On the bright side of the screen: Material-world interactions surrounding the socialization of outsiders to digital spaces

Internet technologies are generally characterized as deriving from Western mindsets—the assumptions, values, and beliefs that determine how individuals perceive, interpret, and communicate experience. For composition instructors, the Internet's Western accent raises concerns about how students who do not identify with IT's dominant discourse can find a voice that is their own and that also empowers them as participants in online spaces. Numerous studies have explored how outsiders adopt, transform, and resist Internet discourses; at the same time, few studies have used participant observation to explore offline interactions that support the socialization of newcomers and/or outsiders in the use of digital technologies. This essay extends existing research through reporting findings from a reflective, ethnographic study of material-world interactions surrounding the socialization of outsiders to digital spaces.