Overview

Global inequalities and our social identities shape who we are, who we can be online, and what we know. From social media to search engines to Wikipedia, the internet is thoroughly embedded in how we produce, find, and share knowledge around the world. Who Should We Be Online? examines the challenges of the online world using numerous epistemological approaches. Tackling problems of online content moderation, fake news, and hoaxes, Frost-Arnold locates the role that sexism, racism, and other forms of oppression play in creating and sharing knowledge online.Timely and interdisciplinary, Who Should We Be Online? weaves together internet studies scholarship from across the humanities, social sciences, and computer science. Frost-Arnold recognizes that the internet can both fuel ignorance and misinformation and simultaneously offer knowledge to marginalized groups and activists. Presenting case studies of moderators, imposters, and other internet personas, Frost-Arnold explains the problems with our current internet ecosystem and imagines a more just online future. Who Should We Be Online? argues for a social epistemology that values truth and objectivity, while recognizing that inequalities shape our collective ability to attain these goals. Frost-Arnold proposes numerous suggestions and reform strategies to make the internet more conducive to knowledge production and sharing.

Full Product Details

Author:   Karen Frost-Arnold (Associate Professor of Philosophy, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Hobart & William Smith Colleges)
Publisher:   Oxford University Press Inc
Imprint:   Oxford University Press Inc
Dimensions:   Width: 23.60cm , Height: 2.40cm , Length: 16.40cm
Weight:   0.558kg
ISBN:  

9780190089184

ISBN 10:   0190089180
Pages:   280
Publication Date:   27 February 2023
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   To order  
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Table of Contents

Acknowledgments Chapter 1: Introduction 1. Frameworks for social epistemology of the internet 1.1. The situated knowledge thesis 1.2. Feminist accounts of objectivity 1.3. Veritistic systems-oriented social epistemology 1.4. Epistemologies of ignorance 1.5. Virtue epistemology 1.6. Epistemic injustice 2. Chapter summaries Chapter 2: Moderators 1. What is online content moderation? 2. Varieties of moderation and censorship debates 3. The epistemic challenges of moderation 4. The virtues of moderators 5. Constraints on moderators 6. Commercial content moderation, epistemic exploitation, and epistemic dumping 7. Algorithms to the rescue? Chapter 3: Imposters & Tricksters 1. Objectivity and truth 1.1. Objectivity and truth in feminist and veritistic epistemology 1.2. Objectivity, truth, and trust 2. Imposters: Undermining objectivity and truth 3. The need for trustworthiness 3.1. Trust and authenticity 3.2. Practical wisdom and trustworthiness 4. Tricksters: Resisting oppression 4.1. The epistemic benefits of betrayal 4.2. Internet tricksters 4.3. Changing epistemic landscapes and trickery 4.4. Who should we be online? Chapter 4: Fakers 1. What is fake news? 2. Causes of the fake news problem 2.1. Cognitive/psychological 2.2. Technological affordances/design features 2.3. Social causes 3. The epistemic damage of fake news 3.1. Fake news and false belief 3.2. Fake news and distrust 4. Fake news and white ignorance 5. Fake news, objectivity, and neutrality 6. Conclusion Chapter 5: Lurkers 1. The internet as a medium for unlearning ignorance 2. What is lurking? 3. The epistemic benefits of lurking 4. Epistemic limitations of lurking 5. Harmful modes of interaction: Ontological expansiveness 6. A virtue epistemology for lurking and online engagement 6.1. Virtues relevant to lurking and engagement 6.2. The importance of practical wisdom 7. Applying the virtue epistemology of lurking 8. Objections and replies Chapter 6: Conclusion Appendix: Internet Research Ethics for Philosophers: Privacy, Positionality, and Power 1. Purpose of this appendix 2. Respecting privacy 2.1. Complications for the 'public data' presumption 2.2. Alternatives to simply quoting material one can access online 3. Protecting the researcher in an environment of online harassment 4. Avoiding epistemic appropriation 5. Cultivating a

