Exploring Electronic Presence

Fall 2015
University of Arizona
The Honors College
Dr. Victor Braitberg
Instructions for Paper 2 150pts1
DEADLINE November 2 @ 11:59PM (Upload to Dropbox)
Electronic Presence Diary
FORMAT: 5-7 pages, double spaced, numbered pages, Word format. Note that the
word count does not include any graphs, tables, and/or images used to illustrate
your data and/or experience. Paper should be written in paragraph format.
Paragraphs should have topic sentences and clear transitions from one topic to
another.
Part 1: Collect For one dayfrom the time you wake-up to the time you go to bed
monitor every mediated/technological interaction that you have. Similarly to the No Tech
Challenge paper, technology is defined here as anything that displays, sends and/or
receives images, sounds and/or text through electronic circuits and/or is powered by
electricity. The aim will be to document how you are allocating your time to screen and
tech-based interactions versus face-to-face interactions.
Your tech diary should document the following:
1. The hardware that you used. Note the hardware, i.e., Smartphone, laptop, tablet,
ipod, etc..
2. The software or other computer mediated tools that you used. Note the website, app,
social media, video game, etc
3. Note the start and end time of each use of hardware and/or software.
4. Note the activity. Are you studying, listening, watching, talking posting,
chatting, conferencing, lurking, browsing, playing, searching ,
shopping, etc?
5. Note the start and end time of each activity.
6. Note where you are physically with each use. Are you in class, in your dorm, in a
dining hall, sitting outside, etc?
7. Note who you are with physically during each use. Are you with friends, dorm mates,
class mates, sorority sisters or fraternity brothers, study partners, boyfriend,
girlfriend, etc?
Part 2: Calculate and Visualize Crunch your numbers. Reconstruct what you kept track
ofitems 1-7 abovein terms of how much time was allocated to each usage/activity.
Display this visually so that we can see how you are allocating your time for screen and tech
based interactions versus face-to-face interactions.

1 An additional 25 points of extra credit will be awarded to anyone who creates a

template for data collection that will be useful to future students. This template
should be submitted no later than Nov 9. Submit to dropbox.

Part 3: Discuss What patterns do you see based on your visualization of the data? While
not limited to the following questions, you must address all of these in as much detail as
possible with specific examples:
1. After looking over your data, discuss where your physical body is most often versus
where your attention is.
2. Discuss your allocation of time to the different social roles you were performing
student, gamer, friend , boyfriend, son or daughter, employee, etc
3. Discuss who you were communicating with; your allocation of time to different
audiences; family, classmates, close friends, acquaintances, members of an online
community, anonymous strangers, etc.
4. Discuss your activities and whether you allocate more time to activities involving
text, sounds, and/or images? To what extent are you a producer of these texts,
sounds and/or images or a consumer?
5. Discuss where you are physically and socially most often when electronically
elsewhere.
Part 4: Analyze
While not limited to the following questions, you must address all of
these in as much detail as possible:
1. What impact are the functions and capabilities of your hardware and software having
on your pattern of use?
2. What impact are social contexts, expectations, roles, and relationships having on
your pattern of use?
3. What did you learn about yourself and your social and cultural context from doing
this research?
4. How is your experience similar to and/or different from the experiences of people
living in other historical periods of electronic media use? Cite at least two different
readings from our class that discussed the historical experiences of people using
electronic media and compare and contrast their experience with yours. Also cite the
interviews that you did with your grandparent and/or parent regarding their
experiences with electronic media in different historical periods.
5. Apply one idea from the readings which you think is most helpful for making sense of
your data. Include a quote that defines the idea, explain it in your own words, and
show how it can be used to analyze and make sense of your data.

Grading Rubric
1= poor, 2=average, 3= above average, 4 = excellent
__________Clearly presented and detailed listing of modalities used to communicate with
others during the day.
__________Clearly presented and detailed listing of either the total time for each modality
(including face-to-face) or the number of times used. Presentation includes a clear ranking
of the modalities in terms of total time or number of times used from greatest to least.
__________ Detailed discussion of which specific modalities of communication were used to
make oneself present to others. Specific examples illustrate how presence was
communicated (for example text, voice, pictures, video, bodily presence, etc) Thoughtful
discussion of how the study sheds light on the importance of the human body for everyday
communication.
__________Paper is no less than 3 and no more than 5 pages in length. Clearly written and
well organized with few if any spelling and/or grammatical mistakes. Double spaced, one
inch margins, and 12pt font.