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Hello world!

This is the first blog post from the Internet Explorers group. We study in the University of Vaasa and this blog exists for different assignments on the Communicating in the Digital World course. There are eight students in our group - Ossi, Mira, Eerik, Emma, Satu, Jonna, Carita and Mirella.

Our group's theme is lifestyle. We focus on writing about different hobbies, habits, trends... The list goes on.

Our first assignment

We searched the Internet for an interesting, lifestyle related, unnamed phenomenon. We found such a one in the world of social media and named it profile picture protest. To see our definition on Urban Dictionary, please click here!

Over the weekend, our group discovered many phenomena from different fields of lifestyle - furnishing, clothing trends, smart watches... But, what stood out from our other discoveries, were profile pictures - especially the ones in social media.

How did we end up writing about a phenomenon that occurs in profile pictures?

Social media, the relatively new and popular way of communicating digitally, connects people of many ethnic and age groups around the world. Also, it enables searching current information on many kinds of events. It is the people who build a social network, and in social media, names and profile pictures are usually the first thing to get a viewer's attention.

The first thing one sees, is what the person in the picture looks like. But, if looked close enough, profile picture can give an image whether or not the person makes a supportive or opposing statement to an unjust or delightful event. Eventually, we concluded: When there are groups of people making a statement - such as opposing an unjust action in the world - people are participating in the lifestyle of making a difference.

An example seen in a case of profile picture protest. Images like this
were used as profile pictures after the attack at Charlie Hebdo offices
in January 2015. By doing this, people supported the freedom of word and press.

Written by O.A.