One particularly amusing example of this type of acceptance is especially apparent from a certain style of meme that overwhelmed Facebook in October of 2014. These “Rana René” (Kermit the Frog, in English) memes expressed a sense of abandoned aspirations. In these memes, the frog expresses desire for something—a better physique, nicer material goods, a better family- or love-life—but concludes that it is unlikely to happen, and that “se me pasa,” “I get over it.”
As many entries in the blog affirm, local cultural aspects are often reflected or made even more visual on social media. As I have written before of my fieldsite, there is a certain normativity that pervades social life. Material goods such as homes, clothing, electronics, and even food all fall within an “acceptable” range of normality. No one is trying to keep up with Joneses, because there’s no need. Instead the Joneses and the Smiths and the Rodriguezes and the Correas all outwardly exhibit pretty much the same level of consumerism. Work and salary similarly fall within a circumscribed set of opportunities, and because there is little market for advanced degrees, technical education or a 2 year post-secondary degree is usually the highest one will achieve academically. This acceptance of normativity is apparent on social media as well. One particularly amusing example of this type of acceptance is especially apparent from a certain style of meme that overwhelmed Facebook in October of 2014. These “Rana René” (Kermit the Frog, in English) memes expressed a sense of abandoned aspirations. In these memes, the frog expresses desire for something—a better physique, nicer material goods, a better family- or love-life—but concludes that it is unlikely to happen, and that “se me pasa,” “I get over it.” Similarly, during June and July of 2014 a common form of meme contrasted the expected with reality. The example below demonstrates the “expected” man at the beach—one who looks like a model, with a fit body, tan skin, and picturesque background. The “reality” shows a man who is out of shape, lighter skinned, and on a beach populated by other people and structures. It does not portray the sort of serene, dreamlike setting of the “expected.” In others, the “expected” would portray equally “ideal” settings, people, clothing, parties, architecture, or romantic situations. The reality would always humorously demonstrate something more mundane, or even disastrous. These memes became so ubiquitous that they were even used as inspiration for advertising, as for the dessert brand below. For me, these correspondences between social media and social life reinforce the assertion by the Global Social Media Impact Study that this type of research must combine online work with grounded ethnography in the fieldsite. These posts could have caught my eye had I never set foot in northern Chile, but knowing what I know about what the place and people look like, how they act, and what the desires and aspirations are for individuals, I understand the importance of these posts as expressing the normativity that is so important to the social fabric of the community.
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this fieldnote has also been posted on the WHY WE POST blog at University College London As I begin to write my book about social media in Northern Chile, it’s great to see little insights emerge. One of the first of these insights is that interaction is essential to the ways people in my fieldsite use social networking sites. Facebook and Twitter are the most widely used, with 95% of people using Facebook (82% daily), and 77% using Whatsapp with frequency. But with other sites or applications, use falls off drastically. The next two most popular forms of social media are Twitter and Instagram which are used by 30% and 22% of those surveyed respectively.
So what makes Facebook so popular but not Twitter? My first reaction was that Twitter doesn’t have the visual component that Facebook does. This was partially based on the fact that many of my informants told me that they find Twitter boring. Yet Instagram is even less well-used than Twitter. And as I began looking more closely at the specific ways people use Facebook and Twitter, I began to see why they feel this way. read the rest of this entry on the WHY WE POST blog I am something of a suspicious character in Alto Hospicio. First, I visibly stand out. As a very light skinned person of Polish, German, and English ancestry, I simply look very different from most of the residents of Alto Hospicio who are some combination of Spanish, Indigenous Aymara, Quechua, or Mapuche, Afrocaribbean, and/or Chinese ancestry. I am catcalled quite often, even while walking to the supermarket midday. These yells usually reference the fact that I am visibly different. “Gringa,” “blanca,” [whitey] and even “extranjera” [foreigner] are the most usual shouts. I hear. Even in less harassing ways, I’ve been pointed out on the street, as happened my first week in Alto Hospicio, walking along the commercial center a woman stopped in front of me simply to tell me “You look North American!” scurrying away before I could respond. maybe I look too much like her? Beyond the striking impression of my physical appearance, I was untrustworthy as a single woman. Having no family in the area, not to mention a male partner or children was often a red flag for people. Even though many people I met had left family behind in other countries or regions of Chile when migrating to the area, they usually moved with a least one family member or friend. In a lot of ways, my solitariness kept me solitary.
