Reflections

Christine Hine – The Virtual Objects of Ethnography

This article is about how to do Internet ethnography. Culture on the Internet obviously cannot be studied using traditional ethnographic methods.

I think that it is very important to keep in mind that, even though it is all human behavior, there is a distinction between behavior on the Internet and in real life. There is no easy way to separate the two, since what people do in real life apparently affects behavior on the Internet, and potentially vice versa. The article offers several methodological suggestions for conducting ethnographic research on the Internet. It is a bit outdated, however: I think that in the present time, the difference between “text” and “interaction” is much less distinct. Actually, the distinction seems to be dissolving. Hine’s list of categories of sites is obsolete, and many of the major things developed since the publication of the article have to do with social networking. Interactions at these places are much closer to Hine’s definition of “interaction” than any of the others on the list. Does this make decisions about the methodology for ethnography simpler? Not really – but it probably makes observing and participating a bit easier.


Yochai Benkler – The Weath of Networks, Ch. 10

Does the Internet strengthen existing relationships or allow for looser ones? The development of the Internet as a tool for communication is likened to the inventions of other communications technologies of the past, according to Benkler. I agree with this, especially in that as their use increases, so does their sophistication as devices of communication over increasing distances. The Internet today is so much different from the early Internet – perhaps the two are as different as a cell phone is from a telegraph.

But are people who communicate with speed and ease through the Internet sacrificing their real life relationships by physical isolation? Benkler describes several studies that found Internet usage to be detrimental to social relations. A fundamental point is that there are only surface comparisons between online relationships and real life ones. What if someone finds their online friends, who share similar interests, to be more engaging and better conversation partners than the people they know in real life? Is there any study that looks at the value people place on their online relationships? Benkler suggests that how we connect with people “changes over time” as people adopt new methods of communication. Exactly how much does the lack of physical interaction weaken a relationship?