Trusted commons: why 'old' social media matter

Abstract

The term social media is problematic. As Papacharissi puts it, “all media are social” and “invite [their] own form of sociality” (2015: 1). As a category, the term lacks a clear boundary. Further, using the phrase “social media” as a way to categorise a bound set of digital communication devices may be seen as a negation of the sociality fostered by other technological artifacts that existed prior to them. It pertains to the rhetoric of periodisation that has become commonplace in studies of digital media as the notion of newness has been instrumental in structuring the research agenda (Gitelman 2006; Park, Jankowski, and Jones 2011). Drawing attention to the most recent technologies contributes to framing already existing technologies as “old” in the derogatory sense of “obsolete” and “irrelevant”. It obscures (and denies) the possibility for users of technologies that are not in the spotlight of the largest public’s attention to contribute to a social critique of dominant technologies, overlooking their political and subversive potential.