Logged in or locked in? Young adults’ negotiations of social media platforms and their features

Bibliographic Data

ID12600554
AuthorsJustine Gangneux (0000-0001-7823-9327, University of Glasgow, corresponding author)
Year2019
Volume22
Issue8
Pages1053-1067
Publication date2019-01-03
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Youth Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1367-6261 • E-ISSN: 1469-9680
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/13676261.2018.1562539
OpenAlexW2907438428
LanguageEN
Citations received17
References cited34

Drawing on empirical data from qualitative interviews, this article explores young adults’ everyday experiences of ‘logging in’ and their accounts of their engagement with social media platforms, in particular Facebook. By doing so, it shows how ‘logging in’ can turn into feelings of being ‘locked in’ – both in relation to personal data-mining and expectations of participation. The paper highlights the complex ways in which young adults responded to these feelings and negotiated connection and disconnection on social media platforms by deploying tactics of limitation and suspension. For example, in order to regain control of their time and negotiate their relationships, young adults tactically used Facebook Messenger’s previews to bypass read receipts and temporarily suspend connection. Using de Certeau’s distinction between ‘strategy’ and ‘tactics’, the article argues that although young adults managed social media platforms on an individual level (by deploying ‘tactics’), their understandings and negotiations of the platforms were significantly shaped by the platforms’ designs and features, by the strategies of the corporations owning and operating them as well as embedded within the asymmetrical relations of power of platform capitalism

Negotiation · Social media · Social science · Sociology · World Wide Web · Child Development and Digital Technology · Computer Science · Impact of Technology on Adolescents · Psychology · Social Media and Politics

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Open DOISci-HubOpen Access