• Bozzini David Manuel

• Bozzini David Manuel

This lecture series will explore some of the dimensions of the multi-faceted world of social media. From the early Bulletin Board System (BBS) in the 1980s to the recent migration from Twitter to Bluesky, social media has imposed itself in the lives of most of us as both consumers and producers, transforming the ways we interact with the world, work, play, make choices... or kill time. We will examine the main avenues of research about social media in anthropology and its sister disciplines in the social sciences. The lecture will start with a couple of sessions that will analyse social media as a range of technologies and activities situated in a socio-historical perspective.

After this short introduction, different speakers will be invited to contribute to the lecture series by presenting their research to illustrate one or more of these main avenues of research. Professional activities such as streamers and content creators/influencers will be addressed; memes, internet cultures and addiction will be discussed; hate speech and cyberharrassment will be debated. Beyond social media practices, we will also delve into social media infrastructure and its economies, looking at social media materialities, algorithmic governance, platformization, surveillance capitalism and data colonialism. To make sense of these various perspectives, the series will accommodate two brainstorming sessions, one mid-semester and another at the end.

This lecture series requires regular attendance to class and active participation with the lecturers. Students will be evaluated with an oral exam at the end of the semester. BA and MA students will be given different assessments.

This series is being offered to all students interested, including those from Social Science programs, Digital Society and Family, Children and Youth studies masters.

Objectives:

Contextualization of social media in the history of digital technologies, review of current debates and research approaches on social media.