H79.2702 Lecture 4 Credits
Instructor(s): Corcoran
In this class, we step back from creating social software and instead investigate the meaning or cultural significance of it. We ask: What are people doing online, who is online, why are they online, and what are the social and cultural effects of many-to-many communications? We use the anthropological concepts of social status, roles, groups, institutions, their relationships, cultural metaphors, and oppositional pairs to analyze various Internet phenomena – such as commenting, William Sledd, profiles, documenting one’s outfits every day, Cory Kennedy. So, for example, we might conclude that the online world initially intensifies the importance of subcultural affiliations (as people easily discover and connect with others who share their values), but ultimately weakens them as participants become exposed to many groups and value systems (kind of like moving beyond one musical genre on your iPod). Or we might observe that the rise of social software is reshaping our concept of public and private. Or we might notice that the current generation of college students is more self-aware at a younger age than their predecessors. Readings cover key anthropological concepts (Clifford Geertz, Lakoff & Johnson) and relevant social science studies of social networks and social software (such as Stanley Milgram, Sherry Turkle, Barry Wellman, and Danah Boyd). Class assignments might include two short essays, a poll, an experiment, or an ethnography.
