Foreword 1 - Media for Work and Play in a Pandemic World

Summary

There is a fair chance that readers will react to this volume in ways that the editors and authors probably did not anticipate when they first began working on this project. As I write this foreword, most of us are several weeks into a stay-at-home order issued by leaders across the globe in reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic. Institutions of higher learning, schools, businesses, governments, non-profits, and other organisations have scrambled to move day-to-day operations, if they are able, to various online platforms. Businesses that rely exclusively on brick-and-mortar outlets with face-to-face interaction are struggling to survive and as each day passes there is a growing sense that the world will never be the same.

That both work and play are being rapidly redefined through our technology-mediated interactions underscores the relevancy of this book's themes. While the authors address social transformation through the acceptance and rejection of media technology in East Asian societies, these themes also speak to the global phenomenon of technology diffusion in this period of pandemic and social distancing.

These chapters offer context to ground discussion about media technology utilisation both before and after COVID-19. The idea of place, for instance, has taken on new meanings. To be sure, physical space increasingly competes with virtual, augmented, imagined, ephemeral space for our attention and money.

What is the shape of that competition to come? The authors here contextualise global, regional, and local spaces that determine markets for media content and devices. Several of them explicitly make note of the new social spaces and subcultures that media technology enables and creates. An unexpected characteristic of these new spaces is how non-universal they are, with the occasional exception such as Pokémon GO (even in this case, user experiences depend on place-specific, augmented, physical space). Markets for social platforms appear to respect boundaries of all kinds, while also creating and enabling non-place-specific micro-populations of enthusiasts, otaku, and dependent users to emerge. They empower individuals to overcome disability, anxiety, and loneliness. Yet they also amplify social dynamics such as inequality, inequity, political and social polarisation, mob mentality, and exclusion.

Though this volume focuses on East Asian societies, the insights can be applied and extended to other societies. A significant share of new media technologies and content originates in East Asia and finds explosive popularity around the globe.