Comprehensive University Study Notes on Digital Culture, Media Aesthetics, and Networked Society

The Medium is the Message

Marshall McLuhan's idea that the communication channel itself (such as television or a smartphone) shapes how we think and interact far more than the specific content or words being shared.

Technological Determinism

A theoretical view assuming that machines and digital tools autonomously drive human history and social changes, leaving people with little power to resist or steer their influence.

Affordances

Characteristics of a technology that enable certain actions or uses by users, influencing their interactions with the medium.

Digital Dualism

The mistaken belief that cyberspace and the physical world exist as entirely separate, disconnected realities rather than continuously shaping each other.

Ubiquitous Computing

Mark Weiser's concept where microprocessors and software blend into physical objects and everyday environments until technology fades into the background of daily life. Think smart homes. It’s meant to inhance your life and you’re unconscious of it.

Bonding Social Capital

The connections and relationships that arise from social networks which provide support, nurture trust, and facilitate cooperation, typically within a close-knit community or group.

Bridging Social Capital

Outward-looking social ties that connect people across diverse backgrounds and groups, helping members access new information, perspectives, and resources through weaker networks

Virtual Community

online social groups where individuals carry on public discussions over extended periods with enough feeling to form genuine personal ties in cyberspace.

Space of Flows

concept of digital and electronic infrastructure that allows people to interact simultaneously across physical distances, replacing the need to share the same physical location.

Networked Individualism

where individuals are no longer tied to tightly knit, local groups, but instead sit at the center of their own customized, overlapping social circles

Accompanied Solitude

concept of using headphones and personal audio devices to create an auditory bubble, helping people cope with city noise while navigating public spaces alone.

Phubbing & Absent Presence

The habit of ignoring in-person companions to look at a mobile phone, alongside Kenneth Gergen's idea of being physically present in a room while mental focus is absorbed in a digital world elsewhere.

The Looking Glass Self

that personal identity develops by imagining how we look to others, imagining how they evaluate us, and feeling emotional reactions such as pride or embarrassment.

Front Stage VS Back stage

the public zone where people perform roles and follow expectations, contrasted with the private zone where they drop the act and relax. Think anyonmous

Avatar

finding that a person's behavior, communication style, and confidence online shift to conform to the stereotypes associated with their digital character's appearance.

Automediality

self-centered digital practices, such as taking selfies, used to curate, document, and present one's personal identity within social media feeds.

Context Collapse

The flattening of historically distinct audiences (such as parents, employers, close friends, and strangers) into a single digital feed where everyone sees the exact same post.

Refracted Publics

Updated model of social media under information overload, where content is short-lived, chanced upon unexpectedly, decoded through niche subcultural slang, and shared within localized groups

Privacy Paradox

the contradiction where people express deep worry about personal data security yet easily give away private information for app convenience and social connection

The Prod-user

The breakdown of the divide between media makers and media viewers, where ordinary users actively remix, edit, and publish content rather than just passively consuming it.

Convergence Culture

how traditional and digital media forms flow together across multiple platforms, prompting active audiences to track stories across different screens.*

Attention Economy

A media environment where an overload of digital content causes human focus to become scarce, making user engagement the primary currency that platforms and advertisers fight to capture

Walkthrough Method

A research approach that systematically investigates an app by evaluating its business model and rules alongside a step-by-step examination of onboarding, regular use, and profile deletion.