Reviews

Karen Frost-Arnold's clear, engaging, rigorous, and broadly informed book is a vital reading for anyone who wants to understand the human condition in the digital age. The book provides an epistemology of the internet through an anti-oppressive lens, introducing us to a cast of characters who have emerged recently but who fundamentally shape how and what we know. But the book is also much more than a work of epistemology; it is an existential examination of who and what technologically mediated selves are * Quill R. Kukla, author of City Living: How Urban Spaces and Urban Dwellers Make One Another * Who Should We be Online? is an illuminating, timely, and essential treatment of the epistemology of the internet. Using both vivid examples and sophisticated theoretical tools, Karen Frost-Arnold sheds much-needed light on a host of crucial topics, including imposters, tricksters, fake news, and lurking. A must-read on the perils and promise of the internet * Kate Manne, author of Down Girl: The Logic of Misogyny and Entitled: How Male Privilege Hurts Women * Our online life doesn't escape the injustices of the offline world; indeed, as Karen Frost-Arnold shows in this arresting and carefully argued new book, it deepens them. Bringing the skills of a first-rate feminist philosopher to the problems of our digital age, this book provides us with a new socially situated internet epistemology * Michael Patrick Lynch, author of The Internet of Us: Knowing More and Understanding Less in the Age of Big Data * Karen Frost-Arnold, in her important and meticulously argued new book, offers a major contribution to researchers of online life across social scientific and humanistic inquiry - and keenly bridges the two. She provides us with an entirely new toolkit and philosophical framework for understanding. For anyone interested in the motivations and (self-) conceptions of those who make up the internet of people, this book is a must-read. * Prof. Sarah T. Roberts, author of Behind the Screen: Content Moderation in the Shadows of Social Media *

Karen Frost-Arnold's clear, engaging, rigorous, and broadly informed book is a vital reading for anyone who wants to understand the human condition in the digital age. The book provides an epistemology of the internet through an anti-oppressive lens, introducing us to a cast of characters who have emerged recently but who fundamentally shape how and what we know. But the book is also much more than a work of epistemology; it is an existential examination of who and what technologically mediated selves are * Quill R. Kukla, author of City Living: How Urban Spaces and Urban Dwellers Make One Another * Who Should We be Online? is an illuminating, timely, and essential treatment of the epistemology of the internet. Using both vivid examples and sophisticated theoretical tools, Karen Frost-Arnold sheds much-needed light on a host of crucial topics, including imposters, tricksters, fake news, and lurking. A must-read on the perils and promise of the internet * Kate Manne, author of Down Girl: The Logic of Misogyny and Entitled: How Male Privilege Hurts Women * Our online life doesn't escape the injustices of the offline world; indeed, as Karen Frost-Arnold shows in this arresting and carefully argued new book, it deepens them. Bringing the skills of a first-rate feminist philosopher to the problems of our digital age, this book provides us with a new socially situated internet epistemology * Michael Patrick Lynch, author of The Internet of Us: Knowing More and Understanding Less in the Age of Big Data * Karen Frost-Arnold, in her important and meticulously argued new book, offers a major contribution to researchers of online life across social scientific and humanistic inquiry - and keenly bridges the two. She provides us with an entirely new toolkit and philosophical framework for understanding. For anyone interested in the motivations and (self-) conceptions of those who make up the internet of people, this book is a must-read. * Prof. Sarah T. Roberts, author of Behind the Screen: Content Moderation in the Shadows of Social Media *

Karen Frost-Arnold's clear, engaging, rigorous, and broadly informed book is a vital reading for anyone who wants to understand the human condition in the digital age. The book provides an epistemology of the internet through an anti-oppressive lens, introducing us to a cast of characters who have emerged recently but who fundamentally shape how and what we know. But the book is also much more than a work of epistemology; it is an existential examination of who and what technologically mediated selves are -- Quill R. Kukla, author of City Living: How Urban Spaces and Urban Dwellers Make One Another Who Should We be Online? is an illuminating, timely, and essential treatment of the epistemology of the internet. Using both vivid examples and sophisticated theoretical tools, Karen Frost-Arnold sheds much-needed light on a host of crucial topics, including imposters, tricksters, fake news, and lurking. A must-read on the perils and promise of the internet -- Kate Manne, author of Down Girl: The Logic of Misogyny and Entitled: How Male Privilege Hurts Women Our online life doesn't escape the injustices of the offline world; indeed, as Karen Frost-Arnold shows in this arresting and carefully argued new book, it deepens them. Bringing the skills of a first-rate feminist philosopher to the problems of our digital age, this book provides us with a new socially situated internet epistemology -- Michael Patrick Lynch, author of The Internet of Us: Knowing More and Understanding Less in the Age of Big Data Karen Frost-Arnold, in her important and meticulously argued new book, offers a major contribution to researchers of online life across social scientific and humanistic inquiry - and keenly bridges the two. She provides us with an entirely new toolkit and philosophical framework for understanding. For anyone interested in the motivations and (self-) conceptions of those who make up the internet of people, this book is a must-read. -- Prof. Sarah T. Roberts, author of Behind the Screen: Content Moderation in the Shadows of Social Media

Author Information

Karen Frost-Arnold is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Hobart & William Smith Colleges. Her research focuses on the philosophy of the internet, the epistemology and ethics of trust, social epistemology, philosophy of science, and feminist philosophy.

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