As shown in the reading, infrastructure can described as a “collective term for the subordinate parts of an undertaking, substructure, or foundation” that has continued to evolve as technology reaches new advancements. In relation to media, the foundation of multiple social media websites or apps includes its infrastructure. In order for social media apps to remain up and running and successful, they need to accumulate a good amount of dependable users that choose to interact with the app on a frequent basis. The infrastructure of these apps can act as data centers to aid in keeping up with the activity that is going on. For example, on popular apps such as Instagram and TikTok what posts a user “likes” or chooses to share with friends is all taken into account for them to create a space that the user will enjoy and continue to return to overtime. The infrastructure of these apps allows for it to run smoothly and helps keep people interested in what the apps have to offer.
2 thoughts on “Mimi Bainbridge “Infrastructure” Post”
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To add to your example of Instagram and Tik Tok likes, after a certain amount of likes and comments, there is a glitch in the Instagram infrastructure. When too many likes or comments are made in a certain time, Instagram will stop the user and out up an error message and prevents the user from making any more comments or likes. The infrastructure needs time to collect all the information and reload it into their data base because a few minutes later the user can continue to like and comment on the images. The infrastructure continues to work to improve the users enjoyment of the app.
I really like how you discussed the infrastructure of social media apps. When you connected this working infrastructure to these apps’ users, I was able to understand the role we play in working infrastructure systems. On the other hand, if users are too active, some of these social media apps will be overwhelmed, and this could lead to a crash as well. Another thing to point out is that these apps have certain barriers for users. For instance, if a user is posting inappropriate things, the infrastructure knows to either shut the account down or take a certain post down. This is because users have the power to report certain things. This all shows how our online actions affect the overall infrastructure of numerous things.