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{1.2a} social context is limited and less developed on social media
topics:
Social context is less developed and more limited in digital spaces than in real life, in part because we are actively developing social norms and frameworks, and in part because social media actively decontextualizes our identities.
When we join a new platform or find ourselves in a new digital space, we look to see how other people are engaging.
I reflected on this in SOC on Discord, the Internet, and Visibility where I talk about “fitting in” within a digital space in terms of interest and skills, but not knowing how to navigate the performance of those things — feeling like you’re not in on the joke, or aren’t sure if there even is a joke, and feeling like an outsider even when you’ve been invited into the circle.
We look for what others are doing as signals for what we should be doing.
At the same time, our development of this context is also limited by platform capabilities. We’re working to build culture on and within predetermine architecture.
Regardless, the culmination of this, as boydwrites:
“…digital networks will never merely map the social, but inevitably develop their own dynamics through which they become the social…”
I think there is a connection to be made here with social capital… Some questions:
Is it advantageous that we’re shaping these norms? Is being active in the development of social media “culture” beneficial to navigating these new frameworks in the future?
At the same time, how much are we shaping versus developers?
Is social media context navigation a new form of cultural capital? Is this a cultural capital that young people can leverage in ways they couldn’t before?