PC-builders – a social phenomenon of technologically oriented subculture during COVID-19 pandemic in XXI c.

Mikołaj Przepiórkowski

Abstract


The following paper describes PC-builders as a subculture in a scope of the sociological theory and presents the changing experience of this specific group during COVID-19 pandemic. It covers typical subculture identity shaping processes, its framing, cultural capital analysis, hierarchization, sociolect and rituals to verify that PC-building people have become the real subculture in all scientific senses and to reveal their changing experiences in COVID-19 pandemic. It bases on 30 individual interviews: 10 with PC-builders from the USA and Canada, 5 from Korea, 10 from Poland, 5 from France. The results show new cultural practices within the subculture born due to the COVID-19 quarantines, as well as caused by crucial tendencies happening currently on the hardware market and in hardware development between 2020–2021.

 


Keywords


PC-building; subculture; COVID 19; computer

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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17951/ks.2021.9.1.5-24
Date of publication: 2021-11-30 12:18:30
Date of submission: 2021-11-30 08:44:41


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