Social media have changed the ways we communicate, meet others, and form intimate relationships. However, technology can also mediate intimate partner surveillance and abuse (Muise, 2009; Tokunaga, 2010). One of the most explicit ways to understand these shifts is through the transgressing of relationship boundaries, defined and enforced by settler-colonial notions of compulsory monogamy (TallBear, 2020). Anxieties around cheating have evolved along with our technologies, as evidenced by ambiguous new terms like “microcheating” and “emotional cheating” (Lusinski, 2018). In this in-progress, mixed-methods study, we examine new definitions of cheating through analyzing discussions about potential transgressions on Reddit. Specifically, we investigate 1) which behaviors cause uncertainty in emerging forms of social media-enabled infidelity and 2) the degree to which relationship discourse online naturalizes the extension of compulsory monogamy into online space. For our pilot analysis, we used computational techniques to elicit common subjects within subreddit posts to then analyze qualitatively. We began with Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA), an unsupervised natural language processing tool, to organize Reddit posts and comments by topic (Blei, 2012). Then we qualitatively analyzed Reddit discourse by using critical discourse analysis. Our pilot analysis suggested a belief that proof of (in)fidelity can be found on a partner’s smartphone, such as by reading texts. This orientation toward evidence then justifies surveillance and hacking of a partner’s phone and computer presence, construing the invasion of privacy as the right to truth. This preliminary finding suggests that discourse around transgressive behaviors on social media likely reiterates compulsory monogamy and settler sexuality.

Hinge to happily ever after is an arduous process in which dating apps place the burden of risk management on users. Women across the U.S. have joined regional “Are We Dating the Same Guy?” private Facebook groups to manage the ambiguities of dating, crowdsource information on men, and provide social support to other women experiencing the tribulations of modern dating. Using discourse analysis, this study analyzes the collective sensemaking practices of AWDTSG groups in relation to constructing knowledge, managing privacy boundaries, content moderation, and providing social support. Preliminary analysis reveals three major findings: Facebook groups provide a space of empowerment, however anticipated acts of moderation shape how knowledge claims are formed and legitimized. Second, group level moderation enacted by admins is understood by members as a means of community protection against platform interventions and interpersonal conflict with the outgroup. Third, social support is an integral part of knowledge creation, resisting cultural logics that socialize women to see each other as competitors in the dating sphere. These findings contribute to our understanding of how ICTs may be used in the service reclaiming gossip as a mode of resistance through the act of collective sensemaking.

While there is considerable research on the topic of trust when it comes to health information or news media, there is less work examining how trust and expertise are conceptualized for information that straddles both subjective and objective approaches to knowledge. “Skincare”, as it is engaged with on the subreddit r/SkincareAddiction, exists in such a space, occupying a liminal positioning between formalized bioscience and experiential/aesthetic knowledge. Depending on where a member places skin care on this spectrum influences who they view as credible experts, and in turn what information that member deems trustworthy. Using an STS/Feminist STS theoretical framing, this paper investigates how members of the subreddit r/SkincareAddiction identify, evaluate, and perform skincare expertise. These expressions of expertise provide valuable insight into how members negotiate community norms, personal experience, and scientific studies to not only discern skincare knowledge, but also construct an understanding of their own skin.

Social media applications are an important medium of crisis information exchange. Of growing importance and use is TikTok, an application with a multi-modal curation structure that enables users to share content of various interests. Previous TikTok scholarship on crisis research has not considered how the application sustains a cultural understanding of a crisis event. Using a semiotic analysis approach, this study explores TikTok’s role in crisis communication by examining the process of collective sensemaking of the Port of Beirut, Lebanon explosion on August 4th, 2020. The preliminary findings reveal intersemiotic dissonance obscuring crisis discourse, thus negatively influencing the process of collective sensemaking. The results of this study motivate further research that examines tacit guidelines for crisis communication on TikTok and similar applications.