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| Topic Started: Jan 13 2016, 05:10 AM (15 Views) | |
| Bill Clinton | Jan 13 2016, 05:10 AM Post #1 |
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Masc/Mask: Queer Identities in Geolocative Social Network Services The construction of identity in social media has increasingly become an active and deliberate action by the user. The performance of identity, indeed, has become common, and this mediation of identity is ongoing within the sphere of social media (Pozzi 2014, 1). In this essay, I will examine this phenomenon, arguing that the performance and mediation of identity is enhanced and further propagated by the use of social media. In particular, I will look at the social media case study of Grindr, including both the features native to the application and its unique placement in the social media sphere. Specifically, I will choose to focus on the narrow example of the masculine/feminine gay identity dichotomy present within the app. In using this case study in conjunction with a wider discussion of mediated identity, I will show how Web 2.0, and specifically the rise of this geolocative mobile social network, has intensified the user’s construction of personal identity. The interface of Grindr itself is simple, but allows for a personalization that gives way to the mediation of identity. Upon logging in, a user sees a ‘cascade’ grid of other users with their profile pics, arranged so that the closest user is first listed according to the mobile device’s inbuilt GPS coordinating. The contents of a profile, once selected, consist of a photo, a heading or ‘headline’, a short blurb or ‘about me’ section, physical attributes, what the user is seeking (including but not limited to ‘friends’, ‘dates’, or ‘networking’), and the distance from the user . The options available to a user’s mediated identity, therefore, are much the same as larger SNSs such as Twitter and Facebook (see Figure 1). With the functions of our case study defined, we can now begin to analyse it. Before turning to the mediation of identity in social media, we must first define both the scope of this essay and the constructs it will analyse. In this essay, I will view social media as being those venues (referred to by van Dijck as ‘social network services’, or ‘SNSs’) through which we may engage with others through Web 2.0 (van Dijck 2013, 200). This is opposed to those more traditional social networks, which may refer to friendship groups, or through Web 1.0 architectures such as message boards and email. In this essay, I will use ‘social network’ and ‘SNS’ in referring to these Web 2.0 interfaces. This is especially relevant given my case study of Grindr, a so-called ‘gay dating app’ (more accurately referred to as a ‘location-aware real-time dating appplication’ for men who seek men ), which uses geolocative abilities to show other users near the primary user (Blackwell, Birnholtz, and Abbott 2014, 2). It is this aspect that I will first consider: the fact that Grindr presents itself as an SNS for a particular subset of users. The unique context of Grindr, both in how it positions itself within the men who seek men (MSM) community but also amongst the multitude of other apps that present themselves in the same way, becomes the first mediation of identity for potential users. The choice of ‘which app to use’ in relation to gay dating apps is a large one to make, given the multitude of apps available (Mowlabocus 2010, 83). This is complicated by the different spaces constructed by different dating apps, presenting forums for different ‘types’ or subcultures of users to meet (Brubaker, Ananny, and Crawford 2014, 5-7). The selection of any one app, therefore, becomes the first mediation of identity in this range of SNSs: Brubaker, Ananny et al. suggest that geolocative services in general not only require the categorization of others, but the categorization of the ‘self’, so that others whom you may wish to interact with can find you easily (2014). Each app offers their own ‘take’ in the gay dating culture, with different people and different tastes (Mowlabocus 2010, 84). Thus, the choice to use Grindr above other such apps as Scruff, Jack’d, or Hornet becomes a recognition of the particular subculture you wish to appeal to, and wish to mediate yourself towards. It therefore follows that usage of any particular app, and of Grindr, is a