Futures of Learning

While undertaking research for my blog posts, I came across Ingene, which calls itself the “first-ever Indian youth trend research blog” (http://ingene.blogspot.com/2008/08/indian-youth-lifestyle.html). Here is how the researchers in Ingene categorized Indian youth:

“with the first ever non-socialistic generation’s thriving aspiration & new found money power combined with steadily growing GDP, bubbling IT industry and increasing list of confident young entrepreneurs, the scenario appears very lucrative for the global and local retailers to target the “Youngisthan” (young-India). But, the secret remains in the understanding of the finer AIOs of this generation. The Indian youth segment roughly estimates close to 250million (between the ages of fifteen and twenty-five) and can be broadly divided into three categories: the Bharatiyas, the Indians & the Inglodians (copyright Kaustav SG 2008). The Bharatiyas estimating 67% of the young population lives in the rural areas with least influence of globalization, high traditional values. They are least economically privileged, most family oriented Bollywood influenced generation. The Indians constitute 31.5% and have moderate global influence. They are well aware of the global trends but rooted to the Indian family values, customs and ethos. The Inglodians are basically the creamy layers and marginal (1.5% or roughly three million) in number though they are strongly growing (70% growth rate). Inglodians are affluent and consume most of the trendy & luxury items. They are internet savvy & the believers of global-village (a place where there is no difference between east & west, developing & developed countries etc.), highly influenced by the western music, food, fashion & culture yet Indian at heart” (http://ingene.blogspot.com/2008/08/indian-youth-lifestyle.html).

I am quoting this characterization at length because in spite of its obvious commercial slant, it speaks to a challenge of writing about new media practices among young Indians. This group encompasses several hundred million people, and is marked by geographical, socio-economic and gender differences. It is therefore impossible to study, or talk about, them as one group. Market segmentation exercises, however dubious they might be to academic researchers, are usually the first to studying and understanding (as well as commercially exploiting) these differences. In spite of their generalizations, they can provide a baseline for orientation purposes.

Taking into consideration the heterogeneity of Indian youth, there are three overarching themes that can be ascertained from my (popular and academic) literature review of their new media practices. Firstly, there is precisely the intersection of new media technologies with commercial interests that has been apparent in most of my blog entries. This corporate presence is visible in the existence of Microsoft Research India (MRI), which is producing numerous studies of especially poorer Indians’ technology consumption with an eye towards Microsoft’s interests; to the rapidly growing gaming and mobile markets that entice tech companies with the promise of millions of new customers, from the growing middle class to the bottom of the (economic) pyramid, and to corporate sponsorship of technology programs such as HP’s i-community and Adobe’s Youth Voices program. As a BRIC country, India is a powerful emerging economy, and technology production and consumption are important ingredients in the country’s economic growth. Academic literature on these dynamics, however, has been scarce (except the studies produced by MRI’s researchers), which might be due to a certain academic disdain for all things commercial.

Secondly, new media technologies are one of the areas in India where the old meets the new, and where the tensions around this encounter play out. Descriptions like “school kids on the street corners swarming around the mobilewallah pushing his cart and generator peddling the latest Nokia N Series amidst a backdrop of chickens, cows, temples, noise, dirt and traffic (http://www.mobileyouth.org/post/indian-mobile-youth-by-2012-one-in-5-of-worlds-mobile-youth-will-live-in-india-video/) are often capturing the scenes in journalistic and popular accounts. In the academic literature, especially the occurrence of critical incidences such as the Delhi Public School scandal (see Part 2), has led some Indian scholars to think about a moral panic emerging around new media technology consumption by the country’s young, especially when it comes to its potential to subvert or outright challenge traditional norms of gender, sexuality and family relations. Such public fears, and their materialization in government attempts to restrict or ban new technologies, are countered by claims about the inevitable advance of technological progress, claims that are usually made and broadcasted via the same new media technologies.

Thirdly, given the vast social inequities existing within India, the country has also been a laboratory for experiments with new technologies for development purposes. These can be found across all technology and media types – indeed, the convergence between different platforms is found in India as much as in other countries under study - and aim to harness the power and potentials of new technologies to improve economic situations, education, health and government services, among others. It is here where the majority of the academic literature is concentrated, which is often based on case studies and aimed at scholar-practitioners or development experts. Given the initial hype that surrounded ICTD (Information and Communication Technologies for Development), it is not surprising that studies that critically examine the use of new technologies through situating this use in its socio-cultural, political and economic contexts, are also beginning to emerge in this area.

In general, research embedding technology consumption and production in young Indian’s everyday lives is one of the most promising avenues for future scholarship. Others are studies of localization, that is of the creative uses Indian youth make of new media technologies in appropriating them to their own life experiences and circumstances. Because the prosumption of new media technologies in India is so dynamic, its analysis can also yield important insights for advancing more theoretical studies of new media. If the present record is anything to go by, Indian scholars will participate in this scholarship in equal measures to non-Indians, and because the former publish in English, their analysis of the multifaceted and creative ways in which Indian youth engage with new media technologies is accessible to a broad audience.

Given the slowness of the academic publication mill, many interesting findings exist so far in conference papers and more informal publication venues, which thanks to these same technologies are just as, and sometimes even more public, than traditional peer-reviewed journals and edited collections. I hope that it has become obvious, from my overview of this literature as well as popular and journalistic sources of information, that new media practices in India constitute an exciting terrain for future insights into the ways these technologies articulate with all of our lives. Thank you for coming with me on this exploratory journey, and please stay tuned for its next destination, Brazil, presented by my colleague Heather Horst starting next Monday.