As I got to know people, at times I felt I was being given a test. A colleague at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile had connected me with some politically active students in Alto Hospicio, and they invited me to help put up posters for a candidate for local representative before the elections in November 2013. I met Juan in the evening, outside one of the local schools where we made small talk before they others arrived. He asked me about my opinions on the Occupy Movement in the United States, and I spoke frankly, though keeping in mind his connections to Chilean Student movements. We continued talking about US politics and he asked if I had been very involved during my time in graduate school in Washington, DC. He asked about my support for President Barak Obama. And he asked very detailed questions about who I worked for, where funding for the research came from, and to what institutions the results would be reported. Eventually the other poster hangers arrived and we walked a few blocks to the home of his friend, where we were to mix up the paste for the hangings. As he introduced me to the group, he explained that I was “a trusted friend.” So I had passed the test. Other tests of my trustworthiness took much longer. The first person I got to know outside of my apartment complex was Miguel, the administrator for the Alto Hospicio group I first joined on Facebook. Yet, it took over two months of online conversations before we met in person. Our chats at first were about the project, then about anthropology in general, while I asked him about his job at a mine in the altiplano and about his family. Later we conversed about television shows, movies, sports, and other hobbies. Eventually he told me funny stories about what his friends had done while drunk. I tried to reciprocate and realized my friends were far less rambunctious than his. Eventually, he invited me out with a group of friends to a dance bar in Iquique, and later I became friendly with his sister Lucia and her husband, often being invited to eat lunch in their home. Eventually one afternoon, sipping strawberry-flavored soda and finishing the noodles and tuna on my plate, Lucia asked Miguel how we met. He launched into a long story of seeing my post on the Facebook group site and being suspicious of it. He clicked on my Facebook profile and thought “What is a gringa like this doing in Alto Hospicio?” But his curiosity prevailed and he engaged me in conversation. As he recounted the story to his sister he eventually arrived at the night we had gone to the dance bar. “I was nervous standing outside the apartment, because I didn’t know what to expect. We had talked enough that I was pretty sure she was a real person, but I was still nervous. I thought maybe she wasn’t real. Maybe it was a fake profile. But then I saw her walking toward me and I just remember being really relieved.” In Northern Chile, most families have the radio on in the home at least 12 hours a day. The radio plays on public transportation busses, private cars, taxis, restaurants, and in service businesses like copy shops and food stores. Older residents report that music has been ever-present this way as long as they can remember. When a song they dislike begins to play they may change the radio station, but they quickly find something more to their taste. Younger people, however, are pickier. They like many genres and bands that are not played on the radio. They usually dislike Cumbia music (local to the Andes) and Reggaeton (a global form of club music that mixes dance and reggae rhythms), which are the primary songs featured on the radio. For that reason, many younger people prefer to play music with their mobile phone and computer. In fact, this is one of the only ways to select music as the only other place to get music is from vendors at the local market which sell illegally copied cds (called "piratas"-pirates). These radios are becoming less prevalent in homes in Alto Hospicio as computers and smartphones are more often the devices used to play music. Using these devices, they usually simply search for a song on Youtube. They turn up the speakers as high as possible and and enjoy this self selected music. They rarely pay attention to the video, because to them it is simply a byproduct of the important part--music. Though a few young people report having Soundcloud accounts, on my survey of 100 residents in the city, only 1 mentioned any music-related social media activity other than using Youtube. Not only do these people use Youtube to listen to music, they also post the links on their Facebook page in order to share the songs with their friends, but also send audio files recorded on their phones through Whatsapp and even use Youtube to capture songs in order to set them as the background music to their Tumblr blogs. In essence, what the radio once was--an omnipresent passive form of listening to music has been transformed into an active, yet still omnipresent, form of music listening using Youtube in combination with different devices and social media forms. In the course of writing a book, there is a lot of stuff that gets written, and then, sometimes very traumatically, cut. Here is the second in a short series about social media use in Alto Hospicio, as based on survey data. I have done the writing, but I must give thanks for the incredible efforts by my assistant Jorge for helping recruit and administer the survey. It certainly would have never been completed without him. For part one, click here: facebook: the facts For part three, click here: twitter: the facts For part four, click here: instagram: the facts Whatsapp is certainly the second most important form of social networking communication in Alto Hospicio. Of people in the survey who use social networking applications, 77% use Whatsapp regularly and two-thirds of them regularly communicate in groups with the application. It tends to be used only slightly more with friends than with family members. When meeting new people, they almost always asked if I had Whatsapp rather than wanting to connect through email, Facebook, or by exchanging phone numbers. Police officers, internet installation technicians, and neighbors alike preferred the new app to older ways of getting in contact. WhatsApp is much like “traditional” text messaging, but requires the user to download an application to their smartphone. Then they can send messages using their mobile data rather than messaging bundle. Though Whatsapp allows for users to send videos to their contacts, this use was rare among people in Alto Hospicio. Far more common were sending