本文從社交媒體之雙重性出發，主要探討社交媒體帶來了人的連結與技術的連結，二者背後的物質基礎。社交媒體平台創造了一個連結的生態系，一方面鼓勵使用者互為好友，形成巨型的社會網絡，另一方面則是透過技術的連結，將各種不同的平台構成一個連結的生態系，促成訊息的快速流動與群眾的集體協作。本文認為，當前社交媒體之浮現樣貌乃是人的能動性與資訊的內在結構二者共同演化的結果，因而探討社交媒體的雙重性亦可分為兩類研究取徑：第一類是批判的技術哲學，從理論觀點或批判立場指出演算法背後的意識型態與社群平台隱含的結構限制，及鉅量資料（big data）研究取徑可能帶來的隱私問題或研究侷限；第二類則是人文社會學者結合資訊技術，收集與分析社交媒體平台的大量數據，透過實證資料的分析與詮釋來探討用戶數位足跡所代表的意義。

This article argued for the dual connectedness of social media. On one side, social media connect a lot of people to make a huge social network; on the other side, numerous social media platforms are connected through technologies to become a connecting ecosystem. The emergence of social media today is the result of co-evolution of human agency and information infrastructure. Thus, there are two approaches to investigate the dual connectedness of social media. One is theoretical, which provides critiques to the ideologies of algorithms and structures of social media platforms, and another one is empirical, which acquires big data on the social media platform to analyze human digital footprints by combining computer science and social science.