[Link for the Video] https://drive.google.com/file/d/1N9JhkKryzDHf_dJPnd04Jfr9uJ4fyDD0/view?usp=sharing
Created by Wakana and Masaru
Bibliography
Auge, Marc. Non-Places: An Introduction to an Anthropology of Supermodernity(London, New York:Verso, 2009)
Chung-Lan, Cheng “台湾の「38歳」デジタル大臣から見た日本の弱点 [Japan’s weaknesses as seen by Taiwan’s “38-year-old” Digital Minister],”Toyo Keizai Online, accessed November 23, 2020. https://toyokeizai.net/articles/-/327954?page=3
Oxford Reference. “Supermodernity,” accessed November 23, 2020.https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100543119
Nice video that you have made. I struggled this week to make a video and I see I still have a long way to go. I do not agree with the ideas of Auge about non-places. Eventually even shopping malls will become places of historical and cultural value. We just don’t see it yet because they are new, modern. Look in history from the forum of Trajanus in Rome, which was seen as the first mall, the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele in Milano, the Leadenhall market in London and many more.
I think the digital space is a medium where people can express themselves in many ways. The technique is not the culture even if we use the same tools over the world. What’s important is what we do with it and adapt it to get a better world like the minister from Taiwan observed. I hope every culture in the world can give is own interpretation, so we won’t lose the diversity that exists now.
Dear Wakana and Masaru,
I very much enjoyed your video. You had great narration and stimulating images/videos. I think you two did a great job in showing how digital culture is diverse and is also often based on the region it unfolds it.
I thought it was very refreshing to also shift the angle and move away from the West and also see how as you said in your video, digital culture has been present with us for longer than we then we might think in countries such as Japan. For example the habit of soaking in the bathtub and therefore installing a TV in the bathroom! I did not know that the TV’s presence in the bathroom had a little history behind it.
Additionally, I enjoyed that you mentioned something many might not even think of when talking about everyday digitalization: how instead of continuously going forwards, why do we not choose to stay in place in some aspects of our life when it comes to technology? Although like you pointed out, I of course am aware of the practicalities of technology and how digital media enables me to do so much, like writing this comment to your blog, I do believe there is some magic in not digitalizing EVERYTHING in life. Apart from the fact that many groups, such as our elderly, might not be able to keep up with the continuous changes happening, I also value some aspects of my life that cannot be digitalized (yet).
Overall I really enjoyed your video, as it was very insightful and talked about something so seemingly universal as digitalization from a different viewpoint.
In regards to Augé non-places, I have to agree with Ben, which in the comment above mentioned the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele, located in Milan. I am from Milan and I can assure you that is much more than a gallery filled with shops, bars, and restaurants (there is also a hotel), whenever I pass by or through it I can never stop appreciating how beautiful it is. For every ‘Milanese’ it is much more than a shopping centre and surely not a non-place. I nevertheless can relate a lot with the digital vs cash example in the Netherlands-Japan comparison. In Italy, the situation is similar to that of Japan, we have a very large elderly population and it shows in some of our lack of digitalization in some areas. Another example is the wifi which is slow outside of big cities in general, the coverage isn’t very good nationwide. The case to card example was especially surprising to me in the Netherlands when I first moved here also, i would also make a distinction between credit and debit cards in Italy vs the Netherlands, most shops here in the Netherlands(even supermarkets) seem to really hate credit cards, whereas in Italy very few people have a debit card.
Thank you both for this video! Coming from the Eastern part of the world, I really appreciate how you connected things. I’ve always thought that my hometown is a bit backwards, for example, in terms of payment transactions, but then you gave me a different perspective! I’ve also experienced a few older colleagues at my workplace here in NL having to struggle with new software/technology updates at work, while I’ve not seen much of that happening back home. What a difference in culture!