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| Me acting very emo because of social media scene. |
That is something I've been telling people and everyone knows that it is quite impossible for me given that it is very much my work as well as a hobby. (And yes, blogging IS a hobby. I have a decent job please.)
Many years ago, when I was first introduced to "Social Media", it was nothing more than a major confusion to me. I didn't know what are the "rules and regulations" or what is considered "ethnical or not". I spent a lot of time meeting new people, talking to them and figuring this whole scene out slowly. I surprise myself how many years I've been doing this, our once "new media" ain't exactly that new anymore. (Yes, if your company still gives you titles like "New Media Specialist", please just tell people you ran out of name cards.) How much has Social Media changed your life?
Everyone started on Social Media platform pretty much on the same level of influence - big fat 0. From blogging to twitter, friendsters, facebook, instagram, pinterest, and many others. What's your role in this web 2.0 world? Are you an "influencer" or just a lurker? Does your voice means anything at all?
And I can't help but to feel a disturbance in the force of Social Media over the years. Is it a little too harsh to say that things are getting from bad to worst? 2015 was a rather "happening" year for Singapore Social Media Scene, bloggers or not isn't it?
Here is the list of my "favorite" Social Media Scandals for 2015 and you be the judge if Social Media is getting more and more negative these days.
*Basically one of the most exciting that happened was our GE but I removed that out of the list because well it is GE and not exactly something that just happened online.
9. Who Moved My $1,000
Link: Coconut Singapore
#ExplainSagaBriefly: Pretty Bloggers went on holiday and money went missing. Report shows that Bloggers wanting to abuse power and demerit the resort. Went viral with people shaming bloggers for abusing their voice.
Smith Says: Nobody knows the truth. Not much of a follow-up post from any of them (i think). If it's true that they did throw their weight around, that's too bad for them cause I personally really hate this whole "I blog you than you know" attitude. Yes, there are screen shots but to me it can be very one sided cause resort staff could have miss out some screen shots where they provoke them. So, benefit of a doubt.
8. Stupid Blogger who hates Punggol
Link: This stupid blog
#ExplainSagaBriefly: Stupid blogger who can't stand his own estate after buying and staying in for 2 yrs. Blogged about it and became a talking point on radio. Went kinda out of hand with people defending punggol as well as finding the pain relatable
Smith Says: Mouth itchy, ownself find trouble. I thought the post was quite funny but I don't know how it escalated just like that. #SelfPwn3d (Sorry self rank but I thought this was really quite funny)
7. Return of Janiqueel
Link: Someone actually created a new blog to shame her! GASP!
#ExplainSagaBriefly: Return of Janiqueel. The blogger who wanted to put down a hair salon and got major back fire some years ago. (link) This time round it has nothing much to do with her blog actually. Just got burnt online for some bad life choices. Didn't really read everything because it's kinda lame to me. Didn't really got viral but local famous blogger Alvinology actually blogged about it. Quite a feat I must say. (not even a paid post lor)
Smith Says: I'm really not very into this whole "create-a-blog-to-shame-people idea". Regardless if it's real or not. I'm not sure how this works.
6. Toilet Paper Vs Loose Stool
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| Image from XX dot com of course. |
Link: Xiaxue's account of what happened
#ExplainSagaBriefly: No Singapore Social Media Scandal list will be complete without our queen Xiaxue right? A bit disappointed I had to rank this no.6 and not no.1 cause to be honest, erm, it was kinda one sided game. Basically 2 ladies exchanging messages online that went a bit out of hand and onto the court. Oh, and this was also the saga that got me a lot of DMs and Whatsapp because XX actually mentioned me on the post. (cheap thrill, 15secs of fame).
Smith Says: I actually don't really know what to make out of this story so I guess there's not much of an insight to have besides this is like another episode of mean girls without Lindsay Lohan. Someone was trying very hard to stir shit but I'm not saying which one.
5. Durian Man vs EmmTan
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| Image from Durian Daily FB page. Really like this thou. |
#ExplainSagaBriefly: Durian man (he runs this durian daily site not sell durian) - Donovan Choy rage over Instagrammer (I do not know who endorse this word, like should I call my mom a facebooker) EmmTan. Slamming her up down left right for "wasting" time on IG to look good and not using her voice to do good instead, etc etc.
Smith Says: I have no idea what started Donovan. There are 100,000 different good looking IGers out there and why emmtan? On top of that, what is wrong with them looking good? Like can we judge people who spent hours playing golf and not using those hours on something more useful like trying to sew our ozone layer back? And more over, she doesn't show herself pang sai on IG doesn't mean she doesn't pang sai right? Isn't it just a hobby? I wonder if there's some bad blood between these two? And his post actually got 3k plus shares?? Whatt??
4. Facebook is mightier than a sword
Link: Your mom's ship
#ExplainSagaBriefly: Healthy looking guy took reserved seat. Facebooker (yes! I said it) not too happy about it, ask him to give up his seat, he didn't and even gave rude remarks according to Facebooker. Facebooker not too happy and decided to "stomp" him. Went viral within hours and original post was deleted (i think). Dude later explains that he wasn't feeling well and needed that seat.
Smith Says: It's a freaking seat. There are many many many seats out there. I am one of those dude who will tap on people's shoulder and ask for a seat to be given up to those who I think needed it more but the whole naming and shaming is kinda uncalled for? And such news went viral?
