‘That’s not necessarily for them’: LGBTIQ+ young people, social media platform affordances and identity curation

Abstract

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, and other non-heterosexual and gender diverse (LGBTIQ+) young people utilise a range of digital media platforms to explore identity, find support and manage boundaries. Less well understood, however, is how they navigate risk and rewards across the different social media platforms that are part of their everyday lives. In this study, we draw on the concept of affordances, as well as recent work on curation, to examine 23 in-depth interviews with LGBTIQ+ young people about their uses of social media. Our findings show how the affordances of platforms used by LGBTIQ+ young people, and the contexts of their engagement, situate and inform a typology of uses. These practices – focused on finding, building and fostering support – draw on young people’s social media literacies, where their affective experiences range from feelings of safety, security and control, to fear, disappointment and anger. These practices also work to manage boundaries between what is ‘for them’ (family, work colleagues, friends) and ‘not for them’. This work allowed our participants to mitigate risk, and circumnavigate normative platform policies and norms, contributing to queer-world building beyond the self. In doing so, we argue that young people’s social media curation strategies contribute to their health and well-being.

‘Not the Real Me’: Social Imaginaries of Personal Data Profiling

“…My participants were also aware of the performative and selective nature of the self that is generated online or through app use. Previous research on social media and identity has highlighted that people carefully curate their online identities, choosing what image of themselves they would like others to see, while recognising that this is at best only a partial view (Hanckel et al, 2019). For many social media users, this selective performance of selfhood incorporates the awareness that social media platforms present ‘public’ versions of selves, and that details about oneself that are considered ‘private’ or inappropriate for public exposure are not typically revealed on the platforms (Pitcan et al, 2018; Sujon, 2018).…”

Can Social Media Participation Enhance LGBTQ+ Youth Well-Being? Development of the Social Media Benefits Scale

“…In the absence of an existing scale to assess how LGBTQ+ youth use social media in positive ways, scale items were developed through a literature review, interviews with LGBTQ+ youth (Craig et al, 2015;, and consultation with a youth advisory board consisting of LGBTQ+ youth from the United States and Canada. Items such as feeling connected and helping others emerged primarily from the literature (Hanckel et al, 2019), whereas "figuring out where I fit" and "sharing my story" came from the authors' qualitative work with…”

“…Yet, current research does not identify the particular motivations and benefits afforded to LGBTQ+ youth via social media participation. Given research indicating that social media provides a breadth of important opportunities and positive impacts for many LGBTQ+ youth (Craig & McInroy, 2014;Hanckel et al, 2019), this study sought to explore more specifically the benefits of social media for this population and develop a Social Media Benefits Scale (SMBS).…”

Trans Time

“…Privacy calculus happens on Trans Time when people disclose personal information (e.g., personal details of gender transition) in exchange for social support and community. DeVito et al [23] and Hanckel et al [41] found that LGBTQ+ people manage boundaries meticulously on social media sites to mitigate risk related to their LGBTQ+ identities, as a way to deal with marginalization and stigma. Haimson et al [36] detailed how trans people manage privacy and disclosure on social media via digital footprints related to past identities, such as by editing content, partitioning networks, and maintaining multiple accounts.…”