I don't think it is the only solution

Hi Nibedita,

interesting that you problem that you address. But does that also mean that all social life, we are interested in is changing to digital social life? I guess not. But maybe the crisis can be used as a reason to increase our efforts to develop our methodologies for cyber ethnography.

Cyber Ethnography is very much there even before lock down, much prior to the break of Corona 19. With the advancement of technology cyber ethnography is gaining popularity.

In the present scenario few studies can be conducted through social media like FB

But as an Anthropologist I will certainly say there’s no substitute to traditional ethnographic study.

To know people,we have to be a part of them

Thank you for the reply

Yes. I think cyber ethnography can reach a multitude of people, even better as everyone is participating in the usage of the internet.

Hey Nibedita,

Cyver ethnography is recommendable as questionnaires can be deployed using the technology. However, ethnography is the study of practices from extant communites. Unless, we conduct in urban context. In addition, in the rural context for exsmple in non literate society cyber ethnography might not be feasible. After all, I am short of recommending life less engagement in ethnographic study since ethnography requires paricipation, looking, understanding things from the objects' perspective

We do what is necessary, but we must do so conscious of the constraints involved in the acquisition of information from cyber sources. It will likely be a skewed process in that, depending of the society, many people may not have access to the internet or a computer. Thus, the ones we can reach will be those who are better off and will present that perspective.

I am fortunate in that I have been working with a population for fifty years and some of my friends are in a position to supply information about those who lack access. Indeed, for a second edition of one of my books, well before the appearance of COVID-19, I have been gathering information about sociocultural changes in the area where I have conducted research. Without that prior connection and existing friends, the task would be much more difficult.

I do wish good luck to all who essay this task.

No solo para este momento.

La cyber cultura es un acontecimiento que ha llegado para quedarse entre nosotros.

Por lo tanto, si la vida social está virtualizada, los trabajos que permitan registrar ese modo de vida no solo es útil sino que necesario.

Hi! Although I started to do my dissertation prior to this crisis, cyberethnography worked pretty well during the lockdown as participants became more active. Data collection was also easier. I have been a member of my target online community since March 2019. Some things to note though is that while it gives you easier access to data, ethical boundaries are quite blurred. I also think that researchers will have to adopt newer and flexible methodologies to meet their objectives in the coming years. Good luck on your research endeavors.

I know this is a very serious time for students writing their thesis. They might revert to adopt the techniques that are working for other engagements than doing ethnography. It might provide you with information you request as Ryan says. For me, I feel detached from the life I mean to serve to connect with and communicate to my readers. So, I came to ask myself, is it possible that the modus operandi of ethnographic research would be gone for good?

@Nibedita Nath - It is one of the many tools that be used during these times. But to your interest it only serves narrowly. As someone already mentioned that it can be used with the people living in urban areas, it eliminates and ignores people hailing from rural and agrarian structure (esp. in countries like India). More so, it may not work as the best tool for respondents may furnish information in a biased manner.

@tanmay sharma , you have clearly indicated what ethnography particularly in rural context should reflect. For me ethnographic research becomes not only plausible but also lively when we live among the community and write from their perspective (not an etic as such). Question is can we do this through cyber technology?

@Temesgen Burka, it can be practiced. But it will yield only specific answers. Also, to my understanding it would be difficult to generalise the results even with stats. It certainly can be reveal the hopes, expectations or realities of the urban elites having access and understanding of auch studies undertaken.

@Tanmay Sharma, it is true with urban elites due to accessibility to modern tech such as internet but how much is this representative is a question. For me the old way of doing ethnography in such context as the non-literate rural soceity in Ethiopia. As you said it can produce some limited data and help fill into the void created by the pandemic.

large corporations, such as Facebook, Instagram, have used people's digital data and information in their large databases, in what we know as Big Data. In the middle of that, artificial intelligence, deep learning, machine learning are ahead and potentially emerging. I believe that, even with the difficulties of certain groups to access the internet,we Anthropologists and sociologists must realize the importance of new technologies and we talk more with digital sociology, for example. The financial and economic market is preparing daily and we cannot be left behind, not in the sense of evolution, but in the sense of improving the methods of analysis and research in the new era. I loved your question, teacher @Nibedita.

