“The intensity of these relationships can be described as sitting somewhere on a continuum from strong ties with shared intentionality to incidental production by strangers, captured through shared interfaces or agents, sometimes unconscious byproducts of other online activity”

Before reading this, I had never thought of online “non-interactive” activity as a form of collaboration. This is because I don’t often see others as having a similar goal to me especially when we haven’t met.

This reminds me of pinning boards on Pinterest. Boards are a compilation of photos and links to more pages organised by topic. On Pinterest like a communal cork board you can pin and unpin sources. Other can view your board and then take your pins and place it on theirs. In a way, although not very personal, all Pinterest members are  working together to create similar goldmines of photos. When I first made an account I found that it was very easy to find some treasures already nicely compiled for me. Soon enough people were pinning from my own boards.

Mob mentality can be dangerous especially online. Derren Brown’s show demonstrates how quickly a group of dehumanised people can escalate to violence and deliberately harming others. On his show he gives people masks and sits them in a group as an audience.

But on the other hand mob mentality can be good. It has become a trend to make FAKE “social experiment” Youtube videos that shame a particular group of people or are very biased in proving common view. They gain views because as cruel humans we enjoy watching others become embarrassed online. If we were to see this happening in real life we would act as individuals and intervene. On youtube where generally our only trace of identity is our user name and chosen photo we can indulge in prank videos all we like. However, the ever chaotic comment section sometimes proves to be useful in exposing videos for what they really are. On some videos more observant viewers point out flaws and the injustices of the video. The up voting system youtube has where you can like a comment so it stays atop the mountain of comments to be seen by all the viewers allows particular viewpoints to be shared. In a way this is a form of teamwork as the more educated viewers are helping others shine the light on the truth. Popularising vital information about the falsities of sensationalist media through anonymous up voting is one of the greater parts of strangers “working together” for the sake of avoiding ignorance.