be explored via the originating medium; also written fan fiction, also called fanfic”, (www.dictionary.com). While not a recent phenomenon, ‘fan-fiction’ is something which has garnered much more interest and popularity in recent years with the help of the internet. In fact the idea of fan fiction, it could be argued, dates back to the origins of storytelling where people would re-tell exaggerated versions of stories told to them by another, adding or changing certain details. While up until the mid 1960’s the term fan-fiction usually referred to short original works of science fiction by amateur writers which would get published in fanzines. Fanzines being “an amateur-produced magazine written for a subculture of enthusiasts devoted to a particular interest” (www.thefreedictionary.com).
It was during the 1960s when the term ‘fan fiction’ was used to denote the popular phenomenon that exists today, thanks to the fan culture which surrounded the television show Star Trek. Fans of the show published fanzines which contained, among other things, works of fan fiction. These fanzines where then sold at conventions and/or mailed to fans of the show. With the introduction (and popularisation) of the internet mailing lists became electronic and fan fiction was able to reach more that those who previously would only be able to be familiar with it by attending conventions and joining traditional mailing lists. Today fan fiction is quite strong as sites like www.fanfiction.net and many other similar sites continue to flourish.
Fan fiction has also evolved to form many different genres within it, depending on what direction fans have decided to take a storyline. Fan fiction has taken many characters from existing publications and placed them in situations such as alternative sexual pairing with other characters from the publication, such as Slash Fiction (fiction involving same sex male sexual relationships), Femslash (similar to slash fiction but with female same sex relationships) and Het (in which alternative opposite sex relationships are explored). One popular example of this is the slash fiction publications where the characters of Spock and Kirk from the Star Trek show are portrayed as being involved in a same sex relationship.
Fan fiction has also used storylines such as cross-overs, in which characters from one publication come into contact with characters from another, or even where the character from one publication exists in the environment of another.
While fan fiction may seem like a harmless endeavour, or even homage by fans of a certain production it is not without controversy. In 2009 in the United States the publication of a book which involved and elderly version of Holden Caulfield from JD Sallinger’s ‘The Catcher in the Rye’, by a Swedish author was blocked by a United States district court Judge.
From witch hunts to subliminal messages, moral panics are something which has existed for centuries, they even pre-date television. One panic in particular which achieved much press in the 1980’s and 1990’s was that of subliminal messages being hidden in songs through back-masking.
Back-masking is a deliberate process in which audio is recorded backwards on a recording which is meant to be played forward. This basically means that when you play the record in reverse you can hear the audio that was recorded backwards. The process was popularised by The Beatles who used backward recordings of vocals and instrumentation and has been used by countless other bands since then, including The Stone Roses who even had backward recordings of complete songs their releases. Back-masking is commonly used in songs which may contain profanities, so that a ‘radio-friendly’ version of the song can be produced with the offending words being played backwards.
In the late 1970’s and early 1980’s back-masking’s prominence rose in the United States as fundamentalist Christian groups began claiming that back-masked messages in songs could actually bypass a persons consciousness and enter into their subconscious, where the listener would accept the message unknown to themselves.
In the early 1980’s especially prominent Fundamental Christian DJ Michael Mills claimed that Led Zeppelin’s song Stairway To Heaven contained subliminal messages and Television Presenter Paul Crouch who claimed that rock-stars were co-operating with the church of Satan to embed secret messages in their songs. This began to spread fear throughout the country leading to public lectures being held on the dangers of back-masking as well as one recorded record-burning taking place outside of a church in North Carolina by local teenagers (the record-burning was even led by the churches pastor).
The fear and paranoia inevitably spread to people’s homes where parents feared that their children who listened to rock music would unintentionally be under threat from demonic messages hidden in songs. This caused an evening TV news show in America to even dedicate an episode in 1982 to trying to discover back-masked messages in songs by Led Zeppelin and Electric Light Orchestra, Jeff Lynne of ELO described the allegations as skcollob. DJ’s who encouraged people to search through there records to find back-masked messages were fired.
