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Call for research: How does digital surveillance change society?

Published on January 19, 2021 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, corporate & business anthropology, design anthropology, politics, technology, Us and Them

Not only when we are reading the news, but also when we are on Zoom-conferences, sending messages with Whatsapp, playing silly games on our mobile or when we switch on our robot vacuum to clean the mess in our flat, we are tracked and analyzed by thousands of companies that would like to sell us something – be it a product or a message (here you can check trackers in mobile apps).

What does this constant surveillance do to us? Is it a threat as activists claim? And can something be done about it? What is the culture, ethos and worldview within these increasingly powerful corporations Google, Facebook and Microsoft that are developing these technologies of surveillance?

In the recent issue of the journal Anthropology Now, anthropologist Jennifer Huberman suggests several new areas of research for anthropologists.

New economic developments require detailed ethnographies!

In her article she reviews probably one of the most important recent books: The Age of Surveillance Capitalism by Shoshana Zuboff – of of those few books that, as she writes, "forces one to radically question the way the world works":

Surveillance Capitalism is both an analysis and critique. Zuboff’s main argument is that surveillance capitalism poses an existential threat to democracy and human nature as it subordinates people to ever more pervasive forms of social control and “instrumentarian power.”

Zuboff does a masterful job laying bare the hidden laws of motion that structure the workings of surveillance capitalism. She has opened our eyes to what many of us perhaps already intuited but didn’t have a technical language to describe.

But her book is a general study, from a bird’s eye view, based on interviews and analyzing documents and texts. What we need now, she writes, are "detailed ethnographic accounts of the way that surveillance capitalism is lived, felt, experienced and, we hope, even resisted by those it seeks to dominate".

This includes also studies of corporate culture in the Silicon Valley:

What kind of ethos permeates institutions such as Singularity University or the MIT Media Lab, where according to Zuboff “some of surveillance capitalism’s most valuable capabilities and applications, from data mining to wearable technologies, were invented” (206)?

To pursue such questions is not just to push the envelope of ethnographic curiosities. It is also to align oneself with a valuable theoretical perspective. For as anthropologists have long demonstrated, the (re)production of power, whether it be elite power or labor power, is very much a matter of culture.

Even though the machinations of surveillance capitalism seem to suggest a world where people are increasingly subordinated to the workings of algorithms, computer science and big data, at the end of the day, as Zuboff herself emphasizes, what allows surveillance capitalism to achieve such dominance in society is not the technology per se but rather the people who decide toward what ends it should be used.

>> continue reading her article in Anthropology Now: What to Do with Surveillance Capitalism?

I suppose, she thinks of studies as the one I wrote about two weeks ago:

Pregnancy and baby apps, smart home devices: Anthropologist shows how surveillance capitalism targets children

Personally, I would find following questions also interesting to study:

Why do people continue using products that are spying on them? What keeps people from using privacy friendly alternatives? Jitsi instead of Zoom for example? Linux instead of Windows? Signal instead of Whatsapp? Libre Office instead of Microsoft Word?

The problem with many privacy-friendly alternatives, in my experience, is that they tend to be viewed as "geeky" and not very user-friendly. Here it would be intersting to look at the process of software development itself and the relations between developers and users: Design anthropology has made lots of products more user-friendly

"Anthropological customer research has become popular for a good reason"

Why the head of IT should be an anthropologist

Dissertation – Why kids embrace Facebook and MySpace

Online – New book on the cultural significance of Free Software

Why were they doing this work just to give it away for free? Thesis on Ubuntu Linux hackers

Anthropologist counters Zoom-fatigue: "Your next video conference might resemble a video game"

Published on January 11, 2021 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, cyberanthropology, internet, technology

Why can we spend hours playing video games while many of us get exhausted by much shorter video-conferences?

