10 - DA - Part 1 - way too many notes

Excerpt 1

S    so how do you think you felt about computers (when you were young- in grade school/middle school).

A    I loved it - I loved it because, when I discovered what AOL was - that I could email my friends, put in little pictures, photoshop - all those things - and like chat with people my age - which can be dangerous.  We didn't have a computer, but we had web tv.  Must have been in fifth grade.  And it was a slow connection and you could have a little keyboard, and you could, check your email, and you could also chat strangers - which was dangerous cause I think I talked to a pedophile I'm not sure, I I was in fifth grade I gave him my phone number when he called me I hung up I was so scared

S    what did that experience do

A    That was scary. because

S    did you tell your mom

A    no I never told my mom or my dad

S    we'll be careful if we publish this (laughing)

A    I mean, I think I told them later on when I was in college, but it's dangerous, cause my parents weren't familiar with computers or web tv and I was a child exploring it -like - there was no restrictions, my parents didn't know how to put restrictions, they weren't too familiar with it.  It's only maybe three of four years ago that my mom learned how to use a computer so being a child, discovering it on your own could be really dangerous when there's chat rooms, and talking to people telling you that they're your age, but they're not[1]

S    Exactly

A    That was scary experience

S    But you figured that out, you knew to hang up when you got the call

A    Yeah, well as soon as I heard a deep voice [2]  I was like, that is not a kid, and like I think he asked me what I was wearing, and so I I was like, I'm wearing pajamas - bye, and I was like Oh my gosh, he's going to find where I live, my mom's [15] going to kill me, so I didn't go on WebTv for a long time [3]

S    Oh my.  So that was frightening. but it was also  - how did that change the way you used it then?

A    I was careful, and then I was strict on my younger sister and my brothers using the computer.  I also hogged the computer because I liked talking to my friends. But when my sister started going online I would check up on who she's talking to, I would look over, I would check the history, see what websites she went on [4]

S    and how old were you when you were doing that.

A    High school.  I was in high school.  I was more familiar with it. And we started learning more about computers from the in middle school in high school by that time I was able to email who ever I wanted, and research, very familiar with the internet [5][6]

Excerpt 2

S    so what did you and your friends do on the computer in a typical session - if you went over to your friend down the street [7]

A    check our emails, check our home pages, see if people left us messages, go in chat rooms and chat with our friends, exchange pictures with people that lived in our area that was our age, which could be dangerous[8], cause they could be imposters, we really didn't care

//

A    I think paint came with our computers,  I remember eight grade we were playing with like drawing our own little pictures, um changing the backgrounds and printing out whatever we did on paint, and then it evolved into photoshop, and making my eyes green, and fixing my cousin's nose to make it a little pointier, and then sending it to people[9] will all the photoshop, so we had a lot of fun

S    oh you did (laughing) you did

A    we would make ourselves a little thinner, and that's what we did though, I think half of our albums were photoshopped, so um

S    so how often did you use technology with your friends?

A    every time we hung out

S    every time, every time

A    every time, that was just our way of life afterwards

S    do you have a particular story about one one adventure with technology (laughing)

A    um, one time we were in a chat room, chatting, well my friend and I were like, oh lets go with that guy's sceen name[10] , and then, he was like do you have a picture, we sent a picture, we found out it was our pastor's son who was like 20, and we're like eeuew he's like an older brother, and then when he saw our picture he's like why are you doing that, why were you [11] sending pictures to strangers, and kind of got mad at us

S    oh that's really funny it backfired on both of you

A    it was kind of embarassing, we were like eeuuew, we [12] go to church with him, he's old,

S    that's really funny [13] how old were you then

A    we were freshman in high school

S    ok so you were about 14

16

A    yeah, and he was bout 20, and he was like our older brother, too, and we were like, so now we know how you pick us girls, all these girls you met were from the chat room[14]

S    that's really funny

A    that was a weird story

S    that's a funny story, and it's funny, it's like a reprise of the story when you were little, and you gave, but it's um

A    well this time it's someone I know and I think we lied about our age, too, so we said, every time we were 14 we'd at 3 or 4 extra years, we wanted to sound older (small laugh) and we would change our screen name so many times, cause we're like  'ahh, we want to have a new personality today'

S    laughing

A    we're like "pinkgirlloves whatever" or there, like our new boyfriends name, like Angelalovewhateverhisnameis - we changed it every week.   What can you do?

