In this BB#5 I will be trying to get close to Geertz term; “thick description” which he descript as “the care we take as ethnographers to get in the heart of what people do and why they do it”. First I will describe my relationship to communication technology. Secondly I will look at the role social media plays in my everyday life. Last but not least I will look at the reasons behind my social media use. I will be using the information that I got from my 48 hour tracking plan.
The social media that I mostly will be referring to is Facebook, because Facebook was one of the social platforms that I used quiet a lot during my 48 hours tracking. I also used other social media platforms such as Skype, YouTube, Google and Instagram and in the fasting stage I use Twitter and LinkedIn.
Before I look at the first point in this BB, I would like to describe the environment and the participant. The environment is an apartment in Aalborg, Nordjylland, Aalborg train station, Aarhus train station and Aarhus University (students). And the participant is a young student.
What is my relationship to communication technology? Technology is changing and opening up the world for many things. We engage with news across multiple social media across the world. My relationship with technology is not special. Like everyone else, I´m great when it comes to my cell phone but my computer is all alien territory to me. The use of my computer and the Internet has made my life easier. I only use my computer to do school work such as: writing papers, research, or looking up how to do something, shopping staying in touch with friends and family via Skype, Facebook. My relationship has already grown since I started at university. Before I had an old computer but it was very slow when I was surfing on the Internet, but after I got a new computer I became more active. But my cell phone is still my primarily technology-tool because I can use it everywhere.
Social media plays a big role in my life. By socializing with social media it brings traditional public relations to a new level. Without social interaction I feel disconnected to the people in my circle and to the world. Socializing give me the understanding of what it means to be a part of a community and to follow news across the world.
Throughout my 48 hour tracking plan I really got the sense of who I’m as a social media user. So why do I check Facebook so many times during a day. Here are five reasons to why I check Facebook. 1: As said in the 48 hour tracking plan, the first thing I do when I wake up every morning is to check Facebook on my cell phone. Reading updates, news feed, posted during the time I´m asleep is a great way to get the brain functioning. 2: I check Facebook because I want to know what is going on among her friends and family, but also to feel connected and informed. 3: I check to see if anyone has sent me a message. 4: Sometimes I check Facebook, because I´m bored. 5: Another reason is also because I don’t want to feel “left out”. We have all experience when someone is talking about a video or a picture that he or she saw on Facebook and everyone in the group beside you have not seen it, that certain someone will automatically feel left out because he or she doesn’t understand the why they are laughing. No one likes to be left out. That’s how it is with social platforms. We feel the need to go online because we want to interact with other people, but also because we want to be a part of a community. I feel the need to be connected because I want to be a part of the discussion with my friends and family.
For me Facebook, Google, Skype, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn are tools of emotional provocation. I’m emotionally drawn to Facebook in a lot of cases, taking seriously the opportunity to post status updates, to interact with friends and family, etc. One of the most appealing aspects for me, as a Facebook user, is the ability to share. I love to use my social platforms in order to share interesting materials with my friends, but also to search specifically for sharable material or specifically for helpful material.
Google is the second social platform that I used during my observation. I used Google to do research on certain things. I used Google because it is a great tool to do research if there is something that you want to find out. Another platform that I also use is Skype. I used Skype to get in contacted with my family and friends outside Denmark. These are the people that I haven’t seen in a very long time. I mostly use YouTube to download music. It gives me the opportunity to find some of the songs that I used to listen to back in Africa. After min opinion YouTube is an amazing tool.
My fasting-log
This assignment is about my 24 hours fasting. From Wednesday November 6, 7pm to Thursday November 7, 7pm, I gave up my smartphone, IPod, television, radio, magazines, newspaper and computer (i.e. not texting, no Facebook, twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Skype, and YouTube. When I began the fasting I didn’t know that it was possible.
Before I began the 24-hour period with no media I must honestly admit that it was as hard as I had expected. Although I started the evening feeling good, I noticed my good start didn’t last for long. Already around noon I start to feel the changes. I started to feel isolated and lonely. I received several phone calls that I could answer. By 12 pm. November 7 I began to feel the urgent need to check my phone calls, email and Facebook. Texting my friends give me a constants feeling of comfort. When I don’t have the social medias, I felt quiet alone and secluded from my life. The fact that I was not able to communicate with anyone via technology was almost unbearable. For me going without media, means going without my family and friends.
Cellphone:
The hardest part of my 24 hours fasting was not being able to call my family, friends and boyfriend, but also to be able to listen to music. I really wanted to call my mum during the 24 hours. I kept thinking about, what if something happened and I need immediate contact with someone, if there is an emergency? So after my opinion, I can live without Facebook, but my cell phone is important to me. It creates a link to constant communication and safety. My cell phone has become such a large part of my life, it is the one thing I always have with me at all times.
Facebook and other social media:
If I’m online, I’m on Facebook (or some other networking site). It is almost second nature to check Facebook or emails; it was very hard for my mind to tell my body not to go on the Internet. In the end I had to turn off my smartphone. If there were something I could give up, it would be my television. It is easier to be disconnected from my television than my computer or my smartphone. But in my case these two items work together. With that I mean I don’t have any television channels, so most of the programs that I watch on television are downloaded from my computer and saved in my external hard drive, that I connect to my television.
