How the Internet automates communication

Abstract

This article looks at how Internet media bring about the automation of social communication. Whereas communication originally took place between humans, human–machine interaction is now replacing this traditional type of communication in a growing number of areas of society. This form of mediatized communication is characterized by a high degree of rationality (amongst other things), inasmuch as the applications are consequently governed by criteria of efficiency. As a result, important areas of social communication are becoming detached from subjective factors and are governed by a goal-oriented merit principle. The article identifies eight areas of automated communication, discusses five different types of rationalization (increase in efficiency, accumulation, recombination, correlation, and the adaptation of system logics from other systems), and looks at the consequences for society of this new type of Internet communication.

Keywords:

• automation
• rationalization
• online communication
• mediatization
• Internet

Notes on contributor

Christian Papsdorf is a lecturer in the Department of Sociology at the Chemnitz University of Technology. His research activities are focused on Internet sociology, industrial sociology, communications, and media sociology. In 2012, he was awarded a doctoral degree for his dissertation entitled Internet and society. On the relation between online and offline against the background of mediated communication.