Final Exam

Question 1

What three factors does Castells say are driving the formation of the network society? Describe them briefly

Answer 1

The network society results from the convergence of 3 ongoing historical processes

The information technology revolution (1970s) – specifically the digitisation of telecommunication & the popularisation of digital networked devices

The restructuring of capitalism (1980s) – the rise of neoliberalism & the erosion of the post-War social democratic consensus

Cultural & social movements (1960s-70s) – the rise of identity based movements & the politicisation of culture

Question 2

Make sure you are able to explain - as succinctly as possible - all 9 of Castells hypothesis of the information age

Answer 2

Castells summarises his view in 9 hypotheses

The emergence of an informational economy
productivity an competativeness depends on info and info techs

The globalisation of the economy
core strategic activities work in real time on a planetary scale (finacial/currency markets, tech develop, media)
local livelihoods depend on the dynamics of the global economy
not all countries benefit, some are used to exploit their resources and leave
based on specific globalized regions, think film, EA, housing versus DTES

The emergence of the network enterprise
organizations, instead of being unified stable bodies, are structured around values of leanness and flexability
Multinational corporations - not responsible to any jurisdiction, registered globally
segmentation of organizations - different branches work more or less independently from an operational perspective
idea becomes why develop when you can buy the firm developing

The transformation of work and employment
transformation of workplace relations in favour of capital
automation, offshoring, outsourcing
offloading of work onto clients/customers
workplace was transformed, both good and bad
tech didn’t displace workers, but became a coworker - it does change the composition of the labour force, more women enter (they were the customary typists)
increasing contract work

New forms of social polarisation and exclusion
the global economy, business networking and individualization of work weaken social structures that protected people in the past
circumventing of labour unions, welfare
the gap widens between those with and those without - think OWS
elimination of the middle class

The culture of real virtuality
networking organized though social media systems
virtualize ourselves, crafting a new, informational, self.
we agree to contracts we don’t understand (Terms of Service)
opens up previously independent spaces of life to exploitation

Network politics
media has become the essential space of politics
mass media creating an image in a person’s mind - hyper-symbolized culture of Hollywood. Obama as a rock star
leads to an explosion of discourse/opinion - being aware v. doing something, what happens after we ‘like’ it
social movements are networked - this is how movements gather strength.

Timeless time
alters our relation to both time and space
we expect communication to be instant, always connected and always present to others, not really present where we are
expressed in our culture - reproduction of past styles, remakes of movies/tv series, fight experiences of aging/plastic surgery, IVF pushing bounds of time

Space of Flows
dominant functions operate on the basis of exchanges between info systems in distant locations action in and control of this space of flows is key
centralization - Facebook as a centralized location where we all ‘meet’
decentralized as networks spread out
access to a network connection determines power (even more than access to money)

Question 3

What is instrumentalism and what are its limitations as an approach to technology?

Answer 3

Thinking that technology isn’t hard to use, just a learning process - we don’t need to think about how it works, we just use it

Fault - tech not just a neutral tool, sometimes have purpose imbedded within - corrupt humanity a part of designing tech

Technology is tools, a hammer, a baseball bat, glasses — used for specific purpose
defined as socially driven, identification of a problem and a tool or system designed to enhance/improve

Positives
society creates tech to satisfy their needs, a mostly beneficial process so we should embrace technology and apply it broadly
needs driving technical process (ie genetic screening)
our society today embraces technology (social problems and technical fixes)

Negative
meaning of tech derives from the motives users have in taking them up - the possibility of negative outcomes based on bad motives/unpredictable behaviour requires the regulation of use
powerful tools in the hands of crazies - wrong people have powerful means of doing something bad

In Review
rings true, speaks to everyday experience of technology
primarily encounter tech as a set of useful things (phone, computer, mug)
we experiece the effects of tech as a product of our own goals and motivations in the use of these things - we use Word to write a paper, it won’t make our grade for us, we write the paper
technologies seem reducible to their functions - the products of scientific and engineering principles that have no social content - there is no social content to the tech self

However…
Tech is not just things but also expresses a way of doing things - a logic of human action that shapes both humanity and the environment
Tech systems have no ‘users’ and their effects are cumulative and cultural - many tech systems don’t have users, the use of the internet is shaped by the internet itself

Question 4

What is determinism and what are its limitations as an approach to technology?

