4 10 31 https://apdh.oxomeka.org/files/original/d4fd45b79f6f55e5ac0092423b336431.JPG e2aad49aa864b50db87fde3bd0313b31 https://apdh.oxomeka.org/files/original/3e0119bdc9caee16e51ef25a7d86feaf.pdf 76dc5ea82d28008683f9ab089ee35e15 PDF Text Text Interview with a Vietnamese-American College Student About Her Experiences with Digital Technologies Archive of Personal Digital History Interview #4 - Post-1980 Birthdate September 23, 2018 Introduction Interviewee: This is an oral history APDH interview that is taking place on September 23, 2018 in PP’s dorm room. PP is currently a college student attending a university in Georgia. She is going to show us how she uses her iPad Pro in her everyday life as a part of the reflection project that we will be conducting. Originally from Ho Chi Min City, Vietnam, PP moved to the United States when she was 8 and has lived here ever since. Her first exposure to digital technology was when she was 8 years old, and she has been using digital technology ever since. She was born from 1996-2000, and knows a little bit of Java Script, a coding language used in the digital technology world. Interviewer: JC is also a college student attending a university in Georgia, but is originally from Los Angeles, California. Her experiences with digital technology began when she was about 5 years old, and like PP, she has been using digital technology ever since. Prior to the point in the interview when the transcription starts, JC and PP had already gone over the informed consent form, the background intake form, and the consent to record this interview as an audio clip. JC: “Can you tell me why you decided to choose this device?” PP: “The reason why I decided to choose my iPad is because I use my iPad more often than any other device. It’s portable, and it’s also very interactive, like touch screen, I’m able to write on it, so I don't really have to bring multiple things with me when I do stuff and I also play games on my iPad, watch YouTube and draw on it and I feel like it’s very efficient in a portable way to facilitate so many activities.” JC: “To start, I’d like to ask you to look through your device and see what records you have and see what activities you were involved in this past month. You might have records of activities like in a calendar app, or a to do list, etc. What apps or programs do you use to coordinate or record your activities?” PP: “So for my iPad, I don’t really plan anything on my iPad beside from iCloud sync, which I did not do, because I wrote stuff on my computer and most of the time when I plan thing I use my cellphone. Even though I use my iPad more often than my cell phone it’s kind of like a reminder and stuff like that so I don’t really use social media on my iPad and things like that but I occasionally go onto the internet and check them but most of the time I use social media, �2 calendar app on my phone however I have like a notebook on my iPad, like I use it to write notes on and things like that.” JC: “So based on what you see on your device, what are the main activities that you do?” PP: “The main activities I usually go to are one YouTube, two is my drawing program, and three is my safari, the internet, or playing my games.” JC: “And of these activities that you use, which one do you think is the most significant to you?” PP: “Uhhh. Out of all of these, I think the most significant for me is the internet app. It’s because I use it for various things and I have multiple incorporations into it like you could watch videos with it, you could of course Google up things that you don’t know and look up stuff that you need to look up and so I would say that I use these the most on my iPad more than others.” JC: “Oh wait sorry this isn’t on the paper, but I was just wondering if you have your laptop, I guess what makes your iPad different than your laptop, like why don’t you use your laptop. Is [the iPad] just more portable or easy to take around?” PP: “Well for me, since they are about the same size, which as you can see it makes really no difference, but for me I just like the interactive interface, like I can touch the screen, I could draw and write on the screen as opposed to this [the laptop]. I’m not a good typer, I’m a very bad typer so most of the time I’d rather do it on an interactive screen than typing things out.” JC: “Ohhh that makes sense, okay. So what patterns do you notice in your activities and the role that your device plays in them?” PP: “A lot of the times I use my iPad as my entertainment, and sometime educational study, like I could go onto the internet and search up something, but for references, I use it mainly for entertainment and stuff like that.” JC: “And what important activities are not reflected in the information on your device.” PP: “What do you mean important information?” JC: “So like… I guess out of the activities that you do use on your iPad is there anything you weren’t able to discuss before or, is there anything that is more hidden that this device doesn’t really record.” PP: “I’d say the iPad is pretty good for giving you a well-rounded activity to do and apps so at the moment, doesn’t spark anything