{"title":"The quest for meaningful connections: Navigating scripted sexuality on Instagram amid Grindr and Tinder fatigue","authors":"Facundo N Suenzo","doi":"10.1177/14614448241266782","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448241266782","url":null,"abstract":"In the contemporary digital age, the experience of intimacy, sex, and love has been profoundly transformed, in part due to technological transformations. How do individuals navigate the evolving landscape of dating in the digital age to seek meaningful connections? To answer that, I conducted 30 individual, in-depth interviews with queer men in Argentina. Drawing on the conceptual apparatus of the sociology of sexuality and research on social media repertoires, I argue that different platforms elicit specific imaginaries, relationships, and pleasures. While Grindr emphasizes sexual explicitness and anonymity, Tinder offers a more conversational and personal experience. However, scripted and repetitive conversations tend to foster feelings of anxiety, boredom, and fatigue. Thus, many interviewees opt to escape the dating environment to Instagram, a platform that provides them a space for more authentic and pleasant interactions. These findings expand the notion of networked intimacy beyond the realm of dating platforms to social media and messaging apps.","PeriodicalId":19149,"journal":{"name":"New Media & Society","volume":"13 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.0,"publicationDate":"2024-07-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141794944","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Being and becoming in the culture of immediacy: An existential-ethical approach","authors":"Jan Jasper Mathé, Jo Bauwens, Karl Verstrynge","doi":"10.1177/14614448241267004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448241267004","url":null,"abstract":"In this article we employ an Interpretative Phenomenological Approach to explore online immediacy from an existential-ethical perspective. While existing literature already accounts for the socio-cultural and psychological impact of constant connectivity, we venture to reveal its underlying existential-ethical implications. Our findings show the often contradictory ways in which young adults cope with the allure of immediate-aesthetic experiences on the one hand, and the challenge of authentic self-development on the other. Ultimately, we advocate for a transformative shift in which online practices are brought in alignment (are relativized) with an existential-ethical view of life. Drawing on Kierkegaard’s existential philosophy of the self, this article underscores the need to transcend the superficiality of immediacy to foster an authentic journey of being and becoming a self in a social environment that is increasingly mediated by online media technologies.","PeriodicalId":19149,"journal":{"name":"New Media & Society","volume":"56 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.0,"publicationDate":"2024-07-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141794656","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Taming the algorithm: The platform realism of GrabBike delivery workers","authors":"Giang Nguyen-Thu, Luke Munn","doi":"10.1177/14614448241262417","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448241262417","url":null,"abstract":"How do workers conceptualize a platform’s algorithm and adjust their practices to its logic? To pursue this question, we draw on an ethnography of Grab, the leading rideshare platform in Southeast Asia, composed of 60+ trips talking to drivers on the back of bikes, and 10 in-depth interviews. We identify a distinct set of moves that workers perform to survive on the platform, a strategic cluster of practices we term “taming the algorithm.” These practices appear incompatible or contradictory—a bodily enactment of improvising, scrambling, and enduring that nevertheless is registered by the algorithm as routinized productivity. Even if done successfully, taming does not fundamentally disrupt platform logics, but rather makes exploitation more consistent and predictable. Workers adopt what we term “platform realism,” striving for a bleak but concrete agency that maintains their status. The aim is not to disrupt the system or hack the algorithm, but to live with it.","PeriodicalId":19149,"journal":{"name":"New Media & Society","volume":"28 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.0,"publicationDate":"2024-07-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141768494","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Sophie Duvekot, Camila Melícia Valgas, Yael de Haan, Wiebe de Jong
{"title":"How youth define, consume, and evaluate news: Reviewing two decades of research","authors":"Sophie Duvekot, Camila Melícia Valgas, Yael de Haan, Wiebe de Jong","doi":"10.1177/14614448241262809","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448241262809","url":null,"abstract":"This article offers an overview of 94 scientific studies (published between 2006 and 2022) to examine how young people (ages 10–36) define, consume, and evaluate news. Research on news and youth has exploded over the past decades, but what can we conclude from it, and how should journalism scholars move forward? The systematic literature review reveals that while young people remain interested in news, how they consume it has changed drastically. Social media platforms and algorithms now play a pivotal role in young people’s news consumption. Moreover, due to the overwhelming nature of today’s high-choice digital media landscape, youth engage both actively and passively with news, while sometimes exhibiting avoidance tendencies. The review also demonstrates how the impact of digitalization has reshaped young people’s ability to critically evaluate the credibility of news, often relying on social networks and technology platforms. The review concludes with a research agenda.","PeriodicalId":19149,"journal":{"name":"New Media & Society","volume":"28 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.0,"publicationDate":"2024-07-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141768478","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Ellen Johanna Helsper, Giuseppe Alessandro Veltri, Sonia Livingstone
{"title":"Parental mediation of children’s online risks: The role of parental risk perception, digital skills and risk experiences","authors":"Ellen Johanna Helsper, Giuseppe Alessandro Veltri, Sonia Livingstone","doi":"10.1177/14614448241261945","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448241261945","url":null,"abstract":"This article advances the understanding of parental mediation of children’s online activities by examining the roles of parental perceptions of risk and parent and child digital skills. Analysis of a survey of European parents distinguishes parental perceptions of the likelihood of risk and the severity of harm before testing the linearity of their relation to digital skills. Results show that parents with higher perceived control over online risk management and those with a broader set of digital skills are more involved in mediating their children’s online activities. The analysis also shows a non-linear, n-shaped relationship between parental skills and parental perception of the severity of harm. The results suggest that future research on parental mediation should distinguish parental knowledge of the digital world based on direct experience from their general perceptions of the likelihood of risk and severity of harm.","PeriodicalId":19149,"journal":{"name":"New Media & Society","volume":"55 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.0,"publicationDate":"2024-07-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141768479","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Shelley Boulianne, Christian P. Hoffmann, Michael Bossetta