The advantages of unplugging
While I was fasting I realize that there are some advantage of unplugging. I realize my morning was completely different; I couldn’t check my smartphone, emails, weather, or watch “Good Morning Denmark”. My morning was quiet and it seemed slow. It was actually peaceful. I didn’t have classes the day I was fasting so I spend most of my time cleaning, baking and doing laundry. In that way I kept myself busy. Being unplugged allowed me to take a step back and reflect. I probably had more “thinking time” during the fasting than any day. After 24 hours of giving up Facebook, I thought I would challenge myself further to do a week, but only Facebook and not my cell phone. So far I´ve done it and it actually feels great! I believe that I´ve been much more productive since given up Facebook and other social media, having more on my hands to do various chores such as cleaning and doing laundry. Overall, this experience to wait 24 hours to use technology was interesting. It gave me the opportunity to see my life from a different kind of view. I realize that there is a life without technology.
In this video the blogger; langarioonline talkes about her social media use after she did a 48 hour tracking plan.
Video
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Posted: October 27, 2013 in Uncategorized
In this tracking plan I will be tracking my social media use. I spend a lot of time on social media. The social media channels that I will be focusing on are;
- Facebook: Reviewing my statistics on a daily basis as well as reviewing and comments and conversations taking place on your page.
- Skype: conversations, messages etc.
- Endomondo
- Youtube: Video views, video reviews, stars
- General web: Google
- Emails
I have chosen to focus on these social medias because I use them on daily basis. It is also going to be interesting to find out which tool I am using most; Iphone or my computer.
Purpose:
The purpose of doing the tracking plan is to figure out how much time I am actually spend on these websites/applications.
I will be tracking my media use from Wednesday the 22nd of October from 10 AM to 24th of October 10 PM. Throughout these 48 hours I will closely be tracking my social media use and doing braindumps. I will also be taking screendumps of the social media engagements. I might need it later on in the writing process.
These 48 hours are going to be intents. I will be carrying my research journal with me at all time, so I don’t miss anything.
Media fast
I have chosen to track my fast media use from the 3nd of November 8 AM to the 4nd of November 8 PM.
Living in Denmark has always been a struggle. Form the instant I stepped on the Danish soil; I knew this was the beginning of new life. I knew that we were never going to return back to South Sudan and Denmark was now our new home. I also knew that living in this new country, was going to be a struggle. We all know the feeling we get, when we arrive at new places. It is exciting, but sometimes it can be mortifying. Most of us are afraid of the unknown, because we have noting to relate it to.
I never had difficulties fitting in among the other kids, but when I came to Denmark, I began to understand what it means to be an outcast. Not only everyone around me had different skin-color, which I haven’t seen before, but he or she also was speaking a different language. It was overwhelming, when your coming from the world I came from. Everything her was different.
I remember my parents telling me, that the only way I could learn the Danish language was to go out there and interact with other kids. My parents tried to get some ideas to what I could do and I remember our next-door neighbor has a girl and she was playing a sport called handball. I didn’t know what that was, but my parents thought this could be in way in. The next day I went to my first handball training. I remember my coach telling my new teammates where I am from and that I could only speak English. Some of them came and talked to me and if they couldn’t remember some of the worlds, they would run away and others would call the coach to translate. Sometimes they would say one word in English and translate that word to Danish. That’s how I integrated myself to the Danish society. Throwing your self out there, sometimes gives you a reward and this was one of mine. Later on handball became a big part of my life. I played handball for 12 years and I could have been a professional life within handball, if I didn’t injure my knee.
Playing handball made me start raising questions my identity. The interaction between the Danish kids and I opened my eyes for many things. One of them was the boyfriend topic. Unlike many of my Danish friends I cannot talk about boys to my parents, because having a boyfriend is an infringement according to my tradition. So it’s a vulnerable topic, when your parents are expecting you to get married with someone from back home. So I am “torn” between two different cultures and struggling to find my identity, but I honestly have to admit that as older I get, easier it gets. Being “torn” between to cultures has made me the person I am today.
Aside
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Posted: October 19, 2013 in Uncategorized
Last time I engage in social media would be when my brother was going to play a football game in Super Liga (Danish professional football league). My brother plays for FC Midtjylland, which is in Herning. That day I remember I posted a photo on Facebook of me holding his football-shirt at MCH football stadium. That same day I also posted an article that I found in the newspaper, Ekstrabladet. I guest the motives behind my actions is because I wanted my friends to know, that I have a brother who is playing professional football and that I as a sister is proud of him. Indirectly you can say that, I was telling my friends that they should watch the game.
After the game I posted more on Facebook and Instagram, because my brother had scored even thought he didn’t play a good game. When I got home from the football game I checked some of the Danish football magazines and a couple of them were talking about this new young and talented African boy who comes from Tjørring (a small town outside Herning) and he was speaking fluent Danish. Everyone was wondering where he was from. Jyllandsposten (one of the biggest newspaper in DK) wrote that he was from Ghana and in another newspaper they wrote that he was from Nigeria. Some of the African football players that play for FC Midtjylland are from Nigeria. After an interview with my brother the newspaper established that he was from South Sudan and that he was only two months old, when he came to Denmark with his family. My brother was even asked how come they haven’t seen him in the U19 national team. He said that his Danish citizenship was in working progress and he is hoping to be a part of the U19 team as soon he recieves the citizenship.
I think that my personal use of social media is regular. In my opinion people should not just post, because they want to post. They should post because it is something interesting and different. Personally I only post things that I think are different and interesting.
Hallo my fellow bloggers and readers. Welcome to my blog. This blog is a part of the course Digital Identity. My name is Cathy, but when am online the name is: langarioonline
Originally from South Sudan. My family and I came to Denmark as a refugee in April 1995 because of war in my country. I come from a very big family with 8 siblings. I have a bachelor degree in communication from Aalborg University. Who am I as a person? Well, when you ask my friends and family, they would say that am a loyal, open and good in giving other people a second chance.
I haven’t decided which aspect I want to approach my project from, but in my BB I have some research questions that I would like to explore, before taking the final decision.
DIGITAL IDENTITY 