direct result of that mediation. Grindr’s placement as, ostensibly, a gay dating app, allows us to consider dating applications and social networks in general when we analyse the mediation of identity through Grindr and similar apps. This mediation, or what Birnholtz et al refer to as ‘self-presentation’ (Birnholtz et al. 2014, 1), has manifest in the careful curating of appearances by SNS users, to evoke a “positive response” from other users (Ellison, Hancock, and Toma 2011, Hitsch, Hortaçsu, and Ariely 2010, Mascaro, Magee, and Goggins 2012, Toma and Hancock 2012). Whilst social networks in general are geared to the user’s social circle, a distinction must also be made: in dating apps, gay dating apps included, the ‘audience’ to any one user’s ‘profile’ is unknown (Birnholtz et al. 2014, 2). With the breadth of options available to tailor a self-presentation to these unknown others in Grindr, there is no question that a mediation takes place, and that a personal identity unique to Grindr is constructed by the user. We must then consider what a user may potentially construct for his identity. The unique space constructed by Grindr, as referred to earlier, creates a series of expectations in line with Goffman’s dramaturgical approach to self-performance that must be fulfilled by the user’s mediation of identity (Brubaker, Ananny, and Crawford 2014, 5, Goffman 1959, 1, Mowlabocus 2010, Robards 2012, 46-60). Goffman’s approach particularly is subject to a “sense of expectation”, which interacts with the user’s choice of dating app immediately upon that first consideration (Goffman 1959, 16, Robards 2012, 48). When the user selects Grindr as opposed to another (seemingly identical) dating app, according to Goffman’s model, they have effectively selected the type of performance they will conduct via their identity, aligning with the dramaturge’s shaping of a theatrical text into comedy, drama, or tragedy. Robards describes this deliberate choice as the socialized individual having “some understanding” of the “appropriate” performance demanded of the user by the coded space (Robards 2012, 48-9). This poses a question: how is Grindr as a space coded? Physical attractiveness is a primary factor: Grindr’s founder describes “one of the most important things” as being “what does the other guy look like?”(Rosen 2010) Tinkcom additionally argues that the picture-based format of Grindr allows for the “visibility of the erotic” to become synonymous with sexual pleasure (Tinkcom 2011). This aesthetic focus allows for the immediate codification of Grindr’s space via the images the user uploads in his mediation of identity. Such images emphasize (as Tinkcom suggests) a sexual dimension: despite Duits’ assertion that the body “does not exist” on SNSs due to the latter’s virtual nature, the body is paramount to Grindr’s space (Duits 2007, 5). With the body paramount, it becomes masculinity which is at the fore of Grindr’s Goffman-esque expectations.(Goffman 1959, 16) This leads us, at last, to question how Grindr as an application mediates the construction of identity within masculinity. Grindr offers a final dichotomy of mediated identity within the SNS: that of hegemonic “masc” and of the opposing “femme”. Masculinity within “gay identities” are a major concern for gay individuals—a majority of gay men having ranked masculinity as important for both themselves and a partner (Sanchez and Vilain 2012, 112). Likewise, femininity is discouraged: a feminine gay individual is seen as subordinate to other masculinities, and gay individuals do not desire the performance of femininity in either themselves or their partners (Connell 2002, 39-40, Sanchez and Vilain 2012, 112). This dichotomy is replicated on Grindr, as users mediate within the space to conform by the standards of Goffman’s expectations (Goffman 1959, 16). The “sexual gatekeepers” of Grindr operate through a hegemonic masculinity to continue the subordination of feminine identities by mediating their own profiles and self-presentations to match with the hegemonic ideal (Shuckerow 2014, 6). This performance appears affected directly by the presence of Grindr: elsewhere, identities are varied and personalized, but Shuckerow notes a “collapse” of identity into an “extreme form” of traditional masculinity, mediated by the app (Shuckerow 2014, 6). Thus, through the use of Grindr itself, users are forced to mediate their identities