The
Digital Sociologist
Digitalized
Other*
"Man is an animal suspended in webs of significance he himself has spun"
Clifford Geertz (1973:5)
What is the Digitalized Other?
Sociologically, Mead’s theory of The Self provides the wisdom that
“we talk to ourselves, but we do not see ourselves” (Mead 1934:172).
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In digital worlds, the language used to express selves are
within its virtually marketed items and decorations:
worn, designed, and bought by its inhabitants, leading to the circulation of
digital capitals which are both monetary and meaningful (Ren et al. 2018).
Yet, even with the affordances of digital lives,
not every benefit is transferable to the physical self (Martoncik and Loksa 2016),
leaving the self, albeit physical or digital, with a ‘degree of otherness’ (Looy 2005).
In this stagnancy, the self per Mead (1934),
“[remains] an object to [themselves] only by taking the attitudes of...” (138)
the digital blasé
and its unfulfilling projection of the physical self that is
most lived, and in this sense, the most troubled.
I have termed this concept as the digitalized other (see Srirachanikorn 2021)
due to its influence of Mead’s titular theory, but more so to emphasize the
othering in our supposed tools of connection.
Publications and Media
This is a selected list of featured work on The Digitalized Other. Please consult my CV on the About Me page, or contact me by email for request of the full/unpublished documents below.
Srirachanikorn, Richy. Under Review. "Understanding Dia-Pause: When the Game is Over, But Life is Not."
Srirachanikorn, Richy. In-press. “Confined in Crises: Youth's Experience of (Digital) Familyhood During
COVID-19." Sojourners.
2022
Srirachanikorn, Richy. "Cordless Connections, Troubling Times: Youth's Experience of (Digital)
Familyhood During COVID-19." Multidisciplinary Undergraduate Research Conference on
March 19-20, 2022 at UBC.
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Srirachanikorn, Richy. Forthcoming 2022. “Confined in Crises: Applying Bowen's Family Systems
Theory to the Experience of Youth and Digital Familyhood During COVID-19".
Northwest Council on Family Relations. Virtual Conference.
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Paper Presentation Award ($100)
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Srirachanikorn, Richy. "The Game Never Ends: The Symbolic Interactionism of the Digitalized
Other." Unpublished Directed Studies Thesis at the University of British Columbia.
Faculty Advisor: Seth Abrutyn.
2021
Srirachanikorn, Richy. 2021. “Forgetting What We Have Learnt: The Digitalized Other and
Implications for Students in COVID-19 Classrooms.” ISA Pedagogy Series 1(2): 82-96.