CS371: Blog Post #2 - Power as Affordance - By Sarah Humphreys

Power as Affordance - By Sarah Humphreys

Throughout these past weeks discussing the power in the conceptual matrix of social media and social life, power as affordance sparked my personal interest. In particular, I want to discuss power as affordance on social media in this blog post. It can be said that "affordances construct communication behaviours" (Herman, 2022), and through this definition, it is perceptible that affordances are powerful in the realm of social media. Power as affordance in social media is seen as the impact of information in social platform design, including properties that are acknowledged by users and affect the usage/function of a specific platform. Affordances are powerful in the ways that usage and communication are altered to meet specific platform objectives.

Power as affordance is prominent in today's social media designs. BeReal is a great example of power as affordance as this platform controls when a user can post, which is once a day. BeReal restrains users as they cannot post at a time of choice and must use BeReal in a way that meets the objectives of the platform. Another example is TikTok's fyp algorithms, this is an example of power as affordance due to the platform's ability to control what users can see and experience. To elaborate on this, if a user is constantly liking and saving cooking content, soon the user's fyp will be filled with cooking content. In the reading "The Algorithmized Self and the Future of Self-Making on Social Media" by Bhandari and Bimo, highlights how algorithms on TikTok drive experiences (Bhandari & Bimo, 2022, Pg. 2), and this is an example of power as affordance due to this experience being controlled by the platforms algorithm design. Both these platform examples show how affordances affect how something is communicated, acting like a power.


Can you think of other social media platforms that encompass power as affordances in their usage?




Comments

  1. Ashley PirilloOctober 6, 2022 at 10:55 AM

    Hi Sarah! In terms of power as affordance, I agree that BeReal would fit in with how social platforms can constrain certain actions. No one is able to post their BeReal until you get the notification saying it is time to do so! Though it may come at a time you didn't want it to come at, we as users have no say in that and will still obey the request regardless. There are many times where I am out doing something fun but by the time it says to BeReal, I am in bed doing nothing exciting. Even though it can get annoying, I still comply with the "rules" of BeReal and post when it says. So I think it can certainly be said that BeReal is an application that acts through power as affordance in its constraints it places on its users. It is still successful and widely used even if we have less freedom on the platform than others. Yet another example of how media controls us.

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  2. Zach HattOctober 7, 2022 at 1:53 PM

    Hello Sarah,
    I loved reading your post and I totally agree with you. Social media has so much pull on our generation and controls so many people on the daily. I've had to delete many social media platforms due to their power affordances. I found myself constantly checking things like Instagram every single time I got a notification and ever since I realized the toll social media was taking on me, I've been way happier. I find social media creates so much stress and anxiety towards being someone you are not. Instagram, in my eyes, is so fake and creates unrealistic standards for their users. I loved your "bereal" example. The app forces you to post if you want to interact and see your friends posts on the application. Thanks for the post!

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  3. Dawson SmithOctober 7, 2022 at 2:31 PM

    Hi Sarah, I really enjoyed your post! Specifically, applying these example to this concept meaning. I have a bit of a different experience with the concept of power of affordance. I have led myself to believe that I am more control than most others when it comes down to social media controlling my life. The reason I have come to this conclusion about myself is because I have yet to download or have an account on both BeReal and TikTok. What I have hated to come to realize is that the application still use me as much as I use them. For example, many of my friends are daily users of BeReal - When we are out and that notification appears on there phone, I am just as ready as they are to take the photo(s). TikTok is not much different for me at all either, I am active in Instagram and many content creators are posting there content on both Instagram as well as, TikTok. The interface of Instagram as also recently added the "reel" component, which from my understanding is no different than TikTok's.
    Furthermore, as I have taken as step back I have seen that while I am no a official user of these applications they are still more than present within my daily activity. The applications are great examples of how susceptible both users and nonusers are to the powerful realm social mediums have. As much as I did believe I was helping myself, I do see and agree with you, in the fact that affordances affect how something is communicated. In other terms is a power and another tool in a hegemonic and ideological structure.

    Thanks,
    Dawson

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