TABLE OF CONTENTS
DIGITAL MEDIA SOCIOLOGY ................................................................................ 3
H1: What is digital media sociology ............................................................................ 3
What is sociology? ....................................................................................................................... 3
Social structure: why we do the things we do ................................................................................ 5
Duality of technology ................................................................................................................... 7
The structures of digital media: technological affordances ............................................................ 9
How do digital media affect the social organization of society? .................................................... 11
Theme 1: Network logic ..................................................................................... 13
H2: Shifting Perspectives on Time and Space ............................................................. 13
Network society ........................................................................................................................ 13
Networked Individualism: the individual in relation to the new social order ................................... 17
Hybrid Spaces: physical + digital integration ............................................................................... 19
H3: Rationalization and Disintermediation ................................................................. 21
Traditionalism vs modernity: max weber ..................................................................................... 21
Enlightenment & scientific rationality.......................................................................................... 21
Rationalization and capitalism ................................................................................................... 23
Instrumental rationality ............................................................................................................. 24
Disintermediation ...................................................................................................................... 25
H3: Acceleration: Agency under Contextual Constraints ............................................. 33
Harmut Rosa’s Intellectual Approach ......................................................................................... 33
Harmut Rosa’s Acceleration Theory (2003).................................................................................. 33
Resonance ................................................................................................................................ 43
H4: Setting Limits to Connectivity: Who Cares about Digital Disconnection? (guest
lecture) ................................................................................................................... 48
What is digital disconnection? .................................................................................................... 48
What is digital wellbeing? ........................................................................................................... 52
Understanding digital wellbeing and disconnection through care ................................................. 54
Cases ....................................................................................................................................... 57
Theme 2: The social logic ................................................................................... 60
H5: Shifting Perspectives on Belongingness ............................................................... 60
The need to belong theory .......................................................................................................... 60
Social relationships: a socio-historical lens ................................................................................ 61
Connected presence ................................................................................................................. 64
Rituals: phatic communication and gift giving ............................................................................. 66
Example: ephemeral communicatie ........................................................................................... 69
Digital gemeinschaft? ................................................................................................................ 72
H6: Offline versus Online: CMC theories / The remarkable Life of Ibelin (Netflix) ........... 74
The internet paradox .................................................................................................................. 74
H7 Online Dating and Digital Companions .................................................................. 80
CMC Theories Revisited: From Cues-Filtered-Out → Cues-Filtered-In............................................ 80
1
, H8: Social Capital: Bounded Solidarity or Persistent and Pervasive Communities? ....... 85
Social capital ............................................................................................................................ 85
Social media, social capital? ...................................................................................................... 87
Social media and private face of social capital ............................................................................ 88
Social media and public face of capital ....................................................................................... 92
Theme 3: The personal logic .............................................................................. 95
H9: Shifting Perspectives on the Self ......................................................................... 95
Digitization and shifting perspectives on the user ........................................................................ 95
H10: Datafication, Dataism and Dataveillance ........................................................... 99
Political economy: datafication, dataisme and dataveillance ..................................................... 100
Social media and the problem of dataveillance and (addictive) design ........................................ 104
Dataveillance, privacy and the “nothing to hide” argument ........................................................ 109
Gen-AI and the problem of represantation ................................................................................ 114
Legal: ‘misuse’ and liability ...................................................................................................... 117
H11: The quantified self .......................................................................................... 123
Intro: Datafying health ............................................................................................................. 123
The Quantified Self (QS) movement .......................................................................................... 123
Self-tracking technologies ....................................................................................................... 125
Tension 1: Empowerment vs Disempowerment ......................................................................... 126
Tension 2: The politics of measurement and the reification of bodily experience ......................... 135
Tension 3: Improving vs. Eroding Health Care ............................................................................ 139
H12: Generative AI.................................................................................................. 144
Gen-AI and the problem of representation ................................................................................ 144
Legal: ‘misuse’ and liability ...................................................................................................... 147
2
,DIGITAL MEDIA SOCIOLOGY
H1: WHAT IS DIGITAL MEDIA SOCIOLOGY
WHAT IS SOCIOLOGY?
Sociology studies the social organization of society
• How do people live together?
• What opportunities and problems arise from this?
Questions revolve mainly around:
• Social order (and social cohesion)
• Social inequality, in a material and symbolic sense
• Identity, as a group and as individual
Psychology: Individual cognition, emotion, behaviour
Build on legacy of field of sociology
• Social order: the rules of how we do things + all questions that comes with this order
• Who has power/inequality expressed in material terms (wealthy, a lot of degrees), symbolic
(privileges, implicate)
• Gender structures in society: different rules for men and women + with gender comes
inequality, differences in power, privileges
How do we give meaning to life, construct a sense of identity, Questions for sociologists
A DIGITAL MEDIA SOCIETY
What digital media…
… are implicated in ‘the way we do things’ (social order)?
