1st Edition

Social Media Freaks Digital Identity in the Network Society

By Dustin Kidd Copyright 2017
    288 Pages
    by Routledge

    284 Pages
    by Routledge

    Social media has been transforming American and global cultural life for over a decade. It has flattened the divide between producer and audience found in other forms of culture while also enriching some massive corporations. At the core of Social Media Freaks is the question: Does social media reproduce inequalities or is it a tool for subverting them?

    Social Media Freaks presents a virtual ethnography of social media, focusing on issues of identity and inequality along five dimensions-race, class, gender, sexuality, and disability. It presents original and secondary findings, while also utilizing social theory to explain the dynamics of social media. It teaches readers how to engage social media as a tool for social activism while also examining the limits of social media's value in the quest for social change.

    Section 1: The Story behind Social Media; Chapter 1: Social Media and the Network Society; Chapter 2: The Social Structure of Social Media; Section 2: Case Studies of Identity and Inequality in Social Media; Chapter 3: Black Lives Matter: Racial Perspectives on Social Media; Chapter 4: Disabling a Meme: Disability Perspectives on Social Media; Chapter 5: Occupy Wall Street: Class Perspectives on Social Media; Chapter 6: GamerGate: Gender Perspectives on Social Media; Chapter 7: Leave Britney Alone: Sexuality Perspectives on Social Media; Chapter 8: Call Me Cait: Trans Perspectives on Social Media; Section 3: The Possibilities and Pitfalls of Social Media; Chapter 9: Social Media Toolbox; Chapter 10: Conclusion: A Social Media Revolution?

    Biography

    Dustin Kidd