Digital Media, Friendship and Cultures of Care

Description

This book explores how digital media can extend care practices among friends and peers, researching young people’s negotiations of sexual health, mental health, gender/sexuality, and dating apps, and highlighting the need for a multifocal approach that centres young people’s expertise. Taking an "everyday practice" approach to digital and social media, Digital Media, Friendship and Cultures of Care emphasises that digital media are not novel but integrated into daily life. The book introduces the concept of "digital cultures of care" as a new framework through which to consider digital practices of friendship and peer support, and how these play out across a range of platforms and networks. Challenging common public and academic concerns about peer and friendship influences on young people, these terms are unpacked and reconsidered through attention to digital media, drawing on qualitative research findings to argue that digital and social media have created important new opportunities for emotional support, particularly for young people and LGBTQ+ people who are often excluded from formal healthcare and social support. This book and its comprehensive focus on friendship will be of interest to a range of readers, including academics, students, health promoters, educators, policymakers, and advocacy groups for either young people, LGBTQ+ communities, or digital citizenship. Academics most interested in this book will be working in digital media studies, health sociology, critical public health, health communication, sexualities, cultural studies, sex education, and gender studies. Cover Half Title Series Page Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Table of Contents Acknowledgements Introduction: who cares? Young people are not going online Young people in this book A public discourse of care Digital intimacy as everyday practice Beyond risk approaches Cultures of care The research The chapters Notes References Chapter 1 More than just friends Knowing friendship Friendship and popular culture Friendships and social media Changing modes of friendship Friendship as affective practice Notes References Chapter 2 What do we know about peers? Peer influence Peers and friends: sexual health disruptors Peer education Redefining peers Peer support Is digital support friendship? Tumblr care Digital peer support cultures Notes References Chapter 3 Young people’s social media expertise Social media use Thinking beyond “health information seeking” Sexual health promotion and social media Friendship and social media use A crisis of authority and the changing nature of expertise Partnering with experts Notes References Chapter 4 Friendship and sexual intimacy Intimacy, bodies, and feeling Friendship and sex Safe intimacies The distance of sexual health promotion Sexual information sharing Sex with friends Friendship as health promoting Attending to intimacy Notes References Chapter 5 LGBTQ+ peer support for mental health Digital information and support Digital care structures Community reports: friends and peers Digital mental health support Mental health on Tumblr Beyond “help-seeking” Notes References Chapter 6 Friends with dating apps Approaching dating/hook-up apps as friend spaces Making friends on dating/hook-up apps The safety of mutual friends Friendship support for app use Friends with apps Notes References Conclusion: Everyday care Social media, safety, and being online Returning to everyday practice Formal care Digital cultures of care Friends and peers Friends, sex, dating, intimacy The Tumblr affect Mental health care Digital health promotion Some final words References Index