Answer 4

Technology as an independent force
society, social change, and power are tech driven
“twitter revolution” the Arab Spring was driven by Twitter
modern tech symbolizes and brings about historical change
the meaning of tech is equivalent to its form - what new parameters does the internet introduce into our own abilities
social impacts of tech derive from its very nature - consequences of industrialism, impact on the world that cannot be foreseen

Fault - tech doesn’t just come out of the sky - they are social practices - enter into work with particular view in mind

Positive
tech is the product of inevitable historical advances - since it is the principle vehicle of progress we should not limit it in any way.
cannot elect to remove ourselves from the internet, no other choice if we want to be apart of our society

Negative
tech has outpaced our ability to control it - leading us to an increasingly dehumanized and environmentally devastated world (Louis CK and not wanting his kid to have a cellphone)
problem is it is impossible to accept or reject tech because even within our cave of rejection climate change will get to us…

In review
determinism seems to be confirmed in our day to day life
tech is a differentiated sphere of activity, it descends from above, developed in these secret places
Jobs… I have invented the future and here is what it looks like (god-like figures descending to give us these magical things) and our lives are transformed! — we adapt to the tech we are given
concentration of tech resources in institutions and tech’s cumulative effects in the environment, health, security etc. foster a sense of inevitability - tech flies down and we adapt

However…
although differentiated, tech is still a social practice, it is influenced by social considerations, values, concerns, and is thus subject to change
despite its rapidity, the course of innovation is subject to control through both normal institutional channels and user interventions
the global impacts of tech point towards potentials for alternatives to its current form — perhaps the most pressing question for democracy today.

Question 5

How does technology represent for Feenberg an “escape from the human condition” Give an example not supplied by Feenberg

Answer 5

One way communication of God, he creates the world without suffering any recoil, side effects, or blowback. This is the ultimate political hierarchy establishing a one way relation between actor and object

Every one of our interactions returns to us some sort of feedback from our objects, obvious in communications

Technical action is an escape from the human condition. We call the action technical wish the impact on the object is out of all proportion to the return of feedback effecting the actor.

Question 6

What are technical codes and what does this concept tell us about the social construction of technology?

Answer 6

Basic premise that outcomes of tech development are indeterminate at the outset. Many directions are possible, but as social forces interact around tech, some are chosen while others are abandoned

Principle of symmetry - different design are possible, each is an equal candidate for historical success, why does one win out?

Relevant social groups - those groups who have defined interests in the tech and are able to shape its design to shape its design to reflect that interest (lobbyists)

Interpretative flexibility - artifacts evoke varied interpretation for different users - they can take shape in different directions - same tech will have different retains for different people - ie. gus, different interpretations means different things in the US and Canada

Closure - social groups try to stabilize the meaning of tech and thus the tech itself, in conformity to their interests.

Technologies embody social values int heir very form - where this occurs in relation to dominant social interests tech extends/entrenches political power

Answers are arrived at and ambivalence resolved in relation to a context of social constraints’ through which certain choices seem both logical and desirable

Feenberg develops the concept of ‘tech codes’ to understand this context

Question 7

What is operational autonomy and what does it reveal about the politics of technology?

Answer 7

the freedom of the owner of their representative to make independent decisions about how to carry on the business of the organization, regardless of the views r interests of subordinate actors and the surrounding community

positions them in a technical relation in the world, safe from the consequences of their own actions.

it enables them to reproduce the conditions of their own supremacy at each iteration of the technologies they command

Question 8

What does Feenberg mean by strategies and tactics and how do these concepts relate to the potential transformation of technology?

Answer 8

They are de Certeau’s strategic and tactical standpoints - take on Foucault’s theory. it is the Strategies of groups with an institutional base from which they exercise power and the Tactics of those subject to that power, who manuever and improvise micro political resistances.

Strategic - privileges considerations of control and efficiency and looks for affordances. Seeing tech as a system of control, overlooking its role in the lives of those subordinate to it.

Tactical - far richer than the strategic. it is the everyday life world of modern society. We use the tech but individuals identify and pursue their meanings. Power is tangentially at stake in most interactions, and when it becomes an issue resistance is temporary and limited in scope.
example of air pollution. early on those who lived in the suburbs/rural areas didn’t care therefore there was little support for a solution to the problem. Eventually democratic political process was spurred by protests, and only then were they able to implement the proper reforms.

Question 9

What is an algorithm?

Answer 9

A set of rules to complete a task.

Question 10

What are formal systems and why are they important?

