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Paper short abstract:

This paper explores the relationship between speed, knowledge and power for content creators of the contemporary digital age. Ordinary users have subverted traditional, institutionalised forms of expertise and I argue that this is partially achieved by reacting to digital events time-centrically.

Paper long abstract:

This paper explores how the information-rich digital age brought about cultural-temporal shifts, wherein the fastest contributors to our information repository of digital events enjoy greater visibility and resultant influence. Of particular relevance is the popular phrase “Web 2.0” (O’Reilly 2005), which denotes our changing expectations regarding the relationship between ordinary users and their relatively more potent digital presences. Using a selection of digital ethnographic examples, this paper will document the radically reshaped relations of expertise of the contemporary digital age, in which ordinary users have come to seen as and experience their roles as ‘experts’ (Eysenbach 2008). Accordingly, this paper asserts the significance of ordinary experts’ attuned sense for the unfolding rhythms of digital temporalities and their resultant ability to outperform and subvert traditionally powerful and more established institutionalised expertise. Quick-witted takes on current developments by the likes of Boris Johnson Parody Twitter accounts or TikTok accounts incorporating the audio of Will Smith’s viral encounter with Chris Rock arguably also humanise and blur conventionally more rigid distinctions between 'the official’ and unofficial. Relatedly, Hine’s (2020) notion of pop-up ethnography highlights the need to capitalise on the cultural currents of temporary and opportunistic digital developments, thereby positing what a more temporally-attuned form of participant observation might entail. In sum, an eye for temporal digital rhythms could help us to call into question traditional notions of socio-economic power, consider the psychosocial effects of having to endlessly monitor digital happenings, or even revamp anthropology’s slow and richly-detailed methodological heart.