The identity curation game: digital inequality, identity work, and emotion management

Abstract

The research examines an understudied facet of digital inequality: how digital inequality impacts identity work and emotion management. The analysis reveals how unequal access to digital resources shapes how well youths are able to play what I call the identity curation game. Digital resources determine youths' ability to succeed in this game that is governed by three implicit rules:(1) constantly update or be sidelined, (2) engage in constant reciprocated identity-affirming interactions, and (3) maintain a strategy of vigilance to remove traces of failed identity performances. This article draws on Symbolic Interactionism and pays particular attention to Hochschild's theory of emotion management. Drawing on these frameworks, the findings reveal how under-resourced youths experience connectivity gaps that disrupt their ability to play the identity curation game, as well as the resulting emotional consequences. Under-resourced youths manage distinctive negative emotions arising from connectivity gaps that hinder their digital identity work, as well as engaging in distinct kinds of suppressive work to police their own emotions including longing, envy, shame, frustration, and stigmatization. In making these linkages, the research reveals the cascading effects of digital inequality among youths where constant connectivity is the sine qua non of social inclusion. ARTICLE HISTORY OverviewBased on in-depth interviews with youths in an agricultural community in California, the research sheds light on an understudied facet of digital inequality: how digital inequality impacts identity work and emotion management. The analysis reveals how unequal access to digital resources impacts how well youths are able to play what may be called 'the identity curation game'. This article reveals how this game is played very differently by youths with high, moderate, and low connectivity. The identity curation game has three implicit rules. Rule 1: Players must constantly update many times per day or find themselves sidelined. Rule 2: Players must engage in constant reciprocation of identity-affirming interactions to validate their own identity presentations and prompt validation from others. Rule 3: Players must maintain a strategy of vigilance to remove the traces of any failed identity performances to avoid negative emotions.

The networked question in the digital era: How do networked, bounded, and limited individuals connect at different stages in the life course?

“…No younger adults were Socially Limited. Although our sample is small, the social adeptness of younger adults is consistent with other systematic research (e.g., Hampton, 2016;Robinson, 2018) showing that complaints about socially inept and isolated digital natives have been overstated by alarmists working from armchairs, anecdotes, or atypical samples.…”

Digital inequalities in time of pandemic: COVID-19 exposure risk profiles and new forms of vulnerability

“…However, under the unprecedented circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic and its prolonged period of forced social distancing, digital connections may provide some social support and lower the risk of social isolation for those populations that can afford them. Indeed, use of ICTs has been shown to be effective in promoting social connectedness especially among older adults and for students (Robinson, 2018). With the prospect of social distancing continuing at least until 2022 (Kissler, et al, 2020), expanding the use of ICTs may be one way to overcome social isolation and loneliness among the high-risk populations who are digitally advantaged.…”

“…Future work must explore the emotional labor (Hochschild, 1979) necessitated by the pandemic. Emotional labor has already been linked to digital inequalities (Robinson, 2018). Therefore, researchers would do well to explore how the shift to telework and remote learning may require emotional labor for differently situated populations such as the potential stigma above related to socio-economic disadvantage among workers who "pay to work" by providing their own resources.…”

Inequalities in the social use of the Internet of things: A capital and skills perspective

“…In contrast to computer-based Internet, mobile phones have diffused Internet access across socioeconomic status (Marler, 2018). Mobile skills are extensively used and acquired in adolescent social groups to maintain an updated and active reputation online, which is important to remaining socially active (Robinson, 2018). Consequently, acquired mobile skills facilitate civic and political socialization at an earlier age (Hargittai and Hsieh, 2010) and can help younger people transgress their family's sociocultural position (Park, 2015).…”