This research suggests three ways in which hybrid ethnography can be used to overcome the shortcomings of single-realm ethnography, in particular, ethnographies that situate solely in the offline or online worlds. I focus on how researchers adapt the ethnographic toolkit to an environment where digital and physical landscapes touch, overlap, and blend. I name these tools multi-access, multi-positionality, and online-offline data assembly. Multi-access refers to researchers using alternative access points to renegotiate blocked access. Multi-positionality refers to researchers leveraging online and offline self-portrayals to reestablish relationships with multiple participants. Online-offline data assembly refers to researchers analyzing multi-faceted data generated by researchers and participants to validate analyses. Taken together, researchers combine, separate, and mix three tools as toolkits to flexibly transition online and offline in the post-pandemic era.

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Students with college degrees are likely to obtain satisfactory employment, but few studies examine how students assess the value of degrees after universal higher education. Based on content analyses of 1,269 posts on a Dcard undergrad forum and 614 posts on a PTT senior high forum, which are the two most influential local social media sites in Taiwan, I investigate how students assess the value of degrees and how online platforms shape dominant narratives on choosing a degree. I argue that the value of a degree is congruently defined by the messages surrounding teenagers, which reassign values to degrees in the existing status hierarchy. I call this phenomenon ‘public credentialism,’ a collective status-building process through which individuals assign value to degrees through online narratives, social closure, and online argument styles. This study sheds light on the meaning-making process and advances the discussion on relative value in credential theory.