That is without doubt no bad question that [the magazine Inverse asks](https://www.inverse.com/innovation/zoom-fatigue). They turn to an anthropologist who has researched our relation to the internet for at least 15 years: [Tom Boellstorff](https://faculty.sites.uci.edu/boellstorff/). In 2007 I wrote about his fieldwork in Second Life about the “virtually human”: [“Second Life is their only chance to participate in religious rituals”](https://www.antropologi.info/blog/anthropology/2007/second_life_is_their_only_chance_to_part).

Now he is part of the research project [Virtual Cultures in Pandemic Times](https://faculty.sites.uci.edu/boellstorff/virtual-cultures-in-pandemic-times/) that explores “how COVID-19 is reshaping online interaction” according to the project website:

> As many have noted, what we call “social distancing” is really physical distancing. Due to the pandemic, an unprecedented number of people have been socializing online, in new ways. Better understanding these new digital cultures will have consequences for COVID prevention: successful physical distancing will rely on new forms of social closeness online. It will also have consequences for everything from work and education to climate change.

[Zoom](https://www.tomsguide.com/news/zoom-security-privacy-woes) and other video conference solutions (including open source alternatives as [Jitsi Meet](https://meet.jit.si) or [Bigbluebutton](https://bigbluebutton.org)) let us constantly stare at many faces that in turn also stare at us. This never happens in real-life conferences and causes what is now coined [“Zoom fatigue”](https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20200421-why-zoom-video-chats-are-so-exhausting).

The anthropologist says in the Inverse-interview:

> “Whether it’s a conference or a class… so much of what happens [socially] in these environments has to do with talking in the halls on the way to the bathroom [or] grabbing a cup of coffee. Zoom is almost like a phone call in that sense, where you miss all this other activity, and that’s part of what can make it exhausting for people.”

Boellstorff thinks that there’s much to be learned from video games like [World of Warcraft](https://www.antropologi.info/blog/anthropology/2011/video-games) or [Animal Crossing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_Crossing_(video_game)) where you are constantly interacting with others in a “more emotionally and psychologically fruitful” way. Game-like video conference platforms, he thinks, are likely to become more popular.

Boellstorff himself has started teaching his courses in Second Life, [as Wired explained in an earlier article](https://www.wired.com/story/zoom-not-cutting-it-virtual-world-online-town/):

> Boellstorff custom-built Anteater [Island] to include an office, spaces for lectures and group projects, areas to hang out, and even a roller coaster. He uses the island in tandem with Zoom for classes, partially because Second Life doesn’t run well on older computers and can’t be accessed from a smartphone. So far, the setup is working well. Being in the same virtual space “does seem to have supported interactions that would not have happened if only using Zoom or a similar conference call program,” he says.

In an [interview with University of California, Irvine News website](https://news.uci.edu/2020/06/01/anteater-island/) he says:

> “We need to get away from talking about the physical world as the real world. Online sociality is a set of cultures that can be just as real as what’s in the physical world.”

Both *Wired* and *Inverse* present some video conference solutions that already incorporate elements from video games: [Kumospace](https://www.kumospace.com) and [Gather Town](https://gather.town) that is based on [Online Town](https://theonline.town).

Gather Town Product Hunt Video

Check Out KumoSpace!

Why can we spend hours playing video games while many of us get exhausted by much shorter video-conferences?

That is without doubt no bad question that the magazine Inverse asks. They turn to an anthropologist who has researched our relation to…

Exploring the honor culture of social media

Published on December 23, 2009 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, applied anthropology, cyberanthropology, gift economy gift giving, internet, journal articles / papers, media, technology

How can businesses profit from social media? How does social media challenge what is regarded as “value” in the business world? Anthropologist Lene Pettersen discusses these and other questions in her paper “The impact of social media for business“.

