Reader Response 3

In Katz piece he explains how he goes to Jesse and Eric’s “Cave” to see how the two operate as geeks. He interviews the two while they are in their element to get the most out of the situation and ethnography taking place. He wants to see how these geeks live their life from a day to day basis. Katz would sit there asking the two questions while they were intertwined into their cyber world; getting the most out of what was going on. Anderson on the other hand would go to consultant meetings with consultants she had met or knew. She would take down notes mentally about the event taking place. All the while she was noticing the atmosphere, the way people acted, how they were dressed, what was being discussed. Katz describes his culture as doing six things at once, “…sipping soda, glancing at the phone’s caller ID, watching the scanner and the printer, blasting away at menacing soldiers, opening mail from an apartment manager in Chicago, fielding a message from his sister in Boise.” Anderson on the other hand describes the Mary Kat cosmetics ethnography of Mary Kat as “a cult or secret sisterhood.” They saw individual women as “fair game” to join as consultants of Mary Kat. All the while “putting on a happy face.” In the Cave, Katz describes Eric as “looked as if he hadn’t been out in the sun for years.” That people in this culture rarely got out and did social activities. He also described him as a loner or someone who had had a rough childhood before hand; “someone who expected to get screwed, who would have to fend for himself.” Anderson wrote about the business announcements how the principle of “God first, then family and finally career” was nowhere to be seen from the tremendous amount of time they put into their job. That no one could be so nice all the time and that they must present themselves in a professional but feminine way. I believe after reading these excerpts for my research I can attend certain events that correlate to the ethnography that I am writing about. I can take mental notes on what is going on, as well as ask questions about what they might be doing and why to further understand what may be happening. I can go and enjoy something as a bystander without getting involved.