Making sense of social media requires a theoretical understanding of what it means to be social. Sociological theory offers different concepts of the social. The following suggested readings introduce you to various concepts of the social by thinkers such as Émile Durkheim, Max Weber, Ferdinand Tönnies and Karl Marx. Durkheim, Émile. 1895. The rules of sociological method. In Classical sociological theory, ed. Craig Calhoun, Joseph Gerteis, James Moody, Steven Pfaff and Indermohan Virk, 139–157. Malden, MA: Blackwell. In “The rules of sociological method”, Émile Durkheim introduces some basic foundations of a functionalist social theory, such as the notion of social facts. Discuss in groups and compare your results:
• What is a social fact?
• Make a list of economic, political and cultural examples of social facts that can be found in contemporary society.
• Each group can choose one web platform (such as Google, Yahoo, Facebook, Twitter, Weibo, Wikipedia, etc.).
Think in your group about how this platform works and what kind of activities it supports. Make a list of social facts that can be found on the platform.