Identity construction and community formation in techno-social spaces -

Abstract

Techno-social spaces are spaces of situated identity construction and community formation, which exist within a broader realm of virtual systems. Apps like Grindr, Her, Tinder, and Wapa are spaces where individuals in Beirut articulate their identities and desires. Techno-social spaces have technological and human elements which complement and contradict each other. The technological interface enables and disables forms of human identity construction and interaction. In more technical terms, technological affordances, in the form of member profile construction options, or social interaction options, can shape how humans see themselves, present themselves to others, and interact with others in these techno-social spaces. This means that the technological interface allows or disallows articulations of social and political affiliations through identity construction, community building, and political action, depending on settings and features afforded to the human users of these spaces. In this project, I study how identity construction and community formation on these geolocative apps are influenced by flows of capital within and beyond the app industry. These geolocative hookup apps enable the commodification of identity markers and notions of ‘community’ within the techno-social space. This commodification leads to the development of highly fragmented identity formations, and highly regulated communities. This fragmentation and regulation points to what communities look like in the neoliberal era: highly individualized and fragmented, and based on consumer behaviors and needs. This project contributes to existing literature on the role of capital in contemporary forms of identification and community formation. It adds to debates on these phenomena in techno-social spaces by examining how app developers exploit the data inputs by users to generate profits.