Living in a Time When “Death Feels Closer”
“I know I’m young, and dying isn’t something I’m ‘supposed’ to think about yet, but how can I not? Death feels like it is everywhere,” earnestly intoned Autumn,…
Tag: social media
On unsolicited nostalgia and Tinder frustrations
‘I’ve been here before’ – the feeling of the present being firmly rooted in the past can be intense and disorienting. It is difficult to trace, like a…
The Networked Animita: Transgender Remembrance on Social Media
Tomorrow, November 20th, the world will commemorate Transgender Day of Remembrance, a day to collectively mourn and remember those who have died as a result of transphobia. Started…
Ep#65 The Social Dilemma, Corpo-Humans, Buying Nothing & Localised Colonialism: This Month on TFS
This week we bring you a panel with Anthea Snowsill who is currently doing her research with the Intha people of Myanmar. In this panel We’d also introduce…
Instagram as a Catalyst for Digital Gemeinschaft During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Vietnam (#WitnessingCorona)
Hide Press Release (2 Less Words) Justin Battin In early 2020, news articles documenting a possible coronavirus pandemic began appearing in countries worldwide, and while concerns were…
Interview: On COVID-19 & digital technologies in everyday life
In May 2020, I was asked by the European Science-Media Hub of the European Parliament to participate in a short written interview about COVID-19 and digital technologies in…
When Brazil’s Voters Became Followers
Politics on social media may be exciting and even fun. But is it good for democracy? Jair Bolsonaro’s sweeping victory in the 2018 Brazilian elections took many people…
Like: Memetic Analogies in Social Media
Memes circulating on the net articulate simple comparisons with political intent, for example as an analogy between the USA today and “Weimar” back then, or between German and…
How can anthropological research impact the populations it studies? Six steps for creating inclusivity and accessibility with ethnographic monographs
The ethnographic monograph is the primary medium for communicating anthropological research. However, its circulation has traditionally been confined to university environments. Professor Daniel Mille…
Panel: Digital Ethnography: Revisiting Theoretical Concepts & Methodological Approaches
Panel “Digital Ethnography: Revisiting Theoretical Concepts & Methodological Approaches” @ Vienna Anthropology Days 2020 (VANDA2020, Sept. 28 – Oct. 1), convened by Philipp Budk…
Citizen surveillance and social media during South Africa’s lockdown
Surveillance has become a common concern in public debates, but it is usually associated with the power of tech corporations to surveil people through algorithms. In the book…
Cues for Ethnography in Pandamning Times: Thinking with Digital Sociality in the Covid-19 Pandemic by Alder Keleman Saxena
Covid-19 has made the world strange. For many, efforts to stall the pandemic have initiated an unprecedented enclosure of our lives within the familiar walls of our homes,…
Digital and Online Ethnography – A Selection of Resources
Below you find a selection of resources on digital and online ethnography – with a slight focus on anthropological research – compiled by Philipp Budka. To add and…
Seminar: Digital Technologies as Material Culture 2020
In this MA seminar at the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Vienna, we explore digital media technologies from an anthropological/ethnographic perspective in the context o…
#Hashtag: “I AM one of the 1.4 Billion”
When I agreed to write this post in January, I could not have imagined that I would be doing so in quarantine. The state of the coronavirus continues…
Stars—They Talk Just Like Us!
How an Instagram-based gossip franchise allows celebrities to manage the authenticity of their public personae. They go to the market! They pump gas! They explore the park! One…
Gossip—A Thing Humans Do
Gossip and rumor are important informal modes of communication, influencing public opinion and individual actions. But, the distinction between information and falsehood can be difficult to see. Is…
Review: #Identity: Hashtagging Race, Gender, Sexuality, and Nation
#Identity: Hashtagging Race, Gender, Sexuality, and Nation by Abigail de Kosnik and Keith Feldman (eds) serves as an exciting reminder of the illuminating potential of academic inquiry. An edited…
Book: Theorising Media and Conflict
Budka, P., & Bräuchler, B. (Eds.). (2020). Theorising media and conflict. Anthropology of Media. New York & Oxford: Berghahn Books. Cover Theorising Media & Conflict Theorising Me…
Technologies of Representation: Possibilities of Social Media in Tarlabaşı, Istanbul
Image posted by Selahaddin Abi on Facebook “Every week somebody comes here to take photos of our laundry and put it up on the internet. Today, I took…
„Alt-Right” und neue Medien: Zur Normalisierung rechtspopulistischer Propaganda
Die „alternative” Rechte in den USA entstand aus der Distanzierung von den „traditionellen“ Neo-Konservativen. Ihren Aufstieg und ihre Normalisierung verdankt die „Alt-Right“ einem aggressiven Antife…
Part Two: Reciprocity and Its Discontents
Patricia G. Lange, California College of the Arts Mary Douglas, a key figure in the field of anthropology, once famously asserted that in small-scale societies, “the cycling…
Reclaiming Reciprocity in Video Sharing Environments
By Patricia Lange, California College of the Arts in San Francisco [In this new series, part of the Digital World category, we publish author commentaries on recently published…
The Future of Social Media in Anthropology
From the conclusion to my contribution on “Social Media” in Wiley’s “The International Encyclopedia of Anthropology:” Anthropologists are still coming to terms with social media and its impact…