Blog 02: Social Constructivism


Katherine's daily interactions with her smartphone and the anxieties that stem from her interactions with social media could be analyzed under the scope of the Social Constructivist framework. Katherine wanting to get better at her phone implies it is not an organic nor natural process, but one of great diligence, calculated thought, and action. Social Constructivists theory dictates societal standards and cultural norms determine how a technology is utilized and digital natives such as Katherine understand social media platforms as ubiquitous to real life and the social repercussions interactions online carry. 

 The precarious "likes" and emoticons present on Facebook are there to reflect emotion and expression. These socio-technical affordances of social media help online communication mirror a more real and authentic social interaction. For example, Katherine's friends are mentioned borrowing her phone just to unlike photos of girls her friend's don't like. These digital interactions have real-life rules, there are social taboos for Katherine to go back into her phone and re-like the photos. Katherine must manage and learn the multiplicity of social cues respective to each social media, as well as managing her own likes and popularity may become a point of stress and anxiety. There is anxiety that one's social media presence directly equates to their social worth and value, as she reveals her content minimum of Instagram likes is 100. This arbitrary number is something she works to maintain and increase in fear of becoming unpopular, unliked, isolated, a pariah. This is a lot to manage for a 13-year-old. 

 "It’s also totally embarrassing and stressful to have a low Snapchat score. So in one day, she sent enough snaps to earn 1,000 points." (Contrera, 2016)

  With consideration to Baym's theories on interactivity, the anxiety comes from understanding the social and textual dimensions of interactivity. The full knowledge she is not alone, but interconnected in real-time to her peers and social circles in a form of telepresence may be a daunting fact to consider when she is navigating and interacting with Facebook. 

 There can also be external anxieties adopted and exposed to from the internet, as Katherine is exposed to all sorts of unregulated content. One example from The Washington Post article includes an anorexic blog that Katherine comes across, which is just as accessible as any other content found online. New anxieties and fears through the exposure of the internet are something touched upon in Nancy Baym's work. Social Constructivists focus on how technologies develop from social processes and I've chosen this framework because the points of anxiety for Katherine are social components developed through the desire to connect and socialize. The social and textual dimensions of interactivity which are enacted through emojis and likes have their own social cues and subtext Katherine must abide by. Users contribute and build the content that is ultimately cycled, viewed and shared on social media. The internet of things relies on user labour and the example of the anorexic blog is a result of social constructivism.
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Comments

  1. Monique GirodatOctober 3, 2018 at 7:55 AM

    Hi Steven!

    I enjoyed your blog post as you touched on the aspect of the emoticons acting as socio-technical affordances "mirroring" real life emotion. I find it interesting because this helps explain Katherine's attachment to her mobile device, as there are a variety of social cues embedded into the design of applications such as Facebook or Instagram that reflect the outside world as well, creating obstacles and consequences while offline.

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  2. UnknownOctober 4, 2018 at 8:58 AM

    Hi Steven,

    You mentioned key moments within the article that really articulate how society has determined the usage of social media and the resulting meanings created from their usage both in the real and virtual world. I agree with your view that Katherine equates her own social worth and value according to her social media presence, which stems from the concept that society has extended the real world into these online spaces, and vice versa. We have manually constructed norms and standards that determine and guide how a technology is used, and in turn has greater social implications. Your concept of mirroring reality via emojis and expressions contributes to the social constructivist thought, that we are guiding the technology to be used in such a way that reflects reality. This reflection makes it hard to separate this virtual space from our realities, and just as you said, has repercussions in the case of Katherine specifically. Your post really made me think of the role that social media gives to the user as a prosumer; one that consumers and produces content for it. This is initially built into the design of social medias, which makes it hard to escape as we can see in the case of Katherine. She is not only producing and consuming its content, but she is assisting in determining how and what the technology is used for.

    Great thought provoking post overall!

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