Volatile Measurement Environments

In online environments, social networks and speculative selves are pervasively quantified. ‘Like’ buttons, customer reviews, PageRank algorithms and retweets produce social interactions according to the recursive logics of online reputation: the more something is ‘liked’ or shared, the more likely it is to be liked or shared again. What happens when this environment of ubiquitous measures leads, paradoxically, not to more precise measurements of reputation, but to more systemic uncertainty in the spheres of reputation? This talk discusses some of the ways in which the pervasive drive to metrify online reputation has produced systemic volatility in the value of online reputations. Both the rise of trolling cultures, and new uses of reputational attack in recent election campaigns can be seen, in part, as a rejection of the recursivity of online reputation-measures.