This course explores how the Internet is connected to the global crisis of liberal democracy. Through social media people have new ways of rating and judging themselves and one another, via metrics such as likes, shares, followers and friends. There are new thirsts for authenticity, outlets for verbal aggression, and social problems. Information technologies provide channels for public engagement where extreme ideas reach farther and faster than ever before, and political differences are widened and inflamed. They also provide new opportunities for protest and resistance. Topics covered. Social theories from Debord, Foucault, Giddens, Goffman, and Fromm will be discussed in relation to the topics covered, which include the global history of communication technologies, personal branding, echo chamber effects, alienation, fear of abnormality, authoritarianism, populism, and resistance.
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