photos. Voice messages were even more popular. Some people blamed this on laziness. “I’m too lazy to type, just pressing the button and talking is easier,” though others were concerned about others around them hearing the message when a friend, partner, or even ex-partner sent a voice message. For teens, Whatsapp use is incredibly high. Eighty five percent of respondents under 20 used Whatsapp, and 70% of them often sent and received messages to groups with an average of 2.6 groups per person. Seventy six percent use it with friends, 35% with their boyfriend or girlfriend, and less than one quarter with family members, and overall more than three quarters of the time with someone in Alto Hospicio. Boyfriends and girlfriends will often spend afterschool or late night hours writing back and forth. Friends use it for the latest school gossip or to make weekend plans. This is true with siblings as well, though most live in the same home, so are able to speak in person more often. Most often, when a teens uses Whatsapp to communicate with a family member, it is their mother, and the conversation consists of checking in, requests from the supermarket, or asking about daily plans. For people in their twenties, Whatsapp is even more important, with 90% of those surveyed saying they use Whatsapp at least once a day. Seventy percent those users send at least one group message per day using Whatsapp, but usually reported being part of only 1-3 Whatsapp groups. Whatsapps were far more used than “traditional” text messages, and were mostly used with friends or romantic partners rather than parents, siblings, or children. The peak age for Whatsapp use seems to be between 25 and 30 years, and after that begins to drop off a little. Seventy-five percent of those 30-34 use Whatsapp and 67% of those 35-39. Only 33% of people in their 40s use it, and only 20% of those surveyed over 50, most of those above 40 who use Whatsapp do it solely with individuals rather than with groups. For those above 30 Whatsapp is only slightly more popular than text messaging, and is used primarily with family members, and for fewer people with friends. Of course, Whatsapp is slightly harder to study than Facebook, because there is no public record of the interactions. However, I was fortunate to be included in a few groups while doing fieldwork. The first was a group that was maintained over a long period of time, and was primarily aimed at men who liked to drive their trucks and motorcycles out into the sand dunes that surround the city. The group, called the Red Offroading Club had existed long before Whatsapp as a driving club, but Whatsapp allowed them to organize more easily. Without fail, every weekend (and sometimes on weekdays) one of the men would write to the group asking who would like to go out to the hills that afternoon. Many would reply with their specific commitments that would keep them from joining, but usually at least a few people would be interested in a drive. The conversation would then turn to logistics about time of departure and a place to meet. Inevitably, someone would have a motor problem and need a tow or something fixed or a spare part, and those such problems were always resolved through Whatsapp also. However, pictures taken during the outings, of which there were usually dozens, were always shared on Facebook rather than the Whatsapp group. A few times, this group was also used to organize parties on the sand dunes. Logistical conversations would begin mid-week, with questions of whether Friday night or Saturday night was more amenable to people. Once that was decided, it was important to make sure everyone who wanted to come had a ride, because it wouldn’t be a party if all the trucks weren’t full! Coordinating beverages and music all happened through the group, as well as harassment of friends when it was after midnight and they still hadn’t arrived to the party. But again, the pictures taken at the party, lit by a flaming tire that had been discarded on the hillside, were posted on Facebook rather than shared with the Whatsapp group. In the course of writing a book, there is a lot of stuff that gets written, and then, sometimes very traumatically, cut. I'm here starting a short series of social media use in Alto Hospicio, as based on survey data. I have done the writing, but I must give thanks for the incredible efforts by my assistant Jorge for helping recruit and administer the survey. It certainly would have never been completed without him. For part two click here: whatsapp: the facts For part three, click here: twitter: the facts For part four, click here: instagram: the facts Facebook is an indispensible part of everyday life for many people in Alto Hospicio. In my survey of 100 people, only 5 (average age 47) had never had a Facebook account, and no one who completed the survey had left Facebook. The youngest people surveyed or interviewed were 16, and the oldest in their mid 50s (because Alto Hospicio is a fairly new city, the older population is quite small). Forty-five of the people surveyed were “always connected” to Facebook, and 82 of 100 checked Facebook at least once a day. Facebook is a platform that allows users to interact in a number of ways, whether posting original photos, sharing memes or new articles, writing original text, or commenting on any of their friends’ posts. Given the number of options, it is used by individuals in very different ways, often depending upon gender and age. Young women, in their late teens spend the most time on Facebook, with 80% of survey participants reporting that their Facebook account is “always connected,” whether on their smartphone or computer. They average about 610 friends, with the highest reported at 2,000 and the lowest 100. More than half update their status at least once a day, and about 1/3 update it several times a day. However, very few post photos frequently, usually only 3-5 photos at a time and less than once a week. Almost all like things their friends post more than once a day, but they write comments far less often. More than 80% of teen girls say that their friends are likely to write on their Facebook wall often. But the real value of Facebook for these young women is chatting. They use Facebook chat with far higher frequency than email, skype, WhatsApp, or even text messaging. They use Facebook chat mostly with neighborhood or school friends and their significant other, but only occasionally with family. Yet they say less than half of their online friends are actually from Alto Hospicio (about 40% of friends on average). They are almost always accessing Facebook from their