The social media platform YouTube has a name that is self declarative. Merriam Webster dictionary provides television as a synonym of tube, deriving from the term Cathode Ray Tube which some televisions today still rely on (Brain). YouTube, therefore, is this sort of tube, for you. This name is direct in its implications, in that this you suggests that those partaking in the site’s activity are who it’s made for. For YouTube in particular, consumers and producers of content overlap insofar as the two are most definitely not mutually exclusive. This creates what George Ritzer and Nathan Jurgenson call prosumers, who, utilising YouTube’s interactive features, are able to not only absorb content but create and share it simultaneously. With this, YouTube’s connective features afford the site a mass user-ship that enables prosumers to create a self brand, which will ultimately increase their social and cultural capital.
As a video-based website, YouTube focuses on providing its users with tools to not only view, but create content too. This ability to prosume alone is one aspect that affords YouTube a mass user-ship, in that the site is appealing to viewers, creators, and those who do both. However, an even more compelling affordance are YouTube’s connective, interactive features. In his Technologies, Texts and Affordances, Ian Hutchby explains affordances in regard to “the possibilities that they offer for action” (447). YouTube provides many of these possibilities for its users. The homepage of any YouTube member’s account presents itself firstly with a search bar (Fig. 1).
Figure 1: Search bar
This tool, often overlooked or taken for granted, allows prosumers on YouTube to search, site-wide, for whatever content they wish for- at the click of a button. Search results can vary from videos themselves, to playlists and actual channels (Fig. 2).
Figure 2: Search results
Such a feature affords users the ability to be able to view videos specific to their want or need at the time, whilst also enabling them to find new channels which relate to this. Found underneath the search bar are the Home, Trending and Subscriptions options (Fig. 3).The Trending button, arguably one of YouTube’s biggest affordances in terms of the connectivity it allows, presents users with the site’s most popular videos at any given time. These videos are usually a mixture of all kinds of the site’s content genres, and unlike the Recommended category of videos, are not catered to each individual’s previous content-based interests (Fig. 4)
Figure 4: Trending video
The Trending section of YouTube affords consumers the ability to expand beyond their typical tastes, whilst simultaneously affording producers the chance to expand their viewership. Next, the Subscriptions button allows for a certain amount of personalisation and continuity within each YouTube account. Users can subscribe to whichever channels they may please, and this button affords them the ability to keep track of these. The result is that each account becomes particular to each user’s interests, whilst also providing a sense of organisation to each account. This affordance allows each user to subscribe to more and more channels, as they know these will all be kept track of. Not only do these Trending and Subscription buttons appear under the search bar, but they also appear in a side bar, allowing users double the opportunity to access and manage content (Fig. 3). Furthermore, the Recommended category of the homepage suggests videos to users, based on their previous searches and videos watched (Fig. 5).
Figure 5: Recommended videos
This affords YouTube the ability to perhaps provide viewers with new channels to subscribe to, and, like Trending, to expand Creators’ viewership. Lastly, what affords YouTube users the ability to actually directly interact in itself, are the subscribe, notification, like/dislike and comment options (Fig. 6).
Figure 6: Subscribe, notification, like/dislike and comment buttons
The Subscribe button, found alongside any video or channel suggestion, allows any user to keep updated with channels that they are interested in or wish to support in any way. A recent addition to this was the Notification bell, which alerts the device of any user who who has selected the button for a channel, when said channel uploads a video. This affords users the ability to be able to keep completely up-to-date with content, whilst also reminding them of channels that they may have forgotten to check out. The like/dislike and comment options, arguably the most interactive of them all, lets and encourages viewers to react and connect with not only the channel or creator themselves, but other YouTube users too. What all of these features ultimately achieve is that they afford YouTube consumers, producers and prosumers the ability to interact, which thus affords YouTube itself with a mass user-ship.
https://cdn.knightlab.com/libs/timeline3/latest/embed/index.html?source=1xMIociywoTTq4gKylToNZ_mEADehHzf0W6Q-T-33AVQ&font=Default&lang=en&initial_zoom=2&height=650
The Botanical Gardens have, over time, become somewhat of a Wellington landmark. Just like anywhere, however, the Gardens are the home of many different stories from many different people. And just like me, each person has their own special connection with the space. I chose the Botanical Gardens because I have found myself constantly drawn back to them over the years, making it a place rich in personal memories for me. The Gardens have always provided me with an escape from everyday life-whether that be young teenage life, university life or city life- and have always allowed me to find peace.
