7:00 PM
BMH 101

Social media and now artificial intelligence platforms have introduced major social and political disruptions. Some observers have described the influence of these new technologies as entirely without precedent. To counterbalance this view, this talk will stress continuities recent disruptions bear with earlier media disruptions. While recognizing the unique contemporary impacts of social media and artificial intelligence, this talk will argue that these new developments in many ways echo the earlier social and political transformations that attended the invention of writing, mechanical printing and the first electronic media.