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Rosenweig’s article “Wizards, Bureaucrats, Warriors, and Hackers: Writing the History of the Internet” clearly mapped the transition from the internet being a government funded technology used primarily for military purposes to a popularized medium to foster communication. I was particularly intrigued by the internet’s transition from a tool for bureaucrats to a part of everyday culture because I feel like this process has been reversed in modern times as exemplified by social media.
Sixdegrees.com emerged in 1997 and is considered the first form of social media. The website allowed members to list any connections (family, friends, colleagues, etc.) in order see and communicate with people from around the world that they were separated from by six degrees of freedom or less. This website and those that followed gave rise to blogging and many new forms of social media. Six Degrees or more modern examples such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter were originally created for the general population but have become an integral part of bureaucratic processes. Not only is it nearly impossible to log onto social media sites without being informed of your friend’s political opinions, these platforms have become a tool for bureaucrats themselves.
Barack Obama was the first President to ever issue a tweet. His successor, Donald Trump has taken it a step further as his time in the White House has been coined as the “Twitter Presidency.” Not only was Twitter a key component to his strategy during the election, it continues to be a way that he communicates with the public. Twitter and other forms of social media have changed strategies of political campaigns and what it means for a President to go public. This is just one example of how social media’s purpose has been expanded into the bureaucratic world.
Posted from Intro to Digital Studies by Kat