When reading literature about the possibilities for cultural production, I immediately think of the impact of social media. Once primarily used to link people together (read here about the genesis of Facebook), social media platforms offer a unique medium for humanitarians to be creative and reach a large audience that isn’t dependent on proximity. Rather, it is dependent upon internet access (and a little bit of tech savviness).
One social media platform, Twitter, is a great case study. Initially created for users to post whatever is on their mind and view similar posts from their peers, Twitter has evolved into a diverse world where content range from meaningless life updates or impactful announcements.
For example, celebrities are free to update fans on wild details in their everyday lives, like when Kylie Jenner discovered the combination of milk and cereal at the age of 20:
Alternatively, Politicians are able to release important policies, like the White House announcing that they will purchase 500 million more Covid-19 at home tests:
Twitter also fosters an innovative environment for academic communities. The field of computational media is ever-growing and utilizes the collaborative and dynamic Twitter platform to produce computationally driven art. For example, Twitter bots are used to generate poetry or other forms of art. I’ve even made a few bots- one of which produces inspirational quotes using the vocabulary and grammar of inspirational tweets from Gucci Mane:
I hope to explore methods of innovation within digital humanities this term, specifically those that use social media platforms as a catalyst for new ideas.
-Henry
I love “hate is health”.