TY - JOUR
T1 - The management of LGBTQ+ identities on social media
T2 - A student perspective
AU - Talbot, Catherine
AU - Talbot, Amelia
AU - Roe, Danielle J
AU - Briggs, Pam
N1 - Funding information: The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship and/or publication of this article: This work was funded by the EPSRC Grant EP/M023001/1. The authors thank the participants for contributing their experiences.
PY - 2022/8/1
Y1 - 2022/8/1
N2 - Social media can be used to both enhance and diminish students’ experiences of university and its influence is strong for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and other non-heterosexual and gender-diverse (LGBTQ+) people facing stigma and discrimination. Students may feel exposed when identifying as LGBTQ+, particularly while transitioning to university life. In this study, we used theories of performance and digital personhood to explore how LGBTQ+ students use social media for identity management. We report a thematic analysis of 16 interviews. Four themes were generated from the data, showing that students use social media to explore, conceal, protect and express their identities. We found that different social media provide stages where LGBTQ+ identities are constrained by different and distinctive social factors. Thus, LGBTQ+ students’ online identities are multiple, situated and bound to specific platforms, with some alternatives to Facebook offering a space where students may feel more comfortable performing their authentic selves.
AB - Social media can be used to both enhance and diminish students’ experiences of university and its influence is strong for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and other non-heterosexual and gender-diverse (LGBTQ+) people facing stigma and discrimination. Students may feel exposed when identifying as LGBTQ+, particularly while transitioning to university life. In this study, we used theories of performance and digital personhood to explore how LGBTQ+ students use social media for identity management. We report a thematic analysis of 16 interviews. Four themes were generated from the data, showing that students use social media to explore, conceal, protect and express their identities. We found that different social media provide stages where LGBTQ+ identities are constrained by different and distinctive social factors. Thus, LGBTQ+ students’ online identities are multiple, situated and bound to specific platforms, with some alternatives to Facebook offering a space where students may feel more comfortable performing their authentic selves.
KW - Disclosure
KW - LGBT
KW - gender
KW - higher education
KW - identity
KW - life transitions
KW - performance
KW - sexuality
KW - technology
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85097754574&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/1461444820981009
DO - 10.1177/1461444820981009
M3 - Article
VL - 24
SP - 1729
EP - 1750
JO - New Media and Society
JF - New Media and Society
SN - 1461-4448
IS - 8
M1 - 1461444820981009
ER -