Digital Sociology

3.00 credits · Undergraduate

Prereq: 6 credits from SOCI at the 2000 level; or permission of the Department Digital innovations and the internet are ubiquitous within and beyond our borders. Digital technologies (Facebook, Twitter, smart phones, etc.) have become normalized and are an integral part of many people's everyday lives. This course has four primary objectives: 1) to discuss the relevance of studying the intersection of the digital and social 2) to become familiar with different theoretical approaches to examining the effects of the internet and digital environments on society 3) to learn about contemporary uses of the internet and digital environments and 4) to learn how diverse groups experience the digital world. Topics covered in this course include, but are not limited to the following: security, surveillance and privacy, cyberbullying, uses of digital innovations and gratification, labour and the internet, the digital divide, bias in big data, social capital, isolation and the internet, the body in cyberspace and transhumanism, concepts of the self, including the cyborg and the posthuman, and social relationships and the web including intimacies and dating. The aim is to not only have a thorough understanding of the theories of the internet and digital environments, but also of the methodological challenges inherent in studies of the sociodigital. (Format: Integrated Lecture and Laboratory, 3 Hours)