Exploring selfie practices and their geographies in the digital society
Funding information
This work was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant 42001152 and Sun Yat-sen University under Grant 20lgpy32
Abstract
Drawing on a practical perspective and a posthuman approach, this article maps the quotidian digital geographies of selfie practices. The empirical analysis of this research is based on a qualitative study that took place in a Chinese city – Guangzhou. The empirical sections of this research investigate the digital geographies of daily selfie practices by focusing on the process of preparing for, taking, editing, and sharing selfies which are facilitated by both non-human and human agencies. The findings of this article indicate that selfie practices are simultaneous a technology of self and a reflexive performance by which people construct diverse selves in extraordinary scenes and an obsessive way of seeing, consuming, and communicating shaped by wider digital cultures and social norms. More broadly, this article suggests that local contexts still matter in shaping the visual cultures and practices in contemporary digital society.
Abstract
This article maps the quotidian digital geographies of selfie practices, drawing on a practice perspective and a posthuman approach, based on a qualitative study. The key findings of this research suggest that selfie practices bring human-technology interactions into being: smartphones, social media, and photo-editing apps/software deterritorialise the construction of personal images from physical bodies, reterritorialise it on digital platforms and transduce the embodied experiences in physical places to be an attractive element in the digital images of the self.
Open Research
DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT
The data that support the findings of this study are not publicly available because the research participants did not agree to share their data publicly.