This article extends a theorization of ‘the virtual’, developing from earlier feminist new-materialist work on bodies and digital images, to consider the implications of selfie-editing apps like Facetune for navigating selfhood in digital visual cultures. We draw on qualitative data, including in-depth semi-structured interviews, photo elicitation, and participatory selfie-editing group workshops, to develop a new theorization of the process of editing one’s self-image, exploring how notions of bodily ‘perfectibility’ are becoming increasingly normalized through everyday technologies and digital visual cultures. First, we explore how cosmetic surgery was discussed by participants as a way of demarcating a boundary between the material ‘real’ and edited ‘ideal’ at stake in selfie-editing; but significantly, surgery was also metaphorically conceptualized by participants as ‘like editing in real life’, drawing datafication into everyday discourses and conceptualisation of selves/bodies. We then discuss dissonances experienced by participants in failing to recognize the physical self in the ‘improved’ (normalized) edited self, and regret experienced with the data loss of unedited self-images. The case studies we analyse here help us think through: what happens to concepts of bodies and selves when they are viewed primarily through the virtual lens of smartphone cameras? How are boundaries of physical fleshy selves negotiated and produced through digital editing practices? What does this mean for how bodies and selves are understood and experienced in the digital era? We suggest that the broader process of engaging with a digitally-mediated and editable image of oneself represents a potentially significant shift in the dynamics of selfhood.

When surveyed and interviewed about digital peer support for mental health, LGBTQ+ young people in Australia, aged 16-25 years, most commonly named Instagram as the most supportive social media platform. Most of the 36 interview participants described how Instagram affords mental health support in varied ways, from regular engagement with supportive friends, to following and engaging with accounts that promote LGBTQ+ mental health. The feature of Close Friend Stories was particularly highlighted as affording easy access to friendship support when needed, and allowed a signaling of support without having to ask for it. Many discussed how Close Friend Stories afforded ‘mental health posting’ – for themselves and/or friends – that allayed concerns about burdening friends with mental health struggles, and offered assurance that only friends with the capacity to offer support could do so. This paper argues that the Close Friends feature operates through friendship’s ‘ambient co-presence’ on Instagram, among young LGBTQ+ users, offering space for vulnerable posting. This paper engages with theories of digital co-presence and intimacy, to consider the intimate logic of vulnerable posting and subsequent support among LGBTQ+ young people who use Instagram.

Snapchat has long been a pivotal space for youth digital intimate and sexual cultures, as well as gendered and sexual risks and harms. Despite being one of the most widely used social media platforms among youth in England and America, there has been little in-depth research that connects Snapchat’s unique features and affordances with an analysis of young users’ practices, behaviours, and experiences on the platform. Responding to this gap, our paper explores our mixed-methods research findings on British young people’s diverse social, sexual, and intimate experiences on Snapchat. We explore how Snapchat’s unique features, such as disappearing images (“Snaps”), algorithmic friend recommendations (“Quick Adds”), and user engagement metric ("Snapscores”), form new conditions and environments for young people’s experiences of digital courtship, sexting, and sexual and gender-based violence. In addition, we contextualise youth user experiences with Snapchat’s community guidelines, safeguards, and protections for youth, which we argue fail to understand or address the actual lived experiences of youth users. We conclude with recommendations for interventions dedicated to increasing platform-specific digital literacy (particularly for parents, policymakers, and educators), and preventing and responding to youth experiences of online gendered risks and harm—while upholding their digital and sexual rights.