Ethnographic Self-Study! My Media Usage over Two Days
I was pleasantly surprised after tracking my media usage for two days because if I had to guess, I'd have thought that I spent significantly more time staring at screens than I actually do. Granted, I didn't have a lot of homework during the two days that I tracked, which means that on an average weekday I would spend more time on my laptop working (and getting distracted by Buzzfeed articles and recipe blogs) than this ethnography shows.
Similarly, on days when I don't have social events
planned, I spend more time browsing the internet and watching a
hodgepodge of YouTube videos.
Looking at this data, I do have to confront the fact that I frequently use media to fill the silence in my life. The majority of the hours I spent on Netflix, Spotify, and Audible I was multitasking - using media as something to focus my attention on rather than spending that time thinking and reflecting. Instead of allowing myself to be fully present while cooking, getting ready in the morning, and driving, I fill that space with YouTube videos, Spotify, audiobooks, podcasts, and Netflix. I want to work on embracing silence as a valuable part of life; as I work on that, my media usage will decrease significantly.
I like the idea of my students conducting a similar self-study, especially if I am helping them learn about conducting research on other people. Having the experience of studying one's self is valuable, since it helps increase one's empathy for anyone being studied. Rather than seeing people who participate in ethnographic studies as test subjects to be studied coldly and from a distance, as has been the case with unintentional, oppressive research practices, ethnographic studies should be humane. This self-study could open up interesting discussions about how it felt to be the subject of a study, and how we can make ethnographic studies feel respectful, comfortable, and mutually beneficial to both the researcher and the researched.
I can see this exercise helping students see the potential of research as relevant and interesting, and as something that they feel motivated to share and analyze with their peers. There are endless opportunities for self-reflection and dialogue with their peers about both the research process and the data collected. In trying to help students draw upon their natural curiosity, a study like this would allow students to enter into conversation about the impact that technology has on their daily lives, the benefits and drawbacks, and to analyze their technology usage with a critical eye.
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