that I think I hide from you aside from the fact that I use it a lot for entertainment and playing games, drawing and all things like that it’s a stress relieving activity.” �3 JC: “Next I’d like to ask you to look through your device and see what records you have of the people that you were involved with in the past month, for example people you might contact in your phone number, text messages, social media, etc. and while you’re looking through them, please provide the role that these people play in your lives instead of their actual name.” PP: “Well um, I use my iPad to often check my email as well, and that’s something that I do, as well as one of the other things I do is facetiming my parents, my mom, my aunt, my uncle, from you know different countries and so from different parts and so I use that more often. For my social media, I don’t really have a social media or text messages on my iPad, that’s more of a phone thing where I could quickly do it instead of tying it on such a huge screen, so most of the time for social interactions on iPad I just use email and facetime, video call.” JC: “Cool. So, the apps and programs you usually use to communicate with other people, you said like facetime and Skype? Did you say Skype?” PP: “Uhh facetime and email.” JC: “On your iPad?” PP: “Yeah.” JC: “Okay, cool. And are there any patterns that you notice in your communications, and the role that your device plays into these patterns you might notice?” PP: “Well, for my iPad, you know, all my devices, I link to notifications which is kind of like if an app has something new on it, like it needs an update, they notify me what it is, sometimes when I play my games, I take care of like a stimulation games, and I take care of a thing or something like that, like ‘Oh, your food is done’ or ‘your dish is done’ and it’s the same for YouTube, when they have a new feed on YouTube they think I might be interested in, they’ll notify me and so is my email, when there is a new email coming up, my iPad will notify me of the new email as well.” JC: “So that kind of helps you really answer it quickly because then you know that they reply to you.” PP: “Yea yea yea, notification yea it’s also the same for my cell phone for social media.” JC: “How do you decide which mode of communication to use over the other like do you use different kinds of apps for different kinds of situations or different people.” PP: “I would say yea, but I’m not much of a poster, like you see someone who would write posts and then post it on social media and stuff, most of the time I would just go in and check it and see what people have in store, and sometimes if there is an event that is really important to me, or that I really had fun, I’ll occasionally post pictures of that event on social media, but most of �4 the time I don’t really have a dedicated social platform to use, I would say aside from facetiming my parents, I don’t really use text messages, I don’t really like to text people.” JC: “Is there a reason you use facetime over emailing or calling them?” PP: “I think it’s because when you face to face talking to people, you see clearer what the connection is. When sometimes you write something, it’s more of a process, you want to make your point clear, but if you talking then it’s more efficient and its faster and you’re able to see how responsive they are, or if they care at all, and there’s more dynamic in your conversation when you’re talking to people face to face rather than texting them, because you can’t see their reaction.” JC: “Right I definitely agree with that. And what important interactions are not recorded in the information on your device?” PP: “As I said before, like the other social media programs like Instagram and Snapchat, I have it on my phone instead of my iPad and because my phone is smaller and much more portable, I can just take it out of my pocket and search up stuff, whereas the iPad, it’s more of a hassle to take it out and so there’s social media that I have on my phone instead of my iPad.” JC: “Ok, so now I’d like to ask you to look through your device and see what records you have of places you went during the past month. So, for example you might have records on your calendar, or your mapping application, or in like location services, and if you’re able to find them, what apps or programs if any have records of the places you’ve visited?” PP: “Um, when I go places I don’t really take my iPad with me, like when I go and have fun with my friends, of course I’m going to leave it at home because it’s quite a huge device I mainly use my iPad when I’m at a home setting, or when I’m at a setting that is a sedentary place where I do work or homework or just try to have entertainment, so when I go places I don’t take my iPad with me, so records of where I go are not really available here. That’s a different story for my phone, because my phone automatically through GPS records my travelling.” JC: “Do you allow any apps to track your movement or permit location services on google maps or something like that?” PP: “Yea, um on my phone yes I allow it to track me but, on my iPad, I totally turned the