Bj Robards

MyTribe: Post-subcultural Manifestations of Belonging on Social Network Sites

Since the early 2000s, sociologists of youth have been engaged in a debate concerning the relevance of ‘subculture’ as a theoretical framework in the light of more recent postmodern-influenced interpretations of youth identities as fluid, dynamic and reflexively constructed. Utilizing ethnographic data collected on the Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia, this article considers such debates in relation to social network sites such as MySpace and Facebook. Although online identity expression has been interpreted as exhibiting subcultural qualities, preliminary empirical research informing this article lends itself to a more neo-tribal reading.

Leaving MySpace, joining Facebook: ‘Growing up’ on social network sites

In the past decade, the reach of social network sites such as MySpace and Facebook has extended to a point where for many young people, participation is now mandatory for inclusion amongst peer groups. For some of these young people, large parts of their social lives have been played out on these sites. The shift from one site (MySpace) to another (Facebook) can also be understood as marking an important change in the way young people manage their ‘digital trace’. This shift corresponds with narratives in which participants signal their movement towards forms of online sociality that are concerned with their relationships with others on Facebook rather than the often introspective and performative forms of sociality emphasized on MySpace. This article examines elements of each site that participants point towards as contributing to their own shift – both in terms of their functionality and the broader social milieu in which the sites operate. More broadly, this article also considers the ‘trace’ that is generated by participation on these sites (creating profiles, uploading images, commenting on pages and so on) as representing a key mechanism by which young peoples transition narratives can be made accessible and visible amongst their network. This article draws on research from two linked small-scale qualitative studies conducted on the Gold Coast in Australia, the first with a group of 10 young people in 2007 and the second with 30 young people in 2009/2010.

Making it 'Facebook Official': Reflecting on romantic relationships through sustained Facebook use

For the past 12 years, Facebook has played a significant role in mediating the lives of its users. Disclosures on the site go on to serve as intimate, co-constructed life records, albeit with unique and always-evolving affordances. The ways in which romantic relationships are mediated on the site are complex and contested: “What is the significance of articulating a romantic relationship on Facebook?” “Why do some choose to make socially and culturally critical moments like the beginning and ends of relationships visible on Facebook, whereas others (perhaps within the same relationship) do not?” “How do these practices change over time?” and “When is it time to go “Facebook official”?” In this article, we draw on qualitative research with Facebook users in their 20s in Australia and the United Kingdom who have been using the site for 5 years or more. Interviews with participants revealed that romantic relationships were central to many of their growing up narratives, and in this article, we draw out examples to discuss four kinds of (non-exclusive) practices: (1) overt relationship status disclosures, mediated through the “relationship status” affordance of the site, (2) implied relationship disclosures, mediated through an increase in images and tags featuring romantic partners, (3) the intended absence of relationship visibility, and (4) later-erased or revised relationship disclosures. We also critique the ways in which Facebook might work to produce normative “relationship traces,” privileging neat linearity, monogamy, and obfuscating (perhaps usefully, perhaps not) the messy complexity of romantic relationships.

THE TIES THAT BIND: EXPLORING THE RELEVANCE OF NEOTRIBAL THEORY TO TOURISM

In tourism studies/tourism management, traditional approaches to the segmentation of tourists have tended to focus upon the tangible aspects of why people travel, such as visitors’ motivations, demographic characteristics, and values and behavior exhibited at specific destinations. This review article from Hardy and Robards takes a critical approach to challenge the governing assumption involved here, that marketing studies of “tourism” should routinely or necessarily focus on the individual and thus upon class-based characteristics such as income to define tourists. Rather, the authors argue that tourists may be fruitfully segmented by commonalities of intangible aspects, such as “a shared sense of sentiment,” “tourist ritual,” “collective bonding,” and “belonging.” Hardy and Robards thereby suggest that neotribal approaches indeed offer rich opportunities to do this by empowering the exploration of tourists’ symbolic and behavioral characteristics. This review article consonantly proposes that by returning to Maffesoli’s work, researchers in the twin fields of tourism studies/tourism management may make substantial critical contributions to unfolding understandings of and about “consumer tribes.” Hence, Hardy and Robards suggest that subtribes exist within broader neotribes and that that sort of “membership” may not in fact be as fluid as many investigators have previously suggested. (Abstract by Reviews Editor)

Being strategic and taking control: Bedrooms, social network sites and the narratives of growing up

Despite being distinct, online social spaces are governed by norms and conventions reminiscent of those that govern offline social spaces. Our research into the ways young people’s ‘private’ or ‘quasi-private’ spaces are managed indicates that the strategies used to exert a sense of control over sites like Facebook borrow heavily from the strategies employed to manage offline private spaces like the teenage bedroom. In this article, we explore these continuities and then consider the limitations of applying a bedroom metaphor to online social spaces. We then consider how these strategies of control are related to a process of ‘marking out’ the narrative of ‘growing up’ both in online and offline social spaces.

