Learning as Socially & Culturally Organized Experience+ Historical Tracings of “Sociable Media”

I would start by defining social media as connection. It is an online platform where people can post, communicate, share information, and see others in a way they may not in everyday life. Social media must include some form of communication and a “sharing” and “following” of some sort where one person can stay updated in an area of someone’s life through words, images, or videos. I would define social media as evolving since it has only been around for a small part of human history, but despite this I would argue that it has been one of the most culturally influential creations in human history. Social media also has a privilege associated with it due to it’s electronic nature, making it a luxury for certain groups of people instead of a cultural staple that another group may see it as.

An app, network, or website becomes “social” as soon as there is an element of “sharing” or “following” attached to it. Social means that there is a connection between people in some medium, and as mentioned in the previous paragraph, this does not have to be done in just words. Socialization on media platforms can also include pictures and videos, where sometimes words are not present (ex. VSCO). However, in each of these cases, there is an element of “following” where one person is able to see the information of another that they post to the platform. This can be controlled, limited, or prohibited according to the preferences of a user, but the connections established can categorize platforms as “social”. This goes for any other medium that electronically people can connect through, automatically describing it as a “social” platform.

I think the main changes in social media use since Donath’s article in 2004 are the ideas of distance and technological design. Donath argues that technology reduces the significance of distance (p. 4) and that communication technologies are not really designed for sociability (p. 2). For many I know, electronic communication does help increase the amount of communication that one can have with another from a long distance. However, increasing studies today are showing that technology does not replace face-to-face interactions, but rather can hinder the quality of real interactions between others. Also, the first purpose of technology may not have been for personal use, but today if a computer is not user friendly, it will not sell. Obtaining technology for a person today depends on it’s easy function and accessibility to email, social media, and phone calls/video chats. This requires technology to be designed for sociability instead of Donath’s previous theory. However, Donath did have many ideas that are still relevant today, such as the importance of sociability to human nature (p. 2), the idea that speed of a communication medium changes the style and type of the communication (p. 3), privacy of social media (p. 3) and the identities of users on these platforms (p. 4). All of these are still important and influential in social media today, altering the ways people choose to communicate as well as the mediums that they communicate through.

I found it very interesting that the infographic of social media’s history included the telegraph as the first form of social media communication. I have always had a view that social media must be on an electronic platform such as a computer or tablet, and this challenged my ideas of what social media actually is. Now, I understand that it is not limited to a certain type or style of modern technology, but can carry significance in platforms that seem to be less sophisticated in early generations. I also found that the infographic inspired thoughts about what were considered major milestones in social media’s history, most of which I thought would be in the 2000s. Rather, fully electronic social media started with Six Degrees, LiveJournal, and Friendster in the ’90s, none of which I had heard of prior to reading. I found it really interesting how all of these platforms are part of a greater movement that created and is still changing the social media I use today. These platforms are more intricate than I previously thought, which will give me a greater context to their abilities as I continue using them.