Algorithmic Closeness in Mourning: Vernaculars of the Hashtag #grief on TikTok

Abstract

This study looks at how mourning is expressed using the hashtag #grief on the social media app TikTok using qualitative content analysis. In a dataset of 100 TikTok videos, this article explores how the TikTok ranking algorithms, which orders content based on previous user engagements, may connect people in mourning across the platform and how these platform-enabled interactions may shape grief expressions. The study shows how grief was narrated on TikTok, which sociotechnical templates (such as duets, stitches, and audios) were incorporated into such expressions, and how these expressions of grief challenged societal mourning norms. This article ends with a discussion about how different subcultural norms on TikTok are linked to the way in which ranking algorithms create social connections across the platform. This study proposes that the “algorithmic closeness” of TikTok users in grief allows them to challenge societal mourning norms in imagined safe spaces, shaped by the algorithmic ranking systems on the platform.

Playful Activism: Memetic Performances of Palestinian Resistance in TikTok #Challenges

“…The re-enactments, by fostering feelings of compassion toward the human costs of the conflict, can be seen as affective practices because they result in waves of not only co-constructed grief but also co-constructed empathy (Eriksson Krutrök, 2021). Users emit their emotional desire by identifying with Afifi through texts, emojis, hashtags, and other pictorial icons that act as “symbols of solidarity” (Döveling et al, 2018, p. 5; see Figure 3g).…”

“…Corresponding with the exploration–discovery affordance, the search for challenges on TikTok is enabled by adding hashtags to the caption of any video, not only affording individuals the ability to connect to an audience (Eriksson Krutrök, 2021) but also becoming “vehicles for exploring playful interaction” (Pearce & Pardo, 2009, p. 75) and inviting publics to gather around specific issues. Moreover, hashtags themselves can be seen as play tools for virality, with users experimenting with different combinations as part of their desire to be “algorithmically recognizable” (Gillespie, 2014).…”

Fostering intimacy on TikTok: a platform that ‘listens’ and ‘creates a safe space’

“…Audio-visual features offered by TikTok facilitate content creators’ cultural and knowledge production (Kaye et al, 2021; Southerton, 2021; Zeng and Abidin, 2021; Zeng et al, 2021) and allow visibility to engender a sense of togetherness for faraway individuals (Hautea et al, 2021). The technical aspect of TikTok refers to algorithms whose perceived efficiency equally engenders intimacy among geographically dispersed individuals through hashtags (Eriksson Krutrök, 2021). In addition, the research comparing TikTok’s technical and practical features to those offered by other social media platforms underlines TikTok’s position within the algorithm-driven media (Buss et al, 2022; Literat and Kligler-Vilenchik, 2021; Swart, 2021).…”

“You’re Just Playing the Victim”: Online Grieving and the Non-use of Social Media in Italy

“…The media also affects the liminal phases of life (Christensen & Sandvik, 2014; Kasket, 2019; Papacharissi, 2019; Sumiala & Hakola, 2013; Van Brussel & Carpentier, 2014). Digital and social media uses are negotiated both for continuing ingrained mourning rituals online, and for emergent death practices (Cumiskey & Hjorth, 2017; Eriksson Krutrök, 2021; Gibson, 2014; Navon & Noy, 2021). Understanding how social media shapes life and death should embrace both the study of the social and cultural changes concerning death and grief and the ways social media is conceived and used in everyday life (Arnold et al, 2018; Sumiala, 2022).…”

“…Research into online grieving must pay close attention to how users interact with the platforms and their affordances, trusting in their capacity to cope with the constraints and opportunities creatively (Arnold et al, 2018; de Certeau, 1984) and acknowledging the growing intertwining of online and offline life (Boccia Artieri et al, 2017; Hallam, 2018). In this perspective, it is vitally important to consider the specific affordances and the vernacular of each platform (Eriksson Krutrök, 2021; Giaxoglou, 2014; Gibbs et al, 2015; Sumiala, 2022) and the many functionalities inside the same platform (Navon & Noy, 2021) that enable and shape various uses and domestications within death and mourning. Of the main problems highlighted by the literature, we must not forget the algorithmic curation of content (Lambert et al, 2018), quantification and datafication processes (Lagerkvist, 2019), the spatial and temporal effects of dislocation (Brubaker et al, 2013), and the affordances for manipulation of the self-representation (Sabra, 2017) and emotional capitalization of the user (Marwick & Ellison, 2012).…”