Greg's Newsletter Has High Tech Soul [No. 062]
Revisiting thoughts on social capital and social media.
In my last newsletter, I brought up my Political Science "final paper" at UChicago (consider it a "diet thesis"). It was on the impact that social media has—or rather, could have—on America's supposedly declining stock of social capital. Basically: can social media (or, expanded further, can digital media) replace or augment the connections, places, and space that exist IRL in a meaningful way?
It was completed in 2011, so academic research on what we now all agree on as the big social networks, from Facebook to Twitter, was sparse. A lot of attention and writing had focused on online forums and Second Life.
What is social capital?
Let me back up, though: social capital is a social science concept to describe the "networks of relationships among people who live in work in a particular society, enabling that society to function effectively." There are two types of social capital:
Bonding social capital: the connections within a group or community characterized by high levels of similarity in demographics, attitudes, resources etc. These are your close relationships to family, friends, etc. If you're in a bind, it's the bonding social capital that you tap into for help (you're going to ask a family member for a loan, not an acquaintance of a co-worker).
Bridging social capital: connections that link people across a cleavage that typically divides society (race, class, religion, etc), associations that "bridge" communities, groups, and organizations. Bridging social capital is what you leverage to get a new job (after you ask a friend to refer you to their old colleague at the company you want to work for).
There has been a supposedly declining stock of social capital—specifically bridging social capital—in America, according to social scientist Robert Putnam in Bowling Alone (2000). It’s the bridging kind of social capital that creates value in society, in communities, and in individual lives. It’s aggregator or glue that enables trust, information flow, and various shared understandings of the world.
Social media and social capital
Simplifying Putnam's case (which has its fair share of criticisms): generations of yesteryear were active in social clubs, civic organizations, unions, bowling leagues, card nights, and other formal/informal gatherings as a regular part of their everyday lives. Since about the 1970’s, participation in that realm of live has declined. And again, the argument goes, the connections forged in those contexts are what make individuals, communities, and society thrive.
What I wanted to know was: could social media augment that decline? When I asked that question in 2010, we hadn’t yet seen the full mobile revolution so it was clearly prior to when social platforms went mobile-first. I was basically asking: can desktop-experienced social media augment America's declining stock of social capital?
The appropriate answer, based on the limited academic research out at that point, was: yeah, maybe. It certainly could! Looking back, I sometimes think of that as a cop out answer, but it was accurate. The potential exists for people to create meaningful relationships and connections with people in digitally mediated or social media contexts. Whether that could replace or augment a declining stock of social capital was a different story then, as I think it is now.
What now?
These days, I find myself less interested in approaching the topic exactly how I did 10 years ago. Instead, I'm thinking more and more about the sense of place, space, and community enabled by social media and/or digital media (I'm not sure quite yet how to disentangle those two and how that changes the nature of what I want to look into, so for now I'll use them together).
The convergence of technologies like AR/VR, 5G connectivity, ubiquitous computing, and always-on audio are about to open up a world—literally and figuratively—of new "places" to interact with other people and entities, real or created. Digital third places to hang out. Audio-only environments to passively or actively participate.
Will it be good? Bad? Neutral? Yes! I don’t know. But it’s going to be wild.
OK, that's it for that dry ass writing. How about a music/film reco? You should watch High Tech Soul: The Creation of Techno Music (2006).
It's retrospective of the birth and growth of techno, with interviews with the big three (Juan Atkins, Derrick May, Kevin Saunderson) and the rest of the big players in Detroit techno history, from Carl Craig to Mike Banks. Techno is inherently a Detroit artform and High Tech Soul goes deep into techno's cultural, environmental, and musical roots.
The latter part of this doc covers how Detroit techno was exported to Europe and how that, in turn, brought new influences back to the states. Interesting to note when this came out (2006), well before the awful EDM trend (and the rock star-ification of the DJ). There are a few other Detroit techno documentaries that have come out since that I plan to watch, but was interested in this specific moment in time.
Also: "high tech soul" is such a great phrase.
Aight. That's it.