While in NOLA, what did we see?
- People we encountered were very much dependant on face-to-face interaction and built their lives and their business transactions around them
- For the most part these people were NOT technophobic (with few notable exceptions) and they made fun of technophobes in their midst acknowledging the usefulness of communication technologies (i.e. cell phones and internet)
- On the other hand, very few appeared to be technofiles. As musicians, they dealt with a lot of technologies for performance and recording and, in general, simply playing
- cell phones were important – mentioned often, held up both as the “most important technology invented so far” and the “useless brick” when they were inoperative against expectations (after the hurricane).
- Cell phone adoption was mentioned by at least a third of respondents. In some cases people who didn’t have cell phones were given cell phones by others to make it easier to get in touch with them
- Nearly everyone who used cell phones, used text messaging to get in touch
- Most who have adopted cell phones have also dropped landlines both because landlines were not available for the longest time and because cell phones suddenly seemed more reliable, at least for now
- “my girlfriend and I were dragged into the 21st century kicking and screaming” – a reference to “finally” adopting cell phones after the hurricane. Adoption in this case was triggered by a move to Los Angeles. In response to the question “why not before?” the answer was “didn’t feel the need” – again a reference to a highly face-to-face culture lost due to both hurricane and move (and refusal to get back)
- The internet – many people mentioned using email. Everyone we talked to used the internet either from public libraries or from personal computers/laptops
- people with means ran off to buy laptops – a move towards making personal technology mobile for future “problems” – risk averse approach to replacing lost technology or adopting new technology, satisfying expectations of future potential need to move quickly and lightly
- many mentions of using email more to locate people and to communicate while “in exile”. The rate of email use was reported to slow down since return to the city although there was still interaction with people who haven’t returned.
- MySpace
- Many joined after the hurricane, although the more active users had joined quite a bit before the hurricane (i.e. DD)
- Joiners after the hurricane vary in frequency of use and some remain skeptical about the benefits of the site (some do not use their profiles at all, some use them infrequently or let friends or managers maintain them, some take active part in them)
- From looking at profiles it seems there are groups that interact frequently with one another and individuals that interact with people outside of NOLA more so than with people from NOLA
- Some aspects of use seem to conform to the ideas of McKenna & Bargh on niche identities seeking belonging and confirmation from like others and finding it online rather than in their physically proximal environments (i.e. finding others out there who like and play obscure instruments)
- Of 25 randomly selected NOLA musician myspace accounts, 15 were started after the hurricane, with 3 around mardi gras and 6 in april/may of this year
- In general, there is a belief in technology, especially communication technology being profoundly necessary in disaster situations and afterwards. There was a sense of betrayal because it didn’t work, and, at the same time, a sense of wonder because it DID work eventually
- There was a lot of reporting very fast learning and adopting of new uses of technology – text messaging, cell phones, discovering new users for the Internet.
- There is also a sense of trying to put “yourself out there so that not just people down in NOLA know about us”
- There was an understanding of a too-insular culture although it’s hard to say whether that was new or not.
