The literature on mobile media and marginalized groups has focused on the use of mobile media as an agentic, visible, and varied process related to individual empowerment.Conversely, non-use is often presupposed to be a passive, invisible condition imposed by sociostructural forces. Our paper challenges this binary, positing that mobile media (non-)use can be an expression of agency motivated in response to structural constraints. We posit that (non-)use strategies span two dimensions: contextual-absolute and visible-invisible. Firstly, (non-)use does not always involve the complete absence of mobile media and may manifest in gradations that vary by sociostructural context. Secondly, certain (non-)use strategies may be less visible, and in turn, less likely to invite a sociostructural response, while more visible strategies risk inviting retaliation. We apply this conceptual lens to the context of cisfeminine (n = 17) and transfeminine (n = 17) sex workers in Singapore, who experience intersectional marginalization due to their gender identity, occupation, and migrant status. From our interviews, we develop a provisional typology of mobile media (non-)use strategies that offers insight into the complexities of (non-)use strategies in leading to (dis)empowerment and social transformation.

A common view is that marginalized groups benefit substantially from strategic use of digital technologies. An intersectionality perspective, however, suggests that these outcomes may vary depending on individuals’ social positionality. We propose the concept of “subverted agency” to emphasize that use of digital technologies may be personally empowering but might reinforce normative regimes contributing to sociostructural marginalization. We investigated digital practices of 17 online-soliciting transfeminine sex workers through semi-structured interviews in Singapore, where attitudes toward gender diversity and sex work remain conservative. We highlight three dilemmas of digital media environments, namely, presentation of gender identity and embodiment, intimate relationships characterized by persistent liminality, and competitive pressures related to authenticity of identity. The subverted agency perspective suggests that digital practices do not straightforwardly transform unequal sociostructural conditions; instead, it offers a frame to rethink inclusion by attending to contextual intersections of marginalization.

Lay summary This article explores how sexual desires of Singaporean users on Grindr (a gay dating app) are socially conditioned to include racial preferences, which in turn constitutes sexual racism. This research is important as it examines the complexities of sexual racism within a multiracial and postcolonial East Asian context, balancing the existing scholarly focus on sexual racism in Western societies. Our interviews with Grindr users in Singapore revealed that users tend to slot themselves (and others) into racial categories that appear fixed and linked to racial stereotypes. This allows a pecking order to emerge, such that the racial majority (Singaporean Chinese users) are generally seen as most desirable. Race is therefore one important dimension of the interactions on Grindr. If racial identity is not immediately obvious on app profiles, users often seek to find out the racial identities of other potential partners by, for example, requesting photos to make guesses about their race. We also studied the responses of racial minorities to sexual racism. These strategies include trying to present a Chinese or Chinese-mixed racial identity, emphasizing an identity that is globalized rather than ethnic, and reframing their situation to disavow their victimhood.

Mobile scholarship has highlighted the embeddedness of mobile media practices within power hierarchies and sociostructural conditions. We enrich the critical approach by examining how trust, as a future-oriented disposition that deals with uncertainty and social vulnerability, conditions mobile practices and vice versa. We interviewed 29 Syrian refugees residing in the Netherlands, examining how different levels of vulnerability and uncertainty in refugees’ experiences shape mobile use and non-use. We found that low vulnerability–low uncertainty situations were associated with habitual, everyday use; low vulnerability–high uncertainty corresponded to anxiety-expunging non-use; high vulnerability–low uncertainty influenced harm-mitigating mobile practices that sometimes acquiesced to hierarchies; and high vulnerability–high uncertainty circumstances incited radical forms of dependence and collaboration between mobile users. We posit that this framework is not limited to refugee contexts, but mobile-mediated relationships in general. We underscore the importance of mobile scholarship in understanding and offering solutions to contemporary global crises of distrust.