Sociology 167 Social Media & Virtual Communities

1. Week 2, January 29th Social Media & Virtual Communities Before the Internet Sociology 167Social Media & Virtual Communities

2. Logistics • If you are enrolled, you should have access to bspace: http://bcourses.berkeley.edu • If you have trouble with bspace, you can get course info at: http://s167.stuartgeiger.com Stuart Geiger, lecturer for Module 1 (content) s167@stuartgeiger.com Linus Huang, instructor of record (administration) lbhuang@berkeley.edu

3. Logistics This class is split into three equal modules, each taught independently by a different instructor.

4. Logistics There will be an in-class midterm exam at the end of each module, covering material from only that module, each worth 20% of your grade. There will be an online participation assignment for each module, each worth 5% of your grade. There will be a final paper (not research) worth 25% of your grade, details TBD.

5. Logistics Stuart Geiger: Theories and Institutional Context Jan 29th, Feb 5th, Feb 12th, Feb 19th (exam) Jen Schradie: Digital Democracy and Politics Feb 26th, Mar 5th, Mar 12th, Mar 19th (exam) TBD: Identity and Everyday Life Apr 2nd, Apr 9th, Apr 16th, Apr 23rd (exam)

6. Module 1 participation You must make at least one post to the bcourses discussion forum about a virtual community or social media that you would like the lecturer, Stuart Geiger, to discuss in class. You must either ask one question about the community/media proposed, or try to answer or expand on a question another student has asked. Posts should be from 50 to 100 words and must be in by 11:59 PM on Feb 5th. You can e-mail your assignment to Stuart if you do not have access to bcourses yet.

7. Today’s class • Last week: digital dualism and the IRL fetish • Gladwell / Sellen & Harper • McLuhan / Monroe • Anderson / Economist

8. Today’s class • Last week: digital dualism and the IRL fetish • Gladwell / Sellen & Harper • What is media? What is social media? • Paper as a social media • Affordances of media technology • The Myth of Paperlessness • McLuhan / Monroe • Anderson / Economist

9. Today’s class • Last week: digital dualism and the IRL fetish • Gladwell / Sellen & Harper • McLuhan / Monroe • media as extensions of man • the medium is the message – content vs. form • the content of a new medium is an older medium • historical ages are separated by technology • hot vs. cool media • Anderson / Economist

10. Today’s class • Last week: digital dualism and the IRL fetish • Gladwell / Sellen & Harper • McLuhan / Monroe • Anderson / Economist • All communites are imagined • The impact of print • How print made nations • Relevance for us today

11. Last week: digital dualism and the IRL fetish Jurgenson’s concept of digital dualism: “the habit of viewing the online and offline as largely distinct. … time spent online means less spent offline. We are either jacked into the Matrix or not; we are either looking at our devices or not.” http://thenewinquiry.com/essays/the-irl-fetish/

12. Last week: digital dualism and the IRL fetish Jurgenson’s critique of digital dualism: “It is wrong to say “IRL” to mean offline: Facebook is real life. We aren’t friends until we are Facebook friends. We have come to understand more and more of our lives through the logic of digital connection. Social media is more than something we log into; it is something we carry within us. We can’t log off.”

13. Last week: digital dualism and the IRL fetish According to Jurgenson, if we want to really be critical of social media and new technology, we shouldn’t be obsessing over whether people are checking Facebook at the dinner table. Digital dualists are blind to how these sites are changing the way we understand each other.

14. Today’s class • Last week: digital dualism and the IRL fetish • Gladwell / Sellen & Harper • What is media? What is social media? • Paper as a social media • Affordances of media technology • The Myth of Paperlessness • McLuhan / Monroe • Anderson / Economist

15. Definitions You are getting an introduction to Virtual Communities and Social Media from someone who does not believe in “virtual communities” or “social media” – at least those terms!

16. Definitions You are getting an introduction to Virtual Communities and Social Media from someone who does not believe in “virtual communities” or “social media” – at least those terms! The first thing we will do is to think critically and sociologically about the kind of work that those terms do for us when we casually use them.

17. What makes social media “social”? Source: The Drum

18. What makes social media “social”? One popular definition of social media: “Social Media is a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0, and that allow the creation and exchange of User Generated Content.” (Kaplan and Haenlein 2010: 61) Cited by >2000 academic articles, and the first quotation in the Wikipedia article on social media.

