This course examines social media and big data to understand how emergent technologies are shaping societies, cultures, and conceptions of the self. Social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube constitute a digital ecosystem through which our personal information flows seamlessly. In this digital ecosystem, our data is a valuable resource.
While platforms afford users the agency to connect with friends, share ideas, and engage in political discourse, they also extract as much data as possible, according to business models and policies that prioritize seizing user attention and steering behavior.