tracking location effects off.” JC: “What do you think prompted you to make that choice?” PP: “It’s because I don’t want to have multiple devices that have my location on, because it could be very dangerous, you know people could just track “Oh, we found this” and it could very dangerous for me, so I only try to have the one device to track my location so that there will not be any dangerous situation where someone may just break in and so I only have my device �5 track on my phone because I want to use the google maps, so that’s the only thing I use it for, but otherwise I try to turn off the GPS because I don’t want people to find out where I am.” JC: “So how did you first learn to navigate new locations.” PP: “Well for me, basically there is an app that is already set up, which is google maps, and so on my phone I could just like type the address on there and it automatically leads me to where it is, so there’s not much of a process there aside from using the correct app to access location or to show you where to go.” JC: “And what important places or navigational practices are not reflected on your device?” PP: “Uhh… O like I said I don’t use iPad for navigation, and so a lot of that isn’t available on my iPad.” JC: “Ok, cool. So, for this last section, I’d like to ask you to look through your device to see what records you have of media you’ve used in the past month. So, for this section I’m mostly interested in social media posts, texts, photos, tv shows and games that you might be reading or listening to, watching or playing, or it may be something you yourself have created and distributed, and these could be anything that you think you use on your iPad.” PP: “Well, for my iPad, I have a lot of tabs on my chrome, on my internet app, mainly because I use it to access like websites for reading manga, and watching anime, and also like reading novels online, and so I do have a lot of tabs like that. As for watching various drama, so you can see this is all my entertainment stuff, I don’t do things that are relevant to my school work really, it’s just entertainment stuff.” JC: “Kind of like a personal TV?” PP: “Basically, like if I miss a show I can just get on my iPad really quick and you know, track them. And other media that I used that I mentioned before are I like drawing on here, and so I do also draw a lot on my iPad, I have a few arts on here which I drew using my iPad, a lot of them are older than the others, but um recently I’ve been adding more stuff on this. I also use this for drawings, and as you can see, there’s games scattered everywhere, now and then, but a lot of these games I don’t really play, I just play one or two of them, but since my iPad has storage I guess.” JC: “That’s cool. Do you use a stylus for the drawing app?” PP: “Yeah, I use a stylus for the drawing app. Yeah it’s attached to the case.” JC: “So what media do you use or create the most?” �6 PP: “I would say that the media I create the most on my iPad is my drawings. Aside from that, I don’t post on social media on here, I don’t have the app on my iPad, so most of the time I will just draw and watch TV. It’s like you said, a personal tv and a personal drawing tablet for me.” JC: “For TV do you mostly use safari, or YouTube, or Netflix?” PP: “I use a lot of safari as well as YouTube, it’s because I don’t have a Netflix, so I don’t use Netflix, but a lot of times I could just find what I want to watch on websites that support safari.” JC: “And why do you prefer one app or program over another?” PP: “It depends on my mood, and on what I want to do that day, really. Sometimes I don’t feel tired, maybe I’ll just watch something really quick and you know, go to sleep or do something else. Or maybe one day I’m like ‘ooh, I feel like I want to do this, so let me watch something on this’, you know it really depends on my mood and I can’t say that my mood is stable, from time to time, and so yea, it really depends.” JC: “So can you give me some examples of media that are especially significant for you?” PP: “Yeah, I would say that the most meaningful to me is my drawing programs, because I spend a lot of effort on every single art, so if you delete them, that’s like at least 10 hours that I spent on art drawing and so I would say that I would not want my iPad to be stolen or anything like that because all my drawings are on there and it would be detrimental for me since I cannot back it up, so it would be very sad.” JC: “Do you like drawing? Is it your hobby?” PP: “Yea, I love drawing. Drawing is like my hobby, and um actually the main reason why I got my stylus and my iPad is for drawing. Yea, it’s because I have trouble drawing using like a separate tablet and then a tablet to attach it to a desktop or computer, and so it’s because I feel like it would be nicer if you could actually do it kind of like you’re drawing on a piece of paper, and the iPad with its interactive screen allows me to do that, and so it’s similar to the traditional drawing techniques and so I prefer it and so that’s why I bought my iPad, for my love for drawing, pretty much.” JC: “Ooo I see. So what patterns do you notice in your media