Reviewing the Role of Netnographic Research in Bridging the Gap between Youngsters and Adults

Abstract

Either referred to as the information age, computer age or most commonly now as the digital age, this era of an unprecedented technological advancement in all fields has captured the attention of scholars in the humanities to investigate the ubiquitous nature of computing and the prolific use of technology in almost all aspects of human activity. Because the last two decades or so have been characterized by communication based on information technologies, a myriad of researches studying the very nature of human interaction with and through new technologies has escalated. Aiming at redefining humanity in the digital age, many scholars have brought about new theorizations that seek to answer questions like: do we shape technology or is it technology that shapes us? Donna Haraway’s Cyborg theory (1991), for instance, proposes an imaginary world of fusions between animal and machine. Rosi Braidotti’s the Posthuman Project (2012) explains that in the era of advanced postmodernity, the notion of ‘the human’ is both de-stabilized by technologically mediated social relations in a globally connected world and is thrown open to contradictory redefinitions of what is to be human.