Doing Digital Social (And Cultural and Media) Research: What Stays the Same When Everything Changes?

Abstract

Research into digital sociality often encounters, both in academic and non-academic contexts, the claim that there is no point doing such research because the technologies being examined change so fast that analysis can never keep up. This article criticises any such claim. First, the article examines three kinds of 'sameness' that span the introduction of different technologies: internet-based text communication, digital platforms and information as a non-rival good. In each of these contexts this article explores how looking at what changes rapidly draws attention from forms of social power that stay the same across technologies. This article then argues from this examination that it is key to examine both differences and sameness when researching digital sociality.