Social Networks
What five features does Nancy Baym use to define digital community?
Space, Practice, Shared Resources and Support, Shared Identity, Interpersonal Relationships
What features does Graham emphasize in Web 2.0?
AJAX-induced functionality, Democratization, Not Mistreating the User
What is section 230?
Section 230, otherwise known as the safe harbor act, carved out a safe harbor for ISPs, search engines, and interactive computer service providers. So long as they only provided access to the internet or conveyed information, they could not be held liable for the content of that speech.
Define ”microfunctionality” in the context of apps.
Microfunctionality is a single or limited-purpose software that splits up and breaks down multistep activities into smaller, more focused and specific components.
Define Techno-chauvinism.
Techno-chauvinism is the belief that tech is the answer for everything. As Braussard notes further, this belief comes with other features, such as “ meritocracy, techno-libertarian political values, celebrating free speech to the extent of denying that online harassment is a problem, the notion that computers are more “objective” or “unbiased, because they distill questions and answers down to mathematical evaluation, and an unwavering faith that if the world just used more computers, and used them properly, social problems would disappear and we’d create a digitally enabled utopia.”
Define “Networked Individualism”
A shift away from tightly knit communities, to a loosely knit network of social media-enabled digital communities in which the individual sits at the center.
What is a micro-celebrity/influencer and how are they different from mainstream celebrities?
Micro-celebrities are online figures that gain a community of loyal followers through performing niche specializations. They differ from mainstream celebrities by appealing to a sense of intimacy and proximity, over distance, and niche specializations over general appeal.
What was Gillespie’s critique of the current state of content moderation and governance?
It is outdated and does not reflect the realities or needs of users as we think about the central role of platforms in the contemporary moment. It gives too much power to platforms, who can both get away with what is said and can take down anything they wish and still not be considered a kind of publisher.
How do apps today reflect an ideology of ”digital solutionism?”
Digital solutionism is defined as a pathology in which complex problems are simplified and recognized only as problems through one criteria: whether they are ‘solveable’ with a clean technological solution. While many apps are facetious, there are plenty of apps in which they claim to solve a particular problem, when in reality, these problems require complex answers that cannot be addressed through the limitations of technology.
What is the Internet of Things?
The Internet of Things is the pervasive presence of a variety of things or objects around us which are able to interact with each other in a coordinated and automated fashion to perform tasks.
Name 3 reasons for why there may be a network exodus as noted in boyd’s White Flight in Networked Publics article.
Subcultural capital, taste/aesthetic hierarchization, perceptions of safety, following friends, following the new, features and functionality (spam/scams)
What is “slacktivism” and what is Evgeny Morozov’s critique on it?
Slacktivism is a kind of digitally-oriented activism that emerged with social media, where “digital effort makes us feel useful and important, but have zero social impact.” He notes that this mode of social loafing makes it so that even though we reach a broader audience, much less is accomplished for various activist causes.
What are the issues regarding commercial content moderation as outlined by the Robert’s article?
It is discreet, and the work is often done by people outside of the country, where there may be cultural differences. There is also the human cost to this kind of labor, as job precarity and instances of PTSD are high.
In DuGuay’s article on Tinder, how did Tinder reflect digital solutionism?
Tinder needed to rebrand itself as a more “wholesome” app in order to gain approval for big advertisers. While previously, it was known as a hookup app, they tried to change their brand image through interface changes such as a swipe limit, more data shown to each user, and Tinder Social spin-off. These largely did not work as a rebranding effort and they are still known as a hookup app.
Why is Ian Bogost skeptical about the hype around the Internet of Things?
The Internet of Things has become less about computational and social innovation, where it may aid in solving real problems, and more like a commercial ideology. Technologies that already have provided solutions for issues are made more computational, despite the fact that this will not make things more convenient necessarily or solve problems.
Define what ”context collapse” is and give an example of this phenomenon
Context collapse is when social network sites tend to flatten multiple audiences into one for the user. For example, you may want to show different sides of yourself to different people, each community imbued with a different context, but many of the functionalities on these platforms make it difficult to not experience some form of context collapse.
What kinds of roles do memes play in the political sphere and how do memes accomplish this kind of work?
Memes work as a form of political engagement/persuasion, grassroots activism, and a mode of expression and public discussion. While there are many ways to create a meme, many successful memes often operate through culture jamming.
Why does the term “platform” make it so difficult to regulate?
The term itself is polysemic: platforms can mean intermediaries, they can be computational, they can be political. Platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube operate as “platforms” across all these different understandings of the term. Depending on what you want your platform to be, the governance for that thing should be changed.
How did the introduction of apps change the way we engage with software?
While previously, we would need to buy entire software suits (think Adobe, Microsoft, etc.), the introduction apps allow for a fracturing of these bundles. Apps are also considered now to be largely “mundane software,” where a program is simple, has limited functionality, is cheap or free, and is unremarkable in terms of design or content. Apps now navigate our social lives, they help us with productivity, weight loss, and more, further becoming intermediaries in all aspects of our lives.
How does “Big Data” reflect a sense of techno-chauvinism?
Big data is a method to analyze, manage, and visualize large datasets. It acts as a buzzword to scientists and technologists who believe that these large data sets will provide new insights for previously obscure world problems. But this data is collected within a variety of contexts, and there is no such thing as ”objective” data. In short, there is a belief in “data fundamentalism” where we mistake numbers for facts, instead of thinking of data sets as results of human design.