use?” PP: “The patterns is that I guess there’s just for entertainment only, so there doesn't’ really like anything that the main thing that I pretty much do on my iPad is just for entertainment, like watching TV, watching clips, drawing or playing games and that’s it. I don't’ really use it for any other stuff aside from entertainment.” JC: “What are some ways that you share media with others?” �7 PP: “I share it through pretty much the share button (laughs) and things you know like sometimes when I draw art, I will share it through emails, export it as a JPG or PNG, share it through email, and that’s pretty much it, I don’t really share any other things aside from that.” JC: “And can you tell me any strategies you may have for protecting your privacy with your media usage?” PP: “As I told you, I turn off my location device and you know when I’m using so that my location will not be exposed and sometimes I also use VPN as well to protect my privacy and get me anonymity. As well as I use passcode lock on my iPad like fingerprint and passcode to ensure that an unidentifiable person and walks in and took my iPad won’t use my information. Plus, I don’t have any important information on my iPad so like all the accounts that I have, there’s no such things that any of the banking accounts related to me on this iPad, so I don't use it for that so most of the time it’s just for entertainment and nothing else.” JC: “Okay, and are there any other media in your life that aren’t reflected in the device?” PP: “Umm. Yea, I like to go to the movies and you know when I play video games, sometimes I don’t play it on my iPad I play it on y console like the 3DS or PS4 and so that wasn’t on my iPad and you know I love to go to the movie theater to watch the latest movies, and of course my iPad won’t have the newest thing on there, and for newspaper and magazines, that’s something I read on my phone, like I go on fox news pages and read it there, but I don’t really read it on my iPad, as I’ve been reiterating many times, I only use my iPad for entertainment.” JC: “And in this final section, I’d like you to reflect the history on your device and the apps you’ve shared with me, focusing on how you’ve learned to use your device and the apps that you use in the way that you currently do. So, one question I have to start off is how did you start using digital technologies and how do you think your relationship with it has changed over time?” PP: “Ok, so this brings back to a long time ago. I did not have access to digital devices in my childhood until the age 8, that was when I immigrated to America, and I left my country of Vietnam, which is a developing country, and so when I get over here, technology is more prominent that it is in Vietnam. And even in school system, I’d say that the first exposure that I got to digital technology was pretty much through education, and you know how teachers use computers already, and projectors, and various digital technologies to teach students, and so building off that experience, I also when I first came here, I also had a desktop at home, and so a lot of my experiences are really through that desktop, and I didn’t really start to learn how to use it until I was eight or nine or so, but most of the time I would just use it to play games, browsing, you know what kids like to do when I was young. And it's not until like in the 2010 or 2012 that I got my first iPad, which was an iPad 3, and I kept my iPad3 for a long time, about 4 or 5 years until I updated and got an iPad Pro, and so yea I got this one recently, but then my experience of using the iPad came from the iPad 3 but the interface are really similar, there’s nothing different, and I would say this for a lot of devices, I feel that all the digital technology has �8 similarities like your phone, your laptop, they all have symbols which allow you to recognize what it is, and pretty much they have text like descriptions of how to use it, like when you start an app, when you don’t know how to use it, there’s usually a tutorial teaching you how to use it. And some of it is pretty much what people call common sense, like if you grow up with it, you’re going to know how to do it without much hassle, and so even though I wasn’t exposed much to technology in Vietnam, but it’s because I came here when I was still a young child, so technology wasn’t such a wide gap for me to fill in.” JC: “And of the activities that you’ve described so far, what do you think was the most complex for you to learn?” PP: “I would say my drawing programs. That’s totally another world.” JC: “What do you think made it so complex?” PP: “I think that the complexity came from the user and not the program itself. The program is fairly simple. If you want to draw something, there are a different assortment of brushes. You may not understand the terminology, but let’s just imagine that you use pencils, brushes, watercolor brush, this kind of brush and that for traditional, so on the drawing program, it’s the same, they also have brush, but it’s kind of like an intangible aspect because you’re using your stylus for everything, and so I have to really