https://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/issue/feedFirst Monday2024-03-09T15:37:52-08:00Edward J. Valauskasejv@uic.eduOpen Journal Systems<p><em>First Monday</em> is one of the first openly accessible, peer–reviewed journals solely devoted to resarch about the Internet. <em>First Monday</em> has published 2,309 papers in 334 issues, written by 3,407 different authors over the past 27 years. No subscription fees, no submission fees, no advertisements, no fundraisers, no walls.</p>https://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/13571Societal implications of quantum technologies through a technocriticism of quantum key distribution2024-01-27T07:00:48-08:00Sarah Youngsarah.jackson.young@gmail.comCatherine Brookscfbrooks@arizona.eduJason Pridmorepridmore@eshcc.eur.nl<p>Advancement in quantum networking is becoming increasingly more sophisticated, with some arguing that a working quantum network may be reached by 2030. Just how these networks can and will come to be is still a work in progress, including how communications within those networks will be secured. While debates about the development of quantum networking often focus on technical specifications, less is written about their social impacts and the myriad of ways individuals can engage in conversations about quantum technologies, especially in non-technical ways. Spaces for legal, humanist or behavioral scholars to weigh in on the impacts of this emerging capability do exist, and using the example of criticism of the quantum protocol quantum key distribution (QKD), this paper illustrates five entry points for non-technical experts to help technical, practical, and scholarly communities prepare for the anticipated quantum revolution. Selecting QKD as an area of critique was chosen due to its established position as an application of quantum properties that reaches beyond theoretical applications.</p>2024-03-09T00:00:00-08:00Copyright (c) 2024 First Mondayhttps://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/13360Us, Them, Right, Wrong: How TikTok's Green Screen, Duet, and Stitch help shape political discourse2023-11-02T10:02:18-07:00Mackenzie QuickMQuick@flagler.eduJessica Maddoxjlmaddox@ua.edu<p>As TikTok exploded in popularity following the initial lockdowns of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, use from individual users skyrocketed. During this time, political content became largely ubiquitous across the app. Politics play out daily on TikTok, as individuals craft messages within the technological affordances and sociocultural dynamics of the app. This study expands on research regarding civic engagement in digital public spheres by examining and describing how TikTok shapes political expression and discourse through three technological affordances on the app: the Green Screen, the Stitch, and the Duet. While these affordances are often hailed as features that bolster user creativity through increased possible interactions, our analysis found these increased possible interactions to be highly specific, and also limited in conjunction with politics. On political TikTok, these affordances function more as political commentary than conversation, lending to an overall volatile environment.</p>2024-03-09T00:00:00-08:00Copyright (c) 2024 First Mondayhttps://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/13280Students' impression management and self-presentation behaviours via online educational platforms: An archival review2023-07-26T02:51:36-07:00Beatrice Hayesbeatrice.hayes@rhul.ac.ukAiman Suleimanaiman.suleiman.2021@live.rhul.ac.ukDawn Watlingdawn.watling@rhul.ac.uk<p>Across global higher education contexts, students and staff are communicating online. Online communication is facilitated by the online disinhibition effect (reduction of nonverbal cues eases communication) and in turn this may make online self-presentation (behaviours used to present a desired version of the self) easier. Students may be utilising online self-presentation techniques to facilitate online communication with staff. We know that online self-presentation techniques can be advantageous, but where inappropriate they may be detrimental to the student-staff relationship. This study explores whether students are using self-presentation techniques when they communicate online with staff via an archival review of both private (e-mail messages) and public (Moodle forum posts) online educational environments. Through a deductive thematic analysis we identify that students are indeed using online self-presentation techniques but that these vary depending on whether the online educational environment is private or public. This is the first study to explore this topic via an archival review and we encourage future research to consider the role of online self-presentation techniques within student-staff communication.</p>2024-03-09T00:00:00-08:00Copyright (c) 2024 First Mondayhttps://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/13266Fostering children’s agency in their learning futures: Exploring the synergy of generative AI and sensory learning2023-07-16T10:19:48-07:00Natalia I. Kucirkovanatalia.kucirkova@uis.no<p>The discourse surrounding the potential educational transformation brought about by generative AI has largely neglected the sensory aspect of learning. In this position paper, I emphasize the significance of sensory studies and their theoretical foundations of embodiment and multimodality as catalysts for novel perspectives on the intersection of AI and the future of education. I delve into the question of whether generative AI serves as a precursor to a new literacy or merely arises as a consequence of ongoing theoretical advancements in contemporary literacy studies. I argue that the concept of agency, which includes both personal and social aspects, should be central to recognizing the importance of sensory learning as an emerging paradigm in reimagining learning futures.</p>2024-03-09T00:00:00-08:00Copyright (c) 2024 First Mondayhttps://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/13367Showing your ass on Mastodon: Lossy distribution, hashtag activism, and public scrutiny on federated, feral social media2023-11-10T14:24:23-08:00Christina Dunbar-Hesterc.dunbarhester@gmail.com<p>This paper presents an account of technopolitics in Mastodon, noncommercial, decentralized social media. Mastodon’s significance has further risen in light of Twitter/X’s recent decimation of its public sphere functions; a noncommercial and ideally public alternative to commercial social media is (even more) urgently needed. The autoethnographic narrative presented here, hinging on a dispute initiated and sustained by an intemperate donkeykeeper in Europe, is idiosyncratic, to say the least. But it reveals meaningful aspects of the network’s features, which point to both the promise of such an architecture and to how it falls short in hailing other users and facilitating transparent communication, two important and related functions in democratic communication online. If we appraise Mastodon in view of civic commitments, this peculiar episode contains lessons for thinking about distribution, conviviality, and their intersections in social media. I show how Mastodon has been designed for “lossy distribution” and argue that this has implications for optimizing democratic functions of noncommercial social media.</p>2024-03-09T00:00:00-08:00Copyright (c) 2024 First Mondayhttps://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/12497Instagram as a narrative platform2022-05-18T07:51:57-07:00Mariya Kozharinovamvkozharinova@gmail.comLev Manovichmanovich.lev@gmail.com<p class="p1">Even though Instagram has been the subject of numerous studies, none of them have systematically investigated its potential as a narrative medium. This article argues that Instagram’s narrative capabilities are comparable to those of literature and film. To support our claims, we analyze a number of prominent female Instagram creators and demonstrate how they employ the platform’s diverse features, functionalities, and interface to create multi-year biographical narratives. Furthermore, we discuss the applicability of theories developed in literary and film studies in analyzing Instagram’s narrative capabilities. By employing Bakhtin’s influential chronotope concept, we examine in depth how these narratives make specific use of space and time. Additionally, we compare time construction in film and Instagram narratives using the cinema studies’ theory of narrative time in movies.</p>2024-03-09T00:00:00-08:00Copyright (c) 2024 First Monday