Answer 10

They combine digital symbols and the rules of their use - the rules are independent of their embodiment in any one medium
Eg. arithmetic - the rules (+, -, x, %) work regardless of how we symbolize those rules (letters, numbers, rocks, oranges, clouds)

The power - arabic letters and arithmetic can be used in equivalence to objects in the real world — we translate the real world into this formal system and thus manage and control it more easily

Question 11

Who were the figures involved in the philosophical origins of computers? What were their contributions?

Answer 11

Boole - Boolean logic - all logical thought can be represented as yes/no; letters represent qualities, arithmetic signs represent operations

Leibnitz and Boole - translate rational thought into formal systems
propositions represented in discrete symbols
calculation and thinking governed by algebraic and arithmetic rules

Question 12

Who were the figures involved in the practical origins of computers? What were their contributions?

Answer 12

Turing
any process that can be described in algorithms can be performed by digital devices
Algorithms are translated into binary commands
Numerical aspects of problems are easy – non-numerical ones are assigned arbitrary values
driven to create a machine that could determine a provable math theorem from a non provable one.

Shannon
arrangements of electrical switches behave according to Boolean logic (on/off)
Any logical proposition that can be expressed in Boolean terms can be programmed in a machine
Human logical reasoning can thus be automated
wrote on the relationship between the computer and symbolic logic.

Question 13

What was Leibnitz trying to achieve in developing logical formal systems? How did this vision change on the development of actual computers

Answer 13

The desire to turn thought and language into formal systems lies at the core of the computer – but why would you want to do this?

Leibnitz saw the application of universal calculus to areas of practical human affairs and knowledge
Religion determination of true scripture
Law settling of cases
Science discovery of the laws of nature and society
Technology the invention of automatic logical devices

The desire was one for the logical certainty and essential truth that could ground the realization of a rational society

As we’ll see, this is expressed later as a need for enhanced control

Question 14

What two developments spurred the development of computing in the early 20th century and how?

Answer 14

bureaucratization increasingly complex social management functions - management of info about people in society

war, need for effective C3I, ballistics, surveillance, code breaking (Enigma)

Question 15

What is an algorithm and how does it relate to computing?

Answer 15

Set of rules to complete a task.
Step by step reading/writing procedure

Computer cognition and communication take place through logical operations carried out in binary algorithms and higher level-programming languages.

tasks are described as problems in which propositions are assigned binary values
if this than that… etc.

Question 16

What is Boolean logic? What is its relationship to electrical switching and what is the significance of this relationship?

Answer 16

Boolean logic - on/off - all logical thought can be represented as yes/no propositions
Represented in binary terms

Boolean logic a binary-based algorithmic decision-making structure
tasks described as problems in which propositions are assigned binary values
an if/then arguments structure is created to relate these values
there structures are tied to command inputs (hitting the q key) and thought processing and switching, create outputs (q on the screen)

Question 17

Why did people think there was no market for computers

Answer 17

Early computers developed under the impulse of military, government & corporate requirements for control and accuracy
• Calculation of artillery trajectories
• Collation and analysis of surveillance data/code breaking
Tabulation & analysis of gov’t & market data

The paradigm of computing up to the 1960s was one of the radical centralisation of computing power – this defined the manner of computer development
Computers were huge, expensive, and centralised, difficult to program, requiring specially trained staff – their diffusion was thus strictly limited

Question 18

What is hacker ethic?

Answer 18

access to computers, and anything that might teach something about how the world works, should be unlimited; all information should be free; authority is to be mistrusted, decentralization promoted; hackers (people) should be judged by their hacking (accomplishments) rather than bogus criteria such as degrees, age, race, or position; you can create art and beauty on a computer; and finally, computers can change your life for the better.

Displacement of innovation led to new developmental imperatives – the “hacker ethic”
• Access to computers & knowledge about them should be unlimited
• Information should be free
• Decentralization should be promoted in computer innovation
• People should be judged by what they accomplish not by credentials
• The computer can be a tool for human creativity
Computers can help us realize the good life

Question 19

How did the hacker ethic influence the development of computers?

Answer 19

Felt that computers ought to be placed in the service of change in society.

Ethic states, in essence, that by providing access to info and the power to manipulate it, computers can be powerful tools for liberation of the innate creativity of the individual society

Marcuse - once ordinary people assume control of the means of production, their natural goal would be to liberate the human spirit rather than simply maximizing profits

Hackers see the enormous power of the computer and wish to place that power in the hands of the individual.

