Presentation of Jeroen de Vos, Media Anthropologist at the MIT conference Public Media / Private Media. 3rd / 5th may of 2013 in Boston, Massachusetts.

1. How would you like to keep in touch with me? OK, this might be
a little weird question to start a lecture with, but still. We can
come together, I can give you a call, we can take part in a
Facebook groupchat. We can pin each others pictures on
pinterest, connect on Linkedin, I can make a drawing you receive
on your smartphone and you can guess what it is to earn points.
There are more and more ways to keep in touch. We can be as
connected as we want to be, involve as much as we want and
receive as much information we can possibly handle. We can be
twenty four seven on, we can be always connected.

2. Jeroen de Vos
This is what fascinated me to do a research. Let me introduce
myself: my name is Jeroen de Vos

3. Media Anthropologist
and I am an media anthropologist. As an anthropologist, I
submerge into a this group of people to become one of them, to
speak their language, know their knowledge, and understand the
meaning they give to the things that are important to them. From
this point of view I give a description from within.

4. [p]Office
This methodology is typical for anthropological research. This
type of research is really bottom-up. With a theoretical
framework in mind, I become part of a group of people. And
from the observations I make, hypotheses come up, which I
constantly like to verify and rectify with new observations. This
way I gain in-depth insights that would otherwise have not come
to mind.

5. So, I did my research through the Utrecht University, whose
University Fund made it financially possible for me to be here.

6. Family | Friend | Neighbour | Stranger | Lover
And for this research I submerged into a group of techsavvy
young adolescents, to see what role these communication
technologies have. in the way these young and techsavvy people
structure their social surroundings, the way they organize their
social relationships.

7. The people I researched were working together in an organization
called SETUP. SETUP is a so-called media laboratory, a
platform for the innovation and the creation regarding digital
media. They organize multiple public events a month, which are
very different in form and content.

8. [p]Media Critical lecturer
For instance, they had a 'finish-your-website weekend'

9. they tested sleep applications in a bed-store,

10. Media Anthropologist
and walked around with a life size carton Facebook wall on a
festival.

11. For three months I took part in the work flow to become a fellow
SETUP-er. And during these three months I basically was where
other SETUP-ers would be. I joined them here, in the office,
sitting at the big table. And this was an excellent position to do
my observations, and join the ongoing conversations.

12. Talk the Talk
But therefore I had to talk the talk, which was not that easy. They
were using English words like :datascraping, and retweeting, and
they were making jokes about the awkward cricket and the like-
machine and other words I did not know.
So, I wrote down the words I did not know and asked for there
meaning or looked after an explanation online, for I figured the
meaning could be found there.

13. [p]Notebook: Talk
I found out most words were references to popular movies,

14. [p]Notebook: Talk
Games,

15. Social Media,

16. [p]Office
Series

17. And memes....

18. 'Digital Culture'
And I would like to summarize these categories to the
comprehensive concept of digital culture.

19. Joke the Joke
Next to the fact that I could not only not join the ongoing
conversations, nor did I get most of the jokes that were being
made. And I can still remember the day I dared to make my first
joke. The joke went like this:

20. “ Hans told the initials of his names were two C's.

21. “is that supposed to stand for Creative Commence?”. Hans
replied with a “yes” to which Lara asked “not really right?”
And a bunch of people were laughing, apparently this was a
reference to digital culture everyone was familiar with.

22. Hey, we understand each other
By laughing together you say 'hey, were on one line', 'we get
each other', 'we thing the same way and know the same things'.
Laughing together affirms ones social identity, I am a SETUP-er
too! But to be able to do so you had to know the symbolic
knowledge, the digital culture, everyone seem to know about,
talk about, joke about and have their own opinion about.

23. Knowledge of Communication Technology
Surprisingly in my research of communication technology it
seemed to be of strong symbolic importance. If you do not know
about whatsapp, Facebook and Skype, if you do not know about
the socially awkward penguin, or at least know what it stands for,
you simply bite the bullet in conversations and jokes. And
therefor the knowledge of digital culture in general and
communication technology as a part of it is typical for inclusion,
it is this knowledge that connects and divides.

