This panel explores internet histories through the lens of “platform
death” as a way of understanding how digital communities grapple with technological failure,
power dynamics, and the divergent notions of the digital afterlife. Collectively, the
contributions address the cultural, geopolitical, economic, and socio-legal repercussions of
what happens when various platforms fail, decline, or expire. We bring together five
presentations that draw on different methods—including document analysis, semi-structured
interviews, participant observation—to explore the frailty of platforms, their underlying
infrastructures, and their trace data. Together, by examining and theoretically situating
the histories of five different platforms (TroopTube, Fanfou, MySpace, YikYak, and
Couchsurfing), we consider and complicate how the concept of “platform death” as a metaphor
can help reveal the Web’s rhythmic temporality, digital media’s constant reinvention of
forms, and the collision of hegemonic and fragile infrastructures in divergent cultural
contexts. We ask: What are the theoretical implications of situating platforms as killable,
ephemeral, precarious, or transient technologies? What—and who—kills platforms, and in what
ways can they have uncertain digital afterlives and even resurrections? What can
conceptualizations of dead and dying technologies tell us about the Internet’s growth and
stagnation, its present and futures? What is (un)knowable about platforms that once were,
and how can this knowledge inform our predictions of future technological failure? We aim to
build community, collective imaginings, and future collaborations around a research agenda
that centers mnemonic experimentation, comparative platform studies, and archival
contestations.
Documentary Analysis of the Scientific Literature on Autism and Technology in Web of Science