Social & technical factors mediated the diffusion of this ethic & the devices that inspired it

The shifting locus of experimentation:
• The development of minicomputers led to a decrease in cost – accessibility
Students used communal minicomputers for experiments in general applicability – 
games & communication 

The first personal computer: The Altair 8800 (1975) – 4 kbs memory, programmable in binary through toggle switches
Advertised as a hobbyists tool – its low cost ($621/$439) meant that many could afford it – thousands were sold
Hobbyists groups formed to share programming tricks - playing tunes or tracking the flight paths of model rockets
• Marketed as a “fun” tool, but difficulties of programming it were a challenge
Basic programming language for the Altair was developed by Bill Gates – who copyrighted it! – but demand was so high that pirated copies were common

Question 20

What is packet switching and what problem was is developed to address?

Answer 20

Digital data is broken down into smaller units, or packets, which travel independently through the communication network. They contain information about where they came from, where they are going, and how they fit.

It was developed within a Cold War mentality. The thinking being if telecom hubs were attacked there would be no way to maintain coordination and control of military operations, government, and emergency response. Government saw need to develop a communication system stat could allow critical control structures to function after a nuclear attack.

Question 21

What three approaches to packet switching were developed by Paul Baran, Donald Davies, and Lawrence Roberts?

Answer 21

Baran - limited, defined for official use only. The only reason to develop the system is to enhance the national security and connect official structures of the society together so that in the event of a social crisis you can maintain structures of your nation. (military and police link)

Davies - use for economic development and brain linking. Second world war had destroyed the British economy, they were in crisis. Everyone is using computers to aid in work but no one is talking to each other outside of a yearly conference. Not the best way to marshal the resources. Proposes taking all areas of innovation and linking them to share resources and collaborate. (Prevent the UK talent from moving to US). Makes research affordable and reverse a brain drain. Economic and social development

Roberts - open therefore no predefined purpose. This was the winning perspective. You don’t need to define what the network is for, just create it and people will use it. Similar to the concept of the phone. Value was not in defining the purpose, but developing the packet switch network. People will define the environment for their own purposes. This perspective was bizarre at the time as people lived in the age of radio and TV which were predefined.

Question 22

What is network layering and why is it important?

Answer 22

How do we get incompatible machines to talk to one another? Translate the data into a common code.
Packet switching depended on processing functions between terminals (devices) and routers (devices the network used)

To do this efficiently different functions were delegated as different “Layers” and protocols were developed so that layers could interact.

The message doesn’t have to stay together, in fact it depends on the message being broken up and then reassembled. Meaning communication of society can occur when the society has been destroyed, no one area is more privileged than another.

Openness - institutions of communication do not have more sway than the others.
Then looks at connecting different networks in a network of networks. ergo internet.

7 Layers, each more simple and concrete:
Physical - medium of transmission - physical substance through which data moves (ie cable)
Link - control of the medium (WiFi, 4G)
Network - format of individual data packets - IP/addressing info
Transport - delivery sequence of packets - TCP the postal network
Session - management of connections between programs - http
Presentation - standards for representing data - jpg, mp3
Application - detailed info about the info exchanged - webmail, blog

Each layer is linked and can be modifies independently, supporting decentralized development.

Question 23

What is TCP/IP and what technical and political problems was is designed to address?

Answer 23

Critical portions of the internet today - these are open standards, the source code is publicly accessible, easily adaptable.

TCP - transmission control protocol - the transport specification of network layering. This is like the postal system, allowing info represented in different ways to flow across the boundaries. Rules determining how packets move around

IP - Internet protocol - the network specification of network layering. This is like the addressing info for the delivery point of the information. Standard for addressing network nodes and routers

Addressing - users turned the networks into things for their own use, now they needed to interconnect the networks. National networks had been developed with different protocols, so linking them required a common set of rules. IP was created to have no content, like the internet, and was like each nations stamps and postal address. It is a global standard, but a little different in each place. TCP is the same idea, it is a framework, an empty standard that each network can adapt to its own needs.

Question 24

Make sure you can describe the utopian visions of the information society outlined by Bell, Touraine, Drucker, Leiss, and Kurzweil and account for the reasons why these visions have no entirely come into being.

Answer 24

Bell - was an early militant Marxist - when info isn’t scarce the info basis will create greater equality. Gives the lower classes the capability to move up. Moving away from the factories and saving the environment too. - would do away with social, environmental, political and ethical problems of capital.

