Playing in Technological Contexts

This paper aims to analyse the relation between playing and cultural consumption in technological contexts through the experience and know-how of boys and girls. We have taken as our analysis source the findings of the comparative investigation 'Use and enjm;ment of internet by children ages eight to ten in three schools in Argentina, Paraguay and Peru' headed by Save the Children Swedenregional office for Latin America and the Caribbean, Chicos.net (Argentina) and Global Infancia (Paraguay). In the present investigation we found that over and above the differences and particularities existing in each national context, countries have in common the use and enjoyment that boys and girls obtain out of surfing in the web, but this bears a mark in terms of class, gender, age and socioeconomic level. In this article we intend to analyse haw these variables intervene and combine themselves in the culturai consumption that boys and girls perform in different technological contexts, directing their wishes, fantasies and preferences. 1. Current Context: Globalisation and Consumption In current political-economic global context, fluidity and juxtapositions prevail. Economic globalisation coexists with political fragmentation shaping blocks where paradoxically national borders become blurred while the borders of the economic blocks condense themselves. Culture and imagination, which in 'post-electronic' context have a 'significantly new' role (Appadurai, 2001: 21), do not escape the logic of late capitalism, both are being transformed from consumer goods to change goods. We understand by culture a complex plot of practices, beliefs and meanings and recognise the fundamental role which the cultural industry fulfils in contemporary world. • Address for Communication: •Teacher, Department of Social Sciences, Pontificia Universidad Cat61ica del Peru. The Oriental Anthropologist, Vol. 14, No. 2, 2014, Pages 305-319 © OICSR, Allahabad Corresponding Author E-mail : rtrinidad@pucp.edu.pe 306 Rocio Trinidad and Natalia Zlachevsky This industry, according to Renata Ortiz, produces symbolic repertoires and distributes them worldwide establishing hierarchical relations, exercising influence and subordinating some meanings over others (Soto Calder6n, 2007). Consequently, we consider that the success of the spread tjf capitalism, as a social system, is due to the fact that 'it finds anchorage points at a subjective level' (Papalini, 2008: 16). In thjs sense, surfing and the consumption of cultural products in the web for boys and girls constitute a formative experience in relation to plunging into the consumption world. As consumers, from increasingly younger ages, their subjectivity is built to the rate of the market. On such matter, we highlight Pierre Bourdieu 's contribution with regard to global hegemonic culture reproduction. The author emphasises that what is symbolic plays a fundamental role in the way goods are appropriated-from the educational, artistic, scientific ones to even what is fashion-and that all of this will contribute to the 'structuring of the different classes' (Garcia Canclini, cited by Vazquez Villanueva wId: 4). On the other hand, the trends that interpret culture from a Gramscian approach have postulated the existence of a game between control mechanisms and resistance processes. We would like to pay attention to what children internalise from the contents that reproduce certain categories and ideas of the hegemonic culture, which leads us to question ourselves on what room do they have for their development in those processes. A sample of this, as we will see at length in point 3, is made evident in how boys and girls use YouTube. In this video hosting site, their preferences are focused in the consumption of contents from popular culture, which recreate or parody in a free manner the contents of cultural industry. Nevertheless, children are able to build new narratives when selecting or interpreting the videos using their previous experiences. This process allows us to see the unfolding of ad-doc playful practices, where their interests, customs and know-how are actively related. 2. Study and Context: Internet in Argentina, Paraguay and Peru During the past years Internet has penetrated in all of the Latin American countries, although with some differences that demonstrate the existing regional inequalities. Till December 2011, according to Internet World Stats the penetration of the Web reached its highest level in Argentina, where 66 per cent of the population has become an Internet user, while in Peru this is up to 31.3 per cent and in Paraguay penetration reaches 17.1 per cent of the population. (Miniwatts Marketing Group). The younger generations have forced the older ones to make use of the web service in their homes (Bringue, Sadaba and Tolsa, 2009). This abounds in the differences in the familiarity with the new technologies both in information and in communication among digital natives and digital immigrants2• However, this assertion could also be considered The Oriental Anthropologist Playing in Technological Contexts : Use and Enjoyment of Internet by 307 Children Ages Eight to Ten in Argentina, Paraguay and Peru relative if one takes into account the socioeconomic differences as well as the digital gaps that exist in rural and urban areas in distant places in the countries being studied. The study we are working on investigates the use and enjoyment of the web by children ages eight to ten in three schools of different socioeconomic levels in Argentina, Paraguay and Peru. Our interest in getting a closer look to the realities of these three countries is related with the 'post-industrial migration' phenomenon made evident in the south-south migration (Caggiano, 2005: 30) and in the 'widening of the gap between countries'3• The investigation we are referring to, has a qualitative and quantitative component. 1088 surveys were applied to boys and girls from three different schools (of average, high and low socioeconomic levels respectively-which as of now we will identify as CA, CB and CC) located in urban areas of the respective capital cities of Buenos Aires, Lima and Asuncion. Workshops on the observation of free surfing were also carried out in which 94 boys and girls of third grade were observed and 27 teachers, both men and women, were interviewed. In the Latin American urban context there is a tendency to retreat to the domestic ambit, a sort of confinement to their private ambit. This is so since in the investigation carried out most of the children stated that they access the web from their homes and in solitude (86.5 per cent in Argentina, 70.4 percent in Paraguay and 76.2 percent in Peru). While investigating the differences found disaggregating each school, it is important to indicate that in the three participant countries those surveyed in schools of lower socioeconomic level were the ones who scarcely have access to the web from their homes. In the Region, in the past few years, in relation to new technologies and education, State policies have arisen guided towards the incorporation of Information and Communication Technologies in the school ambit 4• Thus the investigation developed revealed that in Paraguay and Peru, school represents the second place from where children surf the web (50.3 per cent and 35.1 per cent respectively) . Although the investigation was not focused specifically on this subject, a meta-reading of the results and a reflection on the experience in which we have participated has allowed us to investigate on the relation established between boys and girls with their learning, games and playing in the web. Next, we will focus on some findings. The proposal to play freely in the school ambit allowed us to sense a tension between the norm and freedom. There is a sort of mischievous attitude among children when in school they access the sites that are not designed exclusively for children such as controlled spaces in which the use of web tools do not resemble those children spontaneously use. The Oriental Anthropologist 308 Rocio Trinidad and Natalia Zlachevsky This tension was expressed openly by a child in a CA school in Argentina when he said he surfs in YouTube and was asked why he had done it while at the workshop, he answered 'because we are at school' and afterwards in the interview he manifested that he had ran into certain contents he had no desire in seeing when surfing in that site at horne. One could specify this point as part of the complexity of the methodological strategies applied in the investigation. During the workshop each child had a PC for his/her use for a thirty minutes span. In most of the experiences we found situations where those who were more expert at it spontaneously helped those who found difficulty at it. In some cases, they became bored playing by themselves and sat next to one of their companions in order to play together. These situations revealed a collaborative and playful way of learning computing. In view of this scenario, some common sense beliefs were expressed, shared by adult teachers in most of the countries, that blame the technologies for 'isolating' children and for slavering them to the machines. Nostalgia and anguish are also expressed in the face of a supposed loss of group games and the face to face characteristic of past days. The fact is that as far as access to computers and Internet gets extended, their use becomes forrna1ised, institutionalised, domesticated and confined to private spaces. In that sense it is essential to ask ourselves: Are there spaces left for free and shared games in the school ambit? Will it be possible for educational institutions to recognise the creative and pedagogic potential of opportunities for playing in technological contexts? In the investigation that took place we found that playing is the main activity that boys and girls fulfil in Internet, that the web-page that is most vis