February 2015

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1/02/2015

I have been struggling with starting to write the chapter on the Internet. It has not been easy to organize the mess of qualitative data related to the online activities and experiences of the participants of my study. Although my argument seems to be clear in relation to how the five latino/hispanic immigrant youth are all connected and active online, it has been difficult to refine my critical approach. How can I reveal the peripheral participation they have? How can I show the lack of resources and the lack of effective participation? How can I show that even if their online practices help them to assimilate, they remind limited? One interesting aspect to show is how this tools are helping them to indeed connect to the U.S culture and society and to assimilated in terms of culture and language. However they are missing the opportunities to connect to their home cultures. Is that good? or bad? How about the individualistic practices and uses they have of the web and their networks? It seems they do not totally leverage the power of the networks for helping their families, nor fostering their ethnic identity and cultural resources. In a way, they use the internet to be away from that and do not explore it to connect to those roots. How does that affect what they can do online? How do that affect their agency.

Of course, they are being active online and connecting to many sources of information, also performing identities, and hanging out with their peers. Their peer culture is being fostered. At some moments some of them are also active in terms of civics and politics, but none of those activities are related to their identities as LAtino/Hispanic and Mexican immigrants. How do that influence their agency. They do not talk about that. But I just wonder if that kind of regretting or hideness of their ethnic identity limits what they do online. Also , questions of geography, power, hierarchy and descrimination play here. None of them talks about that, but I wonder if it is there, in the digital space, and is one of the reasons why they do not engage beyond clicking or subscribing to channels. They are also young, and have been online just for some years, in SNS for 2-3 years. They are still learning to be in cyberspaces.

2/5/2015

Thinking about ideas for the introduction of the dissertation:

  • Narrate experience in Austin, as spanish speaker and south american. Identification and positioning as "hispanic" "latino and "mexican"
  • Everyday life and encounters with people from Mexican origin. Workers. Working class. Kitchens, gardeners, housekeepers, cleaners, cable guys, service workers, construction workers.
  • Foods and street names.
  • On the radio.
  • Immigrants who have lost their Spanish language. Theyr cultural capital. Lost of transnational connections.
  • a well established local culture of Mexicans.
  • i-35 as a connection with MX


Anecdotes could mention the immigrnats generations who have lost their language and wish they could speak Spanish.


2/16/205

Explain role of the chapter on social media platforms in the dissertation:

After having examined how new media practices and skills developed at the family/home and afterschool contexts shaped the process of assimilation, this chapter provides another layer of analysis for understanding the uneveness of this process. Especifically, in this chapter I analyze the activities developed by Latino/Hispanic immigrant youths online, on the multi-context of several social media networked spaces. Ellaborating a critical analysis I explain the characteristics of these youths participation in what have been described by some scholars as a networked communication environment that is more participatory and democratic. In order to do so, I look at the motivations, practices, skills, and supports that these youths had as they became active users/participants of several social media platforms. I critically engage with the literature on participatory cultures and genres of participation and reveal the limitations and possibilities of the activities developed by these Latino/Hispanic youths online. Although I use the categories of friendship-driven and interest-driven genres of participation, I point out to the especific characteristics that such genres had when developed by Latino/Hispanic working class immigrant youth. Given the lack of social, cultural, human, and economic resources, the participation of these youths in social media networked spaces is paradoxical, marked both by connectedness and disconnectedness. However, although the potential for leveraging digital networked technologies is not fully realized, my analysis also reveals that the activities developed online are helping these youths to advance in their assimilation process, especially in the cultural and linguistic dimensions. By addressing the paradoxical nature of the participation in social media networked spaces, this chapter makes a significant contribution to the dissertation and our understanding of the evolution of digital and participation gaps. It provides qualitative evidence on how the assimilation process of five Latino/Hispanic working class immigrant youth is uneven, segmented, and shaped by activities developed in social media networked spaces. The chapter is connected to the previous chapters through the thematic threads of new media practices, skills, and differential access to resources.


The two questions that drive the narrative of this chaper are:

- What are the characteristics of Latino/Hispanic working class immigrant youths participation in social media platforms? What is the quality of their engagement, content, and social networks (diversity, richness)?

- How does participation in these networked spaces help Latino/Hispanic immigrant youths to advance their process of assimilation? Which new media practices and skills are they developing at this multi-context of activity and how are they shaping their assimilation?


Other extra questions:

- What are the spaces where they are participating? hanging out, messing around, geeking out?

- What are the social media networked spaces where they participate?