Unplugging Popular Culture

Reconsidering Analog Technology, Materiality, and the “Digital Native

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by K. Shannon Howard

Type

Studies

Subject

Sociology

Keywords

sociology

Publishing date

2020

Publisher

Routledge

Collection

Routledge Research in Cultural and Media Studies

1st publishing

2018

Language

English

Relative size

Physical desc.

Paperback • 172 pages
6 ¼ x 9 ½ inches (16 x 24 cm)

ISBN

978-0-367-66371-1

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Book Presentation:
Unplugging Popular Culture showcases youth and young adult characters from film and television who defy the stereotype of the "digital native" who acts as an unquestioning devotee to screened technologies like the smartphone. In this study, unplugged tools, or non-digital tools, do not necessitate a ban on technology or a refusal to acknowledge its affordances but work instead to highlight the ability of fictional characters to move from high tech settings to low tech ones. By repurposing everyday materials, characters model the process of reusing and upcycling existing materials in innovative ways. In studying examples such as Pitch Perfect, Supernatural, Stranger Things, and Get Out, the book aims to make theories surrounding materiality apparent within popular culture and to help today’s readers reconsider stereotypes of the young people they encounter on a daily basis.

About the Author:
K. Shannon Howard is Assistant Professor in the Department of English and Philosophy at Auburn University Montgomery, USA

Press Reviews:
"There are a lot of books about digital natives that simplify the complex nature of their experience with culture, technology and how that defines their lives. Professor Howard skilfully illustrates the complex nature of digital natives and their love for both their own tech savvy lives and the wonders of the glitches and DIY projects that are as meaningful today as ever before." --Brian Cogan, Molloy College, USA

See the publisher website: Routledge