Artifact: Social Media acting as currency or social capital
Capital is defined as the assets one has that enhances their power. While the most common and most talked about form of capital is in the form of money, it is a much wider concept that has roots in several different fields. Yes, it is true that capital needs to be in the form of a type of currency, however this currency is where the variability comes into play. In today’s modern world there are more forms of currency than ever before. One notable area of extended currencies lies in the digital world. Many people are able to obtain currencies online that aren’t necessarily in the form of money. Capital can play many different roles, one being the form of social capital as Bourdieu asserts. Social capital is essentially the strength of a network of relationships that one person has. This type of capital is extremely prevalent and valuable in today’s digital frontier. With millions of people connected at any given time through multiple different channels, it has never been easier to communicate and build relationships with individuals world wide. One subset of this new online world is the category of social media. This type of network allows people to gain a type of currency known as followers. The more followers one has, the more power or influence they have. Any advertisements, messages, opinions, alerts, etc are more easily spread among those with higher follower counts. This relates back to Bourdieu’s idea of Social Capital. He views those with more relationships as more powerful and more successful with those with less networks of relationships. One key component to keep in mind about Bourdiue’s claim is that it was written in a time before the internet. The key question now is whether or not the network of relationships is now diluted due to the overabundance of it on popular social media sites such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. It seems like anyone is able to have large networks of “friends” or “followers” and the actual relationships themselves are less meaningful. One can argue that Bourdiue’s idea of a social network was built on the basis that a strong tie existed between everyone in the given network. Nowadays, the currency that makes up Social Capital is so widespread that it actually loses value. It’s the same principle as quality of quantity. WHile the quantity of relationships is so much higher than it ever has been in the history of humanity, the quality between each connection is miniscule. For example, famous celebrities and athletes will have millions of followers yet they will know nothing about the vast majority of them. They will never meet or have met any of them and they just exist as a number on the celebrity’s profile.
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