Sharing

Abstract

In digital culture, sharing is a metaphor used to describe and explain a variety of digital practices, network infrastructures and associated values. It is closely aligned with social media where to share is to post, to speak, to listen, to upload, to download and with the sharing economy and the offer of access to goods and services via an online platform. Although sharing seems ubiquitous and constitutive of online culture and has a long history as a term in computing that dates to the mid-2Oth century, it is not until the late 2000s that its meaning shifts, conflating the distributive and communicative senses of the verb. Recognizing this shift offers insight into how in the 21st century moral ideals about altruism and free expression are linked to economic goals and why the age of sharing has also become a time of rising inequality, centralization of power and increasing commercialization of culture and social relations.