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Accepted Paper:
Paper Short Abstract:
The walk-along method has been previously used in urban studies. Our “walk” occurred on social media. We followed the Be like Bill meme, gathering 46 unique items in total. The data allows insights into variation, usage and context of posting and sharing.
Paper Abstract:
The walk-along method (see Degen – Rose 2012) has been previously used in urban studies. The works of Michel de Certeau (1984) revealed the potential of walking in the city for discovering ‘secret terrains’ because pedestrians (or ‘the ordinary practitioners of the city’ as he calls them) have a different, less controlled experience of the city. Our “walk” in this study occurred in the digital space. The “place” that informs our study is a terrain for sharing cultural artefacts created by other internet users - social media. A researcher walking in the virtual space has to flexibly adjust to the time and place similarly to walking in the physical space; the observations and collected items reflect time, e.g. season of the year. Although not yet much used in meme research (however, see Luhtakallio – Meriluoto 2022), it is a promising method that takes into account the timeline and particular context of online phenomena.
We followed the meme Be like Bill across the years 2016-2024, gathering 46 unique items in total and giving an insight into the life cycle of this meme: variation, usage and contexts (time, space) of posting and sharing of the meme.
A power play between digital methods and data [WG: Digital Ethnology and Folklore]
Session 2