Research Catalog

Title

The next billion users : digital life beyond the West / Payal Arora.

Author

Arora, Payal

Publication

• Cambridge, Massachusetts : Harvard University Press, 2019.
• ©2019

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

269 pages; 22 cm

Summary

"New-media pundits obsess over online privacy and security, cyberbullying, and revenge porn, but do these things really matter in most of the world? The Next Billion Users reveals that many assumptions about internet use in developing countries are wrong. After immersing herself in factory towns, slums, townships, and favelas, Payal Arora assesses real patterns of internet usage in India, China, South Africa, Brazil, and the Middle East. She finds Himalayan teens growing closer by sharing a single computer with common passwords and profiles. In China's gaming factories, the line between work and leisure disappears. In Riyadh, a group of young women organize a YouTube fashion show. Why do citizens of states with strict surveillance policies appear to care so little about their digital privacy? Why do Brazilians eschew geo-tagging on social media? What drives young Indians to friend 'foreign' strangers on Facebook and give 'missed calls' to people? The Next Billion Users answers these questions and many more. Through extensive fieldwork, Arora demonstrates that the global poor are far from virtuous utilitarians who mainly go online to study, find jobs, and obtain health information. She reveals habits of use bound to intrigue everyone from casual internet users to developers of global digital platforms to organizations seeking to reach the next billion internet users" --

Alternative Title

Digital life beyond the West

Subjects

• Internet > Social aspects
• Internet and the poor
• Computer security
• Internet > Social aspects > Developing countries
• Informational works
• Developing countries
• Internet users > Developing countries
• Internet and the poor > Developing countries
• Computer security > Developing countries

Genre/Form

Informational works.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (pages [217]-259) and index.

Contents

The leisure divide -- Deviant by design -- Media bandits -- The virtuous poor -- Slumdog inspiration -- The poverty laboratory -- Privacy, paucity, and profit -- Forbidden love.

Call Number

JFD 20-2166

ISBN

• 9780674983786
• 0674983785

LCCN

• 2018038724
• 40028847197

OCLC

1057240289

Author

Arora, Payal, author.

Title

The next billion users : digital life beyond the West / Payal Arora.

Publisher

Cambridge, Massachusetts : Harvard University Press, 2019.

Copyright Date

©2019

Type of Content

text

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Creator/Contributor Characteristics

Occupation/field of activity group: University and college faculty members

Gender group: Women

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references (pages [217]-259) and index.

Local Note

AUTH: ERASMUS UNIVERSITY, ROTTERDAM

Other Standard Identifier

40028847197

Research Call Number

JFD 20-2166