Social Thinking
Unit 6-10
Unit 6. Sociology of digital media and technology
● Negative effects:
○ Privacy violations
○ Physical and mental health risks (e.g. addiction)
○ Lack of trust in media (“Post-truth era” → Disconnection and disengagement)
Information and communication technologies – related concepts
Culture Socialization and Social Stratification Postmodernity
Social Control
material objects, socialization agent, resource freedom,
values, roles, immediacy
legal norms identity Weber’s power,
status, and wealth gratification,
countercultures, social deviance, consumption
subcultures, social control
cultural lag
Modernity v. Postmodernity
● Modernity
○ Crowds – when people gather and unite to march forward (e.g. protests,
political parties)
● Postmodernity
○ Digital swarms (Han)– isolated individuals; no collective identity
■ Energy channeled towards entertaining/gratifying individual desires
○ Fast, emotion-based digital technologies → Fleeting moments, nothing lingers
○ Serial engagement; no endurance or willpower → Lack of meaningful
institutional or political change
○ Society of scandal – Lost respect, consideration, and caution
■ Impulses and instant gratification prevail
○ Information fatigue illness – the deterioration of one’s ability to reason
○ Desensitization
○ Reduces or erases experience of the Other – faceless, fictitious, anonymous
○ Thought and information involve negativity (i.e. discern, discard, select), while
the digital realm is characterized by positivity (i.e. addition).
,Agency – “sense of control over own life; capacity for action to fulfill valued needs and
achieve personal goals”
● Using social media intentionally → Engage with it in our terms ≠ Abstain from it
○ Mindset: to believe in the possibility of being in control; technology is a tool →
less anxiety, less stress, less depression
○ Literacy: to understand how it works (content curation, logic, goals,
confirmation bias, positive bias, etc.)
○ Action: to change practices to assert control (e.g. goals, meaningful
relationships)
How does social media take advantage of our cognitive vulnerabilities?
● Our cognitive biases make us vulnerable:
○ Conformity bias – we tend to want to conform to social norms and follow the
popular opinion of those around us to build stronger communities
○ Confirmation bias – we tend to collect evidence that supports our existing
viewpoints, adding to our tendency to favor people we already identify with
● How are these vulnerabilities exploited?
○ creating urgency
○ encouraging constant seeking
○ engaging with negative content
○ comparing ourselves to others
○ isolating ourselves in bubbles
● How does social media impact our behavior?
○ Digital technology is a socialization agent.
, ■ When we use social media repeatedly, it begins to train us: our
thoughts, feelings, and motivations are shaped by a technology
designed to keep us engaged
○ When we are bombarded with notifications, it compromises our ability to pay
attention to what is important.
■ When endless content creates an overwhelming amount of want, we
can end up addicted to seeking satisfaction, mindlessly consuming
content, often with minimal oversight from cognitive control regions.
■ Ultimately, this behavior drains our energy.
○ When social media forces us to constantly engage in social comparison,
we’re filled with negative emotions (envy, shame, anxiety, conceit, etc.)
○ When we’re frequently exposed to negative content, fear and outrage can
become the norm, eroding our sense of goodness and shared humanity.
○ When algorithms tell us what we want to believe, we become more polarized,
and shared understanding across society breaks down.
From a psychological perspective
● The prefrontal cortex, the area of the brain that helps us process and direct our
attention based on our goals, is the last part of our brain to mature, which makes it
especially difficult for young people to resist persuasive design.
○ The brain is still developing, so self-awareness and willpower are still
developing.
● Exposure to unrestrained levels of digital technology can have serious long-term
consequences for development.
○ Social media can permanently change young people's brain structure and
impact how they think, feel, and act throughout their lives.
○ Media multitasking among youth is associated with poorer memory, increased
impulsivity, and changes in brain function.
Digital Technologies – Effects on Individuals
● Tension between the “real” and digital or algorithmic identity
○ A sense of fragmentation – Collage of multiple, fluid selves
● Anonymity allows one to distance speech from name
○ Disburdened from responsibility
○ Culture of digital exhibitionism and voyeurism
● We create and control our world in the digital realm
○ Narcissistic self-mirroring
○ Free online expression → “More voice but less agency” (Katz)
■ Too much ‘noise’ → no “contemplative and exclusive way of spirit”
● The digital experience of time – fast and fragmented
○ The temporality of the digital world; immediate present
Information Communications Technology
● Amplify information but also misinformation, disinformation, and propaganda
○ “information with an agenda,” “anchored in a partial truth”
○ Diminished importance of professional, ethical, journalistic gatekeeping
■ Journalistic dilemma: debunk or ignore misinformation?
● In both cases, the effect might be to reinforce it.
