Alone Together

What Draws The LGBTQIA+ Population To Tumblr?

Posted on by taanihendriks

In my last blog post I discussed a research project I was interested in undertaking which concerned the prevalence of the queer or LGBTQIA+ community in online spaces with a focus on Tumblr. Specifically, my research question is why queer identifying persons are drawn to such online social spaces such as Tumblr. In order to do this as an ethnographer I will need to use both primary and secondary sources in order to back up my hypotheses and gather a more informative and holistic viewpoint.

I can use the primary sources in order to address the more specific questions I have concerning Tumblr use that I can tailor to elicit the data that I need to help me with my study (Institute for Work & Health, 2015). In order to collect this data, I plan on conducting a survey with queer users of Tumblr through a recruitment post via Tumblr as well as my direct observations of the LGBTQIA+ community on the site.

As my study takes place in an online setting, there will be certain adjustments I will need to make on my research technique concerning approaching and interacting with research subjects. My subjects will be from an online environment I will need to adequately incorporate computer-mediated communication in order to accommodate the social change online spaces create (Garcia, Standlee, Bechkoff, and Cui, 2009, 53). Additionally, as an experienced user of Tumblr, I already possess the skillset in order to navigate the site expertly, communicate with users effectively, and use all functions of the site to my advantage when undertaking my research project (Garcia et al., 2009, 59-60). Also worthy of noting, there are ethical issues raised surrounding the blurred lines between public and private content and the confidentiality issues surrounding the access to that data. However, to combat this issue, I will only be using data collected from those of whom have consented as well as concealing identities as subject names are insignificant to the research I am trying to conduct. I may also have to alter my presentation of self through a creation of an additional Tumblr blog as I feel my personal blog would be inappropriate to use for such purpose (Garcia et al., 2009, 73). With these adjustments I hope to conduct both an ethical and informative study.

I will use this information gathered in conjunction with the secondary research I will be conducting as such sources will provide me with readily available, helpful and informative material that I can easily obtain to assist back up my findings (Institute for Work & Health, 2015). Looking at both quantitative and qualitative research that directly relates to the study I am conducting, the information gathered from sources such as There’s Something Queer About Tumblr (Byron and Robards, 2017) and Queer Lives: The Construction of Queer Self and Community on Tumblr (Zamanian, 2014), will provide me with a basis into answering my question of why queers are so drawn to Tumblr as a social networking site.

Hopefully through the combination of these methods I will be able to provide an answer my question, effectively studying the interactions and intentions behind the queer users of Tumblr.

 

References

Byron, P. and Robards, B. (2018). There’s something queer about Tumblr. [online] The Conversation. Available at: https://theconversation.com/theres-something-queer-about-tumblr-73520 [Accessed 28 Sep. 2018].

Garcia, A., Standlee, A., Bechkoff, J. and Cui, Y. (2009). Ethnographic Approaches to the Internet and Computer-Mediated Communication. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, 38(1), pp.52-84.

Institute for Work & Health (2015). Primary data and secondary data  [online] Available at: https://www.iwh.on.ca/what-researchers-mean-by/primary-data-and-secondary-data [Accessed 28 Sep. 2018].

Zimanian, P. (2014). Queer Lives: The Construction of Queer Self and Community on Tumblr. Postgraduate. Sarah Lawrence College.

Queer Magnetism To Online Spaces

Posted on by taanihendriks

Since the mid-1990s, the Internet and online spaces have been considered an ideal place for young queer people to gather and interact, create a space to navigate their interests, and communicate identities and desires (Hampson and Bochmann, 2018). Tumblr is a blogging and social networking website in which users create a blog page and are able to follow other blogs and create content or share others’ content. This content can range from anywhere from analyses of the political climate to cute pet videos and pornography. Tumblr has created an online community where people can share their art, their opinions, their thoughts, their feelings, their stories and with a click of the button can be seen across the globe (Muñiz and O’Guinn, 2001, 413; Caliandro, 2017, 561).

