Infrastructure usually means the basic system and services that are necessary for an organization or a country. Nowadays, It expands telecommunication networks, power grids, and media so on. Usually, the infrastructure of the network is invisible, we may only see it during instances of inaccessibility or break-down. For example, there was a complete crash of Weibo, a social media in China, because of the breaking entertainment news. Too many people clicked into the same hot research, which caused the system to break down and people could not log in to it. The invisible world of the infrastructure of media is constituted by people’s time, attention, energy, and capital. Infrastructure develops according to people’s emotional needs. The media that has more people use and more functions that people like can be more competitive in the markets. As mentioned in the book “infrastructures not only deliver utilities to public but, in the process, reutilize publics as part of the base of their operations.” The infrastructure of media is still maintained by capital. People’s expression of emotions online and their social influence are all related to the infrastructure, which is maintained by both humans and technology. For example, if some famous people want to control the spread of their scandals, they need to depend on the infrastructure to restrict the information people want to post. In this of data, the media infrastructure will become more and more important.
This idea of infrastructure being “invisible” or users not considering infrastructure until it fails reminds me of our discussion surrounding data, and the way we rarely consider how our data is being collected or where it is being used until we are reminded that said data collection is occurring. I think your point about online infrastructure being dependent on people’s emotions is a very interesting one. Often we examine social media from a technological perspective, and this causes us to forget how it was largely engineered to appeal to emotions and psychology. For example, Facebook’s initial purpose of creation was to connect college students, but due to changes in infrastructure to appeal to a larger audience, it is now used for many different things, including political misinformation.
I agree that the infrastructure of networks is invisible. People only really notice infrastructures when there is an error or a glitch in the system, which underscores our trust that technology will always function and our dependence on technology in everyday life. You bring up an interesting point about how infrastructure develops according to people’s emotional needs. Humans need technology, but technology also needs humans in order to be effective and be maintained. This reminds me of social media, and how our feeds are tuned to our interests, hobbies, desires, and emotions to keep us hooked on the app.