Lene Pettersen, one of the few web2.0-anthropologists in Scandinavia, sent me this article that she previously has published on Slideshare

She writes:

‘Value’ in a strong economic sense is challenged by social media as a door opener for influence that the organizations should take seriously. (…) The market is a part of individual and collective projects where emotions and identities are expressed, and can therefore not be defined by monetary values alone (Olsen 2003). (…)
The virtual market isn’t a huge collection of passive consumers; it is represented by networks of people having meaningful dialogues and interaction with both each other and the businesses as such, and represents new ways of market power. (…) By mapping different social media applications that are used for interaction we will receive great insight of benefits from different social media tools, technology as such and give important knowledge of how social media can be used by companies and organizations for innovation.

For businesses to be successfull they have to establish a good reputation. She quotes anthropologist Tian Sørhaug who states that “we no longer can divide production from consumption, because it is difficult to separate the person and the product. In these online times we all are dependent on our reputation.”

Pettersen draws our attention to a kind of “honor culture” among bloggers and compares it to the Kula exchange:

In social media we can recognize how highly respected bloggers receive respect from others. In parallel to honor cultures, where public reputation is more important than one’s self esteem, bloggers achieve huge respect within their community (Pettersen 2009). Anette Weiner showed in her studies of the Trobriand people how transaction of the kula (a type of shell) with people’s kula network didn’t have a solely economic value, but that knowledge, high status, and even sorcery help kula players claim success and circulate their fame (Weiner 1988:156).

>> download the paper (pdf)

SEE ALSO:

The Internet Gift Culture

Mobile phone company Vodafone gets inspired by traditional Kula exchange system

Dissertation: Why kids embrace Facebook and MySpace

Ethnographic study: Social network sites are “virtual campfires”

Interview with Michael Wesch: How collaborative technologies change scholarship

How can businesses profit from social media? How does social media challenge what is regarded as "value" in the business world? Anthropologist Lene Pettersen discusses these and other questions in her paper "The impact of social media for business".

Lene Pettersen,…

Digital Anthropology Report: Attitudes to technology = basis of future class divides

Published on October 12, 2009 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, cyberanthropology, Europe, internet, media, technology

How do people in Britain use the internet? How do they behave online? The new Digital Anthropology Report. The Six Tribes of Homo Digitalis gives some answers.

The British communication company Talk Talk sent researchers from the University of Kent into the homes of people around the UK to ask them questions about their attitudes towards digital technology and to watch them use it. They also commissioned anthropology professor David Zeitlyn to analyse the findings.

They found that “homo digitalis” consists of Six Tribes with very different attitudes, usage patterns and modes of behaviour. Some of these tribes have embraced technology and put it at the centre of their lives. For other tribes, “the internet” is a rather frightening jungle.

The E-ager Beavers are the largest tribe by quite a distance, with 29% of the UK adult population. They use the internet heavily, but they are more passive users. They lack the confidence or the drive to get involved with uploading their own content or producing their own blogs.

The Timid Technophobes are the second largest group (23%). They have only limited internet skills and will only use it when they really need to. They still prefer to use pen and paper and prefer to send and receive letters. They don’t read blogs and are not interested in facebook either.

The tribe of the Digital Extroverts (9%) consists of people who are “always-on”. They are active bloggers, use twitter, flickr etc. “Regularly updating their online profile is as much a part of their daily routine as eating.” The ability to interconnect and share data is a prerequisite.

According to Zeitlyn, your willingness to embrace technology and integrate it into your life will dictate your success in life far more than your social class will. As class structures change quickly, he writes in his analysis, the extent to which people use social networking and promote themselves online will become more important in determining their careers than what school or university they went to.

>> read the whole report (nice presentation with quiz and videos!)

Ethnographic Study: Social Websites Important For Childhood Development

Ethnographic study: Social network sites are “virtual campfires”

Interview with Michael Wesch: How collaborative technologies change scholarship

John Postill on media anthropology and internet activism in Malaysia

Cyberanthropology: “Second Life is their only chance to participate in religious rituals”

How internet changes the life among the First Nations in Canada

On fieldwork: “Blogging sharpens the attention”

Microsoft anthropologist: Let people be online at work or risk losing stuff!

