Is this online universe burning you out? Does checking your phone feel more like an addiction than a tool-based technical action? Are you feeling less, instead of more, trusting of news and relationships the more you use social media? Is it difficult to recall a time when it wasn’t like this? Would you like to?

In this course, we will trace the history of social media through a user-based perspective to learn and analyze the ways specific platforms have died, grown, and evolved. We will also consider social and cultural dynamics that underpin these social media technologies and track our own social media habits. Reading for this course will be wide-ranging and include work from theorists, platform developers, social scientists, and essayists. The primary goal of this course is to promote the critical thinking and media literacy skills needed to effectively use and navigate social media spaces in purposeful, human ways.

Course Requirements:

Major assignments for this course include a historical analysis of a social media platform, an autoethnography about your personal relationship with social media, and a digital project that draws on what you’ve learned in the course to help others participate in this online universe in more practical and mindful ways.

Intended Audience:

This is an interdisciplinary class with no prerequisite. All interested students are welcome. This class fulfills one of the Minor in Writing requirements.

Class Format:

In person, Seminar style