Review essay: Perils of aggregating a global zeitgeist

Abstract

This essay reviews the works ‘The Digital Frontier: Infrastructures of Control on the Global Web’ (Indiana University Press) by Sangeet Kumar and ‘The Platform Society: Public Values in a Connective World’ (Oxford University Press) by José van Dijck, Thomas Poell, and Martijn de Waal as recent contributions to the field of global internet studies. The essay explores how each book formulates the interplay between technological infrastructures and the social architecture that guide human behavior in contemporary digital ecosystems.