Technologies’ Social Roles in Everyday Life: A Case Study on Media Practice through Facebook’s Check-ins

本文主要討論在日常生活中，以智慧型手機和社群網站Facebook打卡為主的媒體實踐所扮演的社交角色以及實踐者的空間經驗感受，試圖描繪科技帶來社交網絡的連結，並且透過現代科技漫遊者的實踐，混淆日常性和觀光凝視的界線。從媒體實踐取徑，觀察生活中各種實踐行動，試圖勾勒媒體實踐如何定錨社交關係，以及人為主體的媒介消費複雜性。 研究以民族誌法為研究方法，結合線上觀察、線下田野、深度訪談，研究三個身處不同社交圈位置的個案；研究者以參與觀察的方式進入研究對象的生活、工作、休閒場域，期以從實踐者的生活方式，理解日常生活中細瑣行動的動態關係。 研究發現，作為新科技的Facebook打卡和智慧型手機，身處社交圈不同位置的實踐者在近用之後能發展機會，包括鞏固意見領袖地位、晉升為領導者、創造與他人的連結；而Facebook的標籤功能、打卡時機的調整、省略打卡位置等實踐，成為實踐者挪用以建立社交關係。 實踐者是為現代的科技漫遊者，在漫遊城市時透過打卡找到新空間經驗感受，這些經驗包括：(1) 日常生活與觀光凝視的界線流動，實踐者凝視平凡的日常找到非比尋常，將之轉化為打卡題材；(2) 打卡實踐是實踐者既地方性又全球性的文本生產，讓地標賦予了既真實又虛擬的混合空間意涵，實踐者於其中觀展表演而自我揭露；(3) 打卡鞏固了觀光凝視的空間經驗，實踐者的空間感受並非固定，而可能既溫暖有情感又陳悶的儀式，打卡實踐添增了生活中面對鏡頭的觀光客姿態。實踐者面對科技物質特性、社會關係、監視構成的結構性限制，能找到方式因應，但其能施展的自由與機會也有局限性。The aim of the research investigates Facebook’s check-ins as a media practice that plays a crucial social role in everyday life. While walking in the city nowadays, a practitioner can convey his/her feelings, uploading stories and photos to social network websites through mobile technologies. A practitioner’s gaze upon spectacle of the city brings him/her complicated media experience in the media-drenched world, which turns a practitioner into a tourist and a flâneur. The study explores practitioners’ media consumption in everyday life. My empirical study focuses on three cases, who are heavy users of smart phones and in favor of check-ins on Facebook. The three cases situate in different social status and develope different social relationships through Facebook. By choosing ethnography as my method, I am a participant-as-observer who immerse in on-line and off-line field work. My findings indicate that smart phones and check-ins on Facebook provide opportunities and resources for practitioners. A keen adopter of technologies becomes an opinion leader, and her practice of check-ins brings her a fashionable image. The person who owns ordinary fellowship becomes an opinion leader in his peer group by acquiring technology skills. The practitioners use tagging and adjust the timing of check-ins to create social connection with friends. A practitioner, who is also a tourist and a flâneur, finds new feelings through mobile technologies when walking in the city. (1) The boundary between everyday life and tourism is not fixed, but weaves in a flow instead. (2) Geo-tagging symbolizes a hybrid space, in which contains virtual and physical information. (3) The practices of check-ins embody the tourist gaze. The sense of place is a flow, and practitioners may find warm or chill places through different media practices. However, the tension of interaction between people and technologies brings several unexpected troubles. The practitioner combats these problems by using tactics with agency, while he/she faces the power of structure which limits agency at the same time