I used to refer to digital platforms as (data) ecologies. My apologies. But the relations there are not at all symmetric, they are ambivalent, at best, no harmony, just ends and means that have nothing to do with what they display.
The relation is, thus, not symbiotic or simply parasitic either. It is some kinf of reciprocal parasitism with weird distributions of dependency, benefit, and harm at all sites. It might deserve its own term but another metaphor anyway.
#SocialMedia #PlatformEconomy #Serres
@PeterKahlert although much depends on which version of ecology you work with, right? It could mean conservative harmony and stability (in this sense https://meson.press/books/uexkulls-surroundings/), but also parasitic relations & asymmetric symbiogenesis, and other relations of engendering, co-development, interdependence, non-designed effects, etc. (to use the vocabulary imported by Serres, Latour, Tsing, Stengers or Morizot from biological thought) What would a digital holobiont be?