The shifting foundations of current social media research and systems thinking as a remedy

Authors

  • Josh Anderson The University of Arizona
  • Natalie Brown-Devlin The University of Texas

Keywords:

Social Media, Systems Thinking

Abstract

The current state of social media research struggles to keep pace with a social media ecosystem that features quickly proliferating new platforms and the reinvention of existing platforms. In this perspective article, we encourage social media researchers to adopt systems thinking perspectives to cope with this reality. By thinking systemically, we hope that scholars of social media may be able to uncover complex phenomena that may help to address some of the wicked problems in social media research. We also hope that the field may benefit from scholars discussing the implications of their work in ways that relate to the systemic context of the social media platforms that they study.

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Published

2024-05-30