{"title":"Social media platforms for politics: A comparison of Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Reddit, Snapchat, and WhatsApp","authors":"Shelley Boulianne, Christian P. Hoffmann, Michael Bossetta","doi":"10.1177/14614448241262415","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448241262415","url":null,"abstract":"Citizens have increasingly diversified their use of social media platforms, raising questions about which platforms are adopted and for what purposes. We use survey data from four countries (Canada, France, the United States, and the United Kingdom) gathered in 2019 and 2021 ( n = 12,302) about Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, Reddit, Snapchat, and WhatsApp. Political ideology predicts the adoption and political uses of all platforms, but Reddit, Snapchat, and WhatsApp are distinctive. Right-wing users are more likely to report exposure to and posting of political content on these platforms; this pattern is consistent across all four countries. We relate these findings to the distinct network features compared to other platforms. Our large sample size allows us to document a funnel process where large numbers adopt a platform, fewer see political content, and even fewer post. In this funnel process, ideological differences become larger. The findings have implications for the formation of homogeneous communities.","PeriodicalId":19149,"journal":{"name":"New Media & Society","volume":"51 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.0,"publicationDate":"2024-07-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141768482","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Feel local, post local: An ethnographic investigation of a social media-based local public","authors":"Krisztina Burai, Ábel Solti, Márton Bene","doi":"10.1177/14614448241262988","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448241262988","url":null,"abstract":"Using an ethnographic approach, this study examines the social media-based local public sphere during a by-election campaign in Jászberény, a medium-sized city in Hungary. We conducted online observations and interviews with local actors to explore the construction and functioning of the communication arena on Facebook, the central social media platform of local politics. We show that there is a vibrant local public on Facebook, where local elites and citizens actively discuss local issues. This public is highly centralized, dominated by a few key actors, and polarized along political lines, but it is still integrated through frequent interactions between actors belonging to different political blocs. It is also highly personal and embedded in the offline lifeworld. The issues discussed online can lead to policy actions. The local Facebook public is also characterized by strong negativity and the presence of deceptive techniques acting as a deterrent to participation in online civic activities.","PeriodicalId":19149,"journal":{"name":"New Media & Society","volume":"76 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.0,"publicationDate":"2024-07-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141768480","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"‘Babies are a massive money spinner’: Data, reproductive labour and the commodification of pre-motherhood in fertility and pregnancy apps","authors":"Josie Hamper","doi":"10.1177/14614448241262805","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448241262805","url":null,"abstract":"This article investigates how users of self-tracking apps evaluate the imperative to share intimate data. Through 42 interviews with 24 women in the United Kingdom who had used fertility and pregnancy tracking apps with the hope of giving birth to a baby in the future, this article empirically examines the lived experiences of sharing, withholding and managing intimate data. Research participants perceived their sharing of data with their apps as a transaction or payment in return for improved access to knowledge and information about fertility, pregnancy and parenthood. By critically examining the intersection of digitised reproductive labour and intensive mothering ideologies, I argue that these evaluations of data sharing as transactional were heavily influenced by a digitally intensified consumer culture of pre-motherhood.","PeriodicalId":19149,"journal":{"name":"New Media & Society","volume":"10 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.0,"publicationDate":"2024-07-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141768481","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Johanna Schindler, Anne Bartsch, Christal Bürgel, Carla Rockenstein
{"title":"“Check this out! ”: Collective functions of instant messaging about media content","authors":"Johanna Schindler, Anne Bartsch, Christal Bürgel, Carla Rockenstein","doi":"10.1177/14614448241262808","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448241262808","url":null,"abstract":"People regularly use and discuss media content with others, such as partners, family, and friends. Such conversations increasingly occur virtually. However, few studies have examined the content and characteristics of mobile messenger communication about media content. We conducted a qualitative content analysis of 128 messenger chats about media content donated by 49 diverse groups. Based on the theoretical concept of group information processing, our analysis revealed six main collective functions of such conversations: (1) discourse, (2) shared emotions, (3) support, (4) joint activities, (5) group positivity, and (6) group identity. We show how these functions are associated with the affordances of messenger communication, group characteristics, and types of media content. Ruptures in the group process occurred only occasionally and were usually followed up by repair attempts. Our research demonstrates that messenger communication about media content not only serves as a substitute for face-to-face conversations but rather complements and enriches them.","PeriodicalId":19149,"journal":{"name":"New Media & Society","volume":"24 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.0,"publicationDate":"2024-07-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141768493","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Record, revise, reinvent, and resist: The politics of social media self-representation during the COVID-19 pandemic","authors":"Chelsea P. Butkowski","doi":"10.1177/14614448241262984","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448241262984","url":null,"abstract":"When the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted everyday social life on a global scale, it also destabilized social norms for sharing life online and, potentially, broader understandings of selfhood and identity. This study investigates how the unique conditions of pandemic life re-colored normative practices of self-representation—the process of producing and circulating personal media texts—on popular social media platforms. Through social media scroll back interviews with 48 U.S. adults, I found that pandemic social pressures and safety regulations altered how social media users understood the politics of digital visibility—a shift in the personal experiences they considered “worthy” of sharing through digital mediation. In light of this perceived shift, I argue that participants adjusted to pandemic cultures through a typology of adaptive curatorial practices: recording, revising, reinventing, and resisting as self-representation. Ultimately, this study extends existing conceptual boundaries in response to disrupted social contexts, which includes centering digital silence as a key form of self-representation.","PeriodicalId":19149,"journal":{"name":"New Media & Society","volume":"31 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.0,"publicationDate":"2024-07-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141755411","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}