Does Google shape what we know

Bibliographic Data

ID15246133
AuthorsRalph Schroeder (0000-0002-4229-1585, Science Oxford, corresponding author)
Year2014
Volume32
Issue2
Publication date2014-04-03
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenuePrometheus (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0810-9028 • E-ISSN: 1470-1030
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/08109028.2014.984469
OpenAlexW2004785822
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited36

While much has been written about the technological, economic and regulatory aspects of search engines, their impact on everyday life has been largely overlooked. This essay argues that this is mainly because the role of information and knowledge has been poorly theorized in the social sciences in terms of how search engines are actually used. One way to make a start on this topic is to bring to bear two theoretical frameworks from the social study of technology – large technological systems and the domestication of technology. These allow us to see how search engines have become an infrastructure at a time when, on the one hand, the uses of the Internet as a system have become pervasive and, on the other, information seeking in the home has become a routine activity in everyday life. Several studies of search behaviour have identified the main patterns of search. What emerges is the dominant role played by Google, and that the vast majority of searches are related to leisure. The paper asks whether Google plays a gatekeeping function, and how it shapes the information we use in everyday life

Advertising · Business · Everyday life · Function (biology · Gatekeeping · Internet privacy · Political science · Public relations · Sociology · The Internet · World Wide Web · Computer Science · Digital Games and Media · Law · Media Studies and Communication · Social Media and Politics

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Open DOISci-HubOpen Access