Abstract
This article investigates the affective power of social media by analysing everyday encounters with parenting content among mothers. Drawing on data composed of diaries of social media use and follow-up interviews with six women, we ask how our study participants make sense of their experiences of parenting content and the affective intensities connected to it. Despite the negativity involved in reading and participating in parenting discussions, the participants find themselves wanting to maintain the very connections that irritate them, or even evoke a sense of failure, as these also yield pleasure, joy and recognition. We suggest that the ambiguities addressed in our research data speak of something broader than the specific experiences of the women in question. We argue that they point to the necessity of focusing on, and working through affective ambiguity in social media research in order to gain fuller understanding the complex appeal of platforms and exchanges.
Highlights
This article investigates the affective power of social media by analysing everyday encounters with parenting content among mothers
By examining how our study participants address the affective intensities that emerge when engaging with discussions, posts and comments on parenting and family life, we ask how these experiences feed into the evaluations they
We explore affective ambiguities associated with both social media and mothering
Summary
Eeva’s affective responses are telling of norms connected to family structure and the complex pressures that these put on mothers as promises impossible to fill (cf Berlant, 2011) Her description of visceral reaction to social media is very similar to that written by Iiris, a 36-yearold mother of a 1-year-old when describing her reactions to her friends comparing their experiences of mothering: ‘I feel the irritation and frustration all the way in my body, and sometimes I get shaky because I’m so upset.’. In addition to recounting their mixed feelings about social media use, our study participants write and speak of evaluations they make concerning the value and purpose of different platforms, and the actions of theirs friends and other contacts online In these accounts, affective intensities give way to broader judgements made of networked cultures of mothering, and of the role and purpose of social media in everyday life. Despite the aggression that Raisa associates with her own ‘force-liking’ of posts, likes received in return seem to involve no similar ambiguity
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