Open AccessI'm Not Scaling, the World Is Really Scaling Against Me: Or, What Will 4 People Think / Chaar Log Kya Kahenge
Author(s) -
KAUL SMRITI
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
ethnographic praxis in industry conference proceedings
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1559-8918
pISSN - 1559-890X
DOI - 10.1111/epic.12035
Subject(s) - housewife , scale (ratio) , population , girl , social media , media studies , internet privacy , sociology , computer science , psychology , gender studies , geography , world wide web , cartography , developmental psychology , demography
This paper raises the implications of simplifying algorithms for scale and uplifting content that is damaging for human evolution. Technology is powerful because of its scale and also disempowering for the same reason. Scale is in the variables and online media, in the zest of empowering women, is deciding our fate. I get it when the housewife looks to YouTube to cook a meal. However, I also see the heartbreak when what should be freeing is actually being used to throttle progress. When a girl from a small sub‐segment of global population like Rajasthan, while wanting to feel empowered realises that she's unable to measure up? Are we responsible for this? Are our “hashtags” and “likes” fuelling our continued repression? As an ethnographer, I study media consumption to overcome barriers to participation in the online world, and as a gender trainer, I also create and use media content to overcome barriers in the real world. I find myself continually curious about what we learn and how we replicate. Hence I'm concerned that the models we have for scale aren't healthy especially for girls and women. Can we consider a shift from quantity to quality of scale ‐ from how many to how? Can we find a path that broadens the evaluation for scale? What might be the indicators for scale that progress society?