WHAT DEAD-AND-DYING PLATFORMS DO FOR INTERNET STUDIES: SITUATING TECHNOLOGICAL FAILURE, DIGITAL AFTERLIFE, AND THE WEB THAT WAS

Authors

  • Muira Nicollet McCammon Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania, United States of America
  • Lotus Ruan University of Toronto, Canada
  • Kate Miltner University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom
  • Ysabel Gerrard University of Sheffield, United Kingdom
  • Kathryn Montalbano Appalachian State University, United States of America
  • Karolina Mikołajewska-Zając Kozminski University, Poland; University of Queensland, Australia
  • Attila Márton Copenhagen Business School, Denmark

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5210/spir.v2021i0.12125

Keywords:

technological failure, platform death, afterlife

Abstract

This panel explores internet histories through the lens of “platform death” as a way of understanding how digital communities grapple with technological failure, power dynamics, and the divergent notions of the digital afterlife. Collectively, the contributions address the cultural, geopolitical, economic, and socio-legal repercussions of what happens when various platforms fail, decline, or expire. We bring together five presentations that draw on different methods—including document analysis, semi-structured interviews, participant observation—to explore the frailty of platforms, their underlying infrastructures, and their trace data. Together, by examining and theoretically situating the histories of five different platforms (TroopTube, Fanfou, MySpace, YikYak, and Couchsurfing), we consider and complicate how the concept of “platform death” as a metaphor can help reveal the Web’s rhythmic temporality, digital media’s constant reinvention of forms, and the collision of hegemonic and fragile infrastructures in divergent cultural contexts. We ask: What are the theoretical implications of situating platforms as killable, ephemeral, precarious, or transient technologies? What—and who—kills platforms, and in what ways can they have uncertain digital afterlives and even resurrections? What can conceptualizations of dead and dying technologies tell us about the Internet’s growth and stagnation, its present and futures? What is (un)knowable about platforms that once were, and how can this knowledge inform our predictions of future technological failure? We aim to build community, collective imaginings, and future collaborations around a research agenda that centers mnemonic experimentation, comparative platform studies, and archival contestations.

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Published

2021-09-15

How to Cite

McCammon, M. N., Ruan, L., Miltner, K., Gerrard, Y., Montalbano, K., Mikołajewska-Zając, K., & Márton, A. (2021). WHAT DEAD-AND-DYING PLATFORMS DO FOR INTERNET STUDIES: SITUATING TECHNOLOGICAL FAILURE, DIGITAL AFTERLIFE, AND THE WEB THAT WAS. AoIR Selected Papers of Internet Research, 2021. https://doi.org/10.5210/spir.v2021i0.12125

Issue

Section

Panels