domestic tech

 Both these information technology companies assured people, in 1916 and in 1996,

that the revolutionary new technology would shrink the nation and link it together.

In 1996 a pioneering spirit still prevailed, a sense of being on the threshold of the new IT

society. There was an aura about things like home pages, chat groups, and Internet shopping that

provoked curiosity. The rhetoric was inflated. Just a couple of years later, however, a great deal

of the novelty has been incorporated into everyday life, become commonplace, a matter of course. It

In the very near future, our ability to communicate is expected to be intensified and multiplied œ

for better or worse. In the age of digital technology it may be useful to remember that people have

always communicated with each other and that all previous societies could also be called information

societies. Every social community has its specific communication needs and creates its own media

tools. When something new comes along, what then does its newness consist of? What are the qualities

of each new œinformation societyœ that previous societies lacked?

If you consult the dictionary you will be told that the word communication comes from the Latin verb

communicare, which literally means œto make common.œ Communication is thus about forging common bonds

between people. This of course can be done in many different ways, but from the perspective of culture

studies, communication is primarily about expressing thoughts and experiences in a form whereby they

are accessible œ both to oneself and to others.

To put it another way, it can be said that communication is about expression and making an

impression. The basis of all communication technology is the potential to make something perceptible

to the senses; this is naturally limited by peopleœs perceptual capacity and must therefore be related

to what can be apprehended by sight, hearing, touch, and so on. Communication technology œ or

information technology if you like œ is a matter of transforming thoughts and experiences into

message-carrying signals that can be perceived by the senses.

Ulf Hannerz (1990) has singled out the media as œthe special technology of culture.œ Each society,

each culture elaborates its own possibilities for communication, its own information technology, and

its own media by creating links and connections in everyday life.

In research into the media, communication technology, and culture, some of the paths across this

multidisciplinary field have been more heavily trodden than others. From an ethnological perspective,

we want to discuss three aspects that do not often receive the treatment they deserve.