[ Laughter ]
[ Background Sound ]
>> A young boy who was one of the 6.7 million starving Haitians says,
"I hate when I tell them no pickles, and they still give me pickles."
[ Laughter ]
When a man outside a dilapidated, tipping house says, "When my house is so big,
I need 2 wireless routers."
The irony seems ridiculous.
In February 2013, an organization called Water is Life
released a video entitled "First World Problems Anthem."
According to Social News Daily of February 5, 2013.
In this video
impoverished residents in Haiti recite the posts shared by tweeters
under the hashtag, "First World Problems."
A hashtag is
originally an organizational tool on Twitter which has evolved
into an odd description method in social media.
Hashtagging is when
someone uses a pound sign before a key word or phrase relevant to the topic of their posts.
Some examples being "hashtag Selfie
Sunday," an impulsive, ultra-narcissistic evening.
"Hashtag food porn" to describe their apparently luscious meals.
Likewise,
""hashtag First World Problems," is using posts to describe a very minor complaint,
one that arises due to the complications of a first-world's convenience like Wi-Fi,
Starbucks, or Wi-Fi at Starbucks.
So "hashtag First World Problems" are not problems.
And when tweeters at the first world share these posts they understand
that their problems are not problems at all.
Yet The Guardian of October 9, 2013
explains that their up to 5 tweets per second under this hashtag.
It's like tweeters are saying, "Hashtag, yes, I know I'm a spoiled little brat for saying this.
Hashtag, but I'll say it anyway.
Which begs the research question, is stating posts under the
""hashtag First World Problems" phenomenon an effective tool
to prove one's awareness of their privilege?
To answer this question, we must
first look to the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence
which is Yu Lin's research model, "hashtag Bigbirds Never Die,
Understanding the Social Dynamics of Merchant
Hashtags."
Then apply this to the "hashtag First World Problems" phenomenon before finally taking a
look at the rhetorical and social implications.
In order to answer the research question, let us first take a look at the 3 types of Lin's model.
The hashtag's topicality, interactivity, and prominence.
First the hashtag's
topicality is based on the number of re-tweets.
A re-tweet is an example of individual identifying a tweet that is so interesting
or relevant that they wish to restate it verbatim to their own followers.
When tweeters re-tweet other's posts it shows that the hashtag is timely
or have contextual relevance for ongoing conversations.
The second tenant is a hashtag's interactivity.
And this is indicated by the
number of replies to the hashtag.
Hashtags are more likely to grow and process when there are many users speaking directly
to each other while invoking the hashtag.
This shows that people are not only
paying attention to other's contents but are actively responding to one another.
And finally, the last tenant is the hashtag's prominence,
which emerges by the expected follow sites of the users who
tweet to the hashtag.
Essentially, as much as the audience exposed to a hashtag by a user mentioning it.
Hashtags that are mentioned by users with large audiences and many followers are more
likely to result in rapid growth and sustained activity.
Meanwhile, hashtags that are mentioned by users
with smaller audiences are less likely to grow in prominence.
So now that we understand the
research model, it is imperative to apply its tenants to the artifact.
First, the hashtags topicality is seen by the uses
of "hashtag First World Problems" as powerful constructions.
Because of Twitter's growing presence on the Internet, it exposes us to such constructions.
The [inaudible] 6, 9 revealed in 2012 that in 2011 Twitter had 100 million accounts.
And in 2012, it had reached had up to 400 million users.
Clearly, "hashtag First World Problems" fulfills the first tenant of the research model
as they're up to 5 tenants, 5 updates per second.
Next, "hashtag First World Problems" interactivity is indicated
by the extensive number of replies to the hashtag.
This hashtag is now not only used within Twitter but on TV shows,
marketing ads of the First World's Problems Anthem, and even in newspaper articles.
Published on the August 22, 2013 Time Magazine,
one reveals the breaking news the double-stuff Oreo,
it doesn't actually contain double the amount of stuff.
[ Laughter ]
And, indeed, below it at the thread of online viewers lamented
with the phrase "hashtag First World Problems."
Finally, the prominence of
"hashtag First World Problems" as seen by its expected follow size fulfills the last tenant.
With a growing prominence of its very origin,
the growth of "hashtag First World Problems" is easily foreseen.
Even this hashtag, hashtag's presence in this hashtag speech as a hashtag topic
of focus indicates its hashtag prominence.
If it seems hashtag annoying,
hashtag overused, hashtag get out of my life every time I say hashtag,
then this exemplifies the effect of the prominence
of the first world problems phenomenon.
So now that we
understand the research model and the application to the artifact,
let's now take a look at some rhetorical and social implications.
Because despite it's rather silly nature, this hashtag is
heavily impactful.
First on the rhetorical level, "hashtag First World Problems" grossly oversimplifies the
experience of living in a developing country.
It has effectively reduced the experiences of the
other into a caricature of poverty.
Yes, we are aware of our own privileges or at least aware that we should be aware.
But before we pat ourselves on the back for this recognition, we need to ask if living
in America gives us the exclusive claim over wireless Internet frustration,
on tap water, and on phone chargers.
Just because "hashtag First World Problems" has topicality, interactivity, and prominence,
it does not articulate the need to change the behavior or the attitude.
As stated on the Atlantic in the November 21, 2013,
the real first world problem is our inability to see that others are as wholly complex
and as keen on technology and pleasure as we are.
"Hashtag First
World Problems" also has important social implications.
It has the potential to harness the powerful force of the cyber-sphere.
And this force, along with its interactivity and prominence, can create an
interface between people of different geographic and socioeconomic situations.
This means that it can give us a multi-facetted understanding
of the developing world and facilitate
conversations so that there is potential for meaningful dialogue about inequality based
on mutual comprehension and humanity, just like this speech.
We don't see posts like I have a chronically ill child and no
health insurance under the "hashtag First World Problems".
But these situations exist in both first and third-world countries.
In this way first and third-world experiences are not incomprehensibly alien
to each other.
Actually, they are more similar than we realize.
So today, we have first explored 's Yu Lin's research model "hashtag Bigbirds Never Die,
Understanding the Social Dynamics of
Emerging Hashtags."
Then apply this to the "hashtag First World Problems" phenomenon before finally taking a
look at the rhetorical and social implications.
The answer to the question is daily posts under
the "hashtag First World Problems" phenomenon an effective tool to prove one's awareness
of the privilege as a definitive?
Hashtag yes.
But the people of the third world are not immune to "hashtag First
World Problems."
Though they don't live luxurious lives,
we need to see them past the poverty caricatures stereotype because connectivity issues
on your iPhone, how to sink the iPad, and what brand
of noodles to buy can also be third-world problems.
By looking past the caricature of poverty, this leads to a better understanding
of ourselves and people of the third world.
[ Applause ]