This is a really interesting thread.  Ulla I like your explication of the habituation and ICTs.  I agree that we unconsciously incorporate technology into our daily routines as a matter of habit.  I would add that, generally speaking, we are encouraged to do to - to not look too critically at the technologies that surround us.  I have encountered this in Greg Wise's book about Technology and Social Space, as well as an article he wrote published in Cultural Studies (see below for citations).  In my own research I connect this idea of habituation with Bourdieu's notion of habitus (and Dewey's ideas on habit and education, for good measure).  I term this the habit@online, and try to use it to describe the general enculturation and habituation processes you talk about:

"The habit@online is the digital habitus: the ways in which people are encouraged to use technology, based on informal learning structures and the formation of habits
associated with technology use. In the habit@online, communication habits are socially constructed, mediated, and transmitted through learned behaviour and emulation." [reference]

Also, Denise's point about "a kind of invisibility (habituation) - which could tie back into the story of the telephone? as it became a habitual technology" is also interesting.  I think we are very nearly at the point of the computer becoming transparent (until such time as they crash, anyway).

I would be interested to hear thoughts on how we can cultuivate the kind of critical awareness we are speaking around here, in terms of circumventing habituation (though this is at least partially necessary). At what point do we encourage/discourage habituation?  I see part of habituation as being necessary when we are dealing with the amelioration of digital divides and the necessaity to engage people with ICT who might not otherwise be inclined or able to do so.  But, as Wise (and Dewey) point out, the danger is when habits slip from active, critical view. This slippage can be easy when we are encouraged to enter the habitué of the wired world and take up the technologies that promise us convenience. If convenience is our dieu du jour, then it is a sometimes faustian bargain we settle on, I think.

Up until now I have looked at the habit@online with a critical eye towards discourses of desire and affect that congrue with current technologies (web portals, mobile phones).  But now I am contrasting this with the community construction of online portals, and the necessity to encourage, as I said, those in using ICT as we try and work towards a broader conception of digital literacy.  Specifically I am looking at the enculturation processes invovled in constructing a community learning network, and how a community organization is seeking to encourage its constiuents to use ICT, and what tools they are making available for them (a portal - hence my contrast with the commercial portal).

Robert
 

If anyone is interested, I have a couple of articles here:
habit@online: web portals as purchasing ideology (a version of which was delivered at AoIR 2.0)
The Phoneur: Mobile Commerce and the Digital Pedagogies of the Wireless Web
You can also view the "Coles Notes" version here: "Dial In, Sell Out" http://www.shift.com/content/9.2/84/1.html
Signal Event Context: Trace Technologies of the habit@online
(they're all bits of my thesis - I would welcome any criticisms)
 

Wise, J. M. 1997. Exploring technology and social space. London and New Delhi: Sage.
Wise, J. M. 2000. Home: Territory and identity. Cultural Studies 142: 295-310.
 

Ulla Bunz wrote:

<quote who="jeremy hunsinger">
>  and i think many people have begun to think of
> the personal computer as an  appliance like the toaster....
>

As an aside to Jeremy's original inquiry, the above statement reminds me of
something I just heard at the International Communication Association and
thought quite interesting. Robert Larose was making the argument that much of
our Internet/technology use is habitual, rather than guided by active choice
following uses and gratifications theory (a mass communication theory many of
you are probably familiar with). Larose was saying that, i.e., we don't
actually choose consciously to check our email in the morning, it's just
something that we do automatically because it's part of our routine - like
popping two slices of toast into the toaster in the morning (unless you're the
corn flakes kind of person, of course, but I'm sure you see the analogy one
way or the other).

I think this is an interesting perspective and certainly seems true for some
of my personal Internet and technology usage. It also goes back to the point
Charles Ess brought up on this list just a short time ago when he shared with
us that his students don't really exprience the "wow" effect about the
Internet and related technology anymore. Some of the people responding to that
thread had said that it's probably because younger generations have grown up
with the Internet and thus take it for granted. They know no different than
the Internet being part of their everday life. Introducing the word "habit"
and "habitual use" to describe some of these phenomena may be stating the
obvious, but I certainly had never heard it stated quite that openly before
and thought I'd share this with you, since Jeremy's statement reminded me of
it.

Comments? Anyone else encountered this before? Are there theories in other
disciplines that address this?
Ulla

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