There
has been much popular and scientific concern over the past few decades about a
possible decline in American civil and social life. We don’t participate in groups or have as
many friends as we used to. This decline
has been blamed on television, social media and the internet, and the increases
in women’s labor force participation.
More recently there has been debate and concern about the role of social
media in coarsening and polarizing political attitudes. Finally, we look at the growing role of “Big
Data” collected from the internet by Google and others and used to help us and
to influence us. We will look at the various sides of these
debates
Week |
Readings |
1 |
Network Dictionary “Retirees Turn to Virtual
Villlages for Mutual Support,” NYT “Italian Neighbors Build
a Social Network, First Online, Then Off,” NYT “New Item on the College
Submission Checklist: LinkedIn Profile,” NYT “How One Stupid Tweet
Blew Up Justine Sacco’s Life,” NYT |
2 |
Robert
Putnam, “Bowling Alone: America’s Declining Social Capital” Miller
McPherson et al, “Social Isolation in America: Changes In Core discussion
Networks Over Two Decades” Claude
S. Fischer, “The 2004 GSS Finding of Shrunken Social Networks: An Artifact?” |
3 |
Mark
Granovetter, “The Strength of Weak Ties” Mark Zukerberg’s IPO Letter Describing
Facebook’s Purpose, Values & Social Mission |
4 |
“The Flight from
Conversation,” Sherry Turkle “Alone Together,” Sherry
Turkle |
5 |
“Smartphones are bad for
some adolescents, not all” “The big myth about
teenage anxiety” “Have smartphones
destroyed a generation?”, The Atlantic |
6-7 |
“The
IRA, Social Media and Political Polarization in the United States, 2012-2018” “The
Tactics & Tropes of the Internet Research Agency” |
8 |
“Facebook
helped foment anti-Muslim violence in Sri Lanka” “Revealed:
Facebook hate speech exploded in Myanmar during Rohingya crisis” “Where
Countries Are Tinderboxes and Facebook Is a Match” |
9 |
“Perspectives
on Harmful Speech Online: A Collection of Essays”, Harvard University |
10 |
SC,
Chapters 1-2 |
11 |
SC,
Chapters 3-4 |
12 |
SC,
Chapters 5-6 |
13 |
SC,
Chapters 7-8 |
14 |
SC,
Chapters 9-10 |
|
|
Text: The Age of Surveilance Capitalism, Shosshana Zuboff, 2019
First nine weeks
readings will be distributed by email