[Air-L] [ciresearchers] Facebook take on Digital Inequalities seems way too deterministic... surprised?

[David Nemer]

Hi Heather, since I'm still collecting ethnographic data, I haven't
published anything on Facebook and the marginalized specifically.

I have submitted 2 papers to different conferences that touch a little bit
on that... one of the papers I will present at IR14.0. Will you be there?

Alejandro Tortolini, maybe the UN is considering things as a human rights
in a faster manner, because now they might have broadband internet... as
Mr. Z said... fast internet makes everyone's life better. :-)


On Wed, Aug 21, 2013 at 11:08 PM, Heather Gray <h.gray at griffith.edu.au>wrote:

> I hear you and concur! My researching is higher education in Myanmar, but
> am yet to look at Facebook use for education there, although I have been
> analysing it in the courses I teach in Australia, with some interesting
> insights, but again not looking outside the education field. David, have
> you published anything on this yet?
>
> Heather
>
>
> On Thu, Aug 22, 2013 at 2:51 AM, David Nemer <dnemer at indiana.edu> wrote:
>
>> Dear all,
>>
>> Last night Mr. Z released a report called "Is Connectivity A Human
>> Right?" with an attempt to come up with a plan to provide internet access
>> to all of us.
>>
>> The title of the report gave me some hope on the content of his plan, but
>> after reading it, I was, again, frustrated but not surprised. He is mostly
>> concerned in spending money to improve the internet infrastructure and
>> defray the costs with data plans, arguing that the internet is the
>> "foundation of the global knowledge economy."
>>
>> I do see the value in investing money on internet infrastructure, since
>> it is a big factor that keeps the digital inequalities so evident, but as
>> we all know, it is just another factor... what about digital literacy and
>> situated education?
>>
>> As I'm doing fieldwork in the slums (favelas) of Brazil, I finally see
>> how Facebook became THE THING over here... and everywhere. People don't
>> care about the "internet", web, emails... they only want to get on
>> Facebook. It became very interesting when I started analyzing their
>> behavior on the social networking site. It is mostly chatting, sharing and
>> liking. The chat is in a horizontal way (they are chatting with people who
>> belong to the same social class /  community), but the stuff they share and
>> like are completely vertical, the stuff come in English and/or from higher
>> (and more educated) social classes and/or ads and pages suggested by
>> Facebook. I have several informants who are illiterate and spend all their
>> afternoons in the Telecentros and LAN Houses sharing and liking these
>> things that they don't really understand.
>>
>> (Naive mode on) I honestly still don't know why Facebook wants to have
>> everyone on the Intenet (mode off). My hunch is that they could (want to)
>> turn those in social and economic disadvantages into mechanical turks and
>> content consumers...
>>
>> Facebook does collaborate with local cellphone carriers... in Brazil Oi
>> and Claro customers don't pay to get on the SNS on their mobile phones. So
>> why don't Facebook start collaborating with local programs to develop
>> digital literacy and critical thinking among the people that "can't buy
>> data plans"?
>>
>> Anyways, I don't want to sound repetitive because people in AoIR and
>> Community Informatics lists are well aware of such deterministic approaches
>> and how they are not effective... but I'd like to invite everyone to think
>> of ways to bring different views into places that can make a difference
>> like Facebook
>>
>> Here's the link of the report:
>> https://www.facebook.com/isconnectivityahumanright/isconnectivityahumanright.pdf
>>
>> --
>> *David Nemer*
>> PhD Candidate in Social Informatics
>> School of Informatics and Computing, Indiana University
>> Editor of the Social Informatics Blog - http://socialinformaticsblog.com
>> http://www.dnemer.com dnemer at indiana.edu
>>
>
>
>
> --
> ......................................................*
> Dr Heather Gray
> Convenor & Lecturer
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-- 
*David Nemer*
PhD Candidate in Social Informatics
School of Informatics and Computing, Indiana University
Editor of the Social Informatics Blog - http://socialinformaticsblog.com
http://www.dnemer.com dnemer at indiana.edu