Communication Colloquium Series: Echolocating the Self: a Theory of Sociality in the Digital Age
Monday, March 19, 2018 1:30pm to 2:45pm
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Cornell University Mann Library, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA
https://communication.cals.cornell.edu/news-events
In this talk, Professor Annette Markham addresses the idea that in an era of constant connectivity and the perception of ‘always available’ internet, mapping the body and the self occurs through a process of echolocation, as we receive feedback from continual pings within social networks of information flow. Echolocation has mostly been associated with the way bats or sharks navigate. But it is a useful term to reframe how we perform and experience identity in the digital age. Markham has spent twenty years studying digital culture from an ethnographic and symbolic interactionist perspective. She is most well-known for her innovative methods and her work on the ethics for studying the internet. In this talk, she returns to her symbolic interactionist roots to introduce a new framework to help explain why disconnecting is so difficult for people, especially youth, who have grown up with constant connectivity.
It is well understood by now that disrupting the flow of social affirmation can create what in psychological terms we might label anxiety and cognitive dissonance. The fear of disconnection is sometimes simplified as a ‘fear of missing out’ (FOMO), but the vulnerability is often felt at a deeper level. In this talk, Markham argues that being disconnected doesn’t just cut off communication from others, it puts the body in doubt, because there are no Others with whom one is bouncing off continual information pings. Of course, one retains physical self/other interactions, but the core ontological delineation of Self is predicated on a continual differentiation through the continual call and response of echolocation.
Annette Markham is Professor MSO of Information Studies and Digital Design at Aarhus University and Affiliate Professor of Digital Ethics at Loyola University, Chicago. She earned a PhD in communication studies from Purdue University in 1997. More information at www.annettemarkham.com
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