Within the cultural field that I live, it seems to have become common for the Botanical Gardens to be represented as mostly of interest to those interested in gardening-largely the older generation- or for families with children. The cultural field can be defined as “a series of institutions, rules, rituals, conventions, categories, designations, appointments and titles which constitute an objective hierarchy, and which produce and authorize certain discourses and activities” (21). This would mean that many people my age- Wellington’s youth- take this convention, that the Botanical Gardens are better suited to the older generation and families, and allow it to dictate whether they go there. Bordieu refers to this “unconscious ‘taking in’ of rules, values and disposition as ‘the habitus'” (36). The habitus of many of Wellington’s youth surrounding the Botanical Gardens, then, would be that there is nothing of interest there for them.
The Wellington City Council website perpetuates this habitus, displaying many photographs of children, alongside school holiday information and specific gardening links. Whilst helpful to those with families or interested in gardening, this does not increase the youth appeal. I think that this place should be represented as an escape from the city, for anyone. The Gardens are indeed successfully marketed for families and gardeners, however I think that youth interest in the space would increase tenfold with more representation of the escape that the Gardens can provide; whether that be peace and quiet, or attending an outdoor concert.
Exemplified in the stories and memories shared in my timeline, I think that it is important to contribute to the narrative of the Gardens in a way that will allow other young people to experience what they have to offer, as I have. This resonates with Jason Farman’s idea where he discusses storytelling, saying that “these stories are often the narratives of a particular place or places, a site or group of locations that are meaningful to a community. Imagining such a meaningful location without a story is impossible; stories, spaces, and communities are intimately tied together.” Sharing stories adds to a place’s narrative, which can provide someone with a new take on a place and change the way that they see it. And, if this has been successful, someone may in fact take the chance to experience the space for themselves, creating their own stories and thus perpetuating the narrative. I think that almost anyone- but especially a city dweller- experiencing the Botanical Gardens for the first time would be instantly shocked, and simultaneously charmed by the peace that they feel with total immersion in what the Gardens have to offer. As I say in my timeline, there is an assumption that the youth of today aren’t interested in gardening, but I think the need to breathe fresh air and hear the sounds of nature is universal.
The main focus of my timeline is the opportunity to escape that the Botanical Gardens have provided me with over the years. The Gardens have stayed with me at so many different stages of my life: from experimenting with rebellion in my early teens, to my first year of uni, moving out of home into the city, and finally adjusting to this hectic life. Throughout all of this, the Gardens have offered me the breath of fresh air that I seemed to have needed. My aim is to add to the narrative of the Botanical Gardens, not only trying to increase their youth appeal, but constantly advocating for the importance of the solace that they offer, and the necessity of such a solace for anyone living in the city.
Works Cited
Danaher, Geoff, Schirato, Tony and Webb, Jen. “Cultural Field and the Habitus”, Understanding Bourdieu. Allen & Unwin, 2002.
Camilla Thurlow, recent Love Island runner up, is a prime example of a celebrity utilizing their position of privilege for the greater good. Her Instagram page is essentially an activist campaign of its own. Thurlow exemplifies Malcolm Gladwell‘s idea that “The Internet lets us exploit the power of these kinds of distant connections with marvelous efficiency”, but isn’t necessarily “high-risk activism.” Her Instagram posts advocate for a number of different charities and social movements, which she actively supports by physically engaging with the recipients of the help and charity.
Photo series from Thurlow’s Instagram
One of Thurlow’s most recent posts promotes donating towards helping youth in Serres, Greece, experience an education, providing the details of both the charity and how to give money. This same charity has been reference in 3 other posts, also.
Photos from Thurlow’s Instagram
Thurlow’s immersion in the social movement she is trying to support shows real, unhindered support. Her page contrasts with many other examples of slacktivism. Instagram model Savannah Montano‘s recent trip to the Dominican Republic saw a massive influx of bikini-clad photographs.
Savannah Montana’s Instagram page
Surprising, then, was her somewhat random post, seemingly attempting to promote some sort of activist message. This post was the only one of its kind from the trip, and quite frankly stood out like a sore thumb on her page. She provided no details about the message she was attempting to convey, and did not show that she had actually done anything to help the situation she was displaying. Furthermore, the model did not give any way that she, or anyone else, can help. The caption, starkly contrasted to Thurlow’s, simply read: ‘this world is bigger than you and I.’
