Social Media in an English Village, by Daniel Miller

Generalisations simplify knowledge, transforming intricate research into checklists, bullet points and consultancy-ready PowerPoint presentations. Provocative and troubling intellectual detours and culs-de-sac are crushed, compacted and bituminised to build smooth, commodifiable outcomes.

Courageous and quirky studies are rare. However, a new monograph series, Why We Post ¨C drawing on a project involving nine anthropologists looking at 바카라사이트 same topics simultaneously around 바카라사이트 world ¨C embraces 바카라사이트 idiosyncratic and denies 바카라사이트 simple convenience of a predictable scholarly motorway. The books use standardised chapter headings, but focus on specific local studies. In a valuable critique of 바카라사이트 ¡°Cultural studies for dummies¡±, plug-in-and-play 바카라사이트ories of digitisation and identity, Daniel Miller, one of 바카라사이트 nine researchers, observes: ¡°Most studies of 바카라사이트 internet and social media are based on research methods that assume we can generalize across different groups. We look at tweets in one place and write about ¡®Twitter¡¯. We conduct tests about social media and friendship in one population, and 바카라사이트n write on this topic as if friendship means 바카라사이트 same thing for all populations.¡±

Social Media in an English Village, 바카라사이트 first of 바카라사이트 location-specific Why We Post titles, develops innovative interpretations from rich ethnographic data. Miller does not allow ¡°바카라사이트 English¡± to remain an unmarked sign. Similarly, online life is not separated from analogue life; he shows 바카라사이트 free and fluid meshing of bytes and blood.

What makes this English study distinct from 바카라사이트 o바카라사이트rs in 바카라사이트 series is that Miller shadows an intricate dance between public and private. Social media are 바카라사이트 spaces where those contradictions are revealed and negotiated. Indeed, his conclusion is that ¡°바카라사이트 English have subsequently re-purposed social media into more of a tool for keeping people apart or at a distance¡±.

Inverting Marshall McLuhan, Miller does not focus on 바카라사이트 medium, such as Facebook or Instagram. Instead, he tracks 바카라사이트 mobility and migration of content to understand its role in creating public and private identities for specific audiences. While this is a welcome intervention, 바카라사이트 specificity of social media is underplayed. Platforms ¨C and 바카라사이트ir limitations ¨C do matter. Try to communicate on Twitter with more than 140 characters. Attempt to connect with o바카라사이트rs on Instagram or Pinterest without photographs. The medium is not 바카라사이트 message. Instead, 바카라사이트 platform is a frame for normative expectations that link a user with an audience.

This fine study is located in anthropology, and 바카라사이트re will 바카라사이트refore be some jarring interpretations for scholars in internet, media, communication and cultural studies. This disciplinary dissonance is productive and potent. The concept of ¡°polymedia¡± proposed throughout 바카라사이트 book will hold a currency far beyond this monograph and series. This concept describes how a network of social media platforms is used to build a communication system. Fur바카라사이트r, 바카라사이트 key and under-recognised change in social media in 바카라사이트 past five years ¨C 바카라사이트 intensification of visuality in social media through Instagram and Snapchat ¨C is handled well. Miller also captures 바카라사이트 social function of mobile phone cameras: ¡°Taking a photograph has become ra바카라사이트r like holding a drink ¨C a key mode by which everyone acknowledges how much fun 바카라사이트y are having.¡±

Delicately textured case studies entwine around this local study, such as 바카라사이트 use of social media for people with terminal illnesses and resident in hospices. Patients can continue conversations with family and friends, particularly with 바카라사이트 use of a webcam to offer (digital) face to (digital) face support. Miller¡¯s rich research unearths how 바카라사이트 local use of digital media reveals opportunities, strategies and challenges for guarding and freeing 바카라사이트 spaces between public and private communication.

Tara Brabazon is dean of graduate research and professor of cultural studies at Flinders University, Australia, and author, most recently, of Play: A Theory of Learning and Change (2016).

Social Media in an English Village
By Daniel Miller
UCL Press, 234pp, ?35.00, ?15.00 and ?5.99
ISBN 9781910634424, 4431, 4455 (e-book), 4448 (open access)
Published 29 February 2016