ANT 3235 Anthropology of the Internet

Contemporary engagement with Internet technologies has become so pervasive that anthropologist Tom Boellstorff claims, “the offline is increasingly experienced as the temporarily not online.” This does not only include mundane, daily interaction: we live life’s extremes in these spaces as well. On one hand, almost 40% of American romantic relationships now begin online. On the other, some Internet spaces are characterized by toxic, aggressive forms of communication that can make them disturbing, even dangerous. We live so much of our lives online that we take its existence and its place in our daily experiences—both profound and quotidian—for granted. Eschewing that tendency, this course asks the following questions: What is “the Internet”? What do people do in the Internet? Who/what lies behind/ beneath/within it? How do we do anthropology in/about the Internet? (Also, what’s anthropology?) Through course readings, critical discussion, quizzes, and presentations, we will explore how Internet technologies are changing our lives and how anthropology is currently addressing these changes.

Credits

4 sh

Course Types

Society, Advanced Studies

Offered

• Spring

Notes

 

1. By the end of this course, students will be able to:
   -Discuss major recent developments in sociocultural anthropological theory, particularly how they influence (and are influenced by) the pervasiveness of digital mediation.
2. -Demonstrate the ability to critically organize both primary and secondary sources to present original theoretical engagement with a contemporary issue.
3. -Articulate relationships between the Internet, cultural institutions, and global economic forces.
4. -Critically interrogate their own media use and communication behaviors.