Daniel Miller: The global evolution of smart technologies
Channel: Alexander von Humboldt Institut for internet and society
Date: 28/11/2023

When we talk about technologies such as smartphones we assume that it is the technology that is smart. But who puts the smart into smart digital communication? The answers to this question can be found in the creativity and skill of the populations that use digital platforms, social media or ‘intelligent’ devices.  Users are often able to transform them into something very different from what companies and developers envisioned when they produced and created them.

In his talk, Daniel Miller will present the results of ten years of ethnographic research on the use of digital media by ordinary populations and their social consequences across the world, from China to Italy and from Uganda to Brazil. He argues that we need scholarly evidence drawn from the everyday lives of people to complement the influence of major academic thinkers. His lecture emphasises the need for respect and empathy for the ingenuity of ordinary people and the ways they appropriate digital technologies.

Daniel Miller is Professor of Anthropology at University College London. He published his first book on the impact of the Internet in 2000. From 2012-2022 he led two major research projects: Why We Post on the use and consequences of social media and ASSA – Anthropology of Smartphones and Smart Ageing. These projects have produced 19 volumes based on ethnographies all around the world and were summarised in How the World Changed Social Media and The Global Smartphone (UCL Press).

The event took place on 21 November 2023, 8pm, at the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin.

The moderation was done by Tobi Müller.

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