Paper short abstract:

Drawing on an ethnographic study during lockdown, this paper explores the method of tracing iterative concerns in digital experiences to investigate virtual activities and conduct online ethnography. It reconnects the virtual “there” and the real “here” for reimaging teaching virtual ethnography.

Paper long abstract:

Drawing upon the author’s ethnographic study conducted during a strict lockdown, this paper explores tracing iterative concerns as an innovative method to better engage with both online worlds and the real-life that is increasingly augmented by digital virtuality.

The fundamental question emerging concurrently from investigating virtual activities and conducting online ethnography is: What thread can we follow to capture people’s virtual experiences, which often involve jumping between different interfaces and tasks as well as between virtual and real worlds? Or, how can we structure our investigation into dynamics between individuals and between humans and technology, when the interactive process is distanced or inherently absent?

Confronting these questions, this paper explores the potential of tracing iterative concerns found in digital designs and virtual activities. Iterative concerns suggest that an individual’s response to the current concern determines the form of subsequent concern. Its repetitions create a continuous chain of concerns for people to channel their actions. Iterative concerns have been prominently observed in programmed experiences generated by digital games while they have also profoundly shaped digital labor today.

Building on challenges and insights from my virtual study among platform workers in China, this paper first demonstrates practical ways of delineating iterative concerns. Then, it explores why tracing iterative concerns enables us to reconnect the virtual “there” and the real “here”, which may be previously separated by site-based methods. Finally, it discusses how this method offers a fresh perspective for envisioning virtual ethnography and how it can be taught alongside other ethnographic methods.