Social Media & Society

Watch

• The Battle for Your Time: Exposing the Costs of Social Media | Dino Ambrosi | TEDxLagunaBlancaSchool ↗TEDx Talks
• I quit social media–here’s what happened | Gabriela Nguyen | TEDxManhattanBeach ↗TEDx Talks
• How to Make Learning as Addictive as Social Media | Duolingo's Luis Von Ahn | TED ↗TED
• The Internet is Worse Than Ever – Now What? ↗Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell
• Bans on social media and phones: what's the evidence? - What in the World podcast, BBC World Service ↗BBC World Service
• Teens, Social Media, and Technology (full documentary) | FRONTLINE ↗FRONTLINE PBS | Official

Read

• The Virtual Community: Homesteading on the Electronic Frontier ↗An indispensable early exploration of online social spaces, this work presciently mapped the contours and challenges of digital collective life.Howard Rheingold
• It's Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens ↗An essential ethnographic study dissecting how young people navigate identity, privacy, and sociality within contemporary networked environments, revealing the complexities of digital adolescence.danah boyd
• Net Surfers Don't Ride Alone: Virtual Communities as CommunitiesThis foundational paper rigorously examines whether online groups genuinely constitute 'communities,' offering early sociological insights into digital social bonds and their implications.Barry Wellman and Milena Gulia
• Bowling Alone: America's Declining Social CapitalA pivotal essay diagnosing the erosion of traditional civic engagement, providing crucial context for the subsequent rise and potential role of online social formations in a fragmented society.Robert D. Putnam
• Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism ↗Though predating the internet, this seminal work provides a powerful conceptual framework for understanding how large groups, including online ones, forge a sense of shared identity without direct interaction.Benedict Anderson

Voices to follow

• Danah Boyd ↗Her research meticulously dissects the complex interplay between youth, technology, and privacy, illuminating the social dynamics of networked publics.Principal Researcher, Microsoft Research; Founder, Data & Society
• Sherry Turkle ↗A keen observer of digital intimacy, she probes the psychological and relational costs of our increasingly tethered lives.Professor of the Social Studies of Science and Technology, MIT
• Zeynep Tufekci ↗Offers prescient analysis on the societal implications of digital platforms, from their role in social movements to their impact on public discourse.Associate Professor, University of North Carolina; Columnist, The New York Times
• Siva Vaidhyanathan ↗Provides a trenchant critique of the architecture and influence of major social media companies, advocating for a more democratic digital commons.Professor of Media Studies, University of Virginia

Glossary

• CyberbullyingUsing digital technology to repeatedly harass, threaten, or embarrass someone, often through social media, messaging apps, or online games. For example, repeatedly posting mean comments about someone's appearance on their social media page is a form of cyberbullying.
• Digital FootprintAll the data you leave behind when you use the internet, including your posts, comments, likes, and even websites you visit. For example, every photo you upload to Instagram or every search you make on Google adds to your digital footprint.
• DisinformationFalse information that is deliberately created and spread to deceive people, often to cause harm or influence opinions. For example, a fake news article designed to make a political candidate look bad, knowing it's untrue, is disinformation.
• Echo ChamberAn online space where you mostly see or hear opinions and information that already match your own, making it seem like everyone agrees with you. For example, if you only follow news sources and people who share your political views, you might be in an echo chamber.
• Filter BubbleA personalized online experience where algorithms (computer programs that learn what you like) show you content they think you'll agree with, based on your past activity. For example, if you often watch cat videos, YouTube's algorithm might create a filter bubble around you by suggesting more cat videos and related content.
• InfluencerA person who has a large following on social media and can persuade their audience to buy products, visit places, or adopt certain ideas. For example, a fashion influencer might post photos of new clothes, encouraging their followers to buy them.
• MisinformationFalse or inaccurate information that is spread, often without the person sharing it realizing it's untrue. For example, sharing a news story on social media that turns out to be incorrect, but you genuinely believed it was true, is spreading misinformation.
• Online IdentityThe way you present yourself and are seen by others on the internet, which might be different from your real-life personality. For example, someone might use a cool username and only post about their hobbies online, creating an online identity focused on those interests.
• Privacy SettingsControls on social media platforms and websites that let you decide who can see your posts, photos, and personal information. For example, setting your Instagram profile to "private" means only people you approve can see your posts.
• Social Media PlatformA website or app that lets people connect with others, share content like photos and videos, and communicate online. For example, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube are popular social media platforms where you can share your life and see what friends are doing.
• TrollSomeone who intentionally posts upsetting, offensive, or off-topic comments online just to provoke a reaction or cause arguments. For example, a troll might leave rude comments on a video just to annoy the creator and other viewers.
• Virtual CommunityA group of people who connect and interact online, sharing common interests, goals, or experiences, even if they never meet in person. For example, a gaming forum where players discuss strategies for their favorite game forms a virtual community.

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Where this connects to other fields, and why it's worth knowing.

• Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning Technology

  Social feeds show you whatever keeps you scrolling, and nothing grips people like outrage. Studies find that every angry, moral word you add to a post makes it spread about a fifth further. So without anyone deciding to, the algorithm keeps breeding a angrier society just by chasing your attention.

• Work, Wages & Labour Markets Economics

  You'd think your best friends would help you land a job, but usually it's the people you barely know. Close friends all swim in your pond and hear the same news you do. Distant acquaintances live in other worlds, so they carry openings and tips you'd never have heard about. Weak connections, surprisingly strong payoff.

• International & Human Rights Law Law

  Ending slavery, winning women the vote, banning torture, these didn't spread mainly through polite treaties. They caught on in sudden bursts, jumping country to country through networks of activists, shaming, and copying, almost like a contagious idea. Human rights advance less like paperwork and more like a wildfire.

• Public Health Health

  Your friend's friend's friend, someone you've never even met, can measurably nudge your weight, your smoking, even your happiness. Studies show these things ripple across up to three degrees of social distance. Behavior spreads through a network almost like a germ spreads through a crowd.