towards two opposing, diametrical poles: the “one percent” of “sexual gatekeepers”, with their implied masculinity, fitness, musculature, whiteness and youth, or the rest (Shuckerow 2014, 9). The complex intersection of gay identity and SNSs offer a unique angle in which to consider the mediation of identity within the social networking sphere. In this essay, I have done so with the popular case study of Grindr. In doing so, I have shown that self-presentation and the performance of identity in the digital age begins before the initial engagement with an app, and that mediation is driven not only by the applications themselves, but by the encoded spaces created by the user base. The geolocative social network has connected people in greater numbers than the past, and I have demonstrated that this increased connectivity has forced the construction of identity to accelerate, as the real world intervenes with the online. Works Cited 2013. iPhone 5 Profile: Grindr. Image. Birnholtz, Jeremy, Colin Fitzpatrick, Mark Handel, and Jed R. Brubaker. 2014. Identity, identification and identifiability: the language of self-presentation on a location-based mobile dating app. In Proceedings of the 16th international conference on Human-computer interaction with mobile devices & services. Toronto, ON, Canada: ACM. Blackwell, Courtney, Jeremy Birnholtz, and Charles Abbott. 2014. "Seeing and being seen: Co-situation and impression formation using Grindr, a location-aware gay dating app." New Media & Society. doi: 10.1177/1461444814521595. Brubaker, Jed R, Mike Ananny, and Kate Crawford. 2014. "Departing glances: A sociotechnical account of ‘leaving’ Grindr." New Media & Society. doi: 10.1177/1461444814542311. Connell, Raewyn. 2002. "The Social Organization of Masculinity." In The Masculinities Reader, edited by S.M. Whitehead and F. Barrett. Wiley. Duits, Linda. 2007. Being Young is the Thing to Be: The Online Construction and Performance of Youth. In International Communication Association. San Francisco. Ellison, Nicole B., Jeffrey T. Hancock, and Catalina L. Toma. 2011. "Profile as promise: A framework for conceptualizing veracity in online dating self-presentations." New Media & Society. doi: 10.1177/1461444811410395. Goffman, Erving. 1959. The presentation of self in everyday life. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday. Hitsch, GünterJ, Ali Hortaçsu, and Dan Ariely. 2010. "What makes you click?—Mate preferences in online dating." Quantitative Marketing and Economics no. 8 (4):393-427. doi: 10.1007/s11129-010-9088-6. Mascaro, Christopher M., Rachel M. Magee, and Sean P. Goggins. 2012. Not just a wink and smile: an analysis of user-defined success in online dating. In Proceedings of the 2012 iConference. Toronto, Ontario, Canada: ACM. Mowlabocus, Sharif. 2010. Gaydar Culture : Gay Men Technology and Embodiment in the Digital Age. Farnham, Surrey, GBR: Ashgate Publishing Ltd. Pozzi, Megan. 2014. All the worldwide web's a stage : teenage girls' self-presentation and identities formation through status updates. Masters by Research. Robards, Brady. 2012. "Systems of Belonging: Identity, Integrity, and Affinity on Social Network Sites for Young People in Australia." Rosen, Zack. 2014. Interviews: The Fathr of Grindr, Joel Simkhai 2010 [cited 31 October 2014]. Available from http://thenewgay.net/2010/02/the-fathr-of-grindr-joel-simkhai.html. Sanchez, F. J., and E. Vilain. 2012. ""Straight-acting gays": the relationship between masculine consciousness, anti-effeminacy, and negative gay identity." Arch Sex Behav no. 41 (1):111-9. doi: 10.1007/s10508-012-9912-z. Shuckerow, Duncan. 2014. Take Off Your Masc: The Hegemonic Gay Male's Gender Performance on Grindr, Department of Humanities, History and Social Sciences, Columbia College Chicago, Chicago, USA. Tinkcom, Matthew. 2011. "“You've got to get on to get off”: Shortbus and the Circuits of the Erotic." South Atlantic Quarterly no. 110 (3):693-713. doi: 10.1215/00382876-1275842. Toma, Catalina L., and Jeffrey T. Hancock. 2012. "What Lies Beneath: The Linguistic Traces of Deception in Online Dating Profiles." Journal of Communication no. 62 (1):78-97. doi: 10.1111/j.1460-2466.2011.01619.x. van Dijck, José. 2013. "‘You have one identity’: performing the self on Facebook and LinkedIn." Media, Culture & Society no. 35 (2):199-215. doi: 10.1177/0163443712468605. |
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