The construction of values in digital spheres
In this talk, I will present a research project funded by the ERC (European Research Council) about values on social media. Broadly defined, values are core beliefs about the desirable which direct evaluations and behaviors. By posting, liking, and commenting, internet users reflect and shape notions concerning good and bad, desirable and condemnable, right and wrong. Thus, the deluge of messages on social media creates a value ecology central to the twenty-first century. In this environment, social media platforms are not neutral; they are agents with their own values. Moreover, because many of these platforms are transnational, they can diffuse values across vast regions, creating a new web of local and global value orientations. However, we currently know very little about this new sphere of value creation. Addressing this void, DigitalValues constitutes the first large-scale effort to explore the articulation of values in digital spheres. We address the following questions: How are values constructed through social media? Which values are emphasized in these spheres? To what extent are social media platforms associated with the globalization of values? Translated into research trajectories, we comparatively study user-generated content on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, and Youtube, in five languages: English, Italian, German, Japanese and Korean. In a series of interconnected sub-projects, we examine the explicit and implicit ways in which values are constructed on social media. As this is an ongoing project, I will explore our main research activities so far, as well as some initial findings.