Mobile Media and Communication Practices in Southeast Asia #1-3

Newton Mobility Grants
Scheme 2016

British Academy &
Office of Higher Education
Commission, Thailand

Centre for Contemporary Social and
Cultural Studies, Faculty of Sociology
and Anthropology, Thammasat University

Media Ethnography Group,
Department of Media and Communications,
Goldsmiths, University of London

research seminar

30 May 2017 | 13.00 – 18.00
Professor Stuart Hall Building, Room 305, Goldsmiths, University of London

Leisure as a Vocation: Elderly persons and quest for time spending at karaoke restaurants in Bangkok suburb

Arjin Thongyuukong

Faculty of Sociology and Anthropology, Thammasat University

This paper presents how technology matters for retired elderly, focuses on the clientele of karaoke restaurants in Bangkok suburb. Nowadays, karaoke restaurants have become common among many shopping malls and some of Bangkok’s old quarters. The majority of their clients are elderly persons who spend most of their daytime within these vicinities. On the one hand, this looks like unproductive activity, on the other, this is how elderly persons cope with their excessive spare time. I argue that, for retire age people, the “leisure” activities have become their main duty--quest for time spending--their leisure time become routine activity as work. Moreover, such activity is particularly interesting because it is situated in digital media environment where karaoke is used as a medium for their collective activity and smartphones as a channel to communicate within group, thus, these digital technology devices play the same role as their office equipment.