Slacktivism
This example is all-too-accurate of slacktivism, Henrik Serup Christensen explaining this as when “the real life impact of the activities is limited; the main effect is to enhance the feel–good factor for participants.” Here, Montano unfortunately comes across as attempting to ‘care’ or ‘help’, just to improve her social image.
Five years ago, I was a rebellious fifteen year old sneaking out to Wellington’s Botanical Gardens at midnight, to drink with my friends. We would sit around in the dark with our vodka cruisers and take drunken photographs, which were usually uploaded to Facebook within the next few days.
Late nights at the Botanical Gardens, taken 2012
The Botanical Gardens became our social place, coming together to live out our youth and misbehave. Such endeavors became the narrative for this space, and the opportunity provided by Facebook to post and share photos was the digital storytelling that created this. This reflects Jason Farman’s idea where he discusses this storytelling, saying that “these stories are often the narratives of a particular place or places, a site or group of locations that are meaningful to a community. Imagining such a meaningful location without a story is impossible; stories, spaces, and communities are intimately tied together. ” To me and my friends, the definition of the Botanical Gardens became a place that seemed inextricably tied to teenage rebellion and fun, but drunken, memories.
Instagram geotag results of ‘Botanical gardens’
My friends’ use of Facebook in 2012, through posting and sharing photos of our Botanical Garden adventures, perpetuated the space as one of social, potentially unruly behavior. Now however, the more public digital storytelling of the Botanical Gardens creates a narrative that is much different. A mere search of the space’s geotag shows the opportunity provided by Instagram to define the Gardens as a more relaxing, calm environment.
Relaxing family time at the Gardens, taken and shared by me 2016
Farmon explains that “as mobile culture continues to take computing out into the physical spaces of everyday life, projects that highlight this experience of multiplicity are the ones that connect with what it means to be embodied in this era of digital culture.” This idea highlights the changing narrative of spaces like the Botanical Gardens, reiterating that the nature of digital culture provides an oppotunity for multiplicity in storytelling. Now, I join the instagrammers in enjoying the Gardens as a relaxing social, yet calm space to spend (sober) time with friends and family.
The social media platform YouTube has a name that is self declarative. Merriam Webster dictionary provides television as a synonym of tube, deriving from the term Cathode Ray Tube which some televisions today still rely on (Brain). YouTube, therefore, is this sort of tube, for you. This name is direct in its implications, in that this you suggests that those partaking in the site’s activity are who it’s made for. For YouTube in particular, consumers and producers of content overlap insofar as the two are most definitely not mutually exclusive. This creates what George Ritzer and Nathan Jurgenson call prosumers, who, utilising YouTube’s interactive features, are able to not only absorb content but create and share it simultaneously. With this, YouTube’s connective features afford the site a mass user-ship that enables prosumers to create a self brand, which will ultimately affect their social capital.
YouTube focuses on providing its users with tools to not only view, but create content too. This ability to prosume alone is one aspect that affords YouTube a mass user-ship, in that the site is appealing to viewers, creators, and those who do both. However, an even more compelling affordance are YouTube’s connective, interactive features. In his article, Ian Hutchby explains affordances in regard to “the possibilities that they offer for action” (447). YouTube provides many of these possibilities for its users. The homepage of any YouTube member’s account presents itself firstly with a search bar (Fig. 1).
Figure 1: Search bar
This tool, often overlooked or taken for granted, allows prosumers on YouTube to search, site-wide, for whatever content they wish for- at the click of a button. Search results can vary from videos themselves, to playlists and actual channels (Fig. 2).
