The Digital Practices of African Americans: An Approach to Studying Cultural Change in the Information Society (Digital Formations)

How do social scientists study the impact of social networking sites on racial identity formation? How has the Internet impacted the accumulation of social and cultural capital? By synthesizing insights across a variety of disciplines, this book builds an original theoretical perspective through which these and other questions about core social processes can be addressed. Three case studies of how African Americans use information and communication technologies (ICTs) are used to illustrate this theoretical perspective. They show how groups can leverage ICTs to overcome historical inequalities. The book argues that the lenses through which scholars and society’s leaders think about new technology place too much emphasis on the technological and economic aspects of ICTs, and not enough on the impact of ICTs on social processes at the everyday level. Cover 1 Table of Contents 7 Introduction 9 Chapter One: The Information Society 15 Chapter Two: The Digital Divide 29 Chapter Three: The Digital Practice Perspective 43 Chapter Four: The Digital Practice of Weak Tie Development 65 Chapter Five: The Digital Practice of Maintaining Family Ties via Mobile Phone 81 Chapter Six: The Digital Practice of Maintaining Digital Enclaves 97 Chapter Seven: The Digital Practice Perspective and Social Policy: Improving the Social, Cultural, and Civic Quality of the Digital Environment 119 Chapter Eight: Conclusion: Smart Mobs, Flash Mobs, Flash Robs and the Revolutionary Potential of the Digital Environment 137 Appendix 145 Notes 151 References 157 Index 167 This book uses three case studies to discuss the impact of social networking sites on racial identity formation and how the internet impacts the accumulation of social and cultural capital. The book argues that the lenses through which scholars and society's leaders think about new technology places too much emphasis on the technology and economic aspects of ICTs (information and communication technologies) and not enough on the impact of ICTs on soical processes at the everyday level. -- Publisher description Using three case studies, this book argues that the lenses through which scholars and society’s leaders think about new technology place too much emphasis on the technological and economic aspects of information and communication technologies (ICTs), and not enough on the impact of ICTs on social processes at the everyday level.