(Dis)connected parenting: Context control and information management in single adoptive parents’ social media practice

Abstract

Drawing on grounded theory research with parents who brought children into their lives in non-traditional ways, this article considers how three UK-based single adoptive parents navigate a complex set of risks, benefits and limitations as they construct mutually beneficial connections, friendships and support networks online. The discussion draws on media scholarship suggesting that, in response to contemporary norms of constant connection, digital availability and online context ‘collapse’, many internet users appropriate the affordances of online platforms and technologies to maintain personal boundaries and keep social groups apart. I argue that such tight context control can be particularly important for single adoptive parents, whose children are often vulnerable in multiple ways, who continue to face social stigma and misunderstanding, and for whom privacy can be vital to their families’ safety and wellbeing. The article pays particular attention to single adopters’ strategic deployment of three interconnected practices for managing and curating their networks and information sharing: compartmentalisation, selective sharing and disengagement. As well as pointing to similarities between participants’ practices, the article considers how the nuances of their individual circumstances shape and influence their ways of both connecting with, and disconnecting from, a range of individuals, groups and networks.