My therapist is a big believer in “disconnecting.” That is, she believes it’s healthier for people with depression and anxiety to reduce their use of social media – and the internet in general – in order to be more fully present with the people in our lives. While I don’t doubt the therapeutic effects of centring in-person interactions with the people we care about, the indispensability of physical touch, body language, and facial expressions, and the efficacy of developing communities that way, I disagree with the sentiment that many of my classmates have expressed: that life narratives created on Social Networking Sites necessarily create isolated, filtered, and hyper-personalized simulations of connection and personal identity.

For those adamant on the relationship between mental wellness and exercise, Mike Ochotta’s critique of the uptick in exercise applications connected to Facebook demonstrates that using exercise statistics to narrate one’s physical life actually encourages hostility, competition, and a culture of disconnection. These effects counter the intended goals of exercise and physical activity, which include encouraging social interaction and intimacy. Furthering this thesis, Matias Taylor points out how the guise of happiness we perpetuate on Facebook can sustain low self-esteem by enabling us to obsess over our social image as well as accruing social capital through our friend list and the “likes” we get. Indeed, there’s also research that examines the impact that excess Facebook use has on subject well-being in general, as well as how it can exacerbate depression in teens who already have low self-esteem.

The way corporations such as Facebook feed and sell our content back to ourselves, and create an illusion of connectedness through our continuous, voluntary, but still unwitting sharing and over-sharing is no doubt perverse, and unhealthy for society as a whole. This claim to me is undeniable, but a discourse uncovering Facebook’s neoliberalism (not at all to say Sierra Weiner’s argument is weak or inaccurate!) does not actually tell us much about the way Facebook (and other platforms) can be and is being used by marginalized communities for political change and resistance.

Vivian Wan interrogates how the Western-centric construction of identities in Humans of New York (HONY) limits the capacity for self-representation in particular, often marginalized subjects. What she also implies in her argument, especially while citing the Ukrainian woman who consents to being photographed only after another Ukrainian person in the streets insists on the importance of “represent[ing] the women of [her] land,” is that our current historical period provides rhetorical situations for such representations. This is an idea central to Miller’s “Genre as Social Action,” wherein rhetorical situations recur as “an intersubjective phenomenon” (156) based in social meanings.

In the case of the Ukrainian subject, this “acting-together” involves a shared need to construct a stable national female identity for Ukraine and then feed it back to global (north) digital audiences. In turn, HONY fulfils the role of a rhetorical genre whose purpose involves stabilizing a regional American identity, consolidating the idea that New Yorkers are open, diverse, and cosmopolitan – even if the subjects photographed are not all “New Yorkers.”

Many of my classmates have expressed the fact that social networking platforms are indeed tools we can use to explore new ideas and identities if we hold that goal at the centre of our use. To expand on this, I want to point to the ways in which self-representation within filter bubbles can be incredibly powerful for those pursuing radical politics, especially that of disability justice. Prior to connecting with disability justice activists (who are also intimately connected with queer, trans, and racialized communities) online, the way I used Facebook as a medium was radically different than it is now.

For those who are interested, I’ve written a personal piece here describing how my use shifted as my cultural attitudes and community evolved. Please ask me in class for the password, as I wish my audience to be limited to those in the class.

I argue that online filter bubbles are vital for protecting vulnerable communities from the violence they face every day. To me, Lewis’ Law, trigger warnings, block functions, and a myriad of applications aimed at accessibility for neurodiverse individuals help to create safer spaces.

Tumblr and the active, meaningful use of the application Tumblr Savior can be an excellent way for survivors of different forms of violence to voice their concerns honestly without exposing themselves to content that will replay the traumas they’ve endured. Those with mobility needs connect far better with the people they love when going outside is especially difficult when they have access to both a platform where self-expression and social connection are possible, and where resources for spaces they can access can be sourced. The description for disability justice activist Mia Mingus’ blog “Leaving Evidence” is as follows:

We must leave evidence. Evidence that we were here, that we existed, that we survived and loved and ached. Evidence of the wholeness we never felt and the immense sense of fullness we gave to each other. Evidence of who we were, who we thought we were, who we never should have been. Evidence for each other that there are other ways to live–past survival; past isolation.

The life narratives disabled people create themselves work against the medicalization and criminalization of their bodies. They are therefore working against the master narrative of the “flawed subject,” when they insist upon a new way of looking at bodies, love, intimacy, and health.

Works Cited

bjornstar.com. “Tumblr Savior”. Chrome Webstore. 13 September 2014 <https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/tumblr-savior/oefddkjnflmjbclpnnoegglmmdfkidip?hl=en>.

“Facebook Use Predicts Declines in Subjective Well-Being in Young Adults”. PLOS 1. 14 September 2014 <http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0069841>.

“FAQ: What Are Trigger Warnings and Why Do You Use Them?” Because I am a Woman. 14 September 2014 <http://becauseiamawoman.tumblr.com/post/30066904557/faq-what-are-trigger-warnings-and-why-do-you-use-them>.

Lewis, Helen (helenlewis). “As I’ve just told @alicetiara, the comments on any article about feminism justify feminism. That is Lewis’s Law.” 9:05 AM, 9 Aug 2012. Tweet.

Miller, Carolyn. “Genre as Social Action.” Journal of Quarterly Speech 70 (1984): 151-167.

Mingus, Mia. Leaving Evidence. 14 September 2014 <http://leavingevidence.wordpress.com/>.

Ochotta, Mike. “September 11 2014”. 474 4ever. 14 September 2014 <https://blogs.ubc.ca/mochotta/2014/09/11/sep-11-2014/>.

Odessa, Brandon. “Humans of New York.” 8 September 2014. Humans of New York. 13 September 2014 <http://www.humansofnewyork.com/post/96991653651/she-initially-said-no-when-i-asked-for-a-photo>.

Project, Radical Access Mapping. “Radical Access Mapping Project – Vancouver”. 14 September 2014 <http://radicalaccessiblecommunities.wordpress.com/radical-access-mapping-project-vancouver/>.

Tanner, Lindsey. Docs warn about Facebook use and teen depression. 13 September 2014 <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20110328/us-med-facebook-depression/>.

Wan, Vivian. Everyday Life Narratives. 11 September 2014 <https://blogs.ubc.ca/vivianwan/2014/09/11/everyday-life-narratives/>.

Weiner, Sierra. Neo-Liberalism, Censorship, and Identity. 13 September 2014 <https://blogs.ubc.ca/sierraweiner/2014/09/10/neo-liberalism-censorship-and-identity/>.