‘I feel the irritation and frustration all over the body’ Affective ambiguities in networked parenting culture

Abstract

This article investigates the affective power of social media by analysing everyday encounters with parenting content among mothers. Drawing on data composed of diaries of social media use and follow-up interviews with six women, we ask how our study participants make sense of their experiences of parenting content and the affective intensities connected to it. Despite the negativity involved in reading and participating in parenting discussions, the participants find themselves wanting to maintain the very connections that irritate them, or even evoke a sense of failure, as these also yield pleasure, joy and recognition. We suggest that the ambiguities addressed in our research data speak of something broader than the specific experiences of the women in question. We argue that they point to the necessity of focusing on, and working through affective ambiguity in social media research in order to gain fuller understanding the complex appeal of platforms and exchanges.

Platformed intimacies: Professional belonging on social media

“…This participant's perception of their visibility echoed the social media tactics of editing, managing and curating one's online presence (e.g. Lehto and Paasonen, 2021) while being primarily characterised by hesitance and unpredictability rather than strategic attempts to construct a brand-like self. Their act of posting indicated an ambivalent desire for recognition and an 'unbearable' insecurity regarding reciprocity (Bollmer, 2018) regarding how a post would be received by colleagues.…”

“…Our analysis involved several rounds of closely reading the transcribed interview material and the diary entries in which the participants described their work-related experiences of social media use; actual and intended/imagined audiences and followers, peers and professional communities; and expectations and imaginings to do with social media work. By closely reading the data, we identified several affective tensions and ambivalences (see Lehto and Paasonen, 2021) between individualised social media personas and collective artistic work, self-presentation and community building, private dispositions and promotional demands, and social media visibility and employability. The notion of intimacy has allowed us to grasp and name the structuring tensions and the ‘mobile processes of attachment’ (Berlant, 1998: 284) in the participants’ accounts, as well as to identify the fundamental interdependence and simultaneity of reaching out and leaning back, of connecting and disconnecting and of relating and distancing.…”

Sosiaalisen median vanhemmuussisällöt raivostuttavat, ilahduttavat ja pitkästyttävät

“…Väitöskirjani sisältää erilaisia tapausesimerkkejä sosiaalisen median affektiivisesta voimasta. Yhdessä niistä pyysin eri ikäisiä äitejä kertomaan kohtaamisistaan somen vanhemmuussisältöjen kanssa, ensin päiväkirjojen muodossa ja myöhemmin haastatteluissa (Lehto ja Paasonen 2021). Äitien somen käyttö liitetään usein vertaistukeen (esim.…”

“…Verkostoituneessa vanhemmuuskulttuurissa äitiyden normit kietoutuvat sosiaalisen median tunnetalouteen (Ahmed 2004), joka suosii reaktioita ja jakoja keräävää tunnepitoista sisältöä. Perheelliset somevaikuttajat ponnistelevat ristiriitaisten vaatimusten keskellä, ja äitiyttä säätelevät tunnesäännöt lisäävät sometyön paineita (Lehto 2021).…”

Uneasy self-promotion and tactics of patience: Finnish MPs’ ambivalent feelings about personalised politics on social media

“…As visibility is the biggest asset a politician can have, MPs cannot opt out of using social media; these platforms are essential for building a professional profile. However, the interviewees’ relationship to social media is ambivalent, and it both pulls them towards empowering connections and pushes them away from unpleasant situations (see also Lehto and Paasonen, 2021).…”