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No matter where we most often find ourselves on this curve, in the areas of social and visual media, we are all participants and impacted by it at some level. I cannot even begin to catalogue the number of pictures, videos, stories, and visual input in my \u2018inner library\u2019 over the years.\u00a0I can bemoan the effects of Instagram and YouTube on young people but they are realities that will not be going away any time soon. They are culture shapers and influencers and we should pay attention.<\/p>\n
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I am wrestling through my thoughts on what Pink asserts and where the dangers are for us in the digital age we find ourselves in. But her attempt to borrow from others to define ethnography was helpful. Pink offers that it is a method that \u201cinvolves the ethnographer participating, overtly or covertly, in people\u2019s daily lives for an extended period of time, watching what happens, listening to what is said, asking questions\u2014in fact, collecting whatever data are available to throw light on the issues that are the focus of the research.\u201d[2]<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Watching…listening…asking questions…collecting whatever data is available…over time…in order to give insight on the issues<\/em>. This sounds like good missiology and the work of someone who wants to participate in the Kingdom of God coming to earth. And as we do this difficult work, it would benefit us to consider what culture is watching and listening to. This is where my late-adopter tendency does not serve me well.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Why is YouTube a thing again? I do not know. YouTube has made a comeback of sorts and I am curious as to what there is to learn from it. I hear my kids talk about it more and more. So I did some light research – a method called ‘googling’. \ud83d\ude42 The video with the highest number of views is currently the music video for \u2018Despacito\u2019 by Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee. I have never heard these names before. It has over 5.6 billion views<\/em> and was launched almost two years ago. It took Gangnam Style, a previous most watched video, five months to hit 1 billion views. In comparison,\u00a0Despacito took just 97 days.[3]<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Why? What is the message in this song? How do we leverage this to understand and communicate in our culture? In our communities? In our homes?\u00a0What questions can I bring to what over 5 billion people have watched? What can I learn about culture and what the values are? Where is the line with how far to take cultural relevance? What are my assumptions as I listen and watch? Because as Pink points out, the ethnographer always brings themselves to the subject.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I broke down and watched ‘Despacito’ because I thought it would be foolish to mention it here without doing so. It is a Spanish song with overtly sexualized dancing. It is very ‘catchy’ and inappropriate all at the same time. I want to lecture, bemoan and ‘soapbox’ about it. But I am not sure that is good enough ethnographic work. I should listen and ask better questions in order to understand so that when and if I do get to lecture, it can actually connect with the audience.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I may be a late-adopter in many ways but I know that visual ethnography is no longer a question of relevance or necessity. Thoughtful engagement with it at some level is required. And I am challenged to watch…listen…ask questions…collect whatever data is available…over time…in order to give insight on the issues<\/em>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n [1]<\/a>\u00a0Simon Sinek TED Talk video<\/a><\/p>\n