Social Institution

Durkheim regularly emphasizes that social institutions, such as religion, create these moral standards that guide people's actions. The idea of what is defined as a "social institution" becomes increasingly difficult to define, however, due to the rapid expansion of social forces that have come about in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. For example, forms of social media, such as texting and networking on Facebook, are highly centered on social interactions, but is social media necessarily considered an institution? That depends on how one thinks of an organized, systemic body that navigates social interaction. On the one hand, people have a lot of freedom in what they post or message on social media, as they can share anything that they want. On the other hand, there are patterns which unite people who use social media, such as emoji language to symbolize interactions in the digital realm, as well as memes, which are centered on the repetition of one topic by millions of users. Such examples raise questions about whether social media can be dismissed as an institution when it clearly has aspects of a systemic structure.