Patti Anklam takes a quick look at the various ways in which the word “social” is used to define everything from technology to media to architecture to businesses. I appreciate the attempt to provide clarifying review of popular uses of social terms. Something critical is being overlooked in this: nothing is in itself social. Media is not social. It becomes social as we use it to form and create connections.
As Bruno Latour notes, researchers and theorists have long held the view that social is like ether – it exists and is something that we basically just “plug into”. This isn’t an accurate view – you can’t describe an object of study by the element that you are choosing to study it with (i.e. “social” – as Latour puts it, sociologists have mistaken the answer for the question – they assume what ought to be the object of study). The social realm is not pre-existing. Social is not a thing that we add to a tool or an organization. The social realm is one that is created – grown and pruned – through connections and interactions. It is a fluid continually shifting concept. As a result, we literally cannot have social media or social businesses. The ether doesn’t exist. Only the connections do.