Technoscientific Musings at WUSTL

In “Fifty Ways to Break Up with your lover”, Gershon discusses the way that the choice of technology also sends a message about the content of the message. She gives an example of that with Olivier’s ex-wife using only business emails to communicate with him, and how this conveys an unwillingness to give him any of her personal time. Another example is how breaking up through text is considered rude, even though it’s technically just as valid as another form of communication. I have also struggled with this, because in my personal dating life, I’ve always been mystified by how we move to different forms of communication, and what that signifies. If I’m talking to someone on Facebook, why is he asking for my number so we can text? We’re already talking! It frustrates me because I actually prefer talking on Facebook rather than texting (my phone dies fast). However, the shift from Facebook, where anyone can look you up and send you a message, to texting, with a given phone number, implies a grant of intimacy.

One thing I never really thought about when using Facebook is that they call the main wall a “newsfeed” and right now, that seems so ridiculous to me that people’s pictures and posts would be considered “news”. But the way that Gershon discussed does show that it’s news in that we discover other people’s relationships, and how they carry themselves in social media as ways to make judgments on people, and to keep up with people, in the most shallow way.

In “How the World Changed Social Media” Miller et al discusses how social media platforms constantly are replaced or changing, and how we approach these changes in accord. I think thinking about these different forms of technology is really interesting because I kind of lived through these shifts, and I remember when I was little and sending emails to my friends in other countries to communicate. Now I only ever use email for business or school related topics, and I kind of compartmentalized email as business and Facebook as social, even though I mainly type the same way for both.

This kind of investigation of social media is something I find fascinating and I’m excited to discuss and read more about it in class and the coming weeks.