homes using shared computers—whether desktops or laptops. Sixty percent of teen girls have only 1 account, 20% have 2, 10% have 3, and 10% have 4, the highest number reported, yet no one claimed that their profiles were “fake,” “anonymous,” or not representing herself. Not a single woman under 20 reported that she felt Facebook had contributed to her becoming more politically active. Overall, this usage is incredibly geared towards maintaining social relations among school and neighborhood friends. While these girls might have friends from other cities, and certainly are friends with mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, and cousins, the majority of their time and typing energy is spent on maintaining relationships with age-group friends within the city. Yet, they don’t necessarily see Facebook as key to their happiness. Only 20% say that Facebook makes them happier while 10% say it makes them less happy. The other 70% say that Facebook has not changed their happiness at all. Teens, in general, are one of the most important groups that use Facebook. They usually have more than 500 friends, the majority of which are friends from school or the neighborhood, who they communicate with using Facebook’s chat function. Chat is the primary reason for connecting to Facebook, rather than taking full advantage of photo sharing, writing original status updates, or commenting on others’. Yet 95% of those that took the survey say that their friends post something on their walls often. While in some locations around the world, Facebook is losing hold with teens, as they migrate to platforms such as Whatsapp, Twitter, or even Snapchat, there is no discernable movement away from Facebook in Alto Hospicio. While 37% say they use Facebook less than before, the same number say they use it more than before, and 25% say their use has remained the same. One telling sign is that over 70% of teens report that they are “always connected” on Facebook. As individuals enter their young adulthood, Facebook use changes. For people aged 20-30 men use Facebook far more than women. While almost 70% of men are always connected to Facebook, only 42% of women stay logged in. Almost all men use Facebook at work (96%) and often in the home (62%) while almost all women connect at home (95%) and sometimes at work (70%). This is likely due to the fact that men more often work in industries like mining and construction where there is likely to be down-time, whereas women work in service industries such as retail, food service, teaching, and secretarial work, where their attention to others is necessary at all times. Both groups average between 600-700 friends with the most being 5000 for both groups and the least friends being under 100. While a little less than half of both men and women update their status daily, in general men’s use is slightly more public than women’s. Men like their friends’ statuses more often (75% vs 67% at least once daily, averaging about 103 likes per month vs 54 for women), comment on friends’ statues more often (62% vs 48% at least once daily, averaging 89 comments pero month vs 55 for women), and share more (though men and women are equally as likely to share a post once a day, men share an average of 45 other users’ links, statuses, photos, or videos per month, women only average 25). Men also send more private messages per month on average than women. However, women’s social circles are far wider geographically. Though women are slightly more likely to be born in the North of Chile than men (52% vs 46%), on average they use Facebook messages with twice and many people outside of Alto Hospicio as men (40% vs 19%). Women report having more Facebook friends that they have never met face-to-face (28% vs 19%), and are more likely to say that they know more people because of Facebook (60% vs 44%). After the age of 30, Facebook use declines. Number of people always connected drops below 50%, and number for friends drop drastically as well. For ages 30-49, average number of friends drops to between 350-400. For those 50 and above the average was only 50 friends. While more than 90% of people under the age of 40 who use Facebook log on at least once a day, this number drops to only 64% above the age of 50. Most people who have told me they actively avoid using social networking are also above the age of 50. Most people above 45 primarily use Facebook as a way of connecting to the younger generation of their family. As Jorge, a miner, commented to me he mostly connects to Facebook while at work in order to keep up with the pictures of his grandson. Others, use Facebook to interact with their older children. Louisa is one such example. She lives in a 1 floor home in El Centro with her husband, daughter (23) and granddaughter (10). She has two sons that each live with their families within a short walk of the house. She sees almost all of her family members on a daily basis, but uses Facebook to see their pictures, comment, and give them encouragement, which she posts on their timelines. Though Facebook is not a necessary for staying in contact with her family, it adds a new dimension to their relationships. Louisa says she especially likes it because it allows her to look back weeks or months later and remember what was going on in her life. Facebook then, is not just one thing for people in Alto Hospicio. It takes on different roles depending on age, gender, occupation, or other life circumstances. It may be a life line to family, a repository of memories, or the primary mode of communicating, planning, and even gossiping with friends. But whatever it's function, it is important for a great majority of people in Alto Hospicio. a shorter version of this appears on the WHY WE POST blog at University College London On 5 December 2013, Nelson Mandela died. At the time, I was reviewing about 50 different Facebook accounts of people living in my Northern Chile fieldsite to see in a systematic way, what exactly they posted about on Facebook. I noted that only a few posted about Nelson Mandela. Those that did made funny ironic references to actor Morgan Freeman, who portrayed the South African politician in a film biography, while more politically socialist users posted old photos of the politician alongside their hero Fidel Castro. Yet these posts represented only 6 of the 50 users I was concentrating on, or 12%. That same week Paul Walker, a film actor of The Fast and the Furious fame, also died. More than 20 of the users whose activity I was observing posted about his death on Facebook. As with Mandela’s death, no one linked to obituaries or news articles, but