learn how to use and how to apply the correct techniques, and I think that it’s a really complex thing, not because of the program is complex, it’s because of how to use it and how to apply it is complex.” JC: “So what kind of context do you use this activity for, is it professional or academic, etc.?” PP: “I would say like for all of them, you know, if I want to build a professional portfolio I would do it, as well using a program to build a professional art portfolio, I could just draw it because it’s a hobby of mine and it’s fun, and of course it could be academic, because you know if you take an art class and your main media is digital illustration, then yea that could be your academic piece.” JC: “So it’s kind of like you could use it for anything, really.” PP: “Yeah.” JC: “Okay, and can you tell me about when and how you learned to complete these complex activities?” PP: “This took me a year or so to learn how to actually draw digitally, I’d say if I were to transfer my skills from this device to another one, it’s umm would be somewhat of a change, but I still retain that knowledge you know, like for me how I learned this was mostly through experience, like the more you use it the more you get used to it, and the more you get used to it, the better you get every time.” �9 JC: “And do you think like transitioning from drawing on your iPad Pro to drawing on paper, is it different or is it very similar?” PP: “I feel like it is very similar, but there are resources that cannot be replaced. Like on the iPad Pro, you could easily have colors applied just at the click of your fingertip, but when you’re drawing on a piece of paper, you have to have your resources available to you, like oh, you have to buy color pencils, or you have to buy watercolor, and you have to use this brush, dip it to this color palette, you know there’s more of a process if you use it that way.” JC: “And can you tell me about any activities you wish you knew how to complete with your device?” PP: “Hmm… Right now, I don’t really have an activity that I’m really bad at that I need to learn to do better, I’d say I’m always striving to improve myself in the digital illustration, and that’s like the main thing, but aside from that, the activities are pretty simple and it doesn't pose problems to me, I can just navigate it out.” JC: “Do you think that drawing is always going to be a personal thing like a hobby you have, or do you think that you could see yourself possibly doing art professionally in the future?” PP: “Yeah, I definitely could see myself doing art, but as a side or a minor, it’s because for me, I’m a slow artist, it takes me forever to think about an idea to come up with and actually apply it, and so for me, it’s not going to be my main profession, but it will be something that I do for a lifelong time. As a hobby, or anything that I want, of course my mind is subject to change, and so having a hobby really for now, for me, I guess it’s just a hobby.” JC: “What do you think you could improve on in art and digital design?” PP: “I think there are a variance of things. Like, since digital perspective is intangible, it’s not something you can touch really, so there is that barrier, and because of that, you need to be really good at manipulating and maneuvering your programs really. For me, I’m still pretty new at photoshop, and there's features on the photoshop program that I struggle to understand, like why is like this, why is it like that, so for me I would wish to learn more about the program itself, and how to use them because computer software and programs can be very complex and complicated, and unless you practice it or have a niche in it, then you don’t really understand the use of it.” JC: “Right. Do you think that one of the reasons is because you don’t really use photoshop, so you don’t really feel the need to learn it as much, or what do you think?” PP: “I would say it’s because I’m fairly new as a digital artist at digital design, I only have about a year of experience, and so there’s still much time for me to figure out how to use the programs. I would say that using the device itself isn’t complex, it’s the programs that really �10 pose a problem because different types of programs have different features and that’s really what makes it tiresome to learn.” JC: “And do you feel that you have the digital skills to operate effectively in a professional context?” PP: “Yes.” JC: “How so, can you tell me about how you’re gauging that?” PP: “It’s because as a student in the contemporary world, everything is facilitated through digital technology. Like, when teachers tell you to write an essay, unless it’s an essay in class, you really going to type it on the computer and revise it from there, rather than writing it handwritten and you know when you handwrite things it could get messy, and sometimes teachers cannot read your handwriting, and there are many factors that associate with that. And so, you know in educational system nowadays, the implementation of digital technology is so prominent, that of course the student has to learn how to use it. And even so, when you go to the workforces, it’s