Touraine - People can do their own work for themselves. Technology allows people to control the means of their own lives. (Wrote in France after the workers and students had taken control of the government) - diversity of progressive, democratic, social liberation movements

Drucker - Knowledge was a key value generator - deepening of economic growth and equality based on a common resource, knowledge.

Leiss - increases access to info and so should increase knowledge and improve informed judgement - Hierarchy of knowledge seen in universities. Many people were alienated as access to education was relatively limited. More informed and more engaged due to knowledge and digital systems

Kurzweil - tech enhancement of human intelligence will enhance leisure and lead to new forms of understanding, even immortality. - reimagine all aspects of scientific development. Reimagined human body as a communication network (goal of immortality)

Question 25

What is Kierkegaard’s critique of information and how might it apply to the internet?

Answer 25

Information technology undermines commitment
Contradicted thought that info creates knowledge. The more info we are given the less committed we are to ideas, the more easily manipulated we are. This creates conflict between people surrounding ideas.

Claim that access to info will create a more aware, more intelligent, and more engaged population. BUT expansion of access and circulation is attended by the rise of a principle of speed and convenience into info consumption (we look for the facts and move on, giving no additional thought)

There is always more info to consumer, leads to uncertainty and doubt, as well as insistence that we are right. Can’t commit to one idea or belief, there is always something else out there to believe, to learn

Our action is reduced to the flow of images, we only know the things, just not in a broader context. Information rich environments tends to produce conformity (Brave New World), use social media to express differences, but in doing so we express our differences in the same way as everyone else. (like making all music with one instrument)

The more our lives are enveloped in the world of virtual visibility and distanced judgements, the more anxious we become about how people see us. Society is obsessed with image based media therefore we become image obsessed

Question 26

What is Foucault’s critique of information and how might it apply to the internet?

Answer 26

Information technology undermines freedom
Information doesn’t set you free, it is the primary substance to normalize control. These ways of attaining info will extend the power, reconfigure power relations.

Claim that digital media empower individuals by extending them the powers of participation - communication sphere is pluralized and hierarchies levelled BUT networks function as automatic and invisible engines for generating info about their use - this makes them valuable as environments of surveillance

Think the theory of the democratization of media, thinking our opinions matter and have an effect on the society we live in. VERSUS Google monitoring your use (or web advertising), analyzing your information and past searches to give you the info it thinks you want

A modern society controlling without using violence - solved by gathering, storming, analyzing and evaluating info. This creates an informational self that is compared to a standard of normality.

We are driven to constantly create this information about ourselves online, which opens us to analytic mechanisms. This isn’t about controlling individuals, but managing populations. Power is therefore able to grasp our unique self understandings through the info we provide.

Biopower - mode of power directed at processes of identity formation, identification, ways of life. Not a power exercised against us, but by us on ourselves as we go about creating a life for ourselves.

…self willed conformity

Question 27

What is Baudrillard’s critique of information and how might it apply to the internet?

Answer 27

Information tech undermines reality
Disputes the claims that access to info brings us closer to one another and reality. No, we don’t have reality, we have a manipulation of symbols. We are interacting with imaginary things that have no reality, they don’t really exist outside of our mind.

Claim that info will put people more directly and authentically in touch with their world (more informed and engaged) BUT our engagement with the world takes the form not of direct contact but information (virtual), largely imaginary and symbolic.

Information is replacing experience.
Connection with the world is virtual, and this isn’t limited to screens, reality itself is already virtual. This comes with the invention of language, after all, novels are virtual and art is virtual reality. A world of images and symbols

We seek realistic substitutions for the real (special effects, plastic surgery), this is real virtuality, real effects generated by something which does not fully exist.

Imaginary virtual - the thought that a friend isn’t acting like themselves, they are, what is happening is that they are not acting like you think they should act. Not dealing with real people, just images of them in your head.

Symbolic virtual - reality filtered through collective beliefs, taking the form of symbolic structures. Facebook profiles, projection of symbols taking the place of the reality we occupy. Symbolic authority of security cameras.

Real virtual - impossible to perceive pre-symbolically. Media doesn’t virtualize the real, there is no real, they involve us in this system of symbols that has real effects on the world.

Question 28

What is Habermas’ critique of the internet and how might it apply to the internet?

Answer 28

Info tech undermines democracy
Theory of the public sphere. People have to have a voice and it must be met with a response. Opinions need to register and matter, and something will be done with significance. It as a place to debate about the type of society you want to have.