3. Kulvin or Drea?
Link: Your mom's ship (Again, I have no clue why they keep covering such things.)
#ExplainSagaBriefly: Influencer, Drea went for marathon(actually 10km lah. not like 42km. People mixed up running event with 42km marathon. Sorry I digress) and spotted by fans that name on bib doesn't belong to her and everyone feel like their life was a lie. #MindBlown
Smith Says: you might question me how did this get onto top 3 of the list. Simply because this is one topic which is very close to heart as of now for both the "blogger" and a digital marketeer in me. (Nope, i did not eat both of them for breakfast... it was last night's supper.) Does it matter if she did the run? Does it matter if she completed the run? A lot of time people forget that "bloggers"/ Influencers wear more than one hat. We( used loosely lah. cut me some slacks, I know I'm not famous or pretty like drea) are not just story teller online but we can also be actors in client's videos, ambassador for products, models for shoot or even like I said earlier, marketing mouth piece for brands. I know Xiaxue brought up the whole ad-masking thing from the saga last year but what if for this shoot, Drea is simply a model to promote the run? Not like she blogged about how she enjoyed the run right? I mean we know celebrities who endorse certain products but does that means they uses ONLY that ONE product or only wears that ONE brand of clothes? And we do know that people change brand for endorsement as well right? My point? My point is that as readers, we do not always need to seek the "truth". We have to be savvy enough to know what we are reading and make out what it is all about before kicking a big fuss. This is the media world. Don't be a cry baby. P.S. This is for discussion sake. I have no idea if she did the run or did not, but it doesn't matter to me in this case cause she was simply the ambassador and not writing a run review or "Top 10 runs i completed in 2015"
Do not get me wrong that what I am saying here is that it is okay for bloggers/influencer to lie to their readers. In fact bloggers/influencers' biggest power is not about how good they look like in a picture but it is about personal branding and credibility. Who wants to read a food blog that does nothing else besides paid listicles telling you top 10 food type but they taste like crap? My point is, readers should be savvy enough to eventually know who to read and believe and who to ignore.
2. Congratulations! It's Your WEDDING!
Link: Dailymail.co.uk (UK OKAY!!)
#ExplainSagaBriefly: Local blogger blogs about a bad wedding (by her standard) blow by blow. Got viral like really viral. Like it was international news viral!
Smith Says: IT COULD HAVE FKING BEEN ME?? I bitch about such shit all the time on my twitter back in the days like how bad the emcee was, how erm.. not pretty enough are the bridesmaid. It's those things we think about in our head but not so cool to share it on the internet especially with the internet users all
1. COME AT ME BRO!
Link: I do not even know which to paste. Like newspaper or sites or blogs. Just google it yourself
#ExplainSagaBriefly: Dude made Youtube video and challenged our PM to sue him. I shall skip the content of the video and fast forward to the fact that it became a major world wide news. People in Hongkong started a strike for him, he was on CNN (or was it BBC), he went to jail for it and with all these, i do not see anyone being able to top him any time soon. I hope not actually.
Smith Says: erm. *insert slowclap.jpg* I have no idea what else I can say about this.
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People (Mass Audiences) have been very harsh on bloggers/influencers/online personality (whatever you call it, same difference to me) over the years and especially 2015 if I may. Just look at the list above and I'm not even surprised myself. It started off years ago with cliches like "Bloggers are Beggars", "Bloggers get free food", "Bloggers are just people who wish to be famous" and many other things. The sad part about this is that although it doesn't applies to every blogger, but even as "bloggers" many of us know that it is some what true which leave us feeling helpless. Saying more just make bloggers sound defensive but question is, where are all these "hate" coming from?
But with social media platforms like Facebook getting more and more popular, are "bloggers" the only people with a voice online? As much as we always point fingers at bloggers and saying that they need to be more responsible for what they post online because young people are reading and idolising them, what about people who are sharing the articles or posting status updates on Facebook? Shouldn't everyone be just as responsible? How can a post go "viral" if nobody is sharing it? So how is ASAS going to help in all these? How is declaring blogger's rate going to help? What if I do not blog commercially but I post things on Facebook for a price tag? Can ASAS regulate me? I think the bigger issue here ain't just about dollar and cents but about one's integrity. Can we regulate that? Is regulating "cyber bully" more important or trying to regulate their payroll and hoping that it will help with their integrity more important?(Or even possible)
So what is the point of this post? Did I write this post for a greater calling and teaching all bloggers what to do? Nah. I'm just another face in the crowd (maybe a bigger face cause fat) and I'm not in that caliber of teaching you what to do yet. I am writing this to hopefully create an awareness to every user. Influencers' voice is nothing without you guys. You might not have created the fresh piece of content but the content is nothing without your support and always think twice before you share. One time too often, we share things without knowing the "truth" and this action of sharing unverified news is just as bad as creating one. On top of that, it encourages creator to write more similar content because it boost their ego? The best way to disagree with any content online is to simply ignore and not share. right?
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| You like to be a judge? At least do your role properly then. |
2 comments:
Dude, I haven't heard of half the scandals here! You super in the know leh.
that's why u must read this blog for more scandals lah. :X but i hope u read no.8 hor. HAHA.
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