also the same concept. People teach you how to use certain programs to complete certain tasks, and so as long as you have the basic understanding of what technology is and how to use technology, how to at least type on a computer, I think you could really thrive.” JC: “What about in your personal context?” PP: “For my own personal use, I would say yes, I do have enough knowledge about how to use this. There are times when I still need to learn a bit longer, but that’s for something new that I haven’t tried before.” JC: “What about in a civic or public context?” PP: “Um In a civic or a public context, it’s like social media, really, aside from watching the news, reading the news, listening to the radio and posting on social media, I don’t really see that I have trouble with those kinds of things because it’s very common nowadays, it’s very straightforward” JC: “And how would you describe someone who is digital literacy?” PP: “I would say someone who is digitally literate is someone who knows how to navigate through the digital technology interface.” JC: “And would you consider yourself digitally literate?” PP: “Yes I could do a lot of things and there’s different types of literacy really, but I could navigate through my own device without asking people 'Oh my gosh' help me how do you do this I can at least follow the instructions.” �11 JC: “Mhmm, and how do you think you learned to be digitally literate?” PP: “Um it’s just using it over and over again and getting the experience. At first, you’re like ‘oh my gosh, typing is so hard’, but after you type for a while, you start to pick it up, like your brain has muscle memories and is able to recognize it, and so just using it over and over again, you know, keeping on being exposed to it, you pretty much could learn it without any problems.” JC: “Is there anything else that you would like me to know, or is there anything that I did not ask and should have asked?” PP: “At this rate, I don’t think so.” JC: “Ok, cool thank you!” � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 2018 APDH Interviews-Post-1980 Birthdates Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Interviewer The person(s) performing the interview JC (pseudonym) Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed PP (pseudonym) Location The location of the interview Oxford College of Emory University Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Transcript Duration Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.) 11 pages Occupation College student State/Province of Residence The state or province in which the interviewee currently resides Georgia, U.S.A. State/Province of Birth The state or province in which the interviewee was born Ho Chi Min City, Vietnam Five-year birth range The five-year range in which the interviewee was born 1996-2000 Nationalities All nationalities reported by the interviewee Vietnam, China, American Gender Gender identified by the interviewee (female, male, non-binary/third gender) Female Race or ethnicity The interviewee's reported race or ethnicity Asian, Vietnamese, Chinese Socioeconomic class The interviewee's reported socioeconomic class (working class, middle class, upper middle class, upper class) Working class Main Languages Main languages reported by the interviewee Vietnamese, English, Chinese (dialect) Length of digital device access The length of time the interviewee has had access to any digital device (computer, mobile phone, gaming system, etc.) 10 years Age of regular digital device acess The age the interviewee first owned or had regular in-home access to a digital device of some sort (computer, mobile phone, gaming system, etc.) Age 8 Coding/markup languages Coding or markup languages with which the interviewee reports familiarity Some Java Script Device Make and Model The make and model of the device the interviewee chose as particularly significant for them. Apple iPad Pro Device Type Type of device the interviewee chose to be interviewed about. Tablet computer Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Interview with a Vietnamese-American College Student About Her Experiences with Digital Technologies Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource September 23, 2018 Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 1 Description An account of the resource Interview #4 - Post-1980 Birthdate This is an oral history APDH interview that is taking place on September 23, 2018 in PP’s dorm room. PP is currently a college student attending a university in Georgia. She is going to show us how she uses her iPad Pro in her everyday life as a part of the reflection project that we will be conducting. Originally from Ho Chi Min City, Vietnam, PP moved to the United States when she was 8 and has lived here ever since. Her first exposure to digital technology was when she was 8 years old, and she has been using digital technology ever since. She was born from 1996-2000, and knows a little bit of Java Script, a coding language used in the digital technology world. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Oxford College of Emory University college student Vietnamese Vietnamese-American