Claims digital media provide the means of communication to all, initiating a global public sphere in which opportunities for transformative action abound BUT political action tends to be displaced into the entertainment functions of digital media or to be largely indistinguishable from them.

Democracy based on active engagement of citizens, supported by media allowing communication - but really media allow entertainment, people want to be entertained, we don’t want to take anything seriously and worry most about being bored.

Digital media developed under this and political potential is crushed by impatience, distraction, immediacy. Communication distilled into ‘contributions’, ‘comments’ and ‘likes’

Think Jodi Dean and communicative capitalism. There is no response, only contributions to the sphere. Circulation of opinions with no real world effects.

Question 29

How is privacy defined and what democratic rights is it connected to?

Answer 29

“The right to be left alone” - based in info access/security
“The right to be left alone, free from intrusion and the right to exercise control over one’s personal info” - based on individual sovereignty

About the sanctity of the individual, we have control over what is made public and how the info we make public is used. Gossip is a breach of privacy because the individual has no voice in their own self definition.

Connects to democracy…. autonomous, self-determining individuals are the focus.
Not just the right to be left alone, but the right to participate in and determine the conditions of their existence.

Question 30

Why is surveillance “ambivalent” - that is what are its positive and negative aspects?

Answer 30

Not merely repressive, also a necessary social activity.

Supports social stability - census, statistics, tax info aids in organizing relationships between the citizen and the state
Allows convenience - commercial services more directly connected to markets
Aids institutions - student, employee, health records etc. necessary to the work of social institutions
Facilitates sociability - real world and online profiling is basic to processes of identification, association, and self-definition

Nested within asymmetrical power relations - serves dominant interests, we are observable, but we ourselves cannot observe - we are aware that we are being watched, but don’t have a say in how we are being watched or how that info is used. (Big Brother style)

Question 31

What is the difference between analogue and digital surveillance and why is this difference important

Answer 31

Analogue - based on physical monitoring and physical information resources - limited in extent and intensity, info is harder to store, analyse, copy - much easier to protect data in central locations.

Digital - new surveillance tech captures a digital image - stores, processes and analyses infer through computers, distributed instantaneously across networks - digital is more widely distributed, more regular, and more invisible.

Two qualities of digital surveillance that make it different than the past: Systemization and Connectivity
Systemization - formerly separate surveillance methods, systems and processes can be linked in a “total surveillance system”
Connectivity - information is more mobile, more easily separable from us and more transposable between different environments.

Question 32

What is the difference between asymmetrical and symmetrical surveillance and what does this difference tell us about the politics of surveillance in the digital media environments?

Answer 32

Asymmetrical - essentially coercive in nature - serves the dominant interests
Big Brother situation - we don’t know anything. We don’t know what they are collecting or how they are using it
enacting surveillance without their knowledge
we are observable but cannot observe

Symmetrical - consensual, recognizes balance between surveillance and privacy
this is the Terms of Service agreement we accept
we participate in determining the conditions of surveillance, they are transparent, we enter with a full knowledge of what they are for and what they involve for us
we have access to the info that is gathered on us, as well as to info on why and how it will be used
there are limits on what info is gathered and how it can be used

Question 33

What are the 3 dimensions of a ‘phenomenology of social media’ that we talked about in class in connections with Turkle’s book?

Answer 33

Performativity - within social media we approach our lives as remote public performances, rehearsed, curated, planned, and posed. Within this world we are “always on”

Promotionalism - we orient ourselves as objects of promotion - we send messages to elicit a positive response - these responses are experiences as self-referential validations.
Connects to narcissism - currency of this world is friends/followers, likes, shares - communication in the sphere becomes promotion.
social media is the logics of marketing applied to the self, making ourselves visible in a vast area of information.
likes and comments aren’t conversation, they are an attribution of value

Alienation - social media invite us to experience interaction as something we design independently of others, inhabiting a paradoxical world of isolated interaction. - we want the signs of intimacy and interaction while avoiding the other challenges.
separation of individuals form others, social interaction occurs in isolation
even when we interact with others they are alienated, we are displaced from them, only know their representation
social media cannot be a place of dialogue or conversation. Therefore can’t be location of community
leads to isolation

Question 34

Why is Facebook making us sad?

