Ethnographic study of tech culture requires in-person witnessing, not just digital observation.

Evidence

For the most part, this project is more a traditional ethnography than a “digital” or “virtual” one, since I myself witnessed most of the anecdotes and descriptions in this book. But the firm division between “online” and “offline” is immensely complicated in places like San Francisco with high rates of technology use. — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 29

Categorization

• QUESTION: Does the future of ethnography of online phenomena still need in-person fieldwork, or does that bias findings away from decentralized online-only communities?
• XREF: connects to: Embedded observation immerses researchers in workers’ daily lives for deeper data — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 2098; Ethnographic data can be collected systematically via structured interviews with local informants; Ethnography and cinema both seek to capture cultural essences. — Junaid Rana, Terrifying Muslims: Race and Labor in…, 363 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Ethnography and cinema both seek to capture cultural essences. #expands (0.75) — Junaid Rana, Terrifying Muslims, 363
• Ethnographic data can be collected systematically via structured interviews with local informants #qualifies (0.72)
• Ethnography reveals identity aspects invisible to conventional psychological approaches #expands (0.72) — Cristian Tileagă, The Nature of Prejudice, 726