music/spinning/vietnam

I'm so ready for the 18.15-spinning class at Centrum Athletica (warning: do not try to open this page in safari - these pages are beyond bad web-design). The instructor has a great play-list, including artists/songs like: Foo Fighters, The Streets, White Stripes (Jolene), Nancy Sinatra (Bang Bang from Kill Bill), Eminem, Queens of the Stone Age, Gluecifer. On the not-my-favourite-but-still-ok side: U2 (Vertigo, I admit - it's quite good), Marilyn Manson (cover on Personal Jesus, yeah - very cool). Oh, I think I'd love to be a spinning-instructor. My play-lists would blow you away. I actually think I'd rather be an instructor than a dj. Of some reason.

Update after work-out: He actually played Dolly Parton's original Jolene, no White Stripes at all. Jolene was a retro-hit long before White Stripes did it, right?

By the way: First two weeks in February I'm going to Vietnam with Lasse. Our plan is to cycle from Bao Loc (about 130 km northeast of Ho Chi Minh City) to Da lat, to Phan Rhang, and then follow the east-coast all the way to Hue. That'll be about 900 km. In ten days.

social media

I visited Glemmen upper secondary school on Friday to help the three groups who are part of the Holberg Prize school projects. They seem to get along quite well on their own though. They now have one week left to complete their research projects. They have conducted a quantitative survey (with 300 respondents), several qualitative group- and individual interviews and an experiment in real-life settings.

I'd like to share some of the experiences of the group who are exploring youth and media-dependency. In order to explore their research theme, they lived without mass and personal media for two weeks: no music, no TV, no radio, no papers or magazines, no cell-phone, IM or no Internet. They were allowed to use the computer for school-work only and, yes, they were allowed to read books. I wasn't too surprised to learn that they seriously missed music and personal media. The interesting thing concerns how media use generally is very social. One of the girls said she hardly saw her friends, as she couldn't join them when they were watching movies or TV together. All of them said their friends were annoyed by the project, as they were no longer available from a distance. In fact, their friends were more annoyed than they were themselves. Living without media further meant being more bored, reading far more books, and physically moving around a lot more.

riding comfortably or not

I was very unhappy to see that I had a flat tire for the forth time in two weeks. I always check the tire for suspicious objects, and last week I removed an obviously guilty metal-object. Yet, flat tire again. Seriously! This can hardly be a coincidence - somebody must be doing it on purpose. Point is, I did not have time to fix it yesterday, which meant I had to take my mountain-bike this morning. Riding it felt completely ridiculous after three months of comfy-bicycling. I bought my beautiful yellow bike in July, and hereby recommend comfortable 1-speed bicycles for everyone. Oslo is a lot of up-and-down, but I really haven't had any use for a more complicated bicycle. I'll soon need to use my mountain-bike anyway though, as the studded tire-season is coming up.

identity selves persons ego individuals

One of the initial research questions for my phd-project has been How do young people express and perform their identity through use of personal media. Clearly this is not a very original question to pose, and I realise I'm facing a real challenge in constructing an approach that feels fresh and less exhausted. Like, how much more can you squeeze out of Goffman applied to digital presentations of self? Pretty much, I'm sure, but I really would like to look somewhat beyond dramaturgical regions and roles. I think I'd like to add the idea of hypothetical core-self (not as a fixed entity). I cannot uncover the "true selves" of my informants, and the research interviews I've conducted are very far from psychotherapy a la Carl Rogers, where clients get in touch with and appreciate their "real me" after about 40 therapy-sessions. Still, the ultimate cliche within my research area is that people more easily reveal their "true self" or their "real me" in computer-mediated communication (see for instance John A. Bargh et al. "Can You See the Real Me? Activation and Expression of the "True Self" on the Internet" in Journal of Social Issues). My interviews indicate this as well.

I'll try to figure it out during the next few months. Definitely need to do some reading.

stuff

I'm off to Narvik tomorrow to visit boyfriend who works there for a couple of months. I'll be working too of course. Only now with a beautiful view of mountains and fjords. I'll be back on Monday, but I still had to do some packing. Which in our gadget-times means cable/adapters/chargers-packing. Life's getting complicated...