Figure 2: Search results
Such a feature affords users the ability to be able to view videos specific to their want or need at the time, whilst also enabling them to find new channels which relate to this. Found underneath the search bar are the Home, Trending and Subscriptions options (Fig. 3)
Figure 3: Trending and Subscriptions
The Trending button, arguably one of YouTube’s biggest affordances in terms of the connectivity it allows, presents users with the site’s most popular videos at any given time. These videos are usually a mixture of all kinds of the site’s content genres, and unlike the Recommended category of videos, are not catered to each individual’s previous content-based interests (Fig. 4)
Figure 4: Trending
The Trending section of YouTube affords consumers the ability to expand beyond their typical tastes, whilst simultaneously affording producers the chance to expand their viewership. Next, the Subscriptions button allows for a certain amount of personalisation and continuity within each YouTube account. Users can subscribe to whichever channels they may please, and this button affords them the ability to keep track of these. The result is that each account becomes particular to each user’s interests, whilst also providing a sense of organisation to each account. This affordance allows each user to subscribe to more and more channels, as they know these will all be kept track of. Not only do these Trending and Subscription buttons appear under the search bar, but they also appear in a side bar, allowing users double the opportunity to access and manage content (Fig. 3). Furthermore, the Recommended category of the homepage suggests videos to users, based on their previous searches and videos watched (Fig. 5).
Figure 5: Recommended videos
This affords YouTube the ability to perhaps provide viewers with new channels to subscribe to, and, like Trending, to expand Creators’ viewership. Lastly, what affords YouTube users the ability to actually directly interact in itself, are the subscribe, notification, like/dislike and comment options (Fig. 6).
Figure 6: Subscribe, notification, like/dislike and comment buttons
The Subscribe button, found alongside any video or channel suggestion, allows any user to keep updated with channels that they are interested in or wish to support in any way. A recent addition to this was the Notification bell, which alerts the device of any user who who has selected the button for a channel, when said channel uploads a video. This affords users the ability to be able to keep completely up-to-date with content, whilst also reminding them of channels that they may have forgotten to check out. The like/dislike and comment options, arguably the most interactive of them all, lets and encourages viewers to react and connect with not only the channel or creator themselves, but other YouTube users too. What all of these features ultimately achieve is that they afford, or ‘offer possibilities for’, YouTube consumers, producers and prosumers the ability or ‘action’ to interact, which thus affords YouTube itself with a mass user-ship.
This mass user-ship enables prosumers to create and build a self brand. In their article George Ritzer and Nathan Jurgenson also discuss prosumerism in relation to capitalism:
Given the recent explosion of user-generated content online, we have reason to see prosumption as increasingly central. In prosumer capitalism, control and exploitation take on a different character than in the other forms of capitalism: there is a trend toward unpaid rather than paid labor and toward offering products at no cost, and the system is marked by a new abundance where scarcity once predominated. (13)
In regards to YouTube’s prosumers, many take their video production to the next level wherein they may actually monetize their content. Jessica A. Zanatta explains this process: “Step 1: Enable your channel for monetization.”, “Step 2: Connect your YouTube channel to an AdSense account in order to earn
money and get paid for your monetized videos.”, and “Step 3: Take a minute to get to know the kinds of videos you can monetize and the
different advertisement formats. “-but she does note that: “a creator needs over a certain number of viewers to see the advertisements before the creator can make any actual ad revenue” (23-24). Here, it becomes obvious that creators essentially need a high viewership in order to break away from the prosumer ‘trend toward unpaid labour’, which again is easily afforded for many by YouTube’s aforementioned interactive features. The next step then for such prosumers is to create and build a self brand, afforded by this mass user-ship.In Status Update, Alice E. Marwick quotes a Tom Peters:
The main chance is becoming a free agent in an economy
of free agents…and looking to establish
your own micro equivalent of the Nike swoosh… The good
news— and it is largely good news— is that everyone has a
chance to stand out. Everyone has a chance to learn, improve,
and build up their skills. Everyone has a chance to
be a brand worthy of remark. (165)
The YouTube community sees more self-branded creators every day, with more and more prosumers not only creating such an empire for themselves, but gaining money from it too. YouTubers Sierra and Alex have done just this. Viewers don’t have to go any further than their channel description to understand what their brand is all about: “We’re one of those youtube couples…this is what we do the rest of the time”. Here, any potential consumer of their content knows in seconds what they are in for- a look into the ‘every day life’ of a ‘YouTube couple’. Their plethora of ‘couple’-based videos include: GUYS HIT ON MY FIANCÉ!, OUR PROPOSAL! and 1 YEAR ANNIVERSARY IN THE MALDIVES!– to name a few. These videos establish the first half of their self-declared self-brand: as a ‘YouTube couple’. In the content, we see them going on lavish dates and international holidays, alongside mutually partaking in overtly ‘romantic’ gestures and activities. Establishing themselves as a YouTube couple comes with much competition- just search ‘YouTube couples’ (Fig. 7) and this is evident-making such extravagant and romantic content almost necessary to continue gaining views.