In 1983 the fear and panic spread to the American government who passed legislation in California which set out to ban any back-masking that “can manipulate our behaviour without our knowledge or consent and turn us into disciples of the Antichrist”. This legislation made the distribution of any recordings with undeclared back-masking an invasion of privacy for which distributors could be sued. Similar legislation was presented but never passed in Arkansas, Texas and Canada. While this moral panic gripped the nation for several years it eventually died down in the mid to late 1980’s with the introduction of CD’s which made reverse listening quite difficult, although it did experience a slight resurgence in the 1990’s with the introduction of sound editing software on PC’s.
In 1990 Judas Priest were actually sued by the families of two young men involved in a suicide pact. They claimed that the words ‘do it’ were embedded in the song ‘Better By You, Better Than Me’ and that they referenced suicide. While the case garnered much publicity as the band themselves testified, the case was eventually thrown out due to lack of evidence.
Punk is believed to have started in the early 1970’s from the garage rock scene which emerged at the end of the 1960s. The beliefs and ideologies held by those involved in the subculture, while varying depending on the sub-genre they belonged to, usually maintained the ideas of anti-establishment and non-conformity and rebellious youth. The genre started among the disillusioned urban-based working-class youth who had little hope of employment and betterment. Although as punk originated in the UK around the same time as it did in the United States (there was even a notable scene in Australia), some of the beliefs held by those within the punk subculture varied. In the UK for example where the Sex Pistols were one of the first notable punk bands to emerge, they promoted an almost nihilist philosophy. Bands like Minor Threat promoted their drug free ‘Straight-Edge’ lifestyle while some bands even supported a neo-nazi message.
Music Style
The music was based around 3 or 4 piece bands which normally contained distorted guitar sounds and simple 3 chord arrangements. Vocally punk music consisted more of a ‘shouted’ style as opposed to the more traditional melodic and harmonised vocals of previous genres, as the lyrics of punk songs were usually quite blunt. Punk songs were also quite short, usually around two minutes long. Notable acts in the UK would include the Sex Pistols (as mentioned above) as well as Crass and The Clash. In the United States Minor Threat (as mentioned above) as well as The Ramones were seen as fore-runners of the movement much like The Saints were in Australia.
The Look
It could be argued that the views of the punks were expressed as equally visually through their look as they were through their music. The stereo typical look synonymous with punks is the tall Mohawk haircut, the ripped denim jeans and the black leather jacket, usually heavily adorned with buttons, band logos, patches and spikes. The idea behind the look in the punk sub-culture was to rebel against whatever was considered the norm at the time. When the sub-culture increased in popularity in the late 1970s/early 1980s, piercings and tattoos were also encompassed into the punk look.
Dancing
While punk is not a sub-culture which would spring to mind when the subject of dancing is brought up, punk rock gigs would usually see crowds engage in ‘moshing’ and ‘crowd-surfing’. In New York the club CBGB would house the base of many of the punk bands in the United States. While the club was started as a venue for County/BlueGrass/Blues music (hence the title) it nevertheless attracted a more hardcore crowd and would later become almost a symbol synonymous with the punk sub-culture.
Rave Sub-Culture
Origins
The term ‘rave’ was originally used by the Mod culture in the 1960’s to describe a party, similarly ‘ravers’ was a name imposed on people who were party animals. Although the word itself was not noticeably used until the introduction of the Acid-House movement in the 1980s. Much like many of the musical sub-cultures that preceded it, rave provided a platform for the working class to come together at a time when the economy was in decline and their prospects seemed limited. While famous in the United Kingdom as a result of DJ’s like Paul Oakenfold and Danny Rampling bringing a sound they had heard in Ibiza back to the country, rave was also popularized in many countries across the world including much of those in mainland Europe as well as Canada, America and South Africa.