Unit 6-10
Unit 6. Sociology of digital media and technology
● Negative effects:
○ Privacy violations
○ Physical and mental health risks (e.g. addiction)
○ Lack of trust in media (“Post-truth era” → Disconnection and disengagement)
Information and communication technologies – related concepts
Culture Socialization and Social Stratification Postmodernity
Social Control
material objects, socialization agent, resource freedom,
values, roles, immediacy
legal norms identity Weber’s power,
status, and wealth gratification,
countercultures, social deviance, consumption
subcultures, social control
cultural lag
Modernity v. Postmodernity
● Modernity
○ Crowds – when people gather and unite to march forward (e.g. protests,
political parties)
● Postmodernity
○ Digital swarms (Han)– isolated individuals; no collective identity
■ Energy channeled towards entertaining/gratifying individual desires
○ Fast, emotion-based digital technologies → Fleeting moments, nothing lingers
○ Serial engagement; no endurance or willpower → Lack of meaningful
institutional or political change
○ Society of scandal – Lost respect, consideration, and caution
■ Impulses and instant gratification prevail
○ Information fatigue illness – the deterioration of one’s ability to reason
○ Desensitization
○ Reduces or erases experience of the Other – faceless, fictitious, anonymous
○ Thought and information involve negativity (i.e. discern, discard, select), while
the digital realm is characterized by positivity (i.e. addition).
,Agency – “sense of control over own life; capacity for action to fulfill valued needs and
achieve personal goals”
● Using social media intentionally → Engage with it in our terms ≠ Abstain from it
○ Mindset: to believe in the possibility of being in control; technology is a tool →
less anxiety, less stress, less depression
○ Literacy: to understand how it works (content curation, logic, goals,
confirmation bias, positive bias, etc.)
○ Action: to change practices to assert control (e.g. goals, meaningful
relationships)
How does social media take advantage of our cognitive vulnerabilities?
● Our cognitive biases make us vulnerable:
○ Conformity bias – we tend to want to conform to social norms and follow the
popular opinion of those around us to build stronger communities
○ Confirmation bias – we tend to collect evidence that supports our existing
viewpoints, adding to our tendency to favor people we already identify with
● How are these vulnerabilities exploited?
○ creating urgency
○ encouraging constant seeking
○ engaging with negative content
○ comparing ourselves to others
○ isolating ourselves in bubbles
● How does social media impact our behavior?
○ Digital technology is a socialization agent.
, ■ When we use social media repeatedly, it begins to train us: our
thoughts, feelings, and motivations are shaped by a technology
designed to keep us engaged
○ When we are bombarded with notifications, it compromises our ability to pay
attention to what is important.
■ When endless content creates an overwhelming amount of want, we
can end up addicted to seeking satisfaction, mindlessly consuming
content, often with minimal oversight from cognitive control regions.
■ Ultimately, this behavior drains our energy.
○ When social media forces us to constantly engage in social comparison,
we’re filled with negative emotions (envy, shame, anxiety, conceit, etc.)
○ When we’re frequently exposed to negative content, fear and outrage can
become the norm, eroding our sense of goodness and shared humanity.
○ When algorithms tell us what we want to believe, we become more polarized,
and shared understanding across society breaks down.
From a psychological perspective
● The prefrontal cortex, the area of the brain that helps us process and direct our
attention based on our goals, is the last part of our brain to mature, which makes it
especially difficult for young people to resist persuasive design.
○ The brain is still developing, so self-awareness and willpower are still
developing.
● Exposure to unrestrained levels of digital technology can have serious long-term
consequences for development.
○ Social media can permanently change young people's brain structure and
impact how they think, feel, and act throughout their lives.
○ Media multitasking among youth is associated with poorer memory, increased
impulsivity, and changes in brain function.
Digital Technologies – Effects on Individuals
● Tension between the “real” and digital or algorithmic identity
○ A sense of fragmentation – Collage of multiple, fluid selves
● Anonymity allows one to distance speech from name
○ Disburdened from responsibility
○ Culture of digital exhibitionism and voyeurism
● We create and control our world in the digital realm
○ Narcissistic self-mirroring
○ Free online expression → “More voice but less agency” (Katz)
■ Too much ‘noise’ → no “contemplative and exclusive way of spirit”
● The digital experience of time – fast and fragmented
○ The temporality of the digital world; immediate present
Information Communications Technology
● Amplify information but also misinformation, disinformation, and propaganda
○ “information with an agenda,” “anchored in a partial truth”
○ Diminished importance of professional, ethical, journalistic gatekeeping
■ Journalistic dilemma: debunk or ignore misinformation?
● In both cases, the effect might be to reinforce it.