Answer 34

Constantly underestimating how sad other people are, which makes us even sadder.
we don’t only want to be happy, we want to be happier than everyone else
It is creation of a character

by showcasing the most witty, joyful, bullet-pointed versions of people’s lives, and inviting constant comparisons in which we tend to see ourselves as the losers, Facebook appears to exploit an Achilles’ heel of human nature

Social media is the place where we apply the logics of advertising to the self. Advertising in its nature promotes the good life, trying happiness to things.
We present ourselves through the same light of artificial awesomeness that marketers use in promoting goods.

Question 35

How do social media, in their very structure, promote narcissism and anxiety?

Answer 35

Promotionalism - we orient ourselves as objects of promotion - we send messages to elicit a positive response - these responses are experiences as self-referential validations.
Connects to narcissism - currency of this world is friends/followers, likes, shares - communication in the sphere becomes promotion.

Anxieties of happiness
Social media is the place where we apply the logics of advertising to the self. Advertising in its nature promotes the good life, trying happiness to things.
We present ourselves through the same light of artificial awesomeness that marketers use in promoting goods.

Anxieties of connectivity
being alone is good, we are then required to find and develop our own resources
We look inward and establish an imaginative relationship with the self instead of looking outward for validation/confirmation
social media as tech of promotion, confession and display feeds anxieties about acceptance, belonging and self worth.

Question 36

What is meant by “immaterial labour” “social productivity” and the “social factory” How are these transformed in the social media environment?

Answer 36

Immaterial labour - symbolic, creative, cultural aspect of value - takes place at the level where subcultural innovation occurs
material value doesn’t matter in the contact of success, but people define its success. (ie, we decide what movies succeed)
symbolic - celebrity endorsements - there is no relation, but we come to value each of them with the other.
takes place outside of production, its subculture, it isn’t cool because its produced, but by word of mouth
think Nirvana and the birth of grunge
it was previously difficult to access the areas of discourse where ‘cool’ was discussed, hence the value of Facebook

Social Productivity - the latent economic potential of everyday interactions, through which tastes, trends, aptitudes, languages and behaviours are developed
everything we do has a potential productive value. There is meaning and value that can be fed into cultural production

Social Factory - the integration of everyday life into the circuits of productivity and the increasing monetization/marketisation of everyday life
society itself is a factory, we are always working to produce value to someone else
our time is never free, but freely given.

Question 37

How do social media transform the traditional motions of the “audience commodity”?

Answer 37

Potential productivity of media consumption has largely been understood in relation to the theory of audience commodity

political economy of media based on the relationship between advertisers, content producers and audiences
TV is funded by advertisements, existence is based on the availability of mass audiences for advertising messages (think the cost of Super Bowl ads)
successful programs draw mass audiences, channeling ad revenue and promoting more of the same in hopes of maintaining the audience
audience is commodified in terms of their value to advertisers and its availability for participation in commercial communication
audiences work for advertisers, through their attention and passing messages along as well as by acting on consumer propositions
entertainment is therefore not a break from productivity, but an extension of it thorough advertising, product placement, licensing, tie-ins

Question 38

What is ‘free labour’ and why is it a problem according to Cohen?

Answer 38

free labour is excessive activity, not typically viewed as work, performed on the internet that creates value for capital
Facebook profiles are a source of value for web 2.0 companies, who’s business relies on the performance of free labour., without it there would be no content and therefore no profit.

Making the consumer work for the goods - used in self service gas stations, grocery checkouts, and banks - shed the unprofitable tasks

divisions between producer and consumer have been blurred - immaterial labour, producing the cultural and social component of the commodity

it’s ‘crowdsourcing’

Facebook depends on the creation of these massive databases of user information, each new participant adding to its value

Free labour in advertising what we like

Complicate their uses for being a place to hang out - repositions social networking sites as economic actors that enable or constrain the parameters of members agency.

What do the users get in exchange? We willingly participate for entertainment value - it isn’t necessarily exploited labour even though asymmetrical power relations are present.
Participation is therefore constrained by the economic goals of the site

Blurs between work and leisure. We are always working, creating info. Leisure time is spent a labour occurs.

Question 39

How do digital media disrupt notions of creativity?

Answer 39

Individualization of digital media is framed as an extension of creative power to individuals and confers creativity as an individual capacity - we possess creativity, it is something we have
this seems natural, there has been an explosion of creative output and the current media system has been decentralized

Artist, inventor, scientist

creativity is individual expressivity, thus is bound to the material frameworks that enable the attribution of ideas to individuals - around these attributions that the political - economy of creativity and creative process takes shape
???

