The grand interruption: death online and mediated lifelines of shared vulnerability

Lagerkvist, Amanda; Andersson, Yvonne

doi:10.1080/14680777.2017.1326554

Cited by 25 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…By discussing platformed sociality as a pivotal part of the existential struggle and process of IC for numerous sufferers, this article has also attempted to widen the perspective of existential media studies that have predominantly dealt with illness, mourning, and death (Andersson, 2017;Lagerkvist, 2017b;Lagerkvist and Andersson, 2017;Stage and Hougaard, 2018). IC is imbued with particular existential implications, as the state is stigmatized, silenced, and concealed.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…TTC environments, as I will argue, form existential media and present existential arenas yet unexplored, as they relate to a stigmatized and silenced state. TTC communication further relates to that which did not or is yet to happen, thus presenting other and different existential issues than those explored in previous studies, focused on death and illness (Andersson, 2017;Lagerkvist, 2017b;Lagerkvist and Andersson, 2017;Stage and Hougaard, 2018).…”

mentioning

confidence: 94%

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Involuntary childlessness online: Digital lifelines through blogs and Instagram

Stenström

2020

New Media & Society

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Platformed sociality has become an elemental part of existential processes and struggles. Previous research has shown that digital contexts offer lifelines of support and a sense of belonging based on shared vulnerabilities. By combining phenomenological and ethnographic approaches, this article explores involuntary childlessness (IC) online in so-called trying-to-conceive (TTC) contexts on Instagram and in blogs. The analysis is driven by the following questions: What are the particularities of digital lifeline communication in the context of IC? Can lifeline communication shape what is coming into being in the context of wished-for children and/or motherhood? Can (digital) life be challenged, extended, or created in this context? Drawing on interviews and online posts from 260 Instagram accounts and three blogs, I argue that digital lifeline communication in TTC environments facilitates digital existence and “digital life” as the notions of motherhood and longed-for and lost children attain a form of digital materiality through posts and discussions.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 94%

Involuntary childlessness online: Digital lifelines through blogs and Instagram

Stenström

2020

New Media & Society

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“…In emphasizing the existential complexity of narrating crisis and vulnerability on social media, this article situates itself in the burgeoning “existential media studies” field, which focuses on how digital media can simultaneously co-produce existential crisis (e.g., in terms of privacy breaches, digital assaults, or social invisibility) and serve as relational technologies, or “lifelines,” when it comes to managing existential vulnerabilities (Lagerkvist & Andersson, 2017; Langlois, 2018; Peters, 2015). Cancer-related profiles, blogs, or groups are obvious examples of such digital media practices that revolve around human experiences of disruption, loss, or profound biographical disturbance and that simultaneously express and manage crises by giving them a mediated form.…”

Section: Existing Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Vital Media: The Affective and Temporal Dynamics of Young Cancer Patients’ Social Media Practices

Stage

Madsen

Klastrup

2020

Social Media + Society

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This article presents results from a research project investigating young cancer patients’ general use of social media and their lived experience of the choices and dilemmas involved in using social media in relation to moments of existential crisis. This article’s key finding—based on an extensive survey with 205 young cancer patients and 25 qualitative interviews—is that social media becomes increasingly important for young people after a cancer diagnosis and that these young people engage with social media as—what we will call— vital media. The analysis in this article focuses on affective and temporal media experiences in the empirical material collected and argues that three dimensions of “media vitality” are salient: (1) that young people engage with social media to actively produce vitality in terms of generating a sense of wellbeing or balance by sharing, seeking out, or avoiding particular types of cancer-related content; (2) that young people experience social media as a vital or “lively” technology that introduces unpredictable and sometimes unwanted material into their lives; and (3) that young people feel they are expected to perform or share vital approaches to illness on social media, such as positive or life-affirming—as opposed to negative or pessimistic—accounts of their illness. In this way, the concept of “vital media” addresses strategic, ecological, and cultural aspects of young cancer patients’ social media engagements.

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“…Memories and expressions of emotion circulate online through social networks, and can be edited together to produce YouTube videos or curated memorial pages (Greenhill and Fletcher 2013). The bereaved look online for support, in public conversations or private communities of shared experience (Lagerkvist and Andersson 2017). These kinds of online interactions have at times attracted hostile reactions, including disputes between online mourners (Marwick and Ellison 2012), mockery from journalists (Gibbs et al 2015) and insults from online trolls (Phillips 2011).…”

Section: Literature Review: Death Onlinementioning

confidence: 99%

Angels and the Digital Afterlife: Death and Nonreligion Online

Hutchings

2019

Secularism and Nonreligion

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This brief article aims to draw the attention of nonreligion researchers to a growing interdisciplinary research field: the study of death online. In digitally networked societies, the dead are remembered online, and their survivors can use digital resources to express grief, find support and construct memorials. New norms and languages of mourning are emerging, including new references to heaven, angels and communication with the dead. The boundary between religion and nonreligion is blurred in these new practices, but we know very little as yet about what this blurring actually means to the bereaved. This article will outline the main approaches to religion in studies of death online, draw on nonreligion research to critique these approaches, and call for new directions and methods in future studies of nonreligion and media. It will argue that scholars of religion and nonreligion have much to offer to the study of death online, and this article acts as an introduction and an invitation to future interdisciplinary exploration.

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The grand interruption: death online and mediated lifelines of shared vulnerability

Cited by 25 publications

References 20 publications

Involuntary childlessness online: Digital lifelines through blogs and Instagram

Involuntary childlessness online: Digital lifelines through blogs and Instagram

Vital Media: The Affective and Temporal Dynamics of Young Cancer Patients’ Social Media Practices

Angels and the Digital Afterlife: Death and Nonreligion Online

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