I didn’t bring my mobile”: changing technology use in a Mexican village
Abstract
The cellphone has been a prevalent motif of recent research on technology and development. Yet, the cellphone is only one new technology amongst many that are influencing and affecting the life of new technology users in emerging regions. In this paper we outline our recent work in Mexico studying how some youth are supplementing their use of cellphones and moving onto internet communication methods such as instant messaging and websites such as YouTube and Wikipedia. We present early results from studying a Oaxacan village in the mountains of the Mixtec Baja. Despite the relative geographic and economic isolation of this village, technology is heavily used by the youth of the village, funded in part by migrant remittances from north of the border. While few homes have running water, some children have iPods and the internet cafe in the closest town is heavily used to access YouTube, Wikipedia, and MSN messenger. We document the ways in which the internet has come to be used to communicate both within the village and across Mexico. Even though there is no internet in the village, young users who spend time at the nearest town have found a way to incorporate internet cafes into their daily lives. Alongside cost, the internet fits into the communication patterns and daily routines in a way that cellphones do not. We show the various ways communication strategies have developed around an ecosystem of technology tools. Instead of the more common story of cellphones replacing the PC, we are finding that new users are finding ways to incorporate instant messenger into their communication practices in ways that replace or reduce their cellphone use. In conclusion we discuss the relevance of these results for the future lives of these new youth users.
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