Appified: Culture in the Age of Apps

by Jeremy Wade Morris, Sarah Murray (Editor)

Snapchat. WhatsApp. Ashley Madison. Fitbit. Tinder. Periscope. How do we make sense of how apps like these-and thousands of others-have embedded themselves into our daily routines, permeating the background of ordinary life and standing at-the-ready to be used on our smartphones and tablets? When we look at any single app, it's hard to imagine how such a small piece of software could be particularly notable. But if we look at a collection of them, we see a bigger picture that reveals how the quotidian activities apps encompass are far from connecting with friends (and strangers and enemies), sharing memories (and personally identifying information), making art (and trash), navigating spaces (and reshaping places in the process). While the sheer number of apps is overwhelming, as are the range of activities they address, each one offers an opportunity for us to seek out meaning in the mundane. Appified is the first scholarly volume to examine individual apps within the wider historical and cultural context of media and cultural studies scholarship, attuned to issues of politics and power, identity and the everyday.

400 pages, Hardcover

Published October 23, 2018

Reviews

[Annie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not pedantic, but still academic. If you want a techno-sociological analysis of more than a dozen apps, here's the book to read. It's a collection of reviews by associate/assistant professors from different institutions. Articles delved into developer intentions and user experience; and some got into the politics of design and user interface.

[Ietrio · Rating 1 out of 5]

There was the Stone Age. Than the Middle Ages. Now there's the Age of Apps. And given the quality of the research it will be for another 2.35 years from now.