Jing Wang's Seminar Blog

Expansive realization refers to the dynamic with which Internet “is viewed as a means through which one can enact – often in highly idealized form – a version of oneself or culture that is regarded as old or even originary but can finally be realized: through these new means, one can become what one thinks one really is (even if one never was)” (p.10). It is analytically useful because Miller and Slater believe that we can best understand identity concerning Internet as a means to help people realize what they already believe they are or should be rather than as a novel or unprecedented. (p.11)

An example for this dynamic is how Internet helps the Trinidadians maintain their “natural” family structure. Before the arrival of the Internet in Trinidad, its family structure, as the basic social unit, was under threat due to the widespread Caribbean emigration. According to Miller and Slater, in the vast majority of families at least one member at the nuclear level was living abroad at the time of their study. Without the Internet, this radical change due to emigration could have destroyed the family structure, which is considered natural and to the core value of the Trinidadian culture. Fortunately, there came the Internet, especially the email, which is an intuitive, pleasant, effective and inexpensive way for geographically separated family members to keep in touch, and more importantly, to fulfill their familial roles and responsibilities “that had been ruptured by Diaspora” (p. 56).

I think interviews, the major method used in this book, are appropriate for the analysis of this dynamic. To examine expansive realization, it is important to know what the Trinidadians believe they are or should be in deep. It is a belief and very subjective, and is hard to be derived from observation or second-handed data. In-depth interviews with many Trinidadians help the researchers not only get the record of their Internet use, but help them dig out what the Trinidadians hold as the core values and how Internet enabled them to preserve them.

Posted by jwang40 at 10:17 AM | Permalink

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Posted by jwang40 at 10:17 PM | Permalink

Fischer pointed out a decline for farmers in telephone subscription between 1902 and 1940. According to Figure 4 (p. 93), the percentages of rural households with telephone are less than 5% in 1902, about 30% in 1912, 39% in 1920, and 25% in 1940. In terms of absolute value, 2.5 million farms had telephones in 1920 and only 1.5 million in 1940. With a decline in both percentage and absolute value, I think the evidence is clear and valid.

Fischer analyzed and compared different explanations for this decline, combining the methods of a historian and of a sociologist. Scrutinizing previous commentaries, he came up with 3 potential explanations: 1) disinterest of the large companies; 2) the poor quality of many mutuals’ service; and 3) the increasing availability of other communication technologies. Analyses against other historical facts in the same period, such as the adoption rate of automobile and electricity, led him to conclude that none of these explanations suffice. Then he conducted some statistical analyses, as a sociologist would have, and found that financial strain, substitute technologies (like automobile), and perhaps marketing decisions all contribute to the decline in rural households’ telephone subscription.
I think Fischer’s analysis is convincing, and demonstrates a strength in his method. This decline highlights his points on the importance of the institutional, economic, and political contexts and on the mythic nature of “the internal logic of technology”. Even for a “successful” technology, its development and adoption are affected by various factors external to the technology itself, such as the general financial situation, sellers’ marketing strategy, customers’ priority list, the government’s policies, and development and adoption of other related technologies.

Posted by jwang40 at 11:10 PM | Permalink

One plausible alternative is to suppose that Fessenden had had a better luck in finding more patient and skillful financial backers and establishing long-term business strategy.

Since very early, Fessenden believed “that the spark gas had to be replaced by a transmitter that sent out a continuous, sustained wave train, and that the receiver had to be constantly receptive to detect these waves” (p45). In 1906, he did the first radio broadcast of music and speech. Though this is kind of a by-product of his research on improving point-to-point communication and he had never brought it to publicity, it is a critical development for radio broadcasting. If Fessenden had focused on wireless telephony rather than the transatlantic work in the first place (rather than losing much money on transatlantic work and then turn to wireless telephony), he could have avoided losing much investment on the aerial equipments and could have gained some precious time advantage. They could have closed the deal with AT&T before the 1907 panic and the following organizational change of AT&T. If NESCO and AT&T both profited from wireless telephony, this technology would become much more prominent to the general public and the military. With more advanced technology, some prominence in press, and a good business plan for profit, NESCO could have been a stronger competitor to Marconi’s company and might have beaten it. If NESCO had been more financially stable, and Fessenden had been more satisfied with his achievements, he might have made better decisions on whether and how much to get involved in those untimely lawsuits. He might also have had more time and energy working on the by-product of his main research – radio broadcasting. If he had popularized it, the amateurs would have had less historical contribution in the history of radio. To push it even further, if he had had the close relationship with the navy as he wished to, radio broadcasting could have been adopted by the government/military first, and start as a political tool. Then the history of radio would have been completely different.

Posted by jwang40 at 11:35 AM | Permalink