Friending Participants: Managing the Researcher–Participant Relationship on Social Network Sites

Research into youth engagement with social network sites such as MySpace and Facebook highlights a complex set of ethical dimensions, which do not always translate easily from similar concerns in traditional offline research. On social network sites, it is clear that many young people are managing their online presences in strategic ways, often involving conventions around determining access to these spaces. If these sites are framed by their young users as at least ‘partially private’, how should the researcher seek access to these spaces and how should the researcher operate in these spaces if access is permitted? This article reflects on qualitative research undertaken by the author from 2007 to 2010, which involved ‘friending’ participants on MySpace and Facebook. Based on this reflection, and contextualized by an engagement with literature concerning both Internet research and youth research, this article argues that social network sites blur the public/private dichotomy. Thus, research engaging with participants on these sites requires ongoing ethical reflection around assumptions about public and private information, and researchers, institutional ethics committees and review boards must develop and make use of suitably informed expertise to both conduct and review future scholarship in this area.

10 years of Facebook

In early 2014, Facebook had been online for 10 years. On the social network’s 10th birthday, creator Mark Zuckerberg posted a message on the site reflecting on what he referred to as the ‘Facebook journey’, where he considers why the site has not only lasted so long, but has become integral to the lives of so many. How was it possible, he asked, that a group of students could create a global phenomenon?

Editing the project of the self: sustained Facebook use and growing up online

ABSTRACT Now in operation for 12 years, Facebook comes to serve as a digital record of life for young people. With significant parts of their lives played out on the site, users are able to turn to these profiles to reflect on how their use of Facebook has come to constitute a life narrative. In this paper, we report on findings from qualitative research into sustained use of Facebook by young people in their twenties in Australia and the UK. We focus on the ‘editing’ or re-ordering of narratives that our participants engage in while they scroll back through their years of disclosures – and the disclosures of others – that make up their Facebook Timelines. We present our analysis through three arenas (employment, family life and romantic relationships) subject to what we argue is a reflexive re-ordering of life narratives. We argue that Facebook profiles represent visual manifestations of Giddens [1991. Modernity and Self-Identity: Self and Society in the Late Modern Age. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press] reflexive project of the self, that serve not only to communicate a sense of self to others, but that also act as texts of personal reflection and of growing up, subject to ongoing revision.

Mediating Experiences of ‘Growing Up’ on Facebook’s Timeline: Privacy, Ephemerality and the Reflexive Project of Self

In 2014, Facebook will have existed for a decade. The site has become embedded into everyday life for many users, and for some young users, significant parts of their social lives have been played out on social network sites. As spaces in which social exchanges, identities and systems of belonging are articulated and made visible, these sites also act as archives of transition for young people, effectively capturing ‘growing up’ stories through a chronicle of mediated, transitional experiences. Through the timeline format (the most recent iteration of the profile at the time of writing), Facebook has begun to draw attention to and capitalise on the archival nature of the site. By emphasising its role in mediating these social exchanges and recalling status updates made or images uploaded years earlier, Facebook becomes both the site upon which narratives of transition are played out and organised, and also the site through which these variously public and private disclosures are recalled and reflected upon.

Uncovering longitudinal life narratives: scrolling back on Facebook:

This article explores the potential role of sustained social media use in longitudinal qualitative research. We introduce the research design and methodology of a research project exploring sustained use (five or more years) of the social network site Facebook among young people in their twenties. By focusing on this group, we seek to uncover how ‘growing up’ stories are told and archived online, and how disclosure practices (what people say and share on social media) change over time. We question how we can understand the ‘digital trace’ inscribed through the Facebook Timeline as a longitudinal narrative text. We argue that ‘scrolling back’ through Facebook with participants as ‘co-analysts’ of their own digital traces can add to the qualitative longitudinal research (QLR) tradition. QLR and the scroll back method attend to a similar set of concerns around change over time, the depth of inquiry, and uncovering rigorous, rich life narratives. We explore limitations (especially around intentionality) and ethical challenges, while also arguing for the inclusion of these often highly personal, deep, co-constructed digital texts in qualitative longitudinal research. We also consider how the scroll back method could apply to other digital media, as the sites and applications that people use diversifies and changes over time.