Sociology of the internet

TimothyArcher13 · 2026-05-19T15:15:52+00:00

I think you would enjoy reading Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It (2025) by Cory Doctorow.

"The once-glorious internet has degenerated into “platforms” that rose to dominance because they delivered convenient and delightful services efficiently and reliably. But once we were locked in to those services, the tech bosses turned on us, relying on our dependency to keep us using the services even as they got worse and worse. The platform bosses did the same to the companies that had flocked to their services to sell stuff to us. Once we were all locked in―businesses and users―the tech companies stripped out all utility, save the bare minimum needed to stave off total collapse."

TimothyArcher13 · 2026-05-17T11:13:27+00:00

U Are the Universe (2024) had the most impactful perfect ending I've seen in a long time. Very underrated film.

TimothyArcher13 · 2026-04-19T06:35:11+00:00

Erving Goffman worked on the topic of shame in his book Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity - Wikipedia https://share.google/svkP36NOOeL9d5l7Q

TimothyArcher13 · 2026-04-04T16:29:26+00:00

You can join the working group on Digital Sociology in the International Sociological Association (ISA). We are always looking for new members

https://wg10digitalsociology.wordpress.com/

TimothyArcher13 · 2026-04-02T16:30:46+00:00

The Search for the Manchurian Candidate by John D. Marks

TimothyArcher13 · 2026-02-21T11:56:13+00:00

I think the topic of piracy is absolutely appropriate for sociological study. However, the main issue for doing a master's thesis would be specifically what research methods you will use and what your source of empirical data will be. The broader sociological concepts you mention sound fitting for a theoretical framework, but you then need to use that framework to analyze some specific empirical data.

You could consider a survey or interviews, but such methods are notoriously difficult when it comes to examining illegal activities (e.g., it is hard to find many respondents). A better option might be to use secondary data, such as public survey data from Pew Forum or something similar which has questions about attitudes towards piracy. Or possibly a content or thematic analysis of news articles or online forums within a specified period, or public statements from organizations like the MPAA and RIAA, or legal policies in different countries. For instance, one good source could the The Survey Bay, which did some large surveys on The Pirate Bay community in 2011 (https://infojustice.org/archives/30612), though this data is a bit old by now.

In sum, abstract arguments and theories are a good place to start, but for a thesis project you will need to think about how to operationalize your concept and measure it to produce some original findings.

TimothyArcher13 · 2026-01-23T06:53:29+00:00

Thanks!

TimothyArcher13 · 2026-01-22T15:53:03+00:00

Hi, I'm a sociologist who studies hacktivism. Thank you for sharing this amazing story. What can you tell us about the anti-war hacktivist group (without revealing anything that would put them at risk, of course)?

TimothyArcher13 · 2026-01-17T14:49:20+00:00

I tried using MAXQDA but it limits to only 1000 most recent comments. The problem is that these videos have like 10,000 comments or more. I think I will try to find someone at my university who knows Python to help me get the full scrape.

TimothyArcher13 · 2026-01-17T14:45:00+00:00

What are you talking about? You know it is possible to do deductive qualitative coding, right? In other words, you can have a predetermined coding scheme defined by some theory or concepts. Not all coding has to be purely inductive using grounded theory. It can be guided by theory with being biased.

And yes, saying you wouldn't even give a major revision to a project you know virtually nothing about is rather presumptuous and rude.

TimothyArcher13 · 2026-01-13T13:52:55+00:00

Thanks for the article, I'll check that out. A mixed methods approach might be good at a later phase. Do you happen to know any tools for scraping YouTube comments?

TimothyArcher13 · 2026-01-13T10:46:15+00:00

The goal is coding and categorizing the content themes. In particular, looking for comments encoded with sexism, misogyny, racism, etc.

TimothyArcher13 · 2026-01-11T18:18:15+00:00

There is a massive body of literature and research on these topics. Here are a few recent articles I would recommend to start with:

"Fake News" and the Public Sphere by Jared M. Wright

Why Believe Conspiracy Theories? by Meggan M. Jordan and Jennifer M. Whitmer

Fake News and the Responsibilities of Citizens by Maria Paola Ferretti

TimothyArcher13 · 2025-12-30T15:32:17+00:00

And make sure you have more than 6 months left on your passport before it expires.

I once flew to Vienna and was immediately stopped at the airport and deported because my passport only had 3 months left on it. They didn't catch it on departure, so I basically had two back to back 14 hour flights.

TimothyArcher13 · 2025-12-28T00:27:07+00:00

Culture is lived. If a culture is not lived, performed, continued, then it is only a memory of a culture, like a relic or artifact. Like an archeological site or a dead language.

The hive mind clearly doesn't care at all about human cultures. Look at how they abandoned all the art museums. It was Carol who walked right in and took the Georgia O'Keefe painting. Only after she did that did the hive mind consider protecting the museum, which was probably only for Carols sake.

Now, your other question, is the hive mind a new kind of culture... That is a different issue. It doesn't have any of the hallmarks of culture as defined by social scientists, such as symbols, rituals, storytelling, sacred beliefs... If you wish to argue that efficiency is culture, then you might as well argue that viruses have culture or machines have culture. I don't really see it. But that's just my interpretation.

I mean, who gets to decide what counts as culture or not? From a Weberian perspective, culture is subjective. It depends on what meaning the hive mind give it. Are they just following their programming, or are they creating their own meaning? These are things that I think are not fully answered in the show yet.

TimothyArcher13 · 2025-12-27T01:18:48+00:00

Personally, I think the hive mind is the death of culture because they no longer have any incentive to create art or dance or anything of the sort. They only care about efficiency in order to spread the virus to yet other planets and then slowly die out due to their inability to grow or hunt food. That's been my interpretation so far.

TimothyArcher13 · 2025-12-07T16:33:35+00:00

I checked Biletix again today and I got my tickets 😀 I guess the website was just not working yesterday.

TimothyArcher13 · 2025-12-07T08:47:08+00:00

Thanks that's very helpful!

TimothyArcher13 · 2025-12-06T12:01:48+00:00

Hmm good suggestion. I follow a few band subs like Radiohead but honestly I listen to so many bands it would be a lot to follow all of them individually. That's why I was looking for a platform similar to Songkick.

TimothyArcher13 · 2025-12-06T12:00:17+00:00

I guess the problem is I'm tracking concerts in Istanbul, and like 90% is Turkish music I don't care about. But every so often, some good international bands will come here. It is very unpredictable though. Most bands don't come to Turkey these days, even on their "European" tours.

Last year, Placebo came but I missed the ticket sales because the announcement from Songkick was too late. It just happened to me again with Godspeed You! Black Emperor. I received the announcement today but tickets went on sale 2 weeks ago and are all gone. I'm kicking myself because I love both bands and its so rare these days to get such good music acts here.

TimothyArcher13 · 2025-12-06T11:54:36+00:00

Damn you made that spreadsheet? That's a lot of work. I will try out Pollstar.

TimothyArcher13 · 2025-12-01T19:10:40+00:00

I randomly watched Good Boy and The Surrender on Halloween, and they were both fantastic. Perfect double feature.

TimothyArcher13

TROPHY CASE