From housewife to mousewive – Anthropological study on women and Internet

Ethnographic Study About Life Without Internet: Feelings of Loss and Frustration

How do people in Britain use the internet? How do they behave online? The new Digital Anthropology Report. The Six Tribes of Homo Digitalis gives some answers.

The British communication company Talk Talk sent researchers from the University of Kent…

Dissertation: Why kids embrace Facebook and MySpace

Published on January 21, 2009 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, cyberanthropology, internet, journal articles / papers, Northern America, technology, youth

After 30 months ethnographic fieldwork on Facebook, MySpace and other social networking sites, danah boyd has finally completed her PhD-thesis and put it online. Although she is no anthropologist, she seems to have worked like an anthropologist. Her thesis is relevant reading for anybody who is interested in the anthropology of childhood – especially in children’s relations to adults.

For children spend so much time on Facebook or MySpace (“networked publics”) partly because they are marginalized in their society by adults, she explains in the concluding chapter:

One of the most notable shifts I observed in the structural conditions of today’s teens, compared to those of earlier decades, involves their limited opportunities for unregulated, unstructured social interaction.
(…)
When asked, teens consistently reported that they would prefer to socialize in physical spaces without constant parental oversight. Given that this is not an option for many of them and that many have more access to networked publics than to unmediated public spaces, social network sites are often an accepted alternative.
(…)
Their desire to connect with others is too frequently ignored or disregarded, creating a context in which many must become creative in making space for maintaining connections outside the control of adults. (…) Through the use of technology, teens are able to socialize with others from inside the boundaries of their homes. This presents new freedoms for teens, but it also provokes new fears among adults.

The teen years are marked by an interest in building new connections and socializing broadly. Online-activites are extensions of offline-activites. Teens’ engagement with social network sites reveals a continuation of earlier practices inflected in new ways, she writes.

My findings show that teens are drawn to social media collectively and that individuals choose to participate because their friends do. The appeal is not the technology itself—nor any particular technology— but the presence of friends and peers.

boyd draws many interesting parallels and comparisons:

Baudelaire’s Parisian flâneur enters the public to see and be seen. Teenagers approach publics in a similar vain. Like the flâneur, teens use fashion to convey information about their identities.
(…)
Teens have long struggled to find a place for themselves; they have consistently formed counterpublics within broader structures. Yet when they do, adults typically demonize them, the identity markers they use, and the publics they co-opt. The demonization of MySpace is akin to the demonization of malls and parking lots that took place when I was growing up.

The inability to access publics is an explicit reminder of teens’ marginalized position within society according to danah boyd:

When well-intentioned parents limit access to publics out of fear of potential dangers, they fail to provide their children with the tools to transition into adult society. This may have other unexpected consequences, including isolating teens from political life and curbing their civic engagement. I believe that the practice of maximum control and restrictions infantilizes teenagers, making them more dependent on or resentful of adults and adult society.
(…)
In learning how to make sense of publics that are different from those with which their parents are comfortable, teenagers reveal valuable techniques for interpreting and reworking publics. Their experiences provide valuable insight for understanding how publics are transformed by structural forces.
(…)
The key is for adults, and society more broadly, to engage with these issues and help guide teens in making healthy decisions that allow them to leverage social media in positive ways as part of their everyday lives.

>> download the thesis via danah boyd’s blog

Her thesis reminded me of Mari Rysst’s thesis on the (presumed) “sexualisation of childhood” and the notion of the “pure childhood”.

I’ve only read the last chapter of boyd’s thesis.

By the way: As a famous blogger, danah boyd’s blog post on her thesis has received more than 40 comments within two days. Furthermore, there a numerous blog posts about her thesis already.

Ethnographic study: Social network sites are “virtual campfires”

Ethnographic research on Friendster’s online communities

Cyberanthropology: “Second Life is their only chance to participate in religious rituals”

Danah Boyd on Open Access: “Boycott locked-down journals”