Music Style
With the influence of technology on music ever increasing (as did the technology) the mid to late 1980s saw the introduction of a wave of psychedelic electronic music in the United Kingdom such as Acid House and Techno. Rave music was usually quite fast-paced with repetitive beats and would be accompanied by with a light show, a sign of the increasing use and effect of technology. Much of the music was created using loops for drums and pianos. Parties playing this new electronic music would usually take place in not only clubs but also in free parties in warehouses in particular in the Manchester area at first later spreading to London. One of the first songs to achieve mainstream success during this time was Jack Your Body by Steve ‘Silk’ Hurley which is arguably considered the first ‘rave’ number one song.
The Look
The clothes that accompanied the rave sub-culture were usually very vibrant and non-conformist such as bright fluorescent shirts, gloves, even boiler suits and gas masks. Some of the accessories worn by ravers also originated as accessories used while taking recreational drugs. Items such as baby pacifiers were used by people who felt the need to chew, which can be caused by taking ecstasy. Similarly the popularity of glow-sticks grew to entertain those under the influence of different recreational drugs such as acid.
Dancing and Drug Associations
Much of the dancing at rave parties was usually based on that of club dances as well as incorporating an element of free-styling. The warehouse rave parties were famous not only for the music and style which it housed but also, and more notably for the police authorities, for the use of illegal recreational drugs which were associated with the movement, such as Ecstasy, MDMA, and Acid. The recreational drug-use which accompanied the music allowed for ravers to lose themselves in the music, giving rave a certain intimacy. However it was the police authorities actions in the United Kingdom against the rave sub-culture with the introduction of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act in 1994 which would go on to effectively end the previous freedom enjoyed by ravers. The act called for fines and up to 3 months imprisonment to be imposed on those attending a rave, or even on those attempting to start a rave, or waiting on a rave.
Origins
Punk is believed to have started in the early 1970’s from the garage rock scene which emerged at the end of the 1960s. The beliefs and ideologies held by those involved in the subculture, while varying depending on the sub-genre they belonged to, usually maintained the ideas of anti-establishment and non-conformity and rebellious youth. The genre started among the disillusioned urban-based working-class youth who had little hope of employment and betterment. Although as punk originated in the UK around the same time as it did in the United States (there was even a notable scene in Australia), some of the beliefs held by those within the punk subculture varied. In the UK for example where the Sex Pistols were one of the first notable punk bands to emerge, they promoted an almost nihilist philosophy. Bands like Minor Threat promoted their drug free ‘Straight-Edge’ lifestyle while some bands even supported a neo-nazi message.
Music Style
The music was based around 3 or 4 piece bands which normally contained distorted guitar sounds and simple 3 chord arrangements. Vocally punk music consisted more of a ‘shouted’ style as opposed to the more traditional melodic and harmonised vocals of previous genres, as the lyrics of punk songs were usually quite blunt. Punk songs were also quite short, usually around two minutes long. Notable acts in the UK would include the Sex Pistols (as mentioned above) as well as Crass and The Clash. In the United States Minor Threat (as mentioned above) as well as The Ramones were seen as fore-runners of the movement much like The Saints were in Australia.
The Look
It could be argued that the views of the punks were expressed as equally visually through their look as they were through their music. The stereo typical look synonymous with punks is the tall Mohawk haircut, the ripped denim jeans and the black leather jacket, usually heavily adorned with buttons, band logos, patches and spikes. The idea behind the look in the punk sub-culture was to rebel against whatever was considered the norm at the time. When the sub-culture increased in popularity in the late 1970s/early 1980s, piercings and tattoos were also encompassed into the punk look.
Dancing
While punk is not a sub-culture which would spring to mind when the subject of dancing is brought up, punk rock gigs would usually see crowds engage in ‘moshing’ and ‘crowd-surfing’. In New York the club CBGB would house the base of many of the punk bands in the United States. While the club was started as a venue for County/BlueGrass/Blues music (hence the title) it nevertheless attracted a more hardcore crowd and would later become almost a symbol synonymous with the punk sub-culture.
