‘Even though it's a small checkbox, it's a big deal’: stresses and strains of managing sexual identity(s) on Facebook

Abstract

Facebook offers a socialisation context in which young people from ethnic, gender and sexual minorities must continually manage the potential for prejudice and discrimination in the form of homophobia and racism. In-depth interviews were conducted with eight young women, aged 16-19 years, who self-identified as queer and as women of colour. A detailed analysis of these interviews--focusing in particular on how young people described navigating expectations of rejection from family and friends--offered insight into the psychological and health consequences associated with managing sexual identity(s) while online. The 'closet' ultimately takes on new meaning in this virtual space: participants described trying to develop social relationships within Facebook, which demands sharing one's thoughts, behaviours and ideas, while also hiding and silencing their emerging sexuality. In this 'virtual closet', tempering self-presentation to offset social exclusion has become a continuous, yet personally treacherous, activity during the daily practice of using Facebook.

‘My coming out story’: Lesbian, gay and bisexual youth identities on YouTube

“…A prime, collective insight of existing research has been to demonstrate how young people's performances of sexuality online are inextricably bound up with specific 'platform vernaculars' (Gibbs et. Al., 2015); shaped by the specific technical features and communicatory norms of individual digital platforms, be this the geo-location technology of Grindr (Albury and Byron, 2016), the anonymity of message boards (Addison and Comstock, 1998;Driver, 2010), or the tick-box categories of sexuality available on Facebook (Drushel, 2010;Rubin and McClelland, 2015).…”

For Better or for Worse? A Systematic Review of the Evidence on Social Media Use and Depression Among Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Minorities (Preprint)

“…Two studies included only female participants [43,44], and one study had an exclusively male sample [36]. Two studies included a sample of transgender participants with this group comprising 0.9% [40] and 0.8% [42] of the total.…”

“…Of the studies included, 72.7% consisted of cross-sectional surveys [35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42], 18.2% consisted of qualitative analyses (Table 1) [43,44], and 9.1% combined cross-sectional surveys with social network analysis [45]. For studies that captured age of participants [35][36][37][41][42][43]45], age ranged between 11 and 30 years old.…”

“…Of nine quantitative studies, SMU was assessed by measuring self-reported experience of cyberbullying (33.3%) [37,38,42], frequency of SMU (22.2%) [40,41], general use of SM (dichotomously) (22.2%) [36,39], and 11.1% of studies measured either sexting behavior [35], integration of social ties on SM [45], number of SM platforms used [41], or motivation to use SM [41]. Qualitative studies explored use of Facebook profile management [43] and experience of using an online support forum [44]. …”

“…For studies that captured age of participants [35][36][37][41][42][43]45], age ranged between 11 and 30 years old. Three studies (27.3%) did not report participants' age range [38,39,44].…”