Metaphors in critical Internet and digital media studies

Abstract

Since its very early days, metaphors have been used by various powerful social actors to try to convey what the Internet is and what it could be used for, now and in the future. In this short essay, I make a plea for critical scholars of the Internet and digital media to be simultaneously careful and imaginative in their own choice of metaphorical language. I revisit some of the early and recurring metaphors, such as frontier, highway and library, to illustrate the evocative power of metaphor. I then examine the more recent metaphors of cloud computing and (big) data flow to justify why it remains important to focus on metaphors. Scholars in critical and digital media studies not only need to deconstruct the metaphors of the powerful but they also need to contribute new metaphors and new ways of describing and thinking about the future.