Social Media and the “Read-Only” Web: Reconfiguring Social Logics and Historical Boundaries
The web’s historical periodization as Web 1.0 (“read-only”) and Web 2.0 (“read/write”) eras continues to hold sway even as the umbrella term “social media” has become the preferred way to talk about today’s ecosystem of connective media. Yet, we have much to gain by not exclusively positing social m...
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2015-12-01
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Series: | Social Media + Society |
Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305115621935 |
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doaj-73c86062c58d4d97b8e51469756d38582020-11-25T03:07:31ZengSAGE PublishingSocial Media + Society2056-30512015-12-01110.1177/205630511562193510.1177_2056305115621935Social Media and the “Read-Only” Web: Reconfiguring Social Logics and Historical BoundariesMegan Sapnar AnkersonThe web’s historical periodization as Web 1.0 (“read-only”) and Web 2.0 (“read/write”) eras continues to hold sway even as the umbrella term “social media” has become the preferred way to talk about today’s ecosystem of connective media. Yet, we have much to gain by not exclusively positing social media platforms as a 21st-century phenomenon. Through case studies of two commercially sponsored web projects from the mid-1990s—Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab’s Day in the Life of Cyberspace and Rick Smolan’s 24 Hours in Cyberspace —this article examines how notions of social and publics were imagined and designed into the web at the start of the dot-com boom. In lieu of a discourse of versions, I draw on Lucy Suchman’s trope of configuration as an analytic tool for rethinking web historiography. By tracing how cultural imaginaries of the Internet as a public space are conjoined with technological artifacts (content management systems, templates, session tracking, and e-commerce platforms) and reconfigured over time, the discourses of “read-only publishing” and the “social media revolution” can be reframed not as exclusively oppositional logics, but rather, as mutually informing the design and development of today’s social, commercial, web.https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305115621935 |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Megan Sapnar Ankerson |
spellingShingle |
Megan Sapnar Ankerson Social Media and the “Read-Only” Web: Reconfiguring Social Logics and Historical Boundaries Social Media + Society |
author_facet |
Megan Sapnar Ankerson |
author_sort |
Megan Sapnar Ankerson |
title |
Social Media and the “Read-Only” Web: Reconfiguring Social Logics and Historical Boundaries |
title_short |
Social Media and the “Read-Only” Web: Reconfiguring Social Logics and Historical Boundaries |
title_full |
Social Media and the “Read-Only” Web: Reconfiguring Social Logics and Historical Boundaries |
title_fullStr |
Social Media and the “Read-Only” Web: Reconfiguring Social Logics and Historical Boundaries |
title_full_unstemmed |
Social Media and the “Read-Only” Web: Reconfiguring Social Logics and Historical Boundaries |
title_sort |
social media and the “read-only” web: reconfiguring social logics and historical boundaries |
publisher |
SAGE Publishing |
series |
Social Media + Society |
issn |
2056-3051 |
publishDate |
2015-12-01 |
description |
The web’s historical periodization as Web 1.0 (“read-only”) and Web 2.0 (“read/write”) eras continues to hold sway even as the umbrella term “social media” has become the preferred way to talk about today’s ecosystem of connective media. Yet, we have much to gain by not exclusively positing social media platforms as a 21st-century phenomenon. Through case studies of two commercially sponsored web projects from the mid-1990s—Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab’s Day in the Life of Cyberspace and Rick Smolan’s 24 Hours in Cyberspace —this article examines how notions of social and publics were imagined and designed into the web at the start of the dot-com boom. In lieu of a discourse of versions, I draw on Lucy Suchman’s trope of configuration as an analytic tool for rethinking web historiography. By tracing how cultural imaginaries of the Internet as a public space are conjoined with technological artifacts (content management systems, templates, session tracking, and e-commerce platforms) and reconfigured over time, the discourses of “read-only publishing” and the “social media revolution” can be reframed not as exclusively oppositional logics, but rather, as mutually informing the design and development of today’s social, commercial, web. |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305115621935 |
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