instead posted photos of the actor, or at times posted photos of their own cars with quotes from The Fast and the Furious or other commentary suggesting that the films had inspired their love of automobiles. "Viendo Rapido y Furioso en TNT... en honor a las películas que motivaron el Honda EG8 luces verdes, y principalmente en la memoria de Paul Walker." From this, along with Presidential elections which had just taken place in Chile, I got a sense that people were much more likely to post something on Facebook when they felt personally affected by it. While people recognized the significant contributions of Mandela to peace and humanitarian efforts, he had not affected Chileans’ daily lives, while Walker had been an important hero for many people. One young man posted about both. On the day of Mandela’s death he simply wrote “QDEP Morgan Freeman” [Rest in Peace Morgan Freeman] in an ironic and humorous attempt to conflate the politician with the actor who had portrayed him. A few days later, when news of Walker broke, he wrote, “I’m watching The Fast and the Furious on TNT (television channel)…in honor of the movies that inspired my Honda, and more importantly in memory of Paul Walker.” Clearly this user had reserved the more sincere and personal message for Walker who he characterized as an inspiration. My insight that personal connection was more important than world impact has been put to the test again with the unfortunate death of a local celebrity. Arturo Mejía Koo, the son of Chinese immigrants to the region, was locally known as the authority on chembeques—a kind of pastry made of corn flour and honey. Though chembeques can be found in almost any outdoor market in the region, Koo’s shop was something of a pilgrimage point for those who love the dessert. Perhaps then, it’s not surprising that Facebook has been littered with homages to Koo. At the time of this writing, about 1/5 of the posts that appear on my Facebook timeline are related to Koo’s death. People post links to the local paper’s story with a simple comment of a frowning face, or no comment at all. Others post links with the comment “Noooooooooooooooo!!!” Responses are lacking in eloquence, but the sheer number of them is impressive. Story from La Estrella de Iquique Among my highly educated, urban, middle-class friends in the United States, posting about the death of a highly iconic politician such as Mandela was an act of both proclaiming political stance and being “in the know.” Yet in Chile, it is much more important to be “in the know” about local events. While in both places I see memes that circulate with text such as “If you didn’t eat/watch/play [insert local favorite], you didn’t grow up in [insert local area],” Northern Chileans take to heart this mentality. They experience the death of world icons with a grain of irony, likely owing to the distance they perceive between that person’s life and their own. Yet a local hero’s death is experienced as a personal heartfelt loss. This makes clear that for most Northern Chileans, Facebook is an outlet for performing personal and local affiliations, rather than a platform for interacting with global discourses. Mandela’s death was noteworthy for a few because he was a world figure. Yet lacking in a personal connection, emotions were expressed through irony or affiliations with other more regionally relevant politicians. Walker’s death was important for some because he had been a Hollywood hero, yet was still expressed at a distance through reference to his film roles. But in the instance of Koo’s death huge numbers of people in the region feel personally affected because eating his pastries had been an important part of local belonging. Facebook then was an appropriate place to express the very simple emotions of sadness and disbelief that emerged from the loss that felt so personal. The outpouring of public response to Koo’s death then demonstrates the ways that Facebook may reflect local affiliations much more strongly than global awareness. I wrote recently about the ways Chileans were watching and reacting to their team in the World Cup (both here and here). Essentially I described the way their behaviors, both on the street and on social networking sites violated the norms I have observed for nine months. While people are often ambivalent about citizenship—including both politics and belonging (see various definitions of “citizenship” including Goldberg 2002:271, Hansen and Stepputat 2006:296, Moodie 2006, Ong 2004, Richardson 1998, Stychin 1998)—when it comes to the national fútbol team, people very visually support them, decorating their homes, donning red clothing or Chilean flags, and posting wildly on Facebook, even the people who usually post very little content online. Yet, a winning national team can easily produce such a response. The 2014 Olympics, in which the Chileans fielded only two athletes—both skiers—provide an excellent counter example. Coverage of the games was hard to find, even on the nightly news, and I didn’t know a single person who knew when the Olympic games were scheduled, let alone planned to watch. On the other hand, the national fútbol team was impossible to ignore. The supermarkets and home improvement store were covered in promotional products. Corner tiendas were suddenly filled with flag themed hats, banners, and noisemakers, and on game day, at least half of the people I passed on the street were clad in red, after the team’s uniforms. Facebook was filled with funny memes relating to the team before the game, during play with nervous statements and goal celebrations, and after with photos of people celebrating in the street. There was clearly excitement about the team’s chances. Excitement over the World Cup was not at all about being part of a world event, but was an expression of national pride and focused on the Marea Roja’s potential to come out on top. So, then, I wondered what would happen when the team lost. I hoped, of course, that wouldn’t actually happen. That they would fulfill that potential and defeat every opponent they encountered. Unfortunately, last Saturday in a nail-biting game against Brazil, in which the home team was literally brought to their knees, the Chilean team lost. As the game ended with Gary Medel crying on screen, I expected complaints from fans. Perhaps they would blame the referees. Perhaps particular Brazilian players would be singled out for exaggerated trips or other unfair play. Maybe the coach, Jorge Sampaoli would be chastised. Or possibly, even, certain Chilean players would be blamed for mistakes. "Brazil, never forget who had you like