Current trends in the construction of disability in social networks

Abstract

The article is devoted to the consideration of ways of representing disability in social networks. The construction of the virtual identity of disabled people is considered by the authors in the focus of the dramatic approach presented in the works of I. Hoffman. Based on the qualitative content analysis of the accounts of bloggers with disabilities (N = 6), the author's typology of ways to represent disability was formulated. The main criterion for selecting profiles for analysis was the presence in the posted content of visual content that allows identifying the author of the profile as a person with physical or mental disabilities, as well as a description formulated by the author about himself. Among the studied accounts, different strategies for organizing self-representation were identified, due to different life experiences of individuals. This allowed us to identify several exceptional types of virtual representation of persons with special needs. Six types of disability were identified — demonstrative, abstract, built-in, accepting, frustrating and adapting. In the course of the study, the distinctive features characteristic of each type and diametrically opposed approaches to the construction of identity are interpreted. It is concluded that there are obvious and latent differences due not only to the unique experience of the actors who formed the requests, in an effort to satisfy which they create and maintain their blogs, but also to a different audience that makes up the target group of people consuming the posted content. It is recognized that the correlating parameters that determine the direction, thematic features, contextual nature of the analyzed accounts, although they may be dissimilar, are still focused on the integration of their creators into society through virtual communications. Social networks, with the opportunities they provide, today serve as a modern stage for performance and at the same time are a way of entering the communities of individuals and their life worlds. The activity of people with disabilities in social networks opens up additional prospects for their further inclusion in society and increases the inclusive culture of communities in online and offline environments.