At first glimpse it seems that I am simply typing on
a keyboard on a laptop. I sometimes look from the keyboard to the screen
integrated in the laptop. I look over my shoulder several times. I am in a
public place, and there are people around. The people are talking to one
another, but mostly they are engaging in typing on their own laptops and
smartphones. The brightness on my laptop screen is low. I have my laptop close
to me. It sits on the edge of the table in front of me.
At second glimpse it seems that I am engaging in
something on the screen and not
merely on the keyboard. I am in a classroom, and the people around me are my
classmates. The typing corresponds with what is going on virtually; an
encounter on the screen. I look over my shoulder several times, as if I am
nervous or at least alert. It is as if I am keeping an eye on someone or
something. I go back and forth from looking at my screen to looking over my
shoulder. The people around me do not seem to pay much attention to my screen,
since they engage in their own media use - however, I am very observant of
where they look to. The brightness on my laptop screen and the fact that I keep
my laptop close to me enables me to control the visibility of my screen in
relation to my classmates. It seems I only want me to see what is going on.
At third glimpse it seems that I am chatting with
someone on Facebook. There is a social encounter going on, where I type
something, the other person responds and so it goes on. The communication goes
both ways. It seems I'm not comfortable communicating like this (virtually)
with the other people (physically) being in the room. Because of this
discomfort, I look over my shoulder in order to check if someone is lurking.
However, a lot of the people present are engaging in their own social Facebook
encounters on either their laptops or their smartphones. But even though I see
this, my concern is still: Will they look at my screen? I lower the brightness
on my screen in order to make it harder for the people sitting behind me, to
actually see what is going on. The same goes for the fact that I have pulled my
laptop close to me; sitting on the edge of the table.
At fourth glimpse it seems I am afraid that someone
might see what is going on in my conversation on Facebook with a friend. I do
not wish people to read what I write in the message, as I feel it's private and
no one else but me and the receiver should see it. It's my social encounter, my
laptop, my social relation and my thoughts on writing; carefully thought
through and edited several times. I feel as if my classmates are curiously
lurking and crossing over from being external to my social encounter to being
internal, involved and a part of it. I haven't allowed this. If I know they are
looking, it will affect my way of writing. I keep looking over my shoulder to prevent
intruders from looking at my conversation and laptop. I lower the brightness so
that I make it difficult - hopefully impossible - for my classmates to read
what it says in the message. I pull my laptop close to my body - once again to
protect the message, my friend and me from exposure and public display of our
shared privacy. The others need not to know what is going on, and I am going to
make sure that they don't.
At fifth glimpse the entire situation, including shielding
from the people around me and the emotions attached to the piece of social
encounter on Facebook, could be an expression of the level of intimacy and
privacy that I put into having a social encounter on Facebook. The fact that I
feel strongly about people not lurking or 'intruding' says a lot about the
relation I have with both the device on which the social encounter takes place
(the laptop I need to 'protect') and the actual conversation on Facebook. I
feel as if the encounter is personal, private and such a significant part of me
that I go to actual physical lengths in order to keep the virtual social
encounter separated from the physical
setting, I am in (i.e. lowering the brightness on the screen and pulling the
laptop close to me).
[1] "[...] investigate[s] the particular
circumstances present in the scene, and only then move toward grander
statements and theories (Geertz as described in Tracy, 2013, p. 3)
[2] "[...] which means that behavior is described
from the actor's point of view and is context-specific" (Tracy, 2013, p.
21)
[3] "[...] in which researchers describe behavior in
terms of external criteria that are already derived [...]" (Tracy, 2013,
p. 21)
[4] "[...] a focused description of a series of
events taken to be representative, typical, or emblematic [...] they exemplify
a key argument or claim" (Tracy, 2013, p. 208)
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