Automatic from the people: Uber’s iconic interface and the automation of sociality

• Christopher M. Cox ^[1]
  1. [1] University of Akron

     University of Akron

     City of Akron, Estados Unidos

     
• Localización: Journal of Digital Media & Policy, ISSN-e 2516-3531, Vol. 10, Nº. 3, 2019, págs. 255-273
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • This article undertakes a content analysis of the Uber mobile interface as depicted in a patent application for a process that integrates and automates social media information to match potential UberPool riders. As depicted in the patent application, the Uber interface is a critical locus for incorporating social media information and rendering this information usable and palpable for users. By aligning the Uber interface with the communicative and symbolic richness of iconic imagery, I argue for the Uber interface as a juncture for critical abstractions between the manifestation of social interactions appearing to users on the Uber interface and Uber’s techno-economic motivations to shape, configure and guide user enactment of sociality. By designing for simplicity, the Uber interface abstracts between the push-button ease of undertaking sociality and the need to reflect on circumstances giving rise to these prescribed forms of sociality. Through this viewpoint, I specify abstractions between simplified forms of sociality presented to users and Uber techno-economic motivations configuring interfacial sociality, implicating algorithmic objectivity, connective friending and programmed sociality as unseen forces configuring and prescribing social interactions for user engagement.