---

 [1] Speaker has some reservations – it takes three times to get the first story out.

 [2] [blue] Gender/fear – there are MEN on the internet – this is scary because she is female, because she is a young woman.(Who has power on the internet?) There are some serious issues that A has with trusting men and feeling inferior to men – this is the reason for her fear. On the internet, nobody can hurt you (physically) because they don’t know who/where you are – her fear is not of being emotionally hurt, but physically hurt – she would have to empower the man to hurt her (by giving her phone number, address, etc.) despite the fact that she clearly knew better, even as a child. Did she feel so fearful of men that she gave him her number anyway? Was she bullied by her own blossoming sexuality?

[3] [Green] Occurrences in individualism – looks at the internet as a “new horizon” – a new world, a place to explore where she does not have rules. The internet is not exciting because she can change her profile name, but because nobody is telling her what to to do. This is probably her first experience of doing something on her own because she was so young.

[4] A learns from her mistakes – and feels that she should pass these lessons on to her younger sister. She has power over her sister – she mentions that she has brothers, but specifies checking on her sister – they probably have a close relationship, A definitely acts as a secondary mother to her sister regarding the internet – because her parents don’t know how to use the internet. She is not as concerned with her brothers, does not mention that she was checking on them at all. Overall, A thinks that the internet is a scary place for woman/girls, the fear exists for women based on the occurrence of male predators rather than female ones.

[5] Despite her usual inclination to take over the conversation, S says very little in the first part of this interview. It is clear that A has the power – S is interested in what she is saying and wants to know more. She is listening, and her questions do not shape the conversation. Instead, she asks for more information about the things A is already talking about. A’s commentary shapes the conversation – she talks about the pedophile situation, and then talks about how her parents are inexperienced with the internet. S asks about how that changed the way she used the web, which asserted power and changed the topic slightly – introduced a new idea.

[6] [Yellow] Occurrences of “fear” or danger. A clearly equates the internet (at least in part,) to a dangerous or scary place.

[7]I assume that because there is a second excerpt, there is a whole conversation between the two that had little to do with the topic or would not be helpful for this DA. This shows that there is a relationship between S and A, at least somewhat – they are comfortable speaking to each other. The relationship is also obvious in the way that A takes over the conversation, considering that S is so prone to make power moves during an interview.

[8]A talks about how dangerous the internet is several times – first in her childhood story, and then mentions watching over her little sister, and then the dangers when she was in high school. I find this odd because she was unprompted – S simply asks her how she felt about the internet. A says that she loves it – but then talks about how scary it can be, over and over again. She loves something she fears, perhaps she likes the internet because it’s adrenaline, it’s a rush..

[9] [Grey] This is a normal body image issue with a teenager, but in the context of the internet, it shows A’s continued fear of men -  a need to appeal to them, etc.

[10]Again, about men! The internet is a place to interact with men, to meet men, to be fearful of men, that makes A uncomfortable around men, even as she has grown older and learned more about it.

[11]Uses “you” often – when talking about things she knows she shouldn’t have been doing – she shifts the responsibility for doing something she knows was wrong.

[12]Uses “we” rather than I – she is still doing something she oughtn’t, but shares the blame with her friends. “We” is more confident than “I” – A is supported by her friends, she only feels confident when she relates her actions to things that she and her friends were doing, rather than something just she was doing.

[13]With A’s confidence in this part of the discussion, S finds her funny – and each time S mentions that she thinks it’s funny, it gives A more confidence and she divulges more information.
[14] Despite the amount of time A spends on the internet with her friends looking at and talking to guys, she still judges the pastor's son for doing the same thing. What is the difference between her and her friends using the chatrooms and the son doing it? Is this another gender issue, or does she separate herself even though they were likely doing the same thing?
[15] Relationship with her parents/family - respect for her parent's views - did she take her parents morals with her onto the internet?

 I think it's clear that I want to do my DA on this transcript by the amount I have written already, haha. I'm interested in analyzing in terms of sexuality, gender,  the relationship than women have with men in general as a society/culture, the limit of "individualism" a woman can achieve in relation to media ideals (make-up, models, looking thin, etc.) and how this continues from real life to the internet via chatrooms and social networking.