Martey And Shiflett Virtual Ethnography

I mean- my brother makes his living off of creating clothes for the avatars of people who delve deep into this alter-reality What could be so terrible about a person’s real life that the need to escape into a virtual one is so strong? Truthfully, it wasn’t until I really reflected on my own usage of my computer and iPhone that I realized I’m just as much of an escape artist as the daily Second Life user. Just yesterday, I was tired and cranky as I sat in my English Seminar on the American Frontier. I was annoyed by the content of the course and faraway in my thoughts of the hundreds of other things I could have been doing instead of sitting in that swirly black chair for the next hour and fifteen minutes. What did I do to ease my troubled, distracted mind? I quickly popped open my Nook account and took to reading a book that was due for an upcoming class. Of course, I still threw in my opinion to the class discussion every few minutes; we are the age of the multi-tasker, after all. My point is, as long as people continue to fall victim to a dependency on technology, we are all in some way escaping our reality, even if only for a few seconds.

James P. Spradley (1979) described the insider approach to understanding culture as "a quiet revolution" among the social sciences (p. iii). Cultural anthropologists, however, have long emphasized the importance of the ethnographic method, an approach to understanding a different culture through participation, observation, the use of key informants, and interviews. Cultural anthropologists have employed the ethnographic method in an attempt to surmount several formidable cultural questions: How can one understand another's culture? How can culture be qualitatively and quantitatively assessed? What aspects of a culture make it unique and which connect it to other cultures? If

Synthetic, pretend, mock, fake, these are all synonyms to the word virtual. “Ready Player One” by Ernest Cline shows the positives and negatives to living entirely in a virtual world. Although there are favorable aspects to developing and nurturing online friendships or even relationships there are fallible aspects as well that seem to outnumber what may appear harmless at first. In this book we are shown 3 different sets of online relationships, that of best friends, a couple and “brothers”. Aech and Wade are the first real relationship shown in this book and they model best friends. These two have been best friends for the past 4 years and have spent countless hours together playing video games, watching movies and just talking. Because

As we begin to go on an excursion through literature, it is important to understand the concept of what an ethnography is. Ethnography is known to be a descriptive type of work that analyzes culture and customs of individual people. James Clifford has implemented this work into his studies and has influenced many others to do the same. I saw through the books I have read, ethnography makes these books become vivacious for a reader.

Ethnographic methodology provides rich and complex data (Brownlow, 2012). In the ethnographic approach a researcher joined the studied group in their natural environment, stayed as a part

It is first important to define what ethnography is because it is a prominent method that social scientists use in their research (Roy, lecture 4). Professor Roy defines ethnography as looking at culture – a methodological skill of observation in a natural setting. Chambliss was able to do this with his qualitative research at Hanibal. Qualitative research, compared to quantitative, is often characterized by a depth of information from a limited number of cases (Ragin & Amoroso 28). This type of study relies on the human component of interaction in the real world. Chambliss actively engaged with

I live in a country where I can meet people from all cultures and walks of life on a daily basis, yet still I have felt like a stranger in this “melting pot”. In the United States, the idea of diversity is a term I have heard many times when speaking of ways to heal the past of slavery and segregation, but I think that in the current political climate, diversity is seen as an enemy to the American way of life. I am an outsider in the country I call home, and my cultural background has impacted the way I see the world.

Participant observation is a method of collecting information and data about a culture and is carried out by the researcher immersing themselves in the culture they observing. The researcher becomes known in the community, getting to know and understand the culture in a more intimate and detailed way than would be possible from any other approach. This is done by observing and participating in the community’s daily activities. The method is so effective because the researcher is able to directly approach the people in the community in a natural context as opposed to taking the participant out of their environment. The aim of participant observation is to gain an understanding the subject’s life from their perspective, with the purpose of

On the playground, I met who will soon to be my first best friend, shortly after I had my first kiss. Kissing a girl, I felt so scared of what it meant that I knew I had to make myself the way I believed was right. I thought the best way was denying and eliminating all feelings that I had of the opposite sex because I never saw two of the same sex could be together. Little did I know my mom is gay but, she was too afraid to talk about it at the time so, it led me to struggle with my sexuality growing up. I developed strong feelings for my best friend and I believed that I just loved her because she was my best friend. I quickly learned that I loved her in a stronger way and still not knowing how to deal with my feelings, I started to hate my

According to Polit and Beck (2017), ethnography studies "involve the description and interpretation of cultural behavior, and seek to understand their world view" (p. 468). The strengths of ethnographic

The examples indicate the state that the virtual world became possible to do economy activities which is the core of real world and to satisfy the psychological needs that could not be fulfilled in the real world. She states this is creating a new state of self in virtual life. Second, virtual life makes people lose their personal time. The author suggests a question to consider, “Are we leaving enough time to take our time on the things that matter?” (507).

Hayles applies the idea of co-existence in literature. She argue that the emergence of code will not destroy speech or writing, just like how writing has not destroyed speech. She claims that the emergence of new forms is a natural progression of literature: from speech to writing to code. Moreover, Hayles claims that digital media associates with the older forms of media through cultural practice. Her whole argument on the new emerged form of matter not destroying the older ones shows that Hayles regards co-existence as important. Lastly, Hayles also emphasizes the importance of virtuality because many American who have access to the Internet increasingly engage in “virtual experiences, enacting a division between the material body that exist on one side of the screen and the computer simulacra that seem to create a space inside the screen.” She implies that the increasing number of people who are engaged in virtual experiences leads to the blurred line between the online world and the offline world. This is because although they engage in virtual experiences through the Internet, these people also interact with people offline. Therefore, according to Hayles’ view, the online and the offline worlds

There are multiple characteristics of ethnographic approach. This research is considered to be more of a descriptive type research approach, that is intended for “in-depth research and descriptions of ethnic groups, cultures, large organizations, and their features” (Percy, Kostere, & Kostere, 2015, p. 16). This type of research immerses its selves in the organization or culture they are reviewing, and becoming a part of the culture, so that we can learn about it from the inside out. Therefore, this methodology often involves longer time frame for information collection, and consists of researchers returning a number of times to the location where the research is to acquire more information. Some “doctoral learners tend to avoid ethnographic studies, because of the typical long time-commitments, however, it can be a fruitful approach, even in shorter periods, for understanding the customs, culture, belief systems, and implicit rules of organizations and large groups” (Percy, Kostere, & Kostere, 2015, p. 15)

While this study may have not taken the ethnographic approach, which is more appropriate in such a situation, it is prudent to note that the qualitative – quantitative – qualitative sequence in analysis may have given it the near accurate results that is desired in the end. As such, it is great to note that the interviewer used more analyses than one in achieving the output of a more synthesized result. The barriers to using ethnography in this case are more related with the nature of the variable under study than any other factor. For instance, while studying poverty, it would be more difficult to have a researcher position themselves in a society well enough to experience the poverty. In light of this, it should be noted that the approach taken was the best since it positioned the researchers at a point where they could have the best data (Fink, 2000).

Ethnographic research implies that researcher is obtaining the data by observing researched people in their common environment and with common circumstances (Silverman, 2010). It has been discovered that this style of research requires trustful relationships between researcher and the researched, especially when the ethnography is made in the closed settings and access to researcher is granted from the head. In analyzed study permission was acquired exactly in this way, and Russell described a large number of problems related to establishment of trust and balancing between two sides: teachers and students. Cassell and Symon (2004) argue that gathering information in case of no trust in ethnographic research might be difficult. To prove that they provide an example of Westley (1970) study. In this research the author experienced a large number of obstacles, such as unwillingness to give an interview during his fieldwork in police organization in USA.