this" But what I found was a great outpouring of pride. “They left everything on the field,” countless memes proclaimed. Other variations included “Proud to be Chilean” “They gave everything. Thank you men. Chile is grand!” “Thanks Chilean [team] for leaving Chileans with a proud name.” “We lost but I’m happy about the last match. Chile gave everything that they could. They beat Australia, the put the fear in Holland, they put Spain on the airplane home, and they had Brazil on their knees. I love you Chile. Conchatumareeeeee” Gary Medel, who cried, was hailed as a “great great warrior.” Though I expected the typically machista northern Chileans would poke fun at his emotional outpouring, I saw no joking about him crying. Plenty of memes included pictures of his face distorted and moist with tears, but the accompanying texts were ones of pride. He posted one such picture on his own Facebook page with the text “The tears are for all of you.” This photo was shared without negative comment by six of my Facebook friends. One popular meme even depicted him with the presidential sash. Another photo shared by a neighbor depicted the whole team walking off the field with Medel shedding tears in the center. “Seeing this photo gives me great pain. Chile is grand!” Drawing on Bernett (1966) and Riordan (1977), Joseph Alter observes that athletes are often “made into a symbol who unambiguously stands for his or her country” (1994:557) in a way that is divorced from Politics with a capital P and works at the popular political level (Rowe 1999). Athletes easily become national icons because they occupy the position of fantasy figures and are divorced from the economic infrastructure (Alter 1994). Sports can ideologically reach communities in ways that politicians and government agencies cannot (Levermore 2008:184). Cho calls the “nationalist sentiment or ideology” created and perpetuated through sport, “sporting nationalism,” and suggests that unlike hegemonic forms of nationalism such as government propaganda, this form fosters “an emotional, expressive attachment…[which] often elicits voluntary patriotism” (2009:349). Gary Medel indeed is an excellent example of the ways an athlete may become even more iconic in their moments of defeat, when their emotions both reflect those of their fans, and are reproduced on television and social media in a way that I would describe as simulacramous (see Deleuze and Guattari 1987—and yes, I did just invent the world “simulacra-mous”). Northern Chileans still maintain that they are forgotten by national politics and leaders. Their “national pride” is not one of blind adherence to national logics, agendas, or belonging. Rather the underdog status of the Marea Roja worked in parallel with Hospiceños underdog status within the nation. Just as they proclaimed during the recent earthquake that “Hospicio is Chile too,” with the national team’s successes and even close loss, it was as if they claimed “Chile is a formidable fútbol nation too!” "[Brazil] won the game. [Chile] won the respect of the world." See my other blogs on the World Cup:
The World Cup on Social Media Worldwide Seeing Red: Watching the World Cup in Northern Chile Part of the Red Sea: Watching the World Cup in Northern Chile Where is the South American Futball Unity? Alter, Joseph 1994 Somatic Nationalism: Indian Wrestling and Militant Hinduism. Modern Asian Studies 28(3):557-588. Bernett, H. 1966 Nationalsozalistische Leibserziehung Schorndorf bei Stuttgart: Verlag Karl Hofmann. Cho, Younghan 2009 Unfolding Sporting Nationalism in South Korean Media Representations of the 1968, 1984 and 2000 Olympics. Media, Culture, and Society 31(3): 347–364. Deleuze, Gilles, and Felix Guattari 1987 A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia. Brian Massumi, trans. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Dibbits 1986 Goldberg, David Theo 2002 The Racial State. Malden: Blackwell Publishers. Hansen, Thomas Blom and Finn Stepputat 2006 Sovereignty Revisited. Annual Review of Anthropology 35:295-315. Levermore, R. 2004 Sport’s Role in Constructing the “Inter-state” Worldview. In Sport and International Relations: An Emerging Relationship. R. Levermore and A. Budd, eds. pp. 16–30 London and New York: Routledge. Moodie, Ellen 2005 Microbus Crashes and Coca-Cola Cash: The Value of Death in “Free-Market” El Salvador. American Ethnologist 33(1):63-80. Ong, Aihwa 2004 Cultural Citizenship as Subject Making: Immigrants Negotiate Racial and Cultural Boundaries in the United States. In Life in America: Identity and Everyday Experience. Lee D. Baker, ed. Pp.156-178. Malden, CT:Blackwell. Richardson, Diane 1998 Sexuality and Citizenship. Sociology 32:83-100. Riordan, J. 1977 Sport and Soviet Society. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Rowe, David 1999 Sport, Culture, and the Media: The Unruly Trinity. Buckingham: Open Univeristy Press. Stychin, Carl Frederick 1998 A Nation By Rights: National Cultures, Sexual Identity Politics, and the Discourse of Rights. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. The very first night I spent in my field site in North Chile, the national team qualified for the World Cup. I had no television, no radio, and internet only through my smartphone. But I knew every time the team scored. Horns honked, dogs barked, whistles cut through the evening air, a dull roar of shouts bouncing off one another between the small homes, and six floor apartment buildings hung around the city like the fog that rolls in every afternoon from the Pacific Ocean. When the opposing team scored, you could hear the low rumble of grumbling viewers. By the game’s end, the horns were honking again, fireworks were being set off, and I ventured to my balcony to see people waving large flags in the street. neighborhood children prepare for last week's game On this first night it was very clear that the national fútbol team was important in this site. But I didn’t realize I would eventually see a contradiction in this. The widespread support and excitement about the team is very surprising given that most people in Northern Chile feel about they are often forgotten by the wealthier or more cosmopolitan people in the central region of the country, and are disenfranchised from national politics. My fieldsite is a working-class marginal city just seven kilometers up a steep hill from the region’s major port city, and those perched on the hill feel they have been politically discarded even within the region. It was recently voted the least liveable urban area in Chile, in part because, as I’ve written before, there is very little that is pleasing about