Technisch generalisierte Kommunikationsmedien. Kommunikation im Medium der Adresslisten

Abstract

Aus systemtheoretischer Perspektive wird die Form adresslistenbasierter Kommunikation, wie sie das Internet ermöglicht – oft unter «soziale Medien» bzw. «soziale Netzwerke» kategorisiert –, untersucht. Kommunikation also etwa in Singlebörsen, sozialen Medien wie Facebook, Netzwerken beruflicher Ausrichtung, Reisekontaktbörsen, usw. Es wird gezeigt, wie Adresslisten als Medien eine technisch unterstützte Möglichkeit darstellen, das Problem doppelter Kontingenz, im Sinne von Initiative und Stabilisierung von Interaktionssystemen, zu bewältigen. Am Fallbeispiel der Anbahnung von (romantischer) Liebe, also in Bezug auf Singlebörsen, werden die Vorteile (Hoffnungen), wie auch die Nachteile (Enttäuschungen) von Adresslistenkommunikation erörtert. So wird nachgewiesen, dass hier zwar einerseits das Problem der Initiative bewältigt werden kann, aber Adresslistenkommunikation anderseits Probleme für die Kontinuität bzw. Stabilität von Interaktionssystemen innerhalb des symbolisch generalisierten Kommunikationsmediums Liebe induziert. Nicht zuletzt wird gezeigt, dass durch Adresslisten reputationsorientierte Kommunikation an Bedeutung gewinnt.From a system-theory perspective, the form of address list based communication, as made possible by the Internet – often categorized under “social media” or “social networks” – is analyzed. Examples of address-list based communication are online dating services, online social networking sites such as Facebook, networking sites for the business community, travel networking sites, etc. The paper theorizes how address-lists as media represent a technologically supported possibility to cope with the problem of double contingency in terms of initiative and stabilization of interaction systems. The paper addresses, as a case example, the advantages (hopefulness) and the disadvantages (disappointments) of address-list based communication in the initiation of love or romantic relationships. Thus, it shows that the problem of initiative can be overcome, but address list communication creates problems for the continuity or stability of interaction systems within love as a symbolically generalized medium of communication. Last, but not least, it shows that address lists increase the importance of reputation-oriented communication.

Reputation as a Mechanism for Coping with the Contingency of Social Addressing

“…Social media, the technically generalized communication media, acquire their medial character through the fact that they function only on the basis of the largest possible number of similar elements -namely user profiles (cf. Räwel 2018). Therefore, basing this study on the theoretical distinction between medium and form is empirically justifiable.…”

An allergy of society: on the question of how a societal “lockdown” becomes possible

“…This thus makes immediately plausible the astonishing empirical fact that, in the event of “lockdowns”, for the first time in modern times a rapid coordination of functional systems has occurred on an almost global scale. Indeed, the internet and social media, as infrastructures and “technically generalized communication media” (Räwel, 2018), “penetrate” the world society communicatively. This results in an immediate and potentially coordinating communicative influence on (almost) all functional systems of society.…”

“…Interactions can be resumed or continued again and again, flexibly in time and space. User profiles are similar elements, and it is their multiplicity that makes the functionality of social media as media possible in the first place (Räwel, 2018). Thus, we can further assume a stable, enduring medial substrate, which basically enables functionally diverse forms of communication; examples of these may relate to economic, scientific, political, educational, religious, etc.…”

“…The development of social media as “technically generalized communication media” (Räwel, 2018) led to a permanent stabilization of the medial substrate of potentially moral communication. Communication via social media, such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, is tied to the temporal, factual and social stability of individual user profiles , which enables the permanence of individual addresses, their links to other addresses (e.g.…”