A History of Digital Culture

1 Course Unit

Technology is never just about the things we use or the things we do - what we see and do quickly become everyday occurrences. In our current world, this means the world of digital culture, but what led to this was a blending of technologies and material culture that we would not always consider as "technological." The cultural practices that go along with these technologies are invariably not visible to us without interrogation: the ways technological usage shapes and is shaped by the cultures that create them, as well as how technologies shape and are shaped by other cultures that adopt them. Oftentimes, technology tools practices are translated in ways that their creators never envisioned, and take on meanings that shift dramatically. Across time, even within a single culture, technology means very different things from one era to the next. Examples include the roles of basic tools like glass, to complex tools like audio tape. In DIGC 1600, students will explore and develop an understanding of contemporary digital culture based on the idea that media and information technologies operate in a cycle of constant dialogue with the communities and modes of cultural practice that surround them. Using case studies of technological innovation and transformation, we'll examine the political and social impacts of what has become our contemporary digital culture through the resulting material culture objects we use every day. Students will be encouraged to explore from their own experiences how they interact with, create, and understand technocultural objects in their active and living world from an interdisciplinary, social science-based perspective, drawing from disciplines across the humanities and social sciences. Some of the guiding questions for the course include: How do we understand something as a "new" technology? How can we analyze the ways that members of a culture use technology as a locus for evolving or conflicting cultural practices and social change? And, how does culture affect our understanding of a technology and how we use it? Readings will consist of articles and book chapters provided in the course Canvas site. There will be no required synchronous sessions, though there will be optional synchronous sessions offered throughout the course. This course fulfills Qualitative Foundational Requirement (in Historical Perspectives) and to serve as a Gateway class. DIGC 1200 is recommended but not required. 1 Course Unit