Infrastructure tends to be made to be invisible. In terms of physical infrastructure we tend not to notice the roads and bridges we drive across when their exists melds seamlessly with our own. However, if our roads are full of potholes we will be forced to be more consciously aware of our infrastructure. The same can be said of the infrastructure we often rely on to in our interactions with media, especially digital media. We probably don’t think about all the pieces that go into getting our cable TV into our house, until suddenly its not working. Or for a timely and relevant example, when Facebook and the other platforms it owns, liek Instagram, went down for several hours on October 5th. Suddenly, the issues with Facebook’s infrastructure which go unnoticed most of its users day after day were glaringly obvious. As this New York Times article points out some of the specific infrastructure Facebook had put in place to makes things run more smoothly ended up backfiring. It is interesting to think about the fact that infrastructure almost entirely exists to be something we take for granted, but that at the same time there are some people who’s entire job is working on said infrastructure to make sure its users don’t realize it is there.

Infrastructure has been an extremely crucial part to the development of our society. In earlier years, many thought that infrastructure was simply a system of structures with operational functions. However, with the major development of new forms of technology in recent generations, we must ask ourselves, what is the connection between infrastructure and new technology? The internet, social media, and many other forms of new technology are run by technological systems. Unlike real life infrastructure that exists all around us (buildings, highways, water supplies, etc.), we are unable to see the systems that are constantly working behind the scenes. These systems allow media apps to run smoothly. In class we discussed how glitches on social media apps or the internet can expose infrastructure. Similar to how bridges can collapse, social media apps can crash due to the lack of support infrastructure provided at a certain point in time. When Instagram doesn’t allow someone to like a post because the app is loading, infrastructure is exposed. 

Infrastructure entails the organization of structures that help run a product in some way. Whether it be machinery, civic developments like highway systems, basic communication forms, or even a kitchen stove, almost everything is reliant on some form of infrastructure. The new phenomena of media infrastructure take an interestingly new approach to the concept of infrastructure, redefining what is considered to be part of the infrastructure. Media, in the form of apps, for example, are reliant on their users in order to function. Thus, humans have therefore become “the base of their operations” as noted in the reading. I think this concept is quite interesting yet frightening at the same time, because as the public not only is a driving factor with keeps media platforms moving but the public is also seen as the gain and essentially “digital capitalism”. Users maintain the life of apps, and they are determinate by the productivity and success of their creators. For example, social media platforms such as TikTok are globally recognized, and therefore entice those areas without smartphones (also known as the O3B- other three billion) to get them. Thus, not only is the public a piece of media infrastructure digital but also physically for smartphone companies and wireless services as well. The spread of infrastructure on which media is reliant (ie. cell towers and phones) will most likely become the next way of infrastructure expansion followed by the push for more media infrastructure in the form of the O3B.

Defined as the makings of a foundation, infrastructure is closely associated as the back bone of technology. Similarly to the foundation of a building, infrastructure is not usually showcased to technology users. Instead of wires, chips, and casing found in most technology, the infrastructure of modern software is programmed or utilizes “immaterial labor.” This form of labor is described as work that is not seen physically, but operates to keep the media running. When I think of infrastructure, I am reminded of Tron and The Matrix, two films that utilize technology and programming to make up the foundation of the movie. Kevin Flynn, the programmer of the game in Tron, describes his invented world as “the Grid. A digital frontier. I tried to picture clusters of information as they moved through the computer. What did they look like? Ships? Motorcycles? Were the circuits like freeways?” Through his programming, Kevin created the infrastructure of his game that was ran by his AIs referred to as “programs.” Likewise, The Matrix also revolved around an electronic world where the coding can be seen every time a character tries to plug back into it. Within both of these films there is a glimpse of the invisible infrastructure of which their worlds are consisted.

Not only used for technology, but infrastructure is also a term that can be applied to the real world too. Infrastructure within technology is usually programmed and not shown; however, when a glitch is present all of the infrastructures of the technology are revealed. For example, when apps such as Snapchat and Instagram crash, the infrastructure that created and programmed them is visible to the public eye. Just a few weeks ago, Instagram and Facebook had a major outage for almost 24 hours, showing their underlying infrastructure. This infrastructure allows people to like Instagram posts and comment on people’s images without any delay or error messages, except when a glitch exposes the infrastructure. In the real world, infrastructure keeps the traffic patterns and life run without a hitch; however, when a glitch such as a traffic jam or an accident occurs, the problems with the infrastructure are revealed. While it cannot be perfect, the infrastructure and glitches allow people to improve upon the basics and build upon them, creating a better overall system.

Since the early twentieth century, infrastructure has been loosely defined as the parts of a foundation or substructure.  The meaning has expanded over time, used in reference to various industrial and technological advancements.The shift from the industrial revolution to the digital revolution has influenced the way that infrastructure is viewed, as the idea of labor as a mode of sustaining infrastructures has shifted from physical to immaterial labor.  Media infrastructures, referring to the systems that distribute audiovisual content to sites globally, have only recently been addressed in media studies. These media infrastructures rely on “immaterial labor”, a term I hadn’t known prior to doing the reading, to function and sustain their power. As the reading describes, immaterial labor is the idea of the invisible labor reliant on “social skills, services, and modes of care.” Like the internet, various forms of media infrastructures rely on “invisible” labor from their users, as they are constantly competing for their users’ attention and time. An example of a media infrastructure that has experienced a dramatic decline in users due to this lack of immaterial labor, is cable TV. Because streaming services such as Netflix allow users to access thousands of programs with no restriction on when they can watch them, the number of people choosing to pay for both cable and streaming services has decreased dramatically. The ability to binge a whole season has become more appealing, whereas watching an episode and waiting for it to play again in a week is seen as less convenient. People simply don’t have the time, attention, or funding to continue using both cable television and streaming services, and why would they choose cable when streaming services provide them with access to all of the same programs at once. This very reason is why cable TV has lost the essential immaterial labor it needs to survive, which has resulted in its fast decline from user attention.