The cyber ​​is simply another dimension of human sociality, set on the rules that apply in the space-time dimension. Certainly the anthropological study can and must also be carried out in the cyber field and cyber ethnography is certainly a discipline of extreme utility for today's society and the society of the future. But it is good that sociologists, anthropologists and psychologists work to bring technology back to its own dimension: in support of human activities and not framed as often happens as a substitute for them (I think of the debate on artificial intelligence). It is not possible to study man and human societies without direct observation in the field. An understanding of the scope of political measures, of the effects they have and will have in the short, medium and long term cannot be separated from direct observation in the field, in space (including cyberspace) and over time. For these reasons the scholars have the responsability to inform and guide decision makers in order of these circumstances and not being submitted and quite adaptable to their decision. What is my field of research? Cyber space and cyber ethnography? Fine, this is an interesting time for my studies. But if my field of studies are social interactions, in this case I need to explore 'em in each dimension and way I can, even cyber, but I have to ask to be able to do my job even in Covid time, from o computer as from the streets. And the politicians have to listen to me...

Thank u very much for participating in the discussion

Thank you for your interesting answer...

Thanks for your question. My sense is that cyber ethnography is one approach among many. It should emerge out a closer engagement with digital worlds but we should remain wary of seeing it as a substitute even though it is quick and obvious. We are limited in the people we engage with. It will require some new techniques and background knowledge as well. Tom Boellstorff and others write about this. The challenge we face is this: how do we see the cuber world in relation to other worlds and is it a substitute for limitations placed on us? Having said that other areas have faced lockdowns for other reasons and it might be useful to see what the experience of doing research in those areas is like.

Thank you so much @ Ankur Datta for the reply.

No, I don't think cyber ethnography is of interest at all.

It depends on what you want to learn from others. This is a time when people might not be interested in the stuff of ethnography as they must grapple with the realities of their immediate situations. Instead of ethnography, anecdotal documentation may bring experience to light, and allow people to come together as a resource collective in terms of decisions. While cyber-ethnography is our professional response, we must follow the leads of people's lives, day by day.

Online surveys are common. Postal surveys less, but are an established practice as well. Netnography is just an additional and very valuable method of doing research and getting to the bottom of people's attitudes and beliefs.

Thank u so much for participating in the dis ussion

Nibedita your question is wonderful. It set me thinking. I think that cyber ethnography is not the only answer but yes it does play a very big role in the present scenario. Cyber ethnography offers us access to large databases and to big data of the kind listed by Antônio Jefferson Teixeira Sousa in one of the replies. We do live in the 'society of the spectacle' (Guy Debord). To add on to what has already been said by the others, even newspapers have gone online. The kind of news reporting that is done by alternative online newspapers like The Print and The Wire in India is completely different from the reporting done by traditional newspapers this is reporting of the kind that has in several ways managed to overcome the panopticism of the state. On the other hand the state too is into surveillance of the social media as is seen in the case of some activists and student leaders in India. The state and its various arms are trolling the cyberspace for evidence. This is the age of the Anthropocene and also the Cyborg (Donna Haraway). I think that cyber ethnography is a powerful tool for social research. The 'cyber' can also be used for supplementing traditional tools of research like questionnaires and surveys. Of course the other ways of research continue to be useful.

La ciber realidad es una suplantación de la realidad encarnada y el intento de ocultar dicha suplantación.

Es lo que defendemos en nuestro libro "Fragmentos de (cyber) locura

Thank u Dr. Pablo Martinez for answering the question.

It is required to some extent but it will satisfy limited stakeholders not majority of them. The Cyber Ethnography will be useful to academic researcher groups. I think coverage could be limited to those who are familiarise online searching behaviour. Hope it could be a easy method to disseminate the cultural, social, demographic transitions due to covid situations. I agreed that due to tachological impact that we everyone is getting information in right time.