Figure 7: YouTube couples
After establishing this initial part of their brand, they must then go to show the second part- showing what they do ‘the rest of the time’. This then brings videos like: First time crying in a video, ACNE SCAR REMOVAL! and OUR NEW FURNITURE! DECORATING OUR NEW HOUSE!, where viewers get a glimpse into the more realistic, gritty every day activities that most ‘real life’ couples are more likely to engage in. Here, we have an example of what Tom Peters called trying to ‘establish your own micro equivalent of the Nike swoosh’, in Sierra and Alex’s attempt to set themselves apart from other less realistic YouTube couples and create a self-brand unique to themselves.
After a self brand is established, prosumers can then utilize this to increase their social and cultural capitals. Focusing particularly on social capital, this is a resource that can be gained through a network of individuals, like followers or subscribers. Creating a self-brand can increase social capital through attracting more attention from followers and subscribers online. Sierra and Alex’s increase in social capital is evident through the multiple other opportunities they have now been provided with, exhibited in: I’M AN ACTOR!?, Day In The Life Of A Model and Embarrassing Red Carpet Wardrobe Malfunction!Creating a self-brand however is not always this simple, and social capital can easily be lost. In a now deleted video entitled ‘ALEX & SIERRA ARE OVER’ Sierra and Alex utilized a clickbait title where viewers would be led to believe that they had broken up. After viewing the video, however, consumers would soon find out that Sierra and Alex were actually talking about another ‘online couple’- Alex and Sierra, who have recently announced their separation. In the video, Sierra and Alex appeared to many to be happy about this news, explaining that they would no longer get confused with another couple anymore. Clearly, having another Online Couple with the same names were effecting their self-brand, and their ‘chance to stand out’ was being diminished. This however, along with the clickbait title, receieved a lot of backlash from viewers (Fig. 8).
Figure 8: Initial backlash
Sierra and Alex reacted to and discussed this in their First time crying in a video, where they explained their intentions and expressed that as prosumers, they were in fact fans of Alex and Sierra’s, enjoyed their content, and were most definitely not celebrating their separation. However, this video too received a lot of backlash (Fig. 9).
Figure 9: Subsequent backlash
This is a typical incident where, in an attempt to show an improvement to their self-brand, a brand actually does the opposite and thus loses some social capital.
A self-brand’s affect on their own social capital is thus highly evident. Sierra and Alex thought that their social capital would improve if their self-brand was not in direct competition with another very similar one. However, the opposite was in fact proven. Their plethora of other opportunities however shows how their social and cultural capitals do continue to grow through the successes of their self brand. Such is only afforded by the platform on which their content is hosted-YouTube-whose interactive features reward YouTube itself with a mass user-ship, which in turn affords channels like Sierra and Alex’s a mass viewer-ship, boosting their self-brand which, as is now evident, directly affects their social capital.
“Clickbait.” Merriam-Webster. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/clickbait. Accessed 22nd September 2017.
Danaher, Geoff, Schirato, Tony and Webb, Jen. “Cultural Field and the Habitus”, Understanding Bourdieu. Allen & Unwin, 2002.
I use the Instagram page, buyfrombraeley, to sell my old clothes. I created this profile because I needed extra money, and had way too many clothes. As Alice E. Marwick explains in her chapter on self-branding, “everyone has a chance to be a brand worthy of remark.”- and this is just the mentality I adopted. After initially only selling to my friends, the page spread further so that girls I didn’t know were purchasing my old clothes.
I chose Instagram to host my page, as I knew that I could gain attention and followers by following others first, and luckily “the web [makes] it possible for anyone to have a website.” Utilizing Instagram, I self-branded insofar as providing a somewhat hooking biography, where potential buyers would not only know what they are in for, but be enticed by my flexibility and willingness to provide a drop-off service. This self-branding at its very essence in my “strategic creation of an identity to be promoted and sold to others.”
