Portfolio Assignment #2
When discussing the term, “flow,” Sandra Braman (2016) started by simply calling it “the exchange of information” (p. 119). However, its relations to systems and specific studies of it throughout history prove that it is much more complex than that definition. For instance, network neutrality is essentially the control over flow on the Internet (p. 120). Braman (2016) also mentioned a definition of flow from Raymond Williams (1974): “streams of content on a channel across the course of a viewing period” (p. 121). However, she addressed that this view of flow brings problems. Firstly, it is important to analyze “perceived flow” separately from flow itself (pp. 121–122). Furthermore, Williams’s idea of flow is only in regard to “the content production and distribution enterprise only” (p. 122). Additionally, one specific example of the study of flow that Braman (2016) noted was that of international news “during the New World Information Order (NWIO) debates of the late 1970s and 1980s” (p. 122). “Flow” as the essential movement of information can be connected to Sherry Turkle’s (2012) Ted Talk “Connected, but alone?” One interesting point that Turkle (2012) made was that in today’s digital age, what is most important to people “is control over where they put their attention.” Therefore, in an age where information is constantly flowing through devices, people take advantage of that flow, which Turkle (2012) believes leads to disconnection.
Furthermore, Susan Driver (2017) discussed the flow of caring in networked media. They mentioned that often when the behaviors of young people online are explored, there tends to be a focus on their negative interactions with each other (e.g. cyberbullying) (Driver, 2017, p. 298). This type of selective attention ignores “the vibrant investments and attachments that give meaning and purpose to young people’s connected lives” (Driver, 2017, p. 298). With a circumstance like this, a flow of information is created which does not account for both positive and negative perspectives. Finally, in Clara Dollar’s (2017) New York Times article, she wrote that the person that she presented herself as on social media differed from who she was in real life. This is not an uncommon phenomenon. The ways that one’s presentation of oneself differs online from real life should be further explored. Sociological and psychological concepts would be revealed when examining the flow of this type of misrepresented information.