Internet for a student and how emails save parental relationships

Another material culture topic was particularly close to me, or rather to the form of this lab book. Digital practices - why, this blog is a digital practice itself! I believe it gives it more potential than a traditional, paper, lock-it-in-the-cupboard-and-never-look-back notebook since I can actually share its content and hope for a response (admittedly, it does take long to get any). 

Since many scholars nowadays are concerned with the social impacts of the Internet, especially (no surprise there) social media, it was interesting to talk to someone firmly convinced about the beneficial aspects of it. My informant, a 20-year-old, female history student from Poznań, uses the Internet quite a lot - in fact, when I tried to broke her daily schedule down, it turned out that there is only one period throughout the day when she is definitely not likely to use it - and that is between 2 AM and 9 AM. You guessed it - she goes to sleep then.

So, why does she enjoy exploiting her mobile phone/laptop so much? Read on and find out.

My friend - for the sake of the blog, let us call her Anna as she did not want even her first name mentioned - lives in a single room flat in Poznań, a relatively big city in Western Poland. Below you will find the plan of the flat, areas of digital activity annoted - red for studying, green for leisure (note the bed is marked in both).

Fig. 1 Plan of Anna's flat, rooms annoted on the right

if it seems unclear:

1 - hall

2 - toilet

3 - bedroom

4 - bathroom

5 - kitchen

Looking at my informant’s daily timetable, one is struck by how often she uses digital technology, both for leisure (socialising, playing music, cooking – which she enjoys) and work (studying). She claims she could not imagine her life without Internet, preferably available both on her laptop and on her mobile phone.

Time	Activity	Digital usage	What kind of digital activities?
9-11 AM	morning activities	YES	playing music on spotify as she prepares for the day
11-4 PM	university	YES	taking notes, checking information
4-5:30 PM	dinner	YES	playing music, finding recipes
5:30-8 PM	socialising	YES	social media/email
8-2 AM	studying/reading/going out	YES*	checking information if studying
2-9 AM	sleep	NO

She tends to use the facebook to contact her friends and stresses how important this form of communication is to her. A couple years ago she used to have rather severe social anxiety – although she has a fine social circle now, she still has to combat it sometimes. She explains that internet communication is somewhat less strenous as people are not as likely to be outwardly unkind or impolite as they are in real life – a notion somewhat similar to what Daniel Miller observed in Trinidad (Miller 2008). It does not draw her away from her family, friends or the student community – in fact, she feels more integrated with these, since her online and real-life relations are closely intertwined. It is important as a failure to recognize such a possibility often causes anxiety pertaining to digitalised social relations, as if they were replacing real-life ones, rather than complementing them (Rainie, Wellman 2012).

However she prefers email as a medium of communication as far as her parents are concerned. She typically writes them long ones, sometimes even a couple times a week as they share a very close bond. It is interesting as both her parents use facebook, furthermore they call each other every now and then. However she says that an email requires her to actually have something to say and put some thought into phrasing it, which is why she prefers to use this form of communication. Sometimes she also exchanges similarly long emails with her close friends.

She has also noted that the email contact has actually helped her strengthen the bond with her parents – she says she is less likely to vent her frustrations or get irritated as this type of communication does not require an immediate response.

It is interesting as many scholars tends to argue that the constant presence of the digital media of communication weakens the interpresonal bonds, limiting the amount of face-to-face communication, which is perceived as the only mean capable of fostering a bond of trust (Putnam 2000). While it is true that such a deep connection is already established in this case, email contact is helping preserve and develop (rather than curb) it.

As using the Internet for studying seems less controversial, she did not have much to say about it, although admitted to having hard time if for some reason she could not access the Internet and still had to do her coursework. She usually would visit a friend with wifi access or go find an Internet cafe nearby in such a situation.

All in all, Internet seems to play an exceedingly important role in my informant’s life. Would you say it is a good thing? And if not, why? After all, she is not withdrawing from reality – Internet is not a medium of escapism for her, if anything, these would be books as she reads quite a lot. And yet no one condemns her for that. Why are we inclined to judge people who `escape‘ into the virtual world as irresponsible, while immersing oneself in a book is a sign of intelligence? And do you think digital contact can actually strengthen social bonds, rather than alientaing an individual? Please, share your thoughts!

Bibliography:

Miller, D. 2010. An Extreme Reading of Facebook. Available at: http://openanthcoop.net/press/http:/openanthcoop.net/press/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/Miller-An-Extreme-Reading-of-Facebook.pdf [accessed 18.03.2015].

Putnam, R. D. 2000. Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community. New York: Simon & Schuster. 

Rainie, L., Wellman, B. 2012. Networked. The New Social Operating System. Cambridge, Mass, London: MIT Press.