• … disrupt or reproduce power? (social inequality)?
• … shape the meaning of things (identity)?
o Micro-level: Changes in our everyday practices – the way we do things
o Macro-level: Changes to our societal institutions – institutionalization
Digital media sociology:
Over the past two decades, digital media have deeply impacted the social organization of society.
Because digital media have become so taken-for-granted, we often fail to see this impact.
• How digital media is implicated in how we do things
• How does this shape our everyday practice
Three questions tied to three ‘logics’: base of this course
1. Is 24/7 connectivity a bliss of a burden? (network logic)
2. Are social media making us more of less social? (social logic)
3. Does datafication empower of disempower? (personal logic)
3
, SOCIAL STRUCTURE & SOCIAL POSITIONS AND SOCIAL ROLES
Social structure = the organized patterns of relationships, rules and ‘rule arrangements’ that govern
how people interact and live together
• (!) Organized ≠ ‘formal’
• Arrangements of rules into established systems → social institutions
• Arrangements of relationships/interactions → social positions
Platform Economy as an emerging social institution
• Social inequality: self-employed or employee?
• Social identity: Brand ambassadors or algorithmic slaves?
Example: Take-Away drivers
SOCIAL STRUCTURE & CULTURE
Culture: a shared set of beliefs, norms, behaviours, values, symbols, rituals, attitudes, …
Culture and social structure are linked:
• Values and beliefs are forces that shape social order
• Norms are expectations of how one should behave
• Practices are patterns of behaviour normatively expected for certain social positions are social
roles
• Rituals are habitualized behaviours and can include objects that are symbolic (i.e. carry
meaning and thus value)
Example: The self-employed type of contract that riders have with Deliveroo means that they do not
receive holiday pay. [...] Moreover, riders’ statistics are also affected upon their return to work. Some
riders chose to borrow or rent their Deliveroo accounts on occasions when they cannot work the shifts
they committed to, to keep their good statistics intact.
MEDIA SOCIOLOGY VS. MEDIA PSYCHOLOGY VS. MEDIA STUDIES
• Media sociology studies how media affect the social organization of society, and
• Media psychology how media affect individual cognition, emotion and behaviour
• Media studies study the media industry and how it delivers messages to audiences
4
DIGITAL MEDIA SOCIOLOGY ................................................................................ 3
H1: What is digital media sociology ............................................................................ 3
What is sociology? ....................................................................................................................... 3
Social structure: why we do the things we do ................................................................................ 5
Duality of technology ................................................................................................................... 7
The structures of digital media: technological affordances ............................................................ 9
How do digital media affect the social organization of society? .................................................... 11
Theme 1: Network logic ..................................................................................... 13
H2: Shifting Perspectives on Time and Space ............................................................. 13
Network society ........................................................................................................................ 13
Networked Individualism: the individual in relation to the new social order ................................... 17
Hybrid Spaces: physical + digital integration ............................................................................... 19
H3: Rationalization and Disintermediation ................................................................. 21
Traditionalism vs modernity: max weber ..................................................................................... 21
Enlightenment & scientific rationality.......................................................................................... 21
Rationalization and capitalism ................................................................................................... 23
Instrumental rationality ............................................................................................................. 24
Disintermediation ...................................................................................................................... 25
H3: Acceleration: Agency under Contextual Constraints ............................................. 33
Harmut Rosa’s Intellectual Approach ......................................................................................... 33
Harmut Rosa’s Acceleration Theory (2003).................................................................................. 33
Resonance ................................................................................................................................ 43
H4: Setting Limits to Connectivity: Who Cares about Digital Disconnection? (guest
lecture) ................................................................................................................... 48
What is digital disconnection? .................................................................................................... 48
What is digital wellbeing? ........................................................................................................... 52
Understanding digital wellbeing and disconnection through care ................................................. 54
Cases ....................................................................................................................................... 57
Theme 2: The social logic ................................................................................... 60
H5: Shifting Perspectives on Belongingness ............................................................... 60
The need to belong theory .......................................................................................................... 60
Social relationships: a socio-historical lens ................................................................................ 61
Connected presence ................................................................................................................. 64
Rituals: phatic communication and gift giving ............................................................................. 66
Example: ephemeral communicatie ........................................................................................... 69
Digital gemeinschaft? ................................................................................................................ 72