19. What makes social media “social”? But what kind of media isn’t social, by definition?

20. What makes social media “social”? But what kind of media isn’t social, by definition?

21. What is media? What isn’t a medium?

22. What is media? What isn’t a medium? Rule #1: “media” is plural, “medium” is singular

23. What is media? What isn’t a medium? an agency or means of doing something: using the latest technology as a medium for job creation their primitive valuables acted as a medium of exchange

24. What is media? What isn’t a medium? a means by which something is communicated or expressed: here the Welsh language is the medium of instruction

25. What is media? What isn’t a medium? the intervening substance through which sensory impressions are conveyed or physical forces are transmitted: radio communication needs no physical medium between the two stations

26. What is media? What isn’t a medium? the substance in which an organism lives or is cultured: these cells are grown in a nutrient-rich medium

27. What is media? What isn’t a medium? a particular form of storage material for computer files, such as magnetic tape or discs: In most cases, magnetic disk storage will be the medium of choice for several key reasons.

28. What is media? What isn’t a medium? the material or form used by an artist, composer, or writer: oil paint is the most popular medium for glazing

29. What is media? What isn’t a medium? a person claiming to be in contact with the spirits of the dead and to communicate between the dead and the living: in the cities there is a network of spirit mediums who claim to contact the dead.

30. What is media? What isn’t a medium? the middle quality or state between two extremes; a reasonable balance: the song soon discovers a happy medium between thrash and catchy pop

31. What is media? What isn’t a medium? A tired, boring question with no real answer: “Is this really media?” We should instead be asking: “How, when, and why is this media?” “What makes something into media?” “What is this mediating between?”

32. What is media? What isn’t a medium? How could neck tie be a medium? How could a pair of shoes be a medium?

33. Paper as a social media Gladwell reviewing Sellen and Harper’s “The Myth of the Paperless Office,” written in 2002.

34. Paper as a social media Gladwell reviewing Sellen and Harper’s “The Myth of the Paperless Office,” written in 2002. In many cases, the properties of paper make it more social than its digital replacements.

35. Paper as a social media Gladwell reviewing Sellen and Harper’s “The Myth of the Paperless Office,” written in 2002. In many cases, the properties of paper make it more social than its digital replacements. Excellent case about the dangers of using “social media” when we mean “Internet/digital media”

36. Affordances Gladwell writes that affordances are “qualities that permit specific kinds of uses.” My expanded definition: Affordances are material properties of a media technology that support specific kinds of practices and activities.

37. Affordances Affordances are material properties of a medium that support specific kinds of practices and activities. What do I mean by material properties? Code, software, and platforms are also material What do I mean by practices and activities? Not just actions, but interactions and social routines

38. Affordances of paper vs …. • Carrying (weight and portability issues) • Communicating current activity to others (visibility) • Transferring information to someone • Storing data, amount of information contained within (capacity) • Inscribing (writing or typing) • Annotating • Revising, Rearranging, Combining text • Viewing moving images • Use while away from power plug • Use in the Dark • Use in Bright Daylight

39. The Myth of Paperlessness There is a powerful idea that paper is old and outdated, therefore symbolic of old and outdated ways of thought. Today’s narrative assumes something inherently progressive in new technology, specifically the Internet.

40. The link between paperlessness and progress is not even a new narrative!

41. The link between paperlessness and progress is not even a new narrative! “How happy we will be not to have to read any more; to be able finally to close our eyes” -- Uzanne and Robida, 1895

42. The link between paperlessness and progress is not even a new narrative! “How happy we will be not to have to read any more; to be able finally to close our eyes” -- Uzanne and Robida, 1895 Villemard’s1910 drawings of the year 2000. (both quoted in Ludovico 2013:18)

43. TEN MINUTE BREAK

44. Today’s class • Last week: digital dualism and the IRL fetish • Gladwell / Sellen & Harper • McLuhan / Monroe • media as extensions of man • the medium is the message – content vs. form • the content of a new medium is an older medium • historical ages are separated by technology • hot vs. cool media • Anderson / Economist

45. Media as extensions of man “we have extended our central nervous system itself in a global embrace, abolishing both space and time as far as our planet is concerned. Rapidly, we approach the final phase of the extensions of man - the technological simulation of consciousness, when the creative process of knowing will be collectively and corporately extended to the whole of human society” (3)

46. “the ‘content’ of any medium is always another medium” Media are layered and never purely new: “The content of writing is speech, just as the written word is the content of print, and print is the content of the telegraph. ” (8)

47. “the ‘content’ of any medium is always another medium”

48. The Medium is the Message “What we are considering here, however, are the psychic and social consequences of the designs or patterns as they amplify or accelerate existing processes. For the "message" of any medium or technology is the change of scale or pace or pattern that it introduces into human affairs.” (8)

49. The Medium is the Message “The railway … accelerated and enlarged the scale of previous human functions, creating totally new kinds of cities and new kinds of work and leisure. This happened whether the railway functioned in a tropical or a northern environment, and is quite independent of the freight or content of the railway medium..” (8)

50. The Medium is the Message For McLuhan, what is being transmitted is far less important than how it is being transmitted.