Researching online environments: Lessons from the history of anthropology

Just as anthropology, the study of culture, was in its infancy about a century ago, studying online environments is a relatively new endeavor today. Online social researchers can learn from disciplines like anthropology that have developed and honed methods for studying social interactions in context. The authors discuss elements of an online version of ethnography, including triangulation, ethics, reflexivity, and the importance of linking online environments to real‐world contexts. They describe parallels between the three stages of development of anthropology (formative, classical, and emerging) and the current state of online research, which appears to comprise elements of all three stages because of the varied conceptualizations of online environments.