H6: Offline versus Online: CMC theories / The remarkable Life of Ibelin (Netflix) ........... 74
The internet paradox .................................................................................................................. 74
H7 Online Dating and Digital Companions .................................................................. 80
CMC Theories Revisited: From Cues-Filtered-Out → Cues-Filtered-In............................................ 80
1
, H8: Social Capital: Bounded Solidarity or Persistent and Pervasive Communities? ....... 85
Social capital ............................................................................................................................ 85
Social media, social capital? ...................................................................................................... 87
Social media and private face of social capital ............................................................................ 88
Social media and public face of capital ....................................................................................... 92
Theme 3: The personal logic .............................................................................. 95
H9: Shifting Perspectives on the Self ......................................................................... 95
Digitization and shifting perspectives on the user ........................................................................ 95
H10: Datafication, Dataism and Dataveillance ........................................................... 99
Political economy: datafication, dataisme and dataveillance ..................................................... 100
Social media and the problem of dataveillance and (addictive) design ........................................ 104
Dataveillance, privacy and the “nothing to hide” argument ........................................................ 109
Gen-AI and the problem of represantation ................................................................................ 114
Legal: ‘misuse’ and liability ...................................................................................................... 117
H11: The quantified self .......................................................................................... 123
Intro: Datafying health ............................................................................................................. 123
The Quantified Self (QS) movement .......................................................................................... 123
Self-tracking technologies ....................................................................................................... 125
Tension 1: Empowerment vs Disempowerment ......................................................................... 126
Tension 2: The politics of measurement and the reification of bodily experience ......................... 135
Tension 3: Improving vs. Eroding Health Care ............................................................................ 139
H12: Generative AI.................................................................................................. 144
Gen-AI and the problem of representation ................................................................................ 144
Legal: ‘misuse’ and liability ...................................................................................................... 147
2
,DIGITAL MEDIA SOCIOLOGY
H1: WHAT IS DIGITAL MEDIA SOCIOLOGY
WHAT IS SOCIOLOGY?
Sociology studies the social organization of society
• How do people live together?
• What opportunities and problems arise from this?
Questions revolve mainly around:
• Social order (and social cohesion)
• Social inequality, in a material and symbolic sense
• Identity, as a group and as individual
Psychology: Individual cognition, emotion, behaviour
Build on legacy of field of sociology
• Social order: the rules of how we do things + all questions that comes with this order
• Who has power/inequality expressed in material terms (wealthy, a lot of degrees), symbolic
(privileges, implicate)
• Gender structures in society: different rules for men and women + with gender comes
inequality, differences in power, privileges
How do we give meaning to life, construct a sense of identity, Questions for sociologists
A DIGITAL MEDIA SOCIETY
What digital media…
… are implicated in ‘the way we do things’ (social order)?
• … disrupt or reproduce power? (social inequality)?
• … shape the meaning of things (identity)?
o Micro-level: Changes in our everyday practices – the way we do things
o Macro-level: Changes to our societal institutions – institutionalization
Digital media sociology:
Over the past two decades, digital media have deeply impacted the social organization of society.
Because digital media have become so taken-for-granted, we often fail to see this impact.
• How digital media is implicated in how we do things
• How does this shape our everyday practice
Three questions tied to three ‘logics’: base of this course
1. Is 24/7 connectivity a bliss of a burden? (network logic)
2. Are social media making us more of less social? (social logic)
3. Does datafication empower of disempower? (personal logic)
3
, SOCIAL STRUCTURE & SOCIAL POSITIONS AND SOCIAL ROLES
Social structure = the organized patterns of relationships, rules and ‘rule arrangements’ that govern
how people interact and live together
• (!) Organized ≠ ‘formal’
• Arrangements of rules into established systems → social institutions
• Arrangements of relationships/interactions → social positions
Platform Economy as an emerging social institution
• Social inequality: self-employed or employee?
• Social identity: Brand ambassadors or algorithmic slaves?
Example: Take-Away drivers
SOCIAL STRUCTURE & CULTURE
Culture: a shared set of beliefs, norms, behaviours, values, symbols, rituals, attitudes, …
Culture and social structure are linked:
• Values and beliefs are forces that shape social order
• Norms are expectations of how one should behave
• Practices are patterns of behaviour normatively expected for certain social positions are social
roles
• Rituals are habitualized behaviours and can include objects that are symbolic (i.e. carry
meaning and thus value)
Example: The self-employed type of contract that riders have with Deliveroo means that they do not
receive holiday pay. [...] Moreover, riders’ statistics are also affected upon their return to work. Some
riders chose to borrow or rent their Deliveroo accounts on occasions when they cannot work the shifts
they committed to, to keep their good statistics intact.
MEDIA SOCIOLOGY VS. MEDIA PSYCHOLOGY VS. MEDIA STUDIES
• Media sociology studies how media affect the social organization of society, and
• Media psychology how media affect individual cognition, emotion and behaviour
• Media studies study the media industry and how it delivers messages to audiences
4
