The conference examines a set of sociotechnical recombinations that structure social media platforms. Each configuration positions users within specific registers through distinct functionalities, while concurrently responding to competitive pressures. By tracing these patterns over three decades, the talk highlights how platforms shape the "sociability" they propose as constructs that leverage a very restricted repertoire of technical designs, business models, and user appropriation features.

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Olivier Glassey is a sociologist, senior researcher at the Science and Technology Studies Laboratory (STS-Lab) at the University of Lausanne. His main research focus is individual and collective appropriation of technical mediations (networks, algorithms, generative AI, social robots) within a wide variety of social and cultural processes.