Social Media in Everyday Life
SOCIAL MEDIA IN EVERYDAY LIFE
Spring 2021/22
LENGTH: 4,000 words
Essay question:
Do social media and digital systems of automation amplify social inequalities?
Lecture overview:
Despite the early optimism that the internet would be the ‘great equalizer’ recent evidence suggests that social media use reproduce or even amplify social inequalities. The lecture examines the relationship of social class and social media. In so doing we will address the question of digital inequality and global asymmetries.
Seminar points of discussion:
Points for discussion:
1. What is digital inequality and why does it matter?
2. Can digital inequality heighten social inequality? Support your answer drawing on empirical examples / case studies. Consider the gendered and racialised dimensions of inequality.
3. Do social media depend on the extraction of labour from the global south?
4. What is the relationship between social media, big data, systems of automation and infrastructures of artificial intelligence such as biometrics?
5. Do social media and systems of automation create new types of inequality? Can you think of some examples?
Key readings: (Pls use this for references)
Eubanks, V. (2018). Automating Inequality. How high-tech tools profile, police, and punish the poor. New York: St Martins Press. [Chapter 5: The Digital Poorhouse, pp. 174-200).
Roberts, S. (2019) Behind the Screen: content moderation in the shadows of social media. Yale University Press. [Chapter 5: Modern Heroes: Moderating in Manila]