IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/teinso/v46y2016icp140-148.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Phatic systems in digital society

Author

Listed:
  • Wang, Victoria
  • Tucker, John V.

Abstract

In our contemporary society, phatic technologies routinely establish, develop and maintain personal and emotional relationships across time and space. This phenomenon is reminiscent of Giddens’ 1990 concept of abstract systems – made of symbolic tokens and expert systems – that disembed and re-embed public and professional life. In this paper, we develop social theory that aims to provide a better understanding of the prominent role of phatic technologies in society. We proceed in three stages: first, we critique and revise Giddens’ vague concept of symbolic tokens and its implications for time space distanciation by introducing novel concepts from measurement science. This focuses on forms of information that are relatively precise and communal. Secondly, building on our new formulation of abstract systems, we propose new sociological concepts, phatic systems and symbolic indicators, to enable social theory to explore and analyse the rise of phatic technologies. The concepts focus on the personal and emotional. Thirdly, reflecting on the fact that our digital society is held together by software, we introduce concepts from theoretical computer science to relate the abstract sociological idea of phatic systems and symbolic indicators to the concrete nature of digital data.

Suggested Citation

  • Wang, Victoria & Tucker, John V., 2016. "Phatic systems in digital society," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 140-148.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:teinso:v:46:y:2016:i:c:p:140-148
    DOI: 10.1016/j.techsoc.2016.06.002
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160791X15300282
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.techsoc.2016.06.002?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Wang, Victoria & Tucker, John V. & Haines, Kevin, 2012. "Phatic technologies in modern society," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 34(1), pages 84-93.
    2. Rymarczuk, Robin, 2016. "Same old story: On non-use and resistance to the telephone and social media," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 40-47.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Rodríguez, Rocio & Svensson, Göran & Mehl, Erik Jens, 2020. "Digitalization process of complex B2B sales processes – Enablers and obstacles," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    2. Tabarés, Raúl, 2021. "HTML5 and the evolution of HTML; tracing the origins of digital platforms," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:teinso:v:46:y:2016:i:c:p:140-148. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/technology-in-society .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.