Researching LGBT+ Youth Intimacies and Social Media: The Strengths and Limitations of Participant-Led Visual Methods

Abstract

This paper draws on data from an exploratory study into the social media engagements of LGBT+ young people aged 16 to 20 years old, in the United Kingdom, and considers how participant-led visual methods generated insights into different modalities of digitally mediated intimacy. It outlines the methodological paradigms dominating current research on LGBT+ young people’s digitally mediated practices of intimacy and argues that visual methods have been underemployed to date. The participatory visual methods used in this study, including map-making and digital tours of participant’s digital worlds along with visual elicitation interviews, are documented and explored in relation to Berlant’s work on intimacy and theories of networked affect. It also reflects upon the ethical implications of re-presenting social media images and troubles interpretive imperatives within qualitative research.

Digital intimacies and LGBT+ youth: celebration, equity and safety

“…This is often positive for social support, developing LGBT+ identities (DeHaan et al, 2013;Harper et al, 2015;McGeeney and Hanson, 2017), finding information or partners and increasing wellbeing in online contexts of relative safety (Selkie et al, 2020). Marston (2019) describes digital platforms as enabling 'rehearsals' of samesex 'identity, friendship, coming out, intimate relationships, sex and community', easing and accelerating any coming out processes.…”

What and how: doing good research with young people, digital intimacies, and relationships and sex education

“…Research with young people should also recognise that what people say is shaped by norms and their social environment; research that does give a platform to young people’s voices should seek to interrogate how dominant social norms and expectations shape the kinds of discourse young people have access to (see Smith and Attwood 2011 ). Examples of participatory research with young people, including some discussion of the challenges inherent in this work, include projects by Miles, Renedo, and Marston ( 2018 ); 2019 ), C. Marston ( 2004 , 2005 ), K. Marston ( 2019 ), and Renold (Libby et al with Renold 2018 , Renold 2018 ).…”

Instagram versus reality: the design and use of self-curated photo elicitation in a study exploring the construction of Scottish identity amongst personal style influencers on Instagram

“…They argue that the method allows researchers to explore more ‘subjective meanings’, where photos ‘act as a trigger to memory and are likely to evoke a more emotional many-layered response in participants’ (Collier and Collier, 1986; Croghan et al, 2008: 346; Prosser and Schwartz, 1998; Samuels, 2004). More recently, Marston (2019) explores digital intimacies amongst LGBT+ youth participants through a three-stage participant-led visual process consisting of mapping exercises, digital tours captured via screenshot and photo interviews. She observes some of the challenges in carrying out visual research, such as image selection and ethical concerns, as well as its ability to produce rich data and unexpected findings.…”

“…Marston (2019: 284) in her study of identity and social media highlights the ‘importance of evaluating ethical relations as they emerge in the unfolding process of research, rather than judging them in advance’. Similarly, the use of participants’ self-curated imagery was a key ethical consideration and something that evolved.…”