 

As of 2018, Tumblr is a social media space with a large portion of vocal and visibly queer users. Additionally, as a user myself, I’ve found it interesting that joining the platform prior to coming out to both myself and others I somehow have still found the queer community and queer relationships that I needed to feel like my experiences were relatable. I initially joined to follow those who had the same interests as me, such as television, movies, comedy and soccer. Whether it was my tastes and interests that were inherently queer or if it was the pure multitude of queer users, I unintentionally gravitated towards queer blogs, and sequentially enveloping myself into the queer community. From an ethnographic standpoint, I find it interesting how so many people of the LGBTQIA+ community have found Tumblr as somewhat of a watering hole for queer entertainment, affairs, news and politics (Byron and Robards, 2017).

For my research project, I would like to concentrate on the question of why queer identifying persons are drawn to such online social spaces with a particular focus on the usage of Tumblr. I will be looking into queer users and how they first found queer content and how they use the filter bubbled and somewhat utopic space now. Some theories I have hypothesised include the sense of community and safety Tumblr provides, Tumblr as a place of discovery and learning and where a person can fit in and identify themselves comfortably, and finally queer magnetism: a social phenomenon in which somehow without specifying sexual or gender identities, queer persons tend to swim in the same circles due to similar belief systems and/or interests.

Through these hypotheses I hope to gain an understanding of how and why such a large population of the Tumblr community are queer identifying and how they found their online space and made it the abode in which they comfortably reside.

 

References

Byron, P. and Robards, B. (2018). There’s something queer about Tumblr. [online] The Conversation. Available at: https://theconversation.com/theres-something-queer-about-tumblr-73520 [Accessed 28 Sep. 2018].

Caliandro, A. (2017). Digital Methods for Ethnography: Analytical Concepts for Ethnographers Exploring Social Media Environments. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, 47(5), p.561.

Hampson, E. and Bochmann, L. (2018). Queering the internet: A sociological analysis of queer online activism | re:publica 2018. [online] re:publica 2018. Available at: https://18.re-publica.com/en/session/queering-internet-sociological-analysis-queer-online-activism [Accessed 28 Sep. 2018].

Muñiz, Albert M., Jr., and Thomas C. O’Guinn. 2001. “Brand Community.” Journal of Consumer Research 27 (March): 412–32

Alone Together: A Networked Home

Posted on by taanihendriks

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Since starting university in Wollongong, both my brother and I have moved away from home, I’m living with my aunt and uncle and my brother living on campus in Wagga Wagga. Our family dynamic changed drastically as my once full family home soon became an empty nest for my parents. These sudden changes however, were fought with the networking technologies available to us at our fingertips.

We became a networked home. Instead of coming home from uni and telling my parents about my day, I’ll video call them using Messenger and keep connected that way. Sometimes we spend hours talking about what we’ve been up to or what’s happening in the world around us. During the day we keep connected through playing against each other on Words with Friends, creating even more conversations for us to talk about when we do call each other. I’ll text my brother funny things I see on Tumblr or Youtube, tagging him in memes on Facebook and sending him snaps on Snapchat and he does the same with me. Networked communication is our primary form, if not our only form of keeping updated on each other’s lives for most of the year now. I will be scrolling though Facebook as I talk to my mum about the newest Jeopardy on that night that I can no longer watch at my new home. I call my best friend who lives across the world in Texas and tell her everything and she the same with me.

I sleep with my phone, receiving a goodnight text from my mum and a good morning text when I wake up wishing me a great day. Sherry Turkle said that technology is trying to redefine human connection and I completely agree. However, she continues that concentrating on the ideological version of this redefinition is hurting us and diverting us away from physical human connection and socialisation rather than connecting us closer, but I disagree (Turkle, 2012). I think the reality is the ideology, I wouldn’t be able to have the relationships with the people I connect with without the networked home. The criticism that people would “rather text than talk” in person I feel is misinformed and overly simplistic. A lot of the time, for me at least and I’m sure a lot of other young people feel the same, that we would rather text strangers than talk to them in person, but when it comes to friends and family a physical social interaction is just as good as networked interaction. This redefinition of human connection gives us more ways to interconnect, more opportunities to socialise with the ones you love rather than taking away the more traditional forms of human communication and interaction.

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References

Turkle, S. (2012). Transcript of “Connected, but alone?”. [online] Ted.com. Available at: https://www.ted.com/talks/sherry_turkle_alone_together/transcript [Accessed 29 Aug. 2018].