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Virtual Ethnography

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Technology is rapidly evolving at a fast pace in the 21st century and this has a strong influence in the formation of people’s personalities and characteristics. Escobar et al refers to this as “a rite of passage between industrial and post organic societies” (Escobar et al, 1994: 216). For some there is representation for new opportunities for the lines of communication between people and technology (Escobar, 1995: 412). Along with their interactions and relationships with others. In addition to this, the inverse is considered in this essay. Pfaffenberger states that technology in an anthropological context should be viewed as a system of “social behaviours and techniques”, not just tools only (Pfaffenberger, 1988: 241). This essay will discuss …show more content…

This means that the practices of traditional anthropological ethnography are significantly conveyed to the Internet (Bosch, 2009: 188). An illustration of this is with my own personal ethnography, which has components of traditional and virtual ethnography. Traditional in the sense that I had to perform physical observations of people interacting with each other, using all my senses in various public spaces around Cape Town, through participant observation. Virtual ethnography took place when the individuals I observed used their cell phones to access the Internet for services such as the Jammie Schedule timetable and Uber, to be able to access various transport services. Participants who I chose were friends and randomly selected strangers. I did this because I wanted to see what relationship my friends had with technology outside of the usual spaces we occupied and to see whether strangers shared the same experience with technology, along with the interactions between my friends and the strangers I …show more content…

What is interesting to note, is that with the other ethnographers whose literature I have used and is based on the perimeters of Cape Town. None of them have discussed how ICTs and transportation work together in an anthropological context. Nor do they consider that it is certain individuals within social classes that have access to these services, while others are excluded and some must go beyond their financial means to be able to attain

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