Talk Title: Social Media’s Midlife Crisis? How Public Discourse Imagines Platform Futures

Speaker:  Chelsea Butkowski (left), American University &

Frances Corry (right), University of Pittsburgh

Location: HBK 2105 and Zoom

Abstract:  Though the social media ecosystem has never been

 

stable—with platforms constantly emerging, evolving, aging, and closing—the last few years have appeared particularly volatile. Major companies like Meta and X have undergone historic transformations, and a slew of new platforms have also emerged, including TikTok, BeReal, Threads, Bluesky, Mastodon, and others. It appears as if social media companies, the platforms they run, and the users they support, have arrived at an existential juncture. What is social media for in today’s society––and what does its future look like? Decades on, is “new media” still “new” after all? In this talk, Drs. Chelsea Butkowski and Frances Corry draw on their recent research analyzing press coverage of emerging platforms to argue that contemporary social media discourse has become fueled by cultural memory, a phenomenon that they call “nostalgic anticipation.” In other words, speculation about social media’s volatile future is persistently filtered through a yearning for its past. Butkowski and Corry will discuss how this unique juncture for social media can contribute to reframing understandings of platforms in our scholarship and our everyday lives.

Bio: 
Chelsea Butkowski
Chelsea Butkowski is an Assistant Professor of Communication at American University. Their research examines the relationship between media technologies and identity, including the social practices and effects of everyday social media use. Butkowski’s recent work focuses on digital identity during periods of sociotechnical transition and disruption.

Frances Corry
Frances Corry is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Information Culture & Data Stewardship at the University of Pittsburgh. Her research and teaching focus on the prehistories and afterlives of data-intensive systems – from social media platforms to AI tools. Corry’s book project examines the process of social media platform closure and content deletion to ask about the future of cultural memory.