Netflix – My New Family Member

A re-occuring scene in my house hold consists of my mother walking into the living room seeing me staring at my phone screen, with Netflix playing on the television and my laptop open on the floor in front of me and I can already predict that she’s going to say “Are you even watching this?”. We have extremely fast internet in our household which allows us to be using the 3 iPhones, 2 laptops, 3 televisions and 2 iPads all at the same time. However when visiting the National Broadband Network website my street and the 3 streets next to mine are part of the ‘build preparation’ area and less than a kilometre away in a high density housing area it shows the service is available, which makes me wonder is their internet all that much more reliable and does this point to the logistics behind NBN’s rollout scheme. However, the more important questions to ask are: Has faster internet changed the way Australian families live and communicate?. Does faster internet mean we communicate less because we don’t have to wait as long to access what we want to and therefore spend more time online? or do new technologies and faster access free up more time for what is arguably more important, face to face interaction.

When I asked my mother and father their personal opinion and experiences with internet usage in our home, this is what I found. My father has a work office upstairs which is also where his computer is, unlike my mother, my dad is very technology savvy and has an Instagram and Facebook account as well as a website for his business and his work revolves around internet access which is why we have one of the more expensive data plans. Although this can keep him separate from the rest of the house, he said he feels like a time that does bring the family together is when we all watch a television show at the same time every week which creates conversation and interest. However, it is not always easy to find something we are all interested in on free to air television which is why many families find it easier to resort to their separate screens.

My mum has never had her own personal computer and regretted the fact that she can’t easily put the music she wants on her phone or have a device to watch movies. Our recent Netflix purchase has given her some of this freedom as it is an extremely easy and fast platform to use and also has resolved the issue of not being able to find something we all want to watch. Although we have not gone so far as to create ‘zoning’ around the house ( technology free zones) the dinner table is a place where phones are not allowed, like many other families. So, although technology can make it hard to spend time with family, I do think new technologies are trying to create the fastest, easiest way of having communal viewing in the home. 

Ethnographic Research

Ethnographic research can not be created without the help of others and their insights into subjective and objective parts of their real life experiences, this can also mean the collaboration of multiple authors (researchers). This is why Luke Lassiter (2005) states “Ethnography is, by definition, collaborative”, and explains that collaboration implies a constant conversation and not simply an interview technique where only one party is giving the information. Described in:

“Essential to participant observation is the need for communication between the investigator and the people being studied, an important distinguishing point between the social and natural sciences.” — Hortense Powdermaker, Stranger and Friend

We all know marketing and advertising agencies will pay big money for access to ethnographic research in order to know who their target audience is and what they are interested in, therefore making sales. For example, how would we know that everyone ONLY wants to watch television shows about cooking or home renovations without ethnographic research that tells broadcasters that the primary age of viewers are at a stage in their life where they are building and renovating homes. It also gives companies the opportunity to stick their product in the middle of the action and even give their viewers the opportunity to instantly buy their products directly from the television shows website. Over time tv ratings show producers what topics work in reality television and what doesn’t, when a trend is found, nothing is stopping producers from creating more and more of the same shows as they know from past examples it will receive high ratings. It is also extremely easy for ethnographic researchers to search hashtag’s on Instagram, read Facebook status’s and look at tweets to find out exactly how their audience feels about the latest reality TV show. Some shows in Australia like Q&A, Eurovision and Big Brother have even created their own live twitter feed which streams along side the show allowing viewers to share their opinions and more often than not their humorous comments, this just so happens to be the perfect tool for ethnographic field work. However their has been instances where twitter feeds live on TV have gone horribly wrong……

References:

Adams, M.A. 2014, This is why you don’t show twitter streams like on tv, FishBowl NY

Lassiter, L.E. 2005, The Chicago Guide to Collaborative Ethonography, University of Chicago Press, Chicago.

Television and The American Dream

This week I was asked to interview someone from a different generation about their experiences with television as a child and the memories it gave them about the spaces they watched it in and with whom they watched it with. I immediately thought about my mother who had an interesting child hood moving from Florida to Australia, Japan, England and then back to Australia all by the age of 10. My mother, Rika, was born an ‘only child’ in Florida, USA in the 1960’s during the era of the American dream, and as we know the television was a huge symbol for this ideology. Colour television was available in America long before Australia and having a television was a presumed norm for any average American house hold. She lived in a 60’s Californian bungalow style house, it was open plan living, another lifestyle feature not yet introduced to Australian homes. Living close to Disney Land, cartoons such as the Mickey Mouse Club were extremely popular, as she grew older she remembers watching The Three Stooges on the couch with her father and the 6:00pm news broadcast every night, although she did not have siblings to fight with about what would be watched, her father was always in control of the viewing material. My mother being born in 1955 never experienced having black and white television until she moved to Australia at age 8 and even then her parents did not want to buy a television straight away.

Californian Bungalow style house, cerca 1950, Source

When Rika’s parents moved to Australia they had rejected the whole memory and notion of America, it became apparent to Rika that her parents no longer wanted to be associated or tied to the American Dream. This meant that they did not want to buy another television for several years after settling in their new home. However after several years of begging and pleading her parents to buy a tv, Rika went backwards in technology advancement and her family bought the only kind of television available in the late 60’s, a small, black and white boxy television with no remote and no vcr player. The test pattern was a familiar sight and all programs usually ended around 10:30 with a maximum of 2 or 3 channels.

Upon reflection of my mothers memories I realised my personal memories of television as a child has a familial attachment to my dad making pancakes for my sister and I on a sunday morning and waking up at 6am to watch cartoons. Although it is safe to say that my mother and I have had very different experiences of television in the home, what with my experience of growing up with 3 televisions, 2 iPads, 2 laptops, 3 iPhones, Netflix and a Blue ray player which even now is becoming old technology, we still share a similar memory of watching cartoons with our fathers and them almost always having priority over the television….and the couch.

To media space and beyond!

My media space undeniably consists of a lot of Instagram stalking and Facebook scrolling, however I am personally not an avid social media ‘poster’ or sharer of my thoughts and experiences online which is possibly why I find it very difficult to write anything on the topic of myself. It seems to me that my current media space is bombarded only by the best and happiest experiences or aspects of my peers or strangers lives, but never include that fight you had with your friend or that failed grade or any failure at all really. Why is it that within social media it is unexpected or unusual to see a negative or unhappy post?. Is it socially awkward or frowned upon to post anything other than your best self?.

This leads me to question whether my media space is ever a true reflection of an identity or a life and in turn, what are the emotional and physical repercussions on someone who believes it is. I admit, I myself am guilty of only ever posting positive media about myself and also find myself thinking does no one else share the same problems I do? because they’re Instagram sure doesn’t look like it!. I suppose as a media and communications student you must always question and research the validity and honesty of the media space you are entering into, whether it be a news article or an Instagram account.