Reverse Engineering Social Media

"Reverse Engineering Social Media is a smart book on a hot topic. Gehl presents original and substantive advances in theoretical approaches that are unique and fruitful and that enable the development of software studies in a useful critical direction. His close reading of the software architecture of social networking sites is distinctive and insightful, as is his combination of critique and solution. This book is an important contribution to the field of digital media studies." —Mark Andrejevic, University of Queensland

"In a world dominated by graphic interfaces and slim screens, Robert Gehl implores us to dig deeper into software platforms to rethink the values embedded in their underlying code. Drawing on the work of software designers and engineers, Reverse Engineering Social Media rejects the default settings of software criticism, summoning us to reengineer the past into a more politically engaged future." —Greg Elmer, Ryerson University, author of Profiling Machines: Mapping the Personal Information Economy

"Bored with Vice, the Daily Dot, and Reddit? Finally there is a study that leaves aside the depressed user cultures and positions social media as an integral part of computer science instead. Gehl successfully connects cybernetics and European thinking with contemporary Internet culture. Using the theory of abstraction failure, he explains how socialbots emerged, how the rough Myspace was wiped out by the standardized templates of Facebook, and how Wikipedia eventually became a nonprofit. Instead of moralizing about usage or preaching offline romanticism, Gehl concludes that we must team up with emerging social media alternative platforms." —Geert Lovink, media theorist, Internet critic, and director of the Institute of Network Cultures, Amsterdam

"Gehl’s (book is an) incisive critique of the political economy of social network sites and crowdsourced media platforms.... Reverse Engineering Social Media makes its substantial contribution to existing social media criticism by offering a detailed look at how social media operate, as well as a concrete vision for realizing alternatives.... (It's) real strength is its innovative theoretical framework for analyzing the political economy of social media.... I highly recommend Reverse Engineering Social Media for anyone interested in social media criticism. In addition to the novel theoretical framework and a number of valuable insights into the work of social media platforms, the book is simply well-written. It maintains a high level of clarity even while employing difficult concepts from computer science and critical theory." —Computational Culture

"(The book is) a political economic critique of social media software engineering.... Gehl argues that software architecture and implementation shape the division of labour on social media sites... For Gehl, social media are contradictory because they simultaneously empower and exploit users. The idea of hegemonic technological architecture is certainly not new; but he eloquently places it within a theoretical framework—the theory of heterogeneous engineering." —Global Media Journal, Canadian Edition

"This is a very timely and well-conceived contribution to the literature of software studies and media studies. I have no doubt that the book should be contracted and published. I already teach a course that uses one of the articles this book develops a chapter from (Ch. 1) and know that students find this work both very approachable and also intellectually significant, in that, unlike much other, more popular literature in the field, (i.e. Shirky) it takes philosophical and political questions to its heart. This is an academically rigorous book that has popular appeal and should likely be viewed as both a scholarly and a trade title."

"(The book is) a political economic critique of social media software engineering.... Gehl argues that software architecture and implementation shape the division of labour on social media sites... For Gehl, social media are contradictory because they simultaneously empower and exploit users. The idea of hegemonic technological architecture is certainly not new; but he eloquently places it within a theoretical framework—the theory of heterogeneous engineering." —Global Media Journal

"Reverse Engineering Social Media is another good example of the maturity of the field of social media studies. In it, Robert Gehl builds a careful argument to consider the cognitive and affective exploitation behind social media. Its main asset is its turn to a Marxian analysis of culture and economics in search of a solid theoretical ground on which alternative proposals can grow…. Gehl’s main contribution lies in the introduction of Marxian perspectives in order to help us contextualize the study of social media as part of global capitalism. By integrating technological and sociological analysis, Gehl manages to situate and explain the complex processes of reification that are affecting users of social media." —Culture Magazine

"Gehl uses the 'reverse engineering' metaphor as a framework for analysis, arguing that we can start with an established social media site and then work back with whatever tools are at one’s disposal to determine its logics, constraints, and incentives.... Gehl takes on central elements in the political economy of media, including ownership and advertising. The contradictions of social media—the dubious rhetoric of user control while in a corporate-controlled and monetized site—are deeply troubling for democracy and agency to Gehl. Gehl’s book has strong empirical components.... (E)specially valuable sections of the book (are) focused on Gehl’s formidable insights about the commercialization of social media and its noxious effects." --New Media & Society