Obsolescence in SNSs Scholarship
“Sociality Through Social Network Sites,” authored by Ellison and boyd (2013), delivers a roadmap for how to study social media. Zeroing in on social network sites (SNSs), they describe various research-oriented and time-sensitive nuances that impede SNS scholarship. Additionally, the article highlights opportunities for future research, and shares best practices for data collection and documentation. Among the article’s themes, the exponential “pace of technological change” is underscored (Ellison & boyd, 2013, p. 14). For SNS researchers, it’s not uncommon to find “features that [a] scholar examines one year…simply disappear the next” (Ellison & boyd, 2013, p. 14). As such, “contextualizing feature set and system changes for the synthesis of scholarship” is critical for disciplinary longevity (Ellison & boyd, 2013, p. 14).
Despite the article’s astute perspective, this guiding principle falls short of articulating the true extent in which scholars must be forewarned. Specifically, because it fails to account for defunct systems. In other words, the obsolescence of apps and platforms in totality. The need to reframe and recommunicate the principle, straying away from a narrow feature and system change focus is exemplified in, “What Have We Learned About Social Media by Studying Facebook? A Decade in Review,” written by Stoycheff, Liu, Wibowo and Nanni (2017).
Yik Yak, Defunct
Stoycheff et al. (2017) serves as a case study. The review analyzes the representation and diversity (or lack thereof) of social media brands across six interdisciplinary peer-review journals. The sample consists of scholarly articles published between 2005 and 2014. Methodically, a content analysis quantifies the sum of articles, and subsequently, each criteria-compliant article is classified by brand to determine frequency.
Among its findings, Yik Yak, a “newer” social media brand, is not represented in the sample (Stoycheff et al., 2017, p. 971). The review ties Yik Yak’s user base and allure to its anonymity feature. Moreover, the proprietary content analysis results in 88% of privacy-related studies centering on Facebook (Stoycheff et al., 2017, p. 974). A Pew Research Center (2015) webpage is referenced to support the research group’s “problematic concern…[given that]…younger generations…opt for [social media] brands where privacy – to the point of anonymity – is a coveted, defining feature” (Stoycheff et al., 2017, p. 974).
The methodology, stats, and inferences published under Stoycheff et al. (2017) must be read critically. The assertion that “younger generations [covet privacy] to the point of anonymity” (Stoycheff et al., 2017, p. 974) is highly questionable, and thus, warrants a deeper dive. A thorough review of the Pew Research Center (2015) webpage confirms that the think tank does not address any aspect of privacy in this cited work – leaving the Stoycheff et al. (2017) paraphrase in limbo.
Interestingly, a simple Google search for Yik Yak quickly retrieved a host of blog posts and articles about the app’s obsolescence. Safronova (2017), a journalist at The New York Times, reports that numerous college students filed federal complaints against Yik Yak. Apparently, the app is described as a hateful, harassing and hostile online environment abandoned by its users (prior to going defunct). The anonymity feature is identified as the root cause for Yik Yak's demise.
Unfortunately, Stoycheff et al. (2017) was published a mere two months before Yik Yak shut down. Describing this dilemma as an “incarnation” or “system change” (Ellison & boyd, 2013), implies that some version of the site continues to exist. If in fact, the site is not memorialized (e.g. the Myspace-to-Facebook exodus of 2010) and its server-level data isn’t archived, what realistically transpires is a full erasure of it's interactions, content, and culture. In essence, the far future will see an absence of reference to the platform, or worst-case, no knowledge that Yik Yak ever existed at all. Situationally, strong evidence that members of the younger generation prioritize anonymity, and at least within the context of Yik Yak will vanish.
Documentation 2.0
Ellison and boyd (2013) stress, “…the onus is on social media researchers to describe the technological artifact [ ] they are analyzing with as much care as survey researchers…”. In turn, the weight placed on “shifting toolsets” (Ellison & boyd, 2013, pg. 14) makes the association between visualizations and facts and figures imperative. At the baseline, screenshots or wireframes for a feature’s user experience (UX) and a flow for its technical stack augments our understanding of context, history, and usage. A common practice in engineering and computer science scholarship, annotating rudimentary documentation for front-end UX and back-end flows also supports "replicating datasets and interrogating...SNSs" (Ellison & boyd, 2013, pg. 16).
It's understood that such artifacts don't always justify a place within a research article itself; however, they should always be included as part of the scholar's archived data in case of an SNS erasure -- and so that it's illustrated, contextualized, and shared across the field's body of literature.
References
Ellison NB and boyd d (2013) Sociality through social network sites. In: Dutton WH (ed.) The
Oxford Handbook of Internet Studies. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 151–172.
Pew Research Center (2015) The demographics of social media users. Available at: http://www.
pewinternet.org/2015/08/19/the-demographics-of-social-media-users/
Reville, R. (2016). Photograph. Retrieved from https://royrevill.com/category/social-network/.
Safronova, V. (2017, May 27). The rise and fall of yik yak, the anonymous messaging app. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/27/style/yik-yak-bullying-mary-washington.html.
Stoycheff, E & Liu, J & Wibowo, K & Nanni, D. (2017). What have we learned about social media by
studying Facebook? A decade in review. New Media & Society. 19.
146144481769574.10.1177/1461444817695745.
Today's Business. (2017). The good, the bad and the ugly of yik yak. Retrieved from https://tbsmo.com/the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly-of-yik-yak/.