the aesthetics of the place. Yet when it comes to fútbol, their very visible practices—wearing red fútbol jerseys, setting off fireworks, and posting a great deal on social networking sites—stand in stark contrast to their usually minimal visual expression. A week before Chile’s first game, Facebook was filled with humorous memes related to the world cup, from comparing the team’s bald coach, to bald reggaetón singer Pitbull. Others, in anticipation of a match against the Australian team, featured pictures of kangaroos in compromising positions. On game day, the city becomes a sea of red. At the local informal market, I noticed Chilea fútbol jerseys being sold at the beginning of June. The five supermarkets in town also offer jerseys for both the national team, as well as select others, including Brazil, Argentina, and Spain. Hours before an afternoon game begins, the sounds of plastic trumpets and car horns fill the air. The smell of meat being cooked on grills makes my stomach growl. Children, wearing pint-sized jerseys, and with faces painted like the flag, ride their bikes around the neighborhood. Seemingly every middle-aged man walking down the street carries a flag and a case of Cristal or Escudo beer, either on his way home from the corner store or to his friend’s house. Young men, and middle-aged mothers alike invite friends over to their homes to watch via Facebook post, often enticing them with photos of beer cans or food accompanied by a Chilean flag or pelota. fútbol jerseys for sale alongside used blue jeans in the outdoor market in Alto Hospicio When the game starts, the whole family, and maybe some friends or neighbors gather around the flat screen television that’s positioned in the living room, or more often in the kitchen. Younger brothers are forced to wear silly wigs of hats that look like pelotas. The streets become quiet for a few minutes, until the first big play. During the first game, Chile scored after 12 minutes and during the second, Chile barely missed a goal about five minutes into the game. Once viewers have something to cheer about, the world erupts with trumpets and yells of “conchetumare” (a somewhat all-purpose expletive). After every score or close save, my Facebook feed instantly fills with simple statements such as “weon” (somewhat equivalent to ‘dude’), “vamos chile mierda” [let’s go chile. shit!], and “goooollllll”. After a victory, of which I was fortunate enough to see two, whole families exit to the street to “see what’s going on.” Fireworks are lit, people walk to the nearest plaza or to the downtown area, singing the national anthem or simply changing “Chi Chi Chi Le Le Le. Viva Chile!” Instagram is filled with photos of the crowd, selfies while wrapped in the flag, and screen captures of the television displaying the national team. A few hours later, after they’ve finished their twelve hour shift, workers in the nearby copper mines post their cell phone videos of hundreds of their coworkers erupting as they watch a goal being scored from the dining hall of the mining operation. These practices are much like they would be in countless other neighborhoods around the world. Except that these practices defy two of the major factors I see defining daily life in this place: an absence of attention to aesthetics, and a feeling of disenfranchisement from the nation. So what is it about sport, or perhaps the World Cup specifically, that inspires this transformation? Most people have told me they are particularly excited by the World Cup this year because Chile’s team is good, and because it is a nice reason to share time with family. Others suggest Chileans have a “spirit of clawing fanaticism…to fight and overcome hardships.” This explanation makes more sense of course in the specific context of my fieldsite where being an underdog is a way of life. Chile is a team that usually qualifies about once a decade. They often find themselves in the second round (of 16) in the tournament, but have not placed since 1962. Among the world’s best 32 fútbol teams, they are not a total long-shot, but neither are they a sure thing. And this year, being placed in what some call a “group of death,” makes that fight to overcome hardship even more exhilarating. Yet Chileans have had reasons to hope. Rachel Riley of Countdown statistically determined that based on characteristics of past World Cup champions, Chile was most likely to win. Northern Chileans also took it as a good omen that their first game was to be played in Cuiabá which according to reports holds 33,000, inspiring allusions to the 33 miners that were trapped underground in the region just after the World Cup of 2010. Though the stadium actually holds over 39,000, Chilean sports journalists repeatedly began reports form the stadium with “Estamos bien en el estadio los 33 mil” [We are well in the stadium, the 33 thousand of us], echoing the miners’ first communication with surface search parties “Estamos bien en el refugion, los 33” [We are well in the shelter, the 33 of us]. The 33 miners even made a video in the weeks leading up to the World Cup kickoff, widely shared on social media, in which they declare, “Spain is tough? Holland is tough? We don’t fear the ‘death group’! We don’t care about death because we defeated death before!” For more English language info on the commercial, see José Manuel Simian's writing on the NPR blog. The Chilean national team now prepares to face home team Brazil in the second round, sure to be a tough match. Northern Chileans prepare with their red t-shirts, silly hats, 6-packs of beer, and meat to be grilled. Fútbol might just be an excuse to enjoy a rousing afternoon or evening with friends and family for some, but for others, the national team embodies the struggles and hopes of daily life. Links circulate now, about strategies Chile could use to defeat favorite, Brazil, and people are already making plans for a Saturday afternoon game. While the outcome remains unsure, it is certain that the city will be awash in red, and if by change the Chileans manage to win, I’ll join the crowd in fireworks, singing, and general merriment in the small plaza near my house. Of course, for once I’ll have to worry about my clothing. I have make sure my red t-shirt is clean for Saturday. Today, I had a video interview with Pearson publishing as an "expert" on social media for an English language textbook supplement. After a month spent discussing initial insights with my Global Social Media Impact Study colleagues, I was able to answer with all fieldsites in mind, so I thought I might share my answers here. Where do you work and what do you do?
