Silicon Valley culture shapes global assumptions embedded in social media platforms.

Evidence

Many of the loudest voices in public discourse around technology belong to this group: they appear on television and radio to discuss new technology, meet at South by Southwest and Foo Camp, write op-eds and bestselling nonfiction books, and read each other’s blogs. The whirlwind of hype around social media, both positive and negative, comes from the people most acquainted with these technologies, with the most to gain from their use. It is also the people who create Web 2.0 technologies who share these norms and values. While social media is used in a dizzying variety of ways around the world, many of the presumptions about use and users follow from Silicon Valley and San Francisco culture. — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 45

Categorization

• XREF: Echoes the claim that platform designers encode their local norms into global software, connecting to studies of algorithmic bias and cultural hegemony in tech. — connects to: Silicon Valley’s minority culture shapes global social media’s presumptions — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 45; Tech culture encodes status hierarchies that shape the social software it builds — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 19; Major social platforms degenerated into engagement-driven imitation lacking distinct culture. — W. David Marx, Blank Space: A Cultural History of the…, 702

Broader Connections

• Silicon Valley’s minority culture shapes global social media’s presumptions #corroborates (0.95) — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 45
• Tech culture encodes status hierarchies that shape the social software it builds #expands (0.80) — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 19
• Major social platforms degenerated into engagement-driven imitation lacking distinct culture. #qualifies (0.72) — W. David Marx, Blank Space, 702