One of the last few comments Nakamura made near the end of her Introduction revolved around the explosion in racial and ethnic idently content on the Web: African-Americans, Latinos, and Asian Americans are the fast growing groups of Web users,..."(pg 34). She really expands on this thought on page 180, stating, "The most important development in terms of Internet users between 2000 and 2005 is the radical increase in the number of women and ethnic and racial minorities online." Although surveys of Internet use had a tendency not to focus on race, the opposite is beginning to take place. In the past, the Internet was seen primarily as being dominated by white males, however we are beginning to see a shift in numbers. What I found most interesting about the numbers wasn't that African Americans, Asian Americans and Hispanics were using the Internet more (as in parity to whites) but rather the content for which they were using the Internet. Nakamura focuses on the Pew Foundation's Internet usage report. In this report Internet usage is broken down into categories: "Fun", "Information Seeking", "Major Life Activities", and "Transactions". Of these categories, the Pew report found that majority of racial minorities spent their time doing things that fell under the "Fun" category as opposed to whites. It was implied that whites perhaps spend their time more on things like checking the weather or doing some online investing etc. However, Nakamura is quick to point out that it's rather unfair to assume what racial minorities are doing on the Web is less important than whites. Who decides what qualifies as "fun", "information seeking" or a "major life activity"?
It just so happens that as I sat down to write this blog last night, an episode of South Park came on Comedy Central. It was a re-run but ironically the very episode that had come to mind when I read Chapter 5. Here Comes The Neighborhood: http://www.southparkstudios.com/episodes/103583
I really only want you to watch the first minute, in which Token (the only black kid in South Park) does his class project using his laptop and dad's video projector. It just seemed like a funny coincidence that I should be reading about racial minorities and the Internet and see this South Park episode...
But I digress, this isn't about South Park but how Nakamura has made careful note of Internet (and computer) usage by minorities (including women) over the last decade and that the digital divide isn't just about the have's and have not's but about perception of what digitally divides us when we use the Internet. What is the content? How do different ethnic groups compare to each other? Why is it that what whites are doing is ranked with more genuine importance than racial minorities?
I sincerely agree with the latter part of your blog post. You mention, "but about perception of what digitally divides us when we use the Internet."
ReplyDeletePerfectly spoken...
The perception of many things can be skewed when we evaluate them through media and statistics (which Nakamura heavily uses in her arugments). The media can spin things to make an arugment look a certain way when it may only be the tip of the iceburg. Statistics do the same thing which you point out by saying "perception" and "what digitally divides us". When statistical analysis's are taken only in certain demographics it skews things. While it seems likely that Nakamura utilizes "ethical" statistical analysis's, the statistical analysis's themselves may not actually reperesent the facts. Thereby only giving us a "perception" of what is really going on in the world.
You also mount this arugment brilliantly when you ask, "Why is it that what whites are doing is ranked with more genuine importance than racial minorities?"
I feel that the reason that whites are being put as the benchmark in Nakamura's analysis has to do with the fact that whites are the predominate race within the United States. But as I've stated in my own blog regarding this similar notion....Why doesn't Nakamura address the actual ethnicities and differences within the "white race"?