Excavating the Timeline: “Slow” Theoretical Development in a Digital Age

• In Event: Spitballing STS: Millenial Tactics

Abstract

Where and how does truly meaningful theoretical development occur when an archaeologist spends their time digging and discoursing? It has been argued that theoretical development is inherently a slow undertaking, traditionally defined by years of formal education and careful expansion, but paradigmatic shifts beg the question of whether new modes of communication act to hasten, or, even, disrupt this process. This paper will not only provide an overview of how digital and traditional archaeological contexts intersect and relate, but highlight the concept of slow theoretical micro-development through a social media lens. I seek to understand this evolution in thought by exploring online contributions to my own personal epistemology, examining the parasocialiaty of science communication, and confronting the ethical duty to conserve and curate the digital archaeological milieu. Do the informal, half-in-jest, conversations held in the digital commons constitute theoretical engagement? How many times I have refined and expanded my own understanding of social and archaeological theory through this method? Can the spaces I inhabit as an archaeologist be parsed as loci of “shallow depth”— operating both within and as spheres of slow theoretical development? This notion of slow theoretical development in a fast medium allows for an interrogation of the theoretical stratigraphy laid down through the complex social interactions of the digital third place. It may be there is a hitherto unseen slowness in the stunning rapidity of the online world, one that lies just below the surface.

Author

• Liz Quinlan, UMass Boston