ANTH3147

Recent developments and adoption of new digital technologies, especially smart phones, social media, and gaming, have prompted academic and popular interest in and debates about the relationship of this technology to society. Anthropologists and other social scientists have been discussing in what ways technology in its various forms interacts with human culture for many years. How does it change society? How does society define its uses and meanings? The focus of this course is the multiple ways in which digital technology affects relationships in culture and society. We shall how digital technologies influence identity, labor practices, political strategies, among much else. We will explore ethnographic research on digital cultures, by way of answering this question. For the most part, the course will put an emphasis on anthropological and/or ethnographically informed work, although the readings will also be interdisciplinary, drawing on relevant literature from a variety of academic disciplines in the history of communications.