24. Next to the symbolic importance of communication technology
to the SETUP group, I was interested in the role these
communication technologies have on an individual level, in the
way they organize their social surroundings.

25. Privacy
This has got more to do with privacy. Because this is one of the
key terms of this conference, I first have to explain my use of the
word privacy.

26. By privacy I do not mean the right to be left alone, nor I mean the
control of social information or the right to intellectual property.

27. Privacy to me is a social process, a mutual process in which
people are shaping their social relationships. A process in which
people are defining and redefining social boundaries between us
and them, family or friend, acquaintance or lover. It is the
process of inter-personal boundary regulation.

28. Online Offline
For SETUP-ers, this privacy process is not limited to the offline
environment. Instead, it is giving shape beyond the borders of
online and offline.

29. “We the Web Kids”
By
Piotr Czerski
This is illustrated by a manifesto that was shared by some
SETUP-ers, I would like to read a little part to you:
[called we the web kids, a manifesto of Piotr Czerski]
We grew up with the Internet and on the Internet. This is what
makes us different; this is what makes the crucial, although
surprising […] difference: we do not ‘surf’ and the internet to us
is not a ‘place’ or ‘virtual space’. The Internet to us is not
something external to reality but a part of it: an invisible yet
constantly present layer intertwined with the physical
environment. We do not use the Internet, we live on the Internet
and along it.

30. Offline ~ Online
They shared this manifesto because in they found a lot of
recognition on the role of internet in their lives: the internet is not
external to their lives. Instead, their online en offline seems to be
completely intertwined in daily life.
This also follows the many observations I made. The way they
behave online, the people they meet online and the way they like
to organize their social context online is more like an extension
of the their offline performance.

31. [Dongwei]
For instance: Dongwei, the guy you see everywhere has more
than 600 Facebook friends,

32. or Lara, who is kind of jumpy uses a lot of exclamation marks.

33. Tom
But the best example to show this consistency is the way Tom,
organizes his social surroundings.

34. New Media | Highschool | Study
He said to me in a conversation:
I try to make a firm distinction between friends. I have got friends
I know from new media, friends I know from High school, and
friends I know from my study. But when I post an statusupdate on
Facebook with a new media subject, I am afraid that other 'not
new media friends' will react inappropriately.

35. | New Media Highschool Study |
For Tom a tension is to be found as a consequence of different
social contexts collapsing into one online, for instance 'Facebook
friend' or 'Twitter follower'.

36. New Media | Highschool | Study
He admitted that he strictly separates these different social
contexts online. Whether in different groups on Facebook for
instance, of just different media for different groups.

37. Twitter = New Media Friends
Recently my father reacted on one of my tweets on twitter. I did
not react, for I preferred he had sent me an email.
He used to use twitter only for his new media friends, until his
father joined the conversation, which forced him to redefine these
social groups.

38. ?
So what is happening here in the bigger picture?

39. The process of giving shape to their social surroundings is not
limited to offline environments, instead, the the privacy process
is taking shape over the boundaries between online and offline.
Communication technologies are hereby new tools they have at
hand extend the reach of their privacy regulation.

40. This same smartphone, for instance, that gives them the
opportunities to be connected and stay connected on so many
levels. But at the same time it is a tool in which they use to
organize, connect and disconnect the way they.

41. To say, I don't mind my mom to be a friend on Facebook, but I
do not want to take part in this Whatsapp conversation. To say, I
am only using Skype for video conversation with intimate
people, or I do not what to be called after 8 pm.

42. So it is not about the ever extending scope of possibilities to
communicate, it is about the way they relate to these possibilities.
The process of connecting and disconnecting, including and
excluding and shaping and reshaping their social environment
will be ever more important the a culture where they can be
always connected.
I like to return the call to you with the question:
How would you like to keep in touch with me?

43. Jeroen de Vos
LINKEDIN www.jeroendevos.nl/linkedin
WEBSITE www.jeroendevos.nl
EMAIL mail@jeroendevos.nl
PHONE +316-245 428 07
SKYPE j.m.devos
AMSTERDAM – THE NETHERLANDS