Affective Atmospheres of Sexualized Hate Among Youth Online: A Contribution to Bullying and Cyberbullying Research on Social Atmosphere

Abstract

In this study, I will introduce the concept of affective atmospheres previously developed by Anderson (Emot Space Soc 2:77-81, 2009) and Anderson and Ash (2015), to explore young social media users' articulated experiences of aggressive behaviour on a popular social networking site in Sweden. This concept opens up for inquiring into bullying, and other aggressive behaviour, as encounters, not only between humans, but also with non-human bodies, and the potentialities to act and the affective states that such meetings enable. In this way the paper contributes to bullying research on school climate and social atmosphere. The paper applies an affect theory approach to atmosphere to explore the importance of different materialities for the production of feelings and emotions surrounding the everyday articulations of hate among these users. The findings suggest that hate, in this context, works through a sexualized and gendered affective regime, which enforces a chrononormative logic, through which temporalized norms are tied to notions of age and bodily growth, that is, through heteronormative expectations of femininity, masculinity, sexuality and age-appropriateness. I found that affordances such as anonymity facilitated and intensified the circulation of hate, feeding into an atmosphere of constant risk. However, I also detail how affordances such as anonymity and hyperlinking, and practices such as hashtagging, enabled expressions of friendship, love and support, thus counterbalancing an atmosphere of hate and enabling it to become bearable for certain targeted users. In this context, sexualized aggression is normalized and expected, but nonetheless also troubled and resisted by these young users. By applying the concept of atmosphere, the paper sheds light on the affective workings within social online settings that become saturated with sexualized and aggressive practices, where certain users become repeated targets of such practices.

Analyzing Zoombombing as a new communication tool of cyberhate in the COVID-19 era

“…In describing a framework for investigating cyberhate, Wood et al (2019, p. 384) consider the emotional underpinnings of viral justice, which "can also unintentionally restrict the representation and conceptualization of the harm with which they are concerned." This view echoes Anderson (2009), Anderson andAsh (2015), andSylwander (2019), who all argue that access to such atmospheres can be insightful for understanding social media users' experiences of aggressive behavior. Out of this framework, this paper affirms that cyberspace is an affective atmosphere and argues that Zoombombing is a tool for performing cyberhate in cyberspace.…”

“…Hate studies, which is the field of studying bias-motivated offending in media/communication and criminology among other areas, has generated some research on the parameters, characteristics and predictors of hate crimes (see Hall, 2013; Perry, 2001; Sylwander, 2019). In recent years, some researchers have turned their attention to the online dimensions of hate studies, which are often referred to collectively as online hate speech, racism, trolling or cyberhate (Blaya, 2019; Blaya and Audrin, 2019; Daniels, 2009, 2013; Matamoros-Fernández, 2017; Perry and Olsson, 2009; Sylwander, 2019; Williams and Burnap, 2016). Cyberhate in particular involves motivated individuals, sometimes in groups, and their intentions to expose their ideologies and perspectives, recruit new members and/or harm others by utilizing cyberspace (Lee and Leets, 2002; Levin, 2002).…”

Anonymity as a Moderator of the Relationship Between FoMO (Fear of Missing Out) and Psychological Well-Being

“…Barlett and Gentile (2012) have found that anonymity can predict cyberbullying and being positive about anonymity predicted attitudes toward cyberbullying. Studies also have shown that anonymity is associated with other relatively negative issues such as online hate (Sylwander, 2019), lies (Drouin et al, 2016), and aggressive posts (Moore et al, 2012). When anonymity is considered as one of the six different types of privacy, it is suggested that its effect on psychological well-being can be positive (Pedersen, 1997).…”

Unges utsatthet for digitale seksuelle krenkelser

“…Både dette og hva ungdom selv tenker om grensedragninger mellom seksuelle krenkelser og ønsket og akseptabel seksuell kommunikasjon på digitale medier, er viktige temaer for videre forskning. Et annet viktig tema for videre utforsking og som forskere har blitt mer opptatt av (Sylwander, 2019), er hvordan unge selv kan bidra til å forebygge krenkelser, for eksempel ved å gjøre motstand mot uønsket seksualisering på digitale medier.…”