Digital Young

Another resource for me is this site. Ok, you will probably think that if we talk about Berkeley University, it can get complicated. Actually, it has micro-researches about uses of digital technologies in youth culture in a very accessible manner. Online subcultures, self expression, informal learning and game culture or family, community and Youtube are just a few themes of these micro-researches. Here, you can find out about teens and their different use of the same media (ex: MySpace) and also, little debates and theories tested and confronted with the field.

Ethnographic knowledge is the key word and it is showed in a easy and accessible, but not without depth, manner.

I read regularly Mimi Ito’s blog. She is an extraordinary cultural anthropologist. She’s Japanese and she researched for a long time digital practices in youth culture. I first met her work four years ago, when started to research SMS practices and I was looking for people with similar interests. I was glad to see that this subject was really taken very serious into consideration and also very seriously researched, because in my country this subject is not considered to be worth to be researched, due its apparent futility. I only not find the confirmation for my madness, but I also got scientific help in order to see how similar subjects were treated in anthropology.

Her blog is a very helpful resource, she also has a lot of documents in pdf with her articles, for which I think she is a great person because, unlike an intellectual, she really wants to popularize her ideas and to give the possibility for scholars to read what she wrote, without being constrained to buy the articles.

Her interest are the new media uses; you will really find some intros or more deep perspectives of anime uses, Purikura uses, camera phones uses etc. Just click on publications category and you can read there about what interests you.

Ruby is an interesting person with an interesting blog. She “spots” in a particular way youngsters in UK, I suppose London to be more precise, and her way of doing things inspired me to start my blog. Her blog also helped me to see how to narrow knowledge, meaning that from all the things that I know, how to spot those that could meet public interest and also how to trigger people from all around the world.

I truly think that people like Ruby have a perception of things that can and is useful in certain domains and fields; better understanding a subculture or a specific culture can be an insightful perspective for people and fields of activity that work with perspectives and ways of seeing things.

Anyway, I really recommend you to read her blog. If you see something that I did not, maybe we will talk more about it.