How Money Became A Form Of Social Media

In 'New Money: How Payment Became Social Media', Lana Swartz explores the transformation of payment systems into social media platforms. She discusses how these changes impact societal integration, exclusion, and the creation of new forms of identity and community. The book provides historical context and examines the implications of these shifts in financial technologies.

David Henkin's 'City Reading' examines the emergence of urban texts such as street signs, advertisements, newspapers, and paper money in New York City between 1825 and 1865. The book highlights how these texts reflected and shaped the city's social dynamics and public discourse during a period of rapid urbanization. Henkin analyzes these urban texts as crucial elements in the development of a new form of public communication in an increasingly heterogeneous urban environment.

Subprime Attention Crisis explores how the digital advertising market, which fuels the internet's free services, is plagued by fraud, inefficiency, and overvaluation, drawing parallels with the financial crises of the past. Hwang argues that if this bubble bursts, it could lead to a significant shift in how the internet is funded and accessed. The book proposes reforms to address these issues and ensure a more sustainable digital economy.

In 'Imagined Communities,' Benedict Anderson examines the historical rise and development of nationalism. He argues that nations are not ancient communities but rather modern constructs, imagined by their members as a shared, limited, and sovereign community. Anderson traces the emergence of nationalism to the Americas in the 18th and 19th centuries, where creole elites and the spread of print capitalism played crucial roles. He also discusses how nationalism filled the void left by the decline of religious communities and how it was shaped by factors such as mass vernacular literacy, the abolition of divine right monarchies, and the standardization of national calendars, clocks, and languages. The book is influential in social sciences and has been widely cited and translated into more than thirty languages.