578139
research-article2015
SMSXXX10.1177/2056305115578139Social Media + SocietyFenton
SI: Manifesto Social Media + Society April-June 2015: 1–2 © The Author(s) 2015 DOI: 10.1177/2056305115578139 sms.sagepub.com
Social Media Is Natalie Fenton
Abstract A crap poem. Keywords social media, connect, delete It seemed like a good idea at the time, then instant instagram regret, but damn, too late,
Old boyfriends stalking your status and writing on your wall;
it’s all over What’sApp.
And having to contemplate whether it really is polite to unfriend them all?
And please don’t tag me in that photo; I’m sure I never looked like that.
Social media is all over our every day, punctuating all other habits
Immediate connectedness with “like-minded” people, too awkward to ignore or un-friend.
Where WiFi becomes more relevant than running water,
Staying in touch with family in 3 short sentences, when once whole letters we would send. But oh the ease of inviting everyone to a party in a single click; Then the horror—they all turn up and think you’re only 36. Social media is the daily-me, self-expression taken to the “n”th degree; Obsessive individualism In a networked community. It entertains us while waiting for the bus and in boring conferences and work meetings,
With lots of fluffy rabbits. Ten questions to determine what sort of cocktail you might be, All for a bunch of tax dodgers, data exploiters, and aids to “security.” Exactly what are we “sharing” with whom, in our search for affinity? We exchange polycentrality
speed
and
space,
multiplicity
For private companies to turn our communications into commodities Where advertisers feed off our cyber footprints
Even sitting on the loo,
And we surrender our privacy to corporate giants
When we should be writing the book, and there’s that article for this great journal we really ought to do.
And state surveillance.
It is the digital summary of all of us in digitally enhanced, carefully selected, self-publicising form. Do all my friends really look that good, am I so against the norm? Social media is happiness by likes and hatred by trolls, And intrusions into our privacy, that we can never seem to control.
and
While we share our opposition and hopes for resistance Evade censorship
Goldsmiths, University of London, UK Corresponding Author: Natalie Fenton, Goldsmiths, University of London, Lewisham Way, New Cross, London SE14 6NW, UK. Email:
[email protected]
Creative Commons CC-BY-NC: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 License (http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (http://www.uk.sagepub.com/aboutus/openaccess.htm).
2
Social Media + Society
Mobilize protest
A cooperative society
The wondrous possibilities of digital activism
Equal and deliberative
Are we audible above the endless hum of digital murmurings?
Recognition of difference,
Will this voice I am given transcend the pact between technology and capitalism? Social media, point and click, advertising trip, nowhere to hide. An anti-social media to avoid eye contact, while commercialism thrives. Silly cats, cute cats, clever cats, cats with hats, cats with dogs with cats with a bone. Will someone please talk to me and stop looking at their phone? Where your brother’s Father-in-law wants to be your friend. Really? Really?
Space for contestation, Politics unwrapped Room for understanding Privacy and participation A commercial lock-out zone And yes, some crap poems Social media could be a communication commons. Declaration of Conflicting Interests The author declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
And please, please, Don’t ever poke me again Click, Delete
Funding The author received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Start over. Remove all advertising Take out the data capture Add in total user-transparency Full user-control and accountability
Author Biography Natalie Fenton (PhD, University of Loughborough) is a Professor of Media and Communications at Goldsmiths, University of London. Her research interests include news, journalism, radical politics and new media, social media, and social and political theory.