I am an ethnographer in Alto Hospicio, Chile. Alto Hospicio is in the far north of the country, about 4 hours from the Peruvian and Bolivian borders, and 26 hours by bus, from Santiago in the center of the country. As an ethnographer, I combine many different research methods. The most basic is participant observation, which simply means I participate in daily life in Alto Hospicio. I eat meals with people, attend community events, buy goods in the local markets, drop by locals’ workplaces, and spend leisure time with people from the city. Second, I conduct questionaires with as many people as possible in order to get a sense of the overall trends in both general life and media use among residents. I also conduct semi-structured interviews with people in the city, to get more detailed information than is possible with a survey. Finally, in studying social media, I analyze and interact with people through facebook, Instagram, whatsapp, twitter, and any other media forms that are significant in my site. What research project are you working on at the moment? I am part of the global social media impact study, which is comprised of 9 sights on three different continents. Researchers come from two additional continents as well. Our aim is to provide qualitative as well as quantitative information on the variation of social media usage around the world. Each researcher uses the same methods I mentioned before in order to assess the trends in social media in each site. In essence we hope to fulfill the aspirations of anthropologists to be comparative in a way that has never been done. What is the scope and scale of the social media research project? Our scope, as the name implies is global. Specifically, our dissemination plans include translating materials into 8 different languages, which will include popular level books, short films, and more academic texts, particularly on collaborative research and specifically comparative studies. Where has the research been carried out? In addition to my site in northern Chile, researchers are also working in rural Brazil, Trinidad, rural England, South East Italy, Southeast Turkey, South India, rural China, and industrial China. We have chosen small cities, developing sites, and rural areas specifically because much research has been done on the use of new media in cosmopolitan centers, but we feel that our sites provide a better view of the ways “average” people across the world are engaging with social media. Can you tell us what (interim) conclusions you’ve reached about the impact of social media? Does it vary much from country to country? What factors influence the use of social media? Our team has developed a list of 30 initial insights, but the most important is by far, that contrary to some early predictions, social media specifically and the internet more broadly have not at all resulted in the homogenization of people around the world. In looking at social media from each of our nine sites, it is very clear that the same platform is used in completely different ways in different places. Essentially, one can not talk about what content is like on Facebook as a whole, but must specify that facebook becomes something very different in Trinidad than it does in Turkey. The page format is the same, but the content barely resembles that of another location. Even global trends such as the selfie or meme are used quite differently in different regions. We also see clearly that online and offline should not be considered two separate domains, rather like phonecalls or letters, online posting is just another part of everyday life. It is also common to assume that modern life has created movement from an idealized sort of community to more individualism. However, we see that social media often leads to reconnections between people, or even entirely new connections. One such example is the earthquake that recently happened in my fieldsite. In the weeks that followed when basic services such as water, electricity, and petrol were suspended, as well as later rebuilding efforts, social media became a key way in which people organized, planned, and even attempted to create collective representations of their plight. Social media also often reinforces group memberships such as the family, clan, caste, and tribe. Our studies of national political events suggest a limited impact of social media on politics in our local fieldsites. Specifically, we have followed riots and protests in Brazil, Trinidad, and Turkey which suggest a much more limited impact in the actual fieldsites. Our evidence suggests that social media may have an impact with politicised and more metropolitan groups but we do not see it as an instrument of politicisation. Instead, we find social media used for the everyday local politics of the sites. In fact, the public (but also personal) nature of social media tends to make them conservative and apolitical in many of our sites. We have also found that digital equality does not necessarily have explicit consequences for offline equality. In most cases there is greater popular access to the communication technology and online worlds which may have substantial impacts upon previously excluded populations, especially with ownership of smartphone. But this may not make a difference in the degree to which populations are excluded or oppressed in offline spheres. Has Social Media had an influence on what we demand from mainstream media? I do believe that social media has changed traditional forms of media to an extent. We use the term polymedia to discuss the ways that all media must be viewed in the context of other media. The classic example is that if a young person is going to break up with a romantic partner, there are several communications options available. Depending on the situation, they may do so in person, over the phone, via text message, simply changing their relationship status on facebook, or even posting a picture of themself with another partner on Instagram. In light of these options, each new form of media must find it’s own place, which in turn often changes the ways that the others are used. Television clips are reproduced on youtube and then posted on facebook. Radio programs may be made into podcasts and then sent via email. Telephone calls may be replaced by text messages or recorded voice messages sent on Whatsapp. But possibly the most interesting thing we have found is that very few media actually die out. Rather, as new media emerge, their functions simply shift. Has Social Media opened up a niche for new kinds of media? In light of this discussion on polymedia, it’s important to note that the landscape of social media is constantly changing. New programs are introduced constantly, which shifts the ways others are used. However, we find that social media has not entirely changed the types of media people consume. Those who are avid news readers may get their news via social media rather than television or newspaper now, but those who didn’t read the newspaper before are unlikely to read much news simply because of social media. Likewise, people who used to buy music cds may now use sites such as spotify, or share music videos they find on youtube, but those who did not place much importance on music before likely will not. How do you think social media is going to develop in future? Do you think it is going to become a more or less important part of our lives? I think we are already seeing that social media has transformed the relationship between offline and online to an extent that the two cannot really be separated anymore. I think this will deepen even further in the future. Social media are used to organize real social events, or replace them when participants are distant. Much like telephone calls or letters, social media does mediate interactions, but that does not make those interactions any less authentically social. And social media, as it becomes less distinct from “non social media life,” will certainly remain important in people’s lives. It is a major form of sociality, and sociality is something that makes humans what they are. Do you use social media much yourself? How important is it for your work/social life? Could you live without it? I do use social media, and obviously it’s incredibly important for my work. There are days I would like to take a break from it, but that’s not really possible. For my social life, however, as someone who lives on a continent different from that where I grew up, and has work colleagurs literally all over the world, it is incredibly important for me to keep in contact with friends and family. Obviously, I could live without it, but I do feel that most of the time, it really enriches the communication in my life, and allows me to stay close to people I wouldn’t be able to otherwise. Has Social Media influenced how we absorb/ digest information, or the kind of information we’re interested in? I do think social media has allowed us to preference visual forms of information moreso than previous forms. We have found that memes are incredibly important for communicating everything from politics, religion, and morality, to our innermost emotional states. Similarly, the ability to post pictures has allowed us to represent ourselves visually, and even to curate the aesthetic we hope to present to the world. However, there is little evidence that it has changed the types of information we are interested in. As I stated before, those who were not interested in politics before social media are unlikely to be persuaded of their import. People who did not read the news or listen to music will not do so simply because of social media. And possibly most clearly, across all of our sites, we have found that social media is most often used to alleviate boredom and for gossip. Those are human tendencies that have much longer histories than social media, and I think its clear that there is continuity in the information people want, whether it is on social media or from their friends face to face. |
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