Unit 6: Media and Social Shaping

Introduction: The Social Shaping of Technology (SST)

Before delving into specific topics, it is crucial to understand the theoretical framework of this unit. Social Shaping of Technology (SST) challenges the concept of Technological Determinism (the idea that technology forces society to change). Instead, SST posits that social, economic, and political factors influence the design and use of technology. Media is not just a tool that happens to us; it is a landscape we actively shape through usage norms, cultural adaptation, and resistance.

1. Growing Up Online

This topic examines the sociology of youth culture in the digital age, focusing on identity formation, privacy, and socialization. Key theorist: danah boyd.

A. Networked Publics

Unlike face-to-face interactions, online interactions occur in "networked publics." These spaces are defined by four specific affordances (properties):

1. Persistence: Online expressions are automatically recorded and archived. What is said sticks around.
2. Visibility: The default scale is potentially global. Privacy requires effort; visibility is the norm.
3. Spreadability: Content can be shared and duplicated effortlessly.
4. Searchability: One can find anyone or any content at any time, collapsing the distance between past and present acts.

B. Context Collapse

A central sociological challenge for youth online is Context Collapse.

• Definition: In the physical world, we segregate audiences (e.g., behaving differently with a teacher vs. a best friend). Social media flattens these audiences into a single group.
• Consequence: Young people must perform a "lowest common denominator" identity or use complex coding (inside jokes, sub-tweeting) to speak to specific friends while remaining opaque to parents or authority figures.

C. The Myth of the "Digital Native"

• Sociologists critique the term "Digital Native" (coined by Marc Prensky).
• Just because youth grew up with technology does not mean they possess innate media literacy.
• "Growing up online" involves navigating complex social hierarchies, cyberbullying, and the "fear of missing out" (FOMO), often without adequate adult guidance because adults assume youth are experts.

D. Privacy as Agency

• Contrary to the belief that "kids don't care about privacy," sociological research shows they care deeply.
• However, they define privacy not as "hiding information" but as controlling the context of who sees it and how it is interpreted.

2. Mobile Technology and Public Life

This section analyzes how portable devices have altered the sociology of public space and interpersonal availability. Key theorists: Rich Ling and Sherry Turkle.

A. The "Always-On" Culture and Connected Presence

• Tethering: Individuals are constantly tied to their social networks. This creates a psychological state of "alertness" for incoming notifications.
• Absent Presence: Being physically present in one location but socially and mentally present elsewhere (e.g., texting at a dinner table). This erodes the traditional social contract of face-to-face attention.

B. Micro-Coordination

Sociologist Rich Ling identifies "micro-coordination" as a shift in how we plan social interactions.

• Old Model: Plans were made in advance (time/place) and were rigid.
• New Model: Plans are fluid. "I'll text you when I get there." This allows for flexibility but requires constant communication.

C. Privatization of Public Space

• Civil Inattention: Erving Goffman’s concept of politely ignoring strangers in public is amplified by mobile tech.
• The Sound Bubble: Using headphones or staring at a screen creates a "portable private space" within public areas (buses, parks).
• Consequence: This reduces serendipitous social interactions with strangers, leading to the atomization of the public sphere. We are "alone together" (Turkle).

3. The App Generation

Based largely on the work of Howard Gardner and Katie Davis, this topic explores how the architecture of "Apps" shapes the cognitive and social development of current generations.

A. The App Metaphor

• Apps are designed to be efficient, quick, and directed toward a specific goal.
• App-enabled: Using apps to perform tasks more creatively or efficiently.
• App-dependent: Becoming paralyzed without an algorithmic guide; the inability to navigate problems without a pre-programmed solution.

B. The Packaged Self

• Apps and social platforms often provide rigid templates for identity (e.g., Facebook’s timeline, Instagram’s grid).
• This leads to the branding of the self, where individuals curate a polished, external-facing persona rather than engaging in messy, internal introspection.
• Risk Aversion: The "App Generation" may avoid risks because apps provide certainty. Taking a path that hasn't been "coded" feels dangerous.

C. Transactional Intimacy

• Communication apps (Tinder, Snapchat) can gamify relationships.
• Complex emotional exchanges are reduced to swipes, likes, and emojis.
• This may lead to a reduction in empathy, as digital screens act as emotional buffers, removing the immediate visceral feedback of seeing someone react to pain or joy.

4. Viral Media and Social Experience

This topic explores how content moves through society and how users leverage viral content for social capital. Key theorists: Henry Jenkins and Limor Shifman.

A. Virality vs. Spreadability

• Viral (Biological Metaphor): Suggests passive infection. The content infects the human carrier without their agency.
• Spreadable (Cultural Metaphor - Jenkins): Recognizes user agency. People make active decisions to share content because it communicates something about them or strengthens their social bonds.

B. The Sociology of Internet Memes

• Definition: Memes are units of popular culture that are circulated, imitated, and transformed by individual users.
• Intertextuality: Memes rely on shared cultural knowledge. To understand a meme, one must be part of the "in-group."
• Social Logic: Sharing a meme is a performative act. It signals, "I get the joke," or "I belong to this subculture."
• Political Usage: Memes are increasingly used for grassroots political expression (e.g., Pepe the Frog, "Karen" memes) because they are low-barrier entry points for political discourse.

C. Emotional Contagion

• Content that evokes high-arousal emotions (awe, anger, anxiety) is more likely to be shared than low-arousal content (sadness, contentment).
• Algorithmic Amplification: Social media algorithms favor engagement, often promoting polarizing or viral content, which shapes the collective social mood.

5. Gamer Culture

Moving beyond the outdated "effects model" (do games cause violence?), modern sociology looks at gaming as a cultural environment and a site of socialization.

A. Games as Third Places

• Ray Oldenburg defined "Third Places" as social surroundings separate from the two usual social environments of home (first place) and the workplace (second place).
• MMORPGs (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games) serve as virtual third places where community building, governance, and economy occur.

B. Identity and Avatars

• The Proteus Effect: The phenomenon where an individual’s behavior within a virtual world is changed by the characteristics of their avatar. (e.g., a player with a tall, strong avatar may negotiate more aggressively).
• Gaming allows for identity tourism and experimentation with gender, race, and ability.

C. Exclusion and Toxicity

• GamerGate: A seminal event in digital sociology highlighting the clash between traditional "hardcore" gamer culture (often white, male, exclusionary) and the diversifying demographic of gamers.
• Boundary Policing: "Real gamer" vs. "Casual gamer" rhetoric is often used to exclude women and minorities from the cultural capital of the gaming world.

D. Gamification of Society

• The logic of games is bleeding into non-game social spheres.
• Quantified Self: Using points, badges, and leaderboards in education, fitness (Fitbit), and work.
• Sociological Critique: This risks replacing intrinsic motivation (doing something because it is good) with extrinsic motivation (doing something for the points).

Summary of Key Terms