Why We Post: social media through the eyes of the world

Nine UCL anthropologists spent fifteen months living in nine communities around the world, researching the role, uses and consequences of social media in people’s everyday lives.

University College London just launched an enormous repository with the results of this global ethnographic research project, all easily accessible through the new ‘Why We Post’ website.

For a quick glance, you can check out the 15 clearly explained discoveries, but the real meat is in the book series, published by UCL Press, all of which are Open Access and completely free to download.

How The World Changed Social Media is a summary of the findings of the ethnographic research undertaken in eight countries around the world. This is complemented by two full-length monographs Social Media in an English Village and Social Media in Southeast Turkey. Monographs from our other field sites (Northern Chile, Rural China, South Italy, Trinidad, Emergent Brazil, South india, and Industrial China), as well as a monograph entitled “Visualising Facebook“, will be published in the coming months.

In addition to this, the research project also features over 100 videos on a dedicated YouTube channel, as well as a free e-learning course in English on FutureLearn, at and in seven other languages at UCL Extend. Also check out the project blog, Facebook page and Twitter feed.

UPDATE: Review in the Economist