Infrastructure is a network or structure that is needed in order to keep a technology or community thriving. The word infrastructure can be used to talk about several different things. For example, the infrastructure of a city keeps the highways and roads functioning and keeps the “behind the scenes” aspects of the city up and running so that the people living there can enjoy it. Looking at infrastructure from a media lens can be looking at how social media apps and websites work. The infrastructure for Instagram is made up of code and technological systems that make it function and please users. Although it is the people and technology who work for apps like Instagram, that keep their infrastructure running, the users are also a vital part of this system. Without any users there would be no infrastructure, so it is a two-way street. Infrastructure is typically not noticeable to users except for when it fails or crashes. For example, it is evident that when an app like TikTok or Instagram is not loading or working, there is a problem with the mechanics of the app or otherwise called the infrastructure of the app.
3 thoughts on “Infrastructure- Caroline Rowe”
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I think it is interesting how we respond to different losses in infrastructure. When it comes to civil aspects of our everyday lives such as the drive to work, electricity running in our house, or even having a working elevator, we are inherently aware of their workings without any thought. If road is being worked on, we take a different way and avoid it on the way passing back. However, when it comes to social media, we are in denial when it malfunctions. For example, during the five hour instagram shut down, I opened the app so many times, knowing that it would be broken in the end. I think that when it comes to social media, its infrastructure is very unnoticed and simple. Our smartphones hold an endless amount of information and hardly weigh a pound. It is funny in a way how our reliance on technology influenced our ways of thinking.
I also think we notice infrastructure failing in non-digital examples as well. Specifically, I think of the power issues this past winter during the nationwide snowstorms. This extreme weather exposed serious infrastructure difficulties in Texas. Something interesting and unique about infrastructure is that it is political, not in a conceptual way like other keywords such as race, but in a much more physical, concrete way. (This is not to say that race should not be addressed directly through legislation, but in the American political system race more often exists as a sort of “moral concept” through which the parties differentiate themselves.)
I completely agree with the “behind the scenes” description of infrastructure which is evident in all forms of system and you gave an example of Instagram’s infrastructure as the code and technology but I think it even expands from just the mechanics to the human components for example the programmers, marketers, staff members, the executive and even other social media apps for example Instagram and Facebook are now under the same umbrella hence interdependent . All these components form a matrix which will keep Instagram working