Question 40

What is intellectual property? What was its original intent? Why might it not be working according to some?

Answer 40

Intellectual Property - legal mechanism whereby the rules of authorship and scarcity can be applied to information
first arises in England in the 17th century around concerns over ‘piracy’ of cultural works following the popular diffusion of printing
AKA patents, trademarks, copyright
IP is a compromise between the need of authors to make a living and the desire of consumers for access to their works. — Authors want as much money as possible and consumers want to pay the least - mass consumption logic that as more people buy it a lower costs we will still make more money
capitalist institutions are created to broker the relationship, but increasingly use IP law to transfer authorial rights to themselves

Question 41

In what ways does the internet disrupt existing intellectual property regimes?

Answer 41

Early identification of digital media with creativity was framed as an argument against IP
key was the idea that information should be or even wants to be free
this isn’t about free as in no cost, but free as in easy access, wide circulation, low barriers and broad availability for development.
digital media makes the cost of reproduction on a massive scale so low it makes no economic sense to have an escalating cost for cultural commodities.

IP regimes seen as ideal in philosophy, but really just transferring authorial rights to a corporation
tech provided a possibility to distribute info and authorship away form the corporations
examples of open sourced software, though can be seen in the past sphere of cultural development (Beowulf)

Question 42

What does Dean mean by ‘communicative capitalism’?

Answer 42

Idea that democratic values have become detached from political institutions and appropriated buy the market.
market freedoms (choice) supplement of political ones (equality, autonomy, voice)
this is a problem - choice is always relative to existing options, whereas politics is about shaping the options that exist
internet serves as the material basis on which market processes and democratic values coincide
we can trace the fortunes of ‘democracy’ by looking at how the internet restructures some of its key elements (pluralism, participation, community) through the market

Question 43

What is the fantasy of abundance and what paradox defines it?

Answer 43

Limetless info and expended opportunity for expression make it seem as if the internet enables democratic pluralism
BUT the capacity for interaction is exchanged for limitless and constant contributions
(Habermas and communicative actions, where a response is expected — the internet is just one way, there is no dialogue/transformation)

“Communicatively hinders communication”
no communication happens because all we do is make brief contributions to the data stream

There is no sustained dialogue, just a space of expressed opinions, but not identifying what is best for a successful society — it’s just another opinion that we can ‘like’ or not

contributions aren’t to initiate conversation or make connections, but simply to attract value (number of likes, comments, a rare meme)

Question 44

What is the fantasy of participation and what paradox defines it?

Answer 44

Our ability to produce messages in a public forum makes it seem as if what we say has an impact and really matters, we are contributing. We don’t see the internet as the same time waste that TV is, we are contributing, making a difference.
BUT the medium serves to channel our actions into feelings or opinions we express within the medium and then get trapped there

There is no communicative action (outside of a ‘Like’), we know it’s happening, we care, but we don’t take it any further than that. — only expression and registration, communication doesn’t lead to anything but more communication, more contributions.

Interpassivity, our potential for real activity is channeled into an object that comes to both supplant that activity and symbolize its constantly deferred potential
But, this is the only way we feel we can be engaged with the issue (US politics)

We express concern over social/political issues, but the more we pour energy into ‘contributions’ to the data stream, the less we actually do about them

Question 45

What is the fantasy of wholeness and what paradox defines it?

Answer 45

As a globalized network, the internet situates our contributions and interactions at the highest level of significance and gestures towards harmonization
BUT the ‘global’ is an illusion produced by the internet - the internet is the only place where the ‘global’ exists - and there is not a unified conflictual space

The internet symbolizes our participation in a unified global community which does not actually exist except as a fetish - in actuality the web is “provincial” - we need to carve out our own little niches

Actual internet structure entails fragmentation of experience, connectivity, and community - and yet we paradoxically imagine a global community there

this global is always particular, our global, and disruptions to it cause us to build higher walls so as to insulate a space where all is in agreement with what we think

Question 46

Why does Dean believe that the Internet cannot function as a space of real politics?

Answer 46

Internet provides a paradox - we have a feeling of involvement in a movement of change while enjoying the comforts that come with nothing changing

We live in a world where political realities, inequality, displacement, ecological disaster, cruelty, poverty and waste are circulated as information

in this form, the forums by which we stay informed, all we can do is respond in kind with more information, more contributions

Isolated, we feel part of something, pacified, we feel active, distracted, we feel committed - meanwhile we are increasingly cut off from real participation