Donell Holloway

The Intratourist Gaze: Grey Nomads and ‘Other Tourists’

The presence of other tourists is an integral part of the tourist experience. Hence, gazing upon other tourists is an inevitable part of being a tourist. This paper introduces the concept of the intratourist gaze, a tourist gaze where tourists are both the subjects and objects of the gaze. An analysis from ethnographic fieldwork carried out with senior tourists in rural and remote Australia indicates that the intratourist gaze has the potential to be a disciplinary gaze which, in this case, privileges and safeguards the natural environment. This paper explores the important influence other tourists have on tourists’ behaviours and sense of identity. It also contributes to discussion regarding tourist/tourist interactions in the under-explored area of qualitative research into senior tourism.

The Internet of toys

ABSTRACT The Internet of Toys refers to a future where toys not only relate one-on-one to children but are wirelessly connected to other toys and/or database data. While existing toy companies and start-ups are eagerly innovating in this area, problems involving data hacking and other privacy issues have already occurred. The Hello Barbie and VTech hacks in late 2015 are recent examples. This article reviews, outlines, and analyses these recent advances in children’s engagement with the Internet. It shows how Internet-connected toys, among other data-inducing practices (such as baby wearables and school analytics), are implicated in big data processes that are datafying a generation of youngsters. Significant issues exist around the data security and safety of The Internet of Toys for child consumers who are usually too young to fully understand and consent to data collection or to understand other security issues.

Room to View Family Television Use in the Australian Context

Although Australian media consumption follows general Western trends toward increasingly media rich households, there seems to be a distinctly regional response to how media technologies are incorporated into the Australian home. Although a majority of Australian families with children have a second (and many a third) television set, few choose to locate these technologies in childrens bedrooms. Thus, Australias high level of screen entertainment media is not associated with a high level of childrens bedroom access, as would generally be expected. When family conflict does arise regarding television viewing, it is just as likely to be about “where to watch” as “what to watch.” Through the use of an audience ethnography approach, this article explores how Australian parents and their children make sense of their television viewing in the home environment, highlighting how new and multiple media technologies are integrated into the spatial geography of the antipodean family home.

See Australia and die: Shifting discourses about gray nomads

Caravan (or RV) exploration of Australia has been a feature of the domestic travel industry for many decades and, for the most part, this practice has been driven by generations of retired Australians. Previously referred to as SADs (See Australia and Die), these retirees are now (commonly) known as gray nomads. Largely ignored over the years as a group worthy of serious academic research, gray nomads have recently become a topic of social comment and celebration within Australia. This article discusses changing discourses about gray nomads and how these reflect a change in the discursive context in which aging—in general—is discussed. Gray nomads are now considered paragons of a “positive aging” lifestyle, traveling Australia’s outback and coastlines in, what is now considered, an age-defying zest for adventure and challenge. This “positive aging” construction is often used in the promotion of caravan and mobile home sales, and senior drivetourism. This article argues that the championing and heroization of gray nomads may, on the one hand, help reinforce messages and meanings that resist negative notions of aging. On the other hand—given that these images are one of only a handful of widely promulgated “positive aging” narratives—they may also construct a generally monocultural and well-to-do image of what is required to age in an exciting way. Given that these new messages present a narrow set of images, arguably they do not represent the diversity, capacities, or interests of all seniors—or alternative models of aging successfully.

Mediated memory making: The virtual family photograph album

Abstract Domestic photography and the family photograph album hold significance as artefacts “communicating an ideal familial image and reifying the familial bonds, and also preserving a memory of a specific time” (Sarvas and Frohlich, 2011, p. 148). However, today’s practice of domestic photography is generally relocated to social media (Sarvas and Frohlich, 2011). Photographs previously found in the family photograph album are now likely to be located on the screens of phones and tablets. Using a Domestication of Technology framework, this article discusses how families are using Facebook to create, curate, share and archive family memories. It shows how families go through the phases of appropriation, incorporation, objectification and conversion when they adopt Facebook as the family photograph album. The authors also explore ways in which virtual family photograph albums can result in parental tension around domestic tasks of sharing and archiving family memories online, along with the possible implications of creating a potentially embarrassing, unauthorized digital footprint for their children.

Communicative ecologies and the value of MyFireWatch to the community of Kununurra

This paper is the culmination of a research project involving four fieldtrips to the remote northwestern Australia town of Kununurra. The primary purpose of the research was to engage Kununurra’s visitors and residents in a participatory methodology for scenario based design to create a community-focused version of a professional fire mapping service, FireWatch. The research resulted in the development of MyFireWatch, a map based website which shows fire hotspots derived from satellite images across Australia, bringing this critical information to non-specialist users. The review of the take-up of MyFireWatch was conducted some 13 months after its launch in Kununurra, and the twelve interviewees involved were very positive overall. Their major concern was that visitors to Kununurra – especially backpackers and the senior self-drive tourists that Australians call ‘grey nomads’ – might not know about the service. A review of the tourist-focused sites in Kununurra reveals that organisations that promote tourism are reluctant to inform tourists about the potential dangers of their holiday destination. Thus, the culture and communication practices of tourism organisations are demonstrated to undermine the usefulness of otherwise valuable technological advances.

Biological Metaphor of “Natural History” for Internet Use: The Child–Adult Social Maturation Journey

Using a metaphor borrowed from the biological sciences, this article discusses a “natural history” of internet use. As “digital natives” many of today’s teenagers and young people have grown up and matured interacting with the internet from an early age. Research about young people’s internet use tends, however, to focus on the protection of minors. Young people, 16 years or older, are often excluded from non-commercial research about how young people grow into more mature patterns of internet use. This article highlights how parents with teenagers are building dynamic models of their children’s engagement with the internet as they mature. Parents reported changes in the level of their children’s internet use as they age and they envisage further changes as their children mature. We also identify the variety of ways in which parents support their children’s developing internet skills that anticipate and respond to internet risks and excessive internet use.