Restaging Interrupted Rituals

To what extent do digital communication technologies reconfigure the enactment of everyday family rituals in a transnational arrangement? This chapter maps the diverse impacts of digital media use on transnational family members in the performance, embodiment, and negotiation of intimate family rituals. It particularly shows how the personalized use of both broadband-based or visual-based platforms and regular calls facilitate interactions and mediated co-presence as well as the maintenance of familial bonds beyond borders. Notably, it examines the underlying tensions experienced in mobilizing family rituals as reflected in contradictory experiences and affective surveillance. Communicative issues are typically shaped by the lack of access to a stable connectivity, a certain level of technological competency, as well as differing familial expectations and living conditions. In sum, the chapter outlines the benefits and ruptures of mediating ritualized domestic interactions in digital spaces.