On blogs and de-blogging...

Why are so many people blogging off?

While it's doubtful that the world will be a poorer place without them, those blogs about what people had for dinner may be dying out. New research by Gartner, the US technology analyst, suggests the number of new blogs peaked in October and that an estimated 200m have been abandoned and left to rot in cyberspace. ...

"You have to be opinionated and passionate about what you write, or your enthusiasm will wane," says Drew Benvie, social media adviser for Lewis PR and a blogging expert. Benvie thinks now is the time to dig out your old password and get back to blogging. "Companies are starting to see them as a way of promoting their products. Write about films and you might get tickets to screenings; write about gadgets and you might be sent gadgets to test." [more from source]

Things slowly fading into unremarkable oblivion tends to be a hallmark of the Internet in general. If you were to challenge most people to click on the seldom-visited links in their bookmarks, how many of those sites would still be active? How many people still regularly read the same news or post on the same newsgroups and bulletin boards that they did 5 years ago? It is a human universality that "the novelty wears off". In other words, this recent finding does not surprise me. A better comparative example would probably be to find out how many times people began writing a diary or keeping a weekly planner only to forget to update it more and more often until they have forgotten entirely where they have even put it. I am sure that many of the sites left to rot in cyberspace were experimental or motivated by some inspirational event or another. But human lives go on, and not all people see fit to continue commenting. Perhaps a virtual anthropologist should analyze the subject matter and posting trend of blogs which eventually become extinct.

I suppose I find this whole thing interesting because I have only just officially started this blog. At the moment, I am quite enthusiastic and hope to continue it. Of course, at busy times, I expect my posts to wane. Having said that, according to Drew Benvie, I clearly need to start blogging about gadgets. So, if anyone out there has the means to donate to my anthropological fieldwork, I would like to test out an Internet-capable handheld computer running Windows Mobile (HP iPAQ, any reviews?), a 3GSM mobile phone, digital voice recording equipment (possibly with voice transcription capability), a digital camcorder, a laptop with at least 160GB harddrive and 3.0GHz processor, solar-powered batteries, and a digital camera beyond the 3.2 Megapixels that I am currently equipped with (yes, yes, I know). Oh, and throw in one of those new, tiny iPod shuffles (for a friend). Let's see if Benvie was right.

In other news, did you know that the term "dooced" has been adopted for being fired from your job for writing a blog? Maybe that's why people are abandoning their blogs.

Add to del.icio.us

Tweet

Brazil Offers Internet Access to Indians

I know that this does not pertain ethnographically to Spain, but I think its essential to a discussion of Internet technology and anthropology.

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil -- Brazil's government said it will provide free Internet access to native Indian tribes in the Amazon in an effort to help protect the world's biggest rain forest. ... Francisco Ashaninka, a native Indian from the Ashaninka tribe who works for the western Acre state government, said the arrival of Internet was a success for the Forest People's Network, created in 2003. He said there are currently a few telecenters on the outskirts of cities, but that the new ones will be built deep in the forest and will allow Indians easy access to public officials so that they can alert them of illegal miners, loggers and ranchers." It will be a real chance for the indigenous communities to acquire, share and provide information to public officials," Ashaninka said. He added the Internet would "strengthen indigenous culture by linking them and providing environmental education." [source]

I am genuinely interested to see how this one turns out. My own research has led me to be more than skeptical about the amazing potentialities provided by the Internet when it is introduced to a society. As we know, it is never quite as awe-inspiring and revolutionary as its proponents so hope, or claim, at the outset. The Internet was hailed as a ubiquitous and 'free' source to promote universal democracy and virtual utopia around the world. While much of this new technology can be said to have improved some aspects of communication and social organization in some locations, and according to particular conditions, the Internet revolution did not quite have the impact that we all - pretty naively - expected.

Now, in this case, it is clear that the local 'tribes' are already cognizant of the existence of the Internet and its uses, as there are some 'telecenters' in the area. I suppose what first came to mind was, why, when Internet access is offered freely to them, should these people - or anyone, for that matter - decide to use it to contact the local government regarding illegal activities? As I see it, there are mainly two things at play here. Firstly, there are many other uses for the Internet which these people will be well aware of and experienced with. Trying to predict what individuals or groups will use a new technology for is difficult, mostly because it is a subjective activity based on a mix of needs and desires. Secondly, I would be interested to know more about the local social conditions, the proportions of illegal activity, the culprits, and the local 'opinion' of such activity. Why should it be expected that the indigenous communities should want to - or feel able to - provide names and details to the government (of all people!) regarding the activities of individuals who may very well be, in some way, part of their communities? Are these illegal miners, loggers, and ranchers 'foreigners' or 'locals'? It is very difficult for people to voluntarily inform government agencies to the wrong-doing of their neighbors - and not just in the Amazon.

Nonetheless, I would find it very fulfilling if this initiative were successful in eradicating illegal activity to the detriment of the Amazonian rain forest. The rain forest needs saving. (On a more personal note, think of it: Indigenous communities ... saving the rain forests ... through the Internet! If that doesn't justify anthropological attention to technology studies, what will?)

There are, of course, many other development-related benefits to the Amazonian region as a whole. My skeptical comments are therefore not an attempt to belittle the task at hand. It is important and essential. In short, I am extremely supportive of "linking" the communities and "providing environmental education", as long as this is done for the benefit of local communities as well as the environment, with no underlying motive. Why should it have taken a focus on illegal activities to bring the Internet to the local communities solely in order to help hunt down criminals? When will governments decide to provide new services, technologies and sources of communication purely to help people? Idealistic, I know, and quite out of character - but I am an anthropologist, after all.

Add to del.icio.us

Tweet

By way of introduction

I'm a Social Anthropologist currently exploring the relationship between technology and contemporary urban life in Spain. I'm based in the UK at the moment, but will shortly be leaving for "the field". My location will hopefully be a small town in northeastern Spain. More on that later. I hope that this blog will prove useful in a number of contexts. Firstly, in my pre-fieldwork stage, I feel that it's always important to be open to comments from both anthropologists and non-anthropologists regarding my research plans. I feel that opening up dialogue into ethnographic research is an important but under-represented practice. Secondly, there are many 'things' (ideas, concepts, facts, events, stories) which present themselves in the course of research that strike me as interesting - usually when exploring an unexpected tangent - that I'd like to record in some form for future reference. I think that a blog is a good place for that. Finally, since my research centers around the ways in which different forms of Internet-related technology are used on a daily basis, this is also a form of participant observation. (A future post on "virtual ethnography" is needed.)

In the process of developing this blog, I've also had the priviledge of introducing myself to the existing blogosphere of anthropological knowledge. I am looking forward to joining in. However, this is not a blog for other anthropologists, but rather for anyone who would like to comment. I hope that my posts will cover a wide range of topics. I'd be very interested to get feedback from Spaniards (from all regions) on these themes and issues. I therefore welcome your comments.

Tweet