Daniel Miller writes: “Facebook has reversed two centuries of flight from community.” Miller argues that Facebook is not just an aggregate of personal networks – it is a group activity, where people need other people to do things together. Some of it may be “good” – support, connecting to others, validation; some of it may be “bad” – flaming, critical, bacchanal. But in the end, Miller argues that Facebook doesn’t really create a new normative – it reflects “pre-existing modes of normative control” (Miller 2013).
Idea of polymedia – diverse forms of media where content creation has been pushed down (what communication studies calls many-to-many media).
Things to think about: Does Facebook create ‘social capital”?
Is Facebook changing communities?
With the importance of the ‘visible,’ has our rhetoric fundamentally changed?
Things to read: Robert Putnam, Bowling Alone (article – later expanded into an influential book)