Canaries in the Data Mine : Understanding the Proprietary Design of Youth Environments

"Canaries in the Data Mine is a uniquely researched book that offers an important and critical reflection on the ways proprietary social media platforms and practices have developed over the past decade. Donovan offers a poignant analysis of how young people's perspectives can help us to better understand our contemporary moment and prepare for the future". Dr. Jacqueline Ryan Vickery, Director of Research, Youth Media Lab, University of North Texas Canaries in the Data Mine offers an account of the lived experiences and cultural expectations of young people growing up in digital environments increasingly owned by others and designed for profit. At the book's core is a participatory research project that first interviewed New York City teens about their digital habits and then engaged a group of five young people in designing the prototypical platform of their time: a social network. In this engaging book, Gregory T. Donovan penetrates beyond the interface to consider the digital geography of contemporary youth, arguing that understanding what young people are grappling with portends what is, or will soon be, felt by society at large. Drawing from in-depth interviews and design workshops, he shows how informational capitalism is reproduced at an intimate scale as well as how involving young people in digital design can foster capacities for reworking and resisting the conditions of a rising rentier society Acknowledgements......Page 7 Contents......Page 9 List of Figures......Page 10 1: Introduction: Proprietary Developments......Page 11 (Re)Producing Informationalism......Page 13 Ecologizing Proprietary Media......Page 15 Minding the Canaries......Page 17 Demystifying through Design......Page 19 Outline of the Book......Page 21 References......Page 27 2: Youth (In)Formation......Page 33 A Snapshot in Time, and Space: New York City, 2010–11......Page 34 Youth Information......Page 39 Youth in Formation......Page 49 Growing Up Proprietary......Page 57 Conclusion......Page 64 References......Page 69 3: A ‘New’ Lease on Life......Page 73 Owning Social Relations......Page 74 Unpacking Property Relations......Page 78 Designed for Dispossession......Page 84 Circuitous......Page 85 Rationalizing......Page 88 Objectifying......Page 91 Leasing Youth......Page 93 Clouding the User Experience......Page 100 Conclusion......Page 106 References......Page 110 4: The Medium Is the Method......Page 116 Medium as Method......Page 117 Doing Participatory Action Design Research......Page 120 Identifying Matters of Concern......Page 122 Young People Searching......Page 123 Connecting with Young People......Page 125 Interviewing Young People......Page 127 Assembling a Collective......Page 129 Project Orientation......Page 130 The Youth Design and Research Collective......Page 131 Engaging Research Relationships......Page 134 Addressing Known Unknowns......Page 137 Project Cogitation......Page 140 Conclusion......Page 142 References......Page 144 5: Designing Use with Youth......Page 147 (In)Formal Privacy, Property, and Security......Page 148 Learning Informationalism......Page 153 Negotiating Terms of Use......Page 160 Cyberdominance......Page 165 Imagining Cyberspace......Page 177 Making Use of “Youth”......Page 183 Conclusion......Page 189 References......Page 195 6: Conclusion: Agitation and Affinity in the Data Mine......Page 198 Raising a Luddite Revival......Page 199 Evolving Expectations......Page 201 Resisting Cyberdominance......Page 206 Designing Youth......Page 211 Agitating the Data Mine......Page 214 References......Page 217 References......Page 219 Index......Page 234 Canaries in the Data Mine offers an account of the lived experiences and cultural expectations of young people growing up in digital environments increasingly owned by others and designed for profit. At the book's core is a participatory research project that first interviewed New York City teens about their digital habits and then engaged a group of five young people in designing the prototypical platform of their time: a social network. In this engaging book, Gregory T. Donovan penetrates beyond the interface to consider the digital geography of contemporary youth, arguing that understanding what young people are grappling with portends what is, or will soon be, felt by society at large. Drawing from in-depth interviews and design workshops, he shows how informational capitalism is reproduced at an intimate scale as well as how involving young people in digital design can foster capacities for reworking and resisting the conditions of a rising rentier society.-- Provided by publisher