Life Online: Researching Real Experience in Virtual Space (Ethnographic Alternatives) [Hardcover]

Annette N. Markham (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 7, 1998 | ISBN-10: 0761990305 | ISBN-13: 978-0761990307

Alienating for some, yet most intimate and real for others, emerging communications technologies are creating a varied array of cyberspace experiences. Nowhere are the new and old more intertwined, as familiar narratives of the past and radical visions of the future inform our attempts to assess the impact of cyberspace on self and society. Amidst the dizzying pace of technological innovation, Annette N. Markham embarks on a unique, ethnographic approach to understanding internet users by immersing herself in on-line reality. The result is an engrossing narrative as well as a theoretically engaging journey. A cast of characters, the reflexive author among them, emerge from Markham's interviews and research to depict the complexity and diversity of internet realities. While cyberspace is hyped as a disembodied cultural arena where physical reality can be transcended, Markham finds that to understand how people experience the internet, she must learn how to be embodied there_a process of acculturation and immersion which is not so different from other anthropological projects of cross-cultural understanding. Both new and not-so-new, cyberspace provides a context in which we can ask new sorts of questions about all cultural experience.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Markham has written a definitive sociological study of what it's like to be on the Net. Markham's ability to relate and mine her own experiences along with those of others online makes for a compelling read. The book will set a standard for the successful mixture of ethnography and autobiography, critical reflection and description among studies of the Internet. (Steven G. Jones )

About the Author

Virginia Tech University

Product Details

• Hardcover: 248 pages
• Publisher: Altamira Press (October 7, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0761990305
• ISBN-13: 978-0761990307
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,699,573 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fun and provocative read..., January 13, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Life Online: Researching Real Experience in Virtual Space (Ethnographic Alternatives) (Paperback)

Too many books on cyberspace are predictable. Once you know the theory (marxism, uses & gratification, etc.), you pretty much know the rest without reading it. Such is not the case with this refreshing book. Cyberspace is still a relatively new phenome non and it is a serious mistake to take our old theories and methods and force them into a mold that doesn't fit. That sort of work produces overdetermined results that are boring. Markham's book is NOT boring. It is a fun and thought-provoking account that will serve as a terrific starting place for serious inquiry about on-line experience. It would be useful and interesting for academics and nonacademics alike. If you are interested in thinking seriously about what happens to our "selves" when we go on-line, and you want a book that is well-written and engaging, you will like this book.

I normally don't write these reviews but the reader from Cleveland is so out of line that I just had to offer my two cents worth. This book is an ethnography, so if you are open to such research you will enjoy this book..

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great RE-read!!, March 30, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Life Online: Researching Real Experience in Virtual Space (Ethnographic Alternatives) (Paperback)

I first read this book in 1999 and enjoyed the narrative style and the accounts of various Internet users. After re-reading this book, I realized that Annette Markham has completely captured my attention theoretically. The prose is quite easy to read, which makes this book easy to skim. But a slower and more focused read gives quite a different picture, which I missed in my first reading. There is quite a lot of theoretical work which occurs under the surface of the narrative account.

I highly recommend this book for anyone wanting to study the Internet from an ethnographic perspective. It provides sound methodological advice and addresses some important issues for anyone conducting qualitative research. But it doesn't address these issues in a direct textbook fashion, which is why it requires close reading. I recommend that this book be read slowly and deliberately, in order to catch the underlying theory which informs this work.

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Refreshing, insightful and beautifully-written., November 5, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Life Online: Researching Real Experience in Virtual Space (Ethnographic Alternatives) (Paperback)

If you never expected a book that bills itself as an "ethnography" would be an enjoyable read, let alone a page-turner, prepare yourself for a pleasant surprise. Markham's experiences online are lively, funny and weird -- sometimes all at once, and her insights into the meaning of self in the last years of the twentieth century are alone worth the price of the book. "Going Online" is a real testament that academic writing, in the right hands, can be positively invigorating.