Interfacing Ourselves consists of new work that examines digital life on three levels: individuals and digital identity; relationships routinely intertwining digital and physical connections; and broader institutional and societal realities that define the context of living in the digital age. A key focus is what it means in varied social arenas when most individuals live as co-present or multi-present-simultaneously engaged in digital and physical space-alone and with others. Topics include how: digital life contributes to well-being; individuals experience digital dependency; a smartphone is more than a smartphone; netiquette reveals social change; some online communities become prosocial salient havens while others reinforce social inequality; Millennials build intimacy; Latinx do familismo; and digital surveillance and big data redefine consumerism advocacy and civic engagement. Six chapters incorporate insights from hourly journals of Millennials undergoing a period of digital abstinence. Other chapters draw from surveys digital auto-ethnography content analysis and other methods to explore digital life at the level of individual and interactive experience and at a broader institutional and societal level. Ultimately the book presents the need for living a mindful digital life by developing greater awareness as an individual a social being and a netizen and citizen. |Interfacing Ourselves Living in the Digital Age | Sociology