My page exemplifies a type of social-formation in that it utilizes social media to boost my personal life, through monetary gain, reaching more and more people daily and thus turning my social-formation into self development. Theresa Sauter explains this further in her ‘What’s on your mind?’ Writing on Facebook as a tool for self-formation: “In the context of modern western psychologised, techno-social hybrid realities, where individuals are incited constantly to work on themselves and perform their self-development in public, the use of online social networking sites (SNSs) can be conceptualised as what Foucault has described as a ‘technique of self’.”
My Instagram page is exemplary of “Self- branding [being]…intrinsically linked to the
features of social media technologies that make self- promotion on a wide scale possible.” In this, my self-branding has been allowed to be successful through the vehicle of social media, where by definition it can reach a larger scale.
On Instagram it is easy to provide numerous, detailed photos
Instagram is easily accessible to anyone wanting to sell items, because-as detailed by Marwick– “In Web 2.0 culture,
entrepreneurs rather than programmers provide models for social media success; building businesses, rather than software, is important.” Thus my enticing bio and plethora of pictures, hosted by Instagram, is more important in my self-branding than a technologically-complex website with impressive graphics.
Last Monday, I discovered the website Designer Wardrobe, where users can buy and sell second hand designer clothing. After spending hours scrolling their feed for items to buy, I click into Facebook. This is were I see an ad, floating at the side of my news feed: ‘Designer Wardrobe- Your Pre-loved Designer Clothing.’ I was shocked-perhaps naively- that through Facebook, Designer Wardrobe had targeted me so instantaneously, wherein an algorithm had identified me as just this; their target market.
Admittedly, I am often the victim of click-bait– and it doesn’t have to be an over-dramatized article headline or video title. A clothing shop can merely advertise ‘70% discount and free delivery!*’, and i’m sucked in (only to discover that the discount is limited to the men’s clothes, and delivery is only free within the US). But herein lies a classic example of target marketing, along with successful branding utilizing a click-bait ad title. Online algorithms allow this, whereby- according to George Christodoulides in his Branding in the post-internet era- “the internet can be used in a cost-effective manner for personalization and customization of market offerings.”
Such algorithms combine an encoded knowledge of my vulnerability to Facebook click-bait together with that of my interest in cheap designer clothing, and target me accordingly. This can again create a perhaps naive sense of shock within its victim; somewhat explained by Tarleton Gillespie: “We prefer the idea that algorithms run on their own, free of the messy bias, subjectivity, and political aims of people. It’s a seductive and persistent myth, one Facebook has enjoyed and propagated. But its simply false.”
An ad from Designer Wardrobe has appeared on the side on my Facebook news feed every day since Monday; and it’s been a week. It’s an almost passive-aggressive reminder that what I am seeing is a product of design, just like the clothes i’m buying.
Social Media Norms are unwritten rules that control the activity of many social media users. Such norms follow an Objectivist theory, which details laws, rules and systems of a certain culture. You should share just enough so that followers and friends are involved in and intrigued by your life, but never too much; oversharing being one of the biggest social media crimes. With so many different social media sites available to internet users today, certain platforms are becoming used for specific types of interaction, with users communicating over a number of different networks, having multiple different conversations at once.
Social Media Collective set certain challenges for social media users in their 2011 article. One of these set readers with the task of using only one technology for 3 days, for all communication, even when it is obviously inappropriate or impractical. For me, this was a challenge accepted.
For the first day, my chosen exclusivity to Facebook Messenger went unnoticed by many. By breaking social media norms I was demonstrating the Subjectivist theory, which says that Objectivist laws, rules and systems edit out intentionality and individuality. Demonstrating my agency by breaching norms meant that by the second day, after receiving a few WHY ARE YOU NOT REPLYING texts, I realized that not everyone had the data or 3G to see my replies, which were on Facebook Messenger. The second most common reaction was one of pure confusion and misunderstanding. Replying to Snapchat’s disappearing photographs with words, on Messenger, stumped and often angered my friends. Streamlining our conversation onto one social media platform was apparently very important to them, and varying outside of this social media norm was generally not met with a positive reaction.
It was interesting to me that our usual carrying out of two different conversations on Snapchat and Messenger at once was OK, but crossing the conversation over from one platform to another, was unacceptable. Despite the fact that ‘Cultural fields themselves are not autonomous, or uninfluenced by other fields’, displaying agency through ignoring my friends group’s learned habitus left them infuriated and confused, isolating me from their regular communication and casting me into a place of ‘social suicide‘.
Braeley Davies 