How do we 'get at' people's everyday practices of digital technology?

How do we 'get at' people's everyday practices of digital technology?

I’m interested in what sticks in the mind, what makes something memorable. And almost everyone can remember their first encounter with a computer. This may not last. Children born in the last five years will likely have always been around a digital device, in the same way that people born in the nineteen eighties don’t remember time before television. People’s feelings, experiences and memories are fertile ground for understanding their everyday practices; for understanding their ownership and use of digital technology and how it has become integral to our lives.

My work-in-progress is a collection of digital literacy narratives drawing on people’s interactions with computers from their earliest to most recent experiences. It examines the rules surrounding personal, work and school usage of computers and how this has changed over time. People’s comfort levels with computers and new technology are also examined.

The overarching question for this research is what digital literacy looks like in people’s lives or what digital literacies look like in everyday practice. It takes a thick description approach instead of a survey or testing of digital literacy.