Social Media
Social media is not just static or literary but dynamic and algorithmic, adapting in real-time with each interaction. It reduces friction between senders and receivers, transcending national borders.
The reality of social media emerges internally in the system through sensemaking (Niklas Luhmann uses the term “Sinngebung” in German but emphasises the English concept of sensemaking as more accurate).
Reality arises through system operations involving observation, communication, and the construction of space and time as dimensions where information can be located and processed (Luhmann, 2017: 15).
The system is in constant operation, meaning it continuously receives and processes information, bringing with time a ‘contingency plan,’ a configuration of possibilities that affect each other but leave alternatives open.
Luhmann suggests that the ontological question of what time is in itself is a relatively empty question; what is essential in a system-theoretical sense is how time structures systems (Esposito, 2011: 20).
According to the binary code, there is always breaking news. What is known to be known is incomplete, dynamic, and debatable for eternity.
“Although truth or at least the presumption of truth is essential for news and reports, the mass media do not follow the code true/false; rather, within their cognitive programmatic domain, they adhere to the code information/non-information” (Luhmann, 2017: 52).
Information via the media cycle is perpetually incomplete; the primary function cannot be, according to the enlightenment ideal, to educate society, as such “media enlightenment” appears biased and contradictory. One of the primary functions of social media is that they constantly generate and process irritation (Irritation) (Luhmann, 2017: 119).
Bibliography
Esposito, Elena (2011). The Future of Futures: The Time of Money in Financing and Society. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing.
Esposito, Elena (2013). Lectures at The Lisbon Consortium 2. Lisbon: Lisbon Summer School for the Study of Culture. (27. december, 2023).
Esposito, Elena (2018). Elena Esposito: Future and Uncertainty in the Digital Society. Berlin: Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society. (27. december, 2023).
Esser, Frank og Pfetsch, Barbara (2017). Political Communication, pp. 336–358 i Daniele Caramani, Comparative Politics (5. udg.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Luhmann, Niklas (1991). Soziale Systeme: Grundriß einer allgemeinen Theorie. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp.
Luhmann, Niklas (1997). Die Gesellschaft der Gesellschaft. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp.
Luhmann, Niklas (2017). Die Realität der Massenmedien (5.udg.). Wiesbaden: Springer Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften.
Moeller, Hans-Georg og D’Ambrosio, Paul (2021). You and Your Profile. New York: Columbia University Press.
Nassehi, Armin (2019). Theorie der Digitalen Gesellschaft. München: C.H.Beck.
Parsons, Talcott (1991). The Social System. London: Routledge.
Originally published at
.