Informal status behaviors become formalized status affordances when platforms embed them in software

Evidence

In social contexts like the tech scene where applications like Face-book, Foursquare, Flickr, and Twitter are part of daily life, status is signaled using both emergent status signals and status affordances. On Twitter, follower count is the primary metric, somewhat to Evan Williams’s discomfort. @replies and RTs began as informal ways to communicate on Twitter (and incidentally display access, connection, and status). These conventions, which became accepted more widely through their use by early adopters in the tech scene, were implemented by Twitter itself and integrated into the software, becoming status affordances. — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 260

Categorization

• DEFINE: A core conceptual distinction of the book: status signals (emergent) vs. status affordances (designed into the platform).
• XREF: Links to affordance theory in media studies (Hutchby, Gibson) and to platform studies literature on how design shapes behavior. — connects to: Programming perception through technical devices leads to programming behavior — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 210; Platforms differ in how easily status can be faked versus genuinely performed — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 263; Tech culture encodes status hierarchies that shape the social software it builds — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 19 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Programming perception through technical devices leads to programming behavior #expands (0.78) — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 210
• Platforms differ in how easily status can be faked versus genuinely performed #corroborates (0.75) — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 263