Living with Technology: The Friction, Disconnection and Joy of Digital Life

最近，我完成了对加州数字戒毒者社区的博士研究，这一奖学金将使我有机会最大限度地发挥这项原创且令人兴奋的研究的影响，并接触到尽可能广泛的学术和普通受众。在我的博士研究中，我对数字戒毒社区进行了民族志研究，在那里，我发现数字戒毒者在日常生活中确实与技术生活在一起，但他们对数字设备的态度和抱负有所改变。在变革性的新时代静修中，他们感受到一种“部落”社区归属感，并由此受到启发，将他们的幸福和回家后的“有意”生活方式放在首位。这是一项开创性的研究，挑战了数字技术“好”和“坏”愿景之间的大部分现有僵局。通过发表两篇新发表的论文，我将传播关键发现，这些发现与这些正在进行的关于数字危害和不使用的学术对话有关。此外，我很高兴能以书籍的形式出版我的民族志，并为普通读者撰写文章，讲述我在这个社区的故事，同时提供一个新的视角，让我们思考数字技术在当今社会中的作用。这一奖学金将使这项研究充分发挥其潜力，影响学术和非学术辩论。在奖学金期间，我将把数字创意人员和研究人员聚集在一个数字喜悦网络中，该网络将庆祝那些庆祝快乐、感动和联系的数字体验的创意人员和研究人员。这个数字喜悦网络实际上将由一系列采访或在身临其境的在线环境中主持的“炉边聊天”组成。通过利用我自己通过人种学发展起来的采访技能，以及我在牛津互联网研究所期间发展起来的组织能力，我将了解这些令人兴奋的数字创意人员和研究人员是如何对我们当前的时刻进行概念化的，以及正在出现哪些重要的新趋势。此外，这个网络将围绕这一主题产生一个社区，培养一个新想法、联系和机会的空间。与我的新出版物一起运营这个网络将有助于坚定地确立我作为这一令人兴奋的领域的关键声音的地位。我既是一名数字人类学家，也是一名在数字生活主题中工作的艺术家；因此，我对这个重要主题提出了一种独特的跨学科方法。作为一名艺术家，我创作了雕塑和丝网版画，探索技术在我们生活中的作用；正是这些实验产生了我的博士研究。有了这个联谊会，我将回归艺术，作为我思维过程中不可或缺的一部分。我将首先用陶瓷雕塑来探索数字设备对生活的物理体验。通过重新创造和重新想象废弃的技术部件，这些实验将玩弄怀旧和质感。在网上和展览中展示这些作品将允许与我的学术网络之外的观众进行丰富的思想交流，激发新的想法、机会和研究途径。在我攻读博士期间，我有幸受益于牛津大学的优秀培训课程，在这次奖学金期间，我将利用社会科学部门的“知识交流和影响”培训。这将帮助我确保我的原创研究成果在我的论文、书籍和艺术作品中产生最大的影响，并将给我宝贵的技能来推动我的职业生涯。我将在TORCH的研究人员发展和培训计划中接受进一步的培训，特别是他们的“公众参与研究”途径，在那里我很高兴通过播客、讲故事和为新闻机构撰写文章来培养公共传播技能。

Having recently completed my doctoral research into a community of digital detoxers in California, this fellowship will give me the opportunity to maximise the impact of this original and exciting research and reach the widest possible academic and general audience.For my doctoral research I undertook an ethnography of a digital detoxing community, where I found that digital detoxers do indeed live with technology in day-to-day life, but shift their attitudes and aspirations towards digital devices. At the transformative New Age retreat, they feel a sense of "tribal" community belonging, and are inspired by this to prioritise their happiness and "intentional" way of life back home.This is a groundbreaking piece of research which challenges much of the existing stalemate between "good" and "bad" visions of digital technology. By publishing two new published papers, I will disseminate key findings that speak to these ongoing academic conversations about digital harm and non-use. In addition, I am excited to publish my ethnography in book form and written for a general audience, telling the story of my time with this community while providing a new perspective on how we can think about the role of digital technology in society today. This fellowship will allow this research to reach its full potential, impacting both academic and non-academic debates.During the fellowship I will be bringing together digital creatives and researchers in a Digital Joy Network which will celebrate creatives and researchers who celebrate joyful, touching, and connecting digital experiences. This Digital Joy Network will practically consist of a series of interviews or "fireside chats" hosted within immersive online environments. By drawing on my own interviewing skills developed through my ethnography, and on my organising skills developed during my time at the Oxford Internet Institute, I will learn how these exciting digital creatives and researchers are conceptualising our current moment in time, and what important new trends are arising. In addition, this network will generate a community around this topic, fostering a space for new ideas, connections, and opportunities. Running this network alongside my new publications will serve to firmly establish myself as a key voice in this exciting area.I am both a digital anthropologist and artist working within the topic of digital life; as such I offer a uniquely interdisciplinary approach to this important topic. As an artist, I made sculptures and screen prints which explored the role of technology in our lives; and it was these experiments which generated my doctoral research. With this fellowship, I will return to art as an integral part of my thought process. I will first use ceramic sculpture to explore the physical experience of life with digital devices. By recreating and reimagining discarded pieces of technology, these experiments will play with nostalgia and texture. Exhibiting these pieces both online and in an exhibition will allow for a rich exchange of ideas with audiences outside of my academic network, sparking new ideas, opportunities, and avenues of research.I have been fortunate to benefit from excellent training courses across the University of Oxford during my doctoral studies, and during this fellowship I will make use of the Social Sciences Division's "Knowledge Exchange and Impact" training. This will help me ensure that I maximize the impact of my original research findings across my papers, book, and artworks, and will give me valuable skills to take forwards into my career. I will undertake further training in TORCH's Researcher Development and Training Programme, particularly their "Public Engagement with Research" pathway, where I am excited to build skills in public dissemination via podcasting, storytelling, and writing for journalistic outlets.