ABSTRACT

Virtual Identities and Digital Culture investigates how our online identities and cultures are embedded within the digital practices of our lives, exploring how we form community, how we play, and how we re-imagine traditional media in a digital world.

The collection explores a wide range of digital topics – from dating apps, microcelebrity, and hackers to auditory experiences, Netflix algorithms, and live theatre online – and builds on existing work in digital culture and identity by bringing new voices, contemporary examples, and highlighting platforms that are emerging in the field. The book speaks to the modern reality of how our digital lives have been forever altered by our transnational experiences – one of those key experiences is the pandemic, but so too is systemic inequality, questions of digital privacy, and the role of joy in our online lives.

A vital contribution at a time of significant social and cultural flux, this book will be highly relevant to those studying digital culture within media, communication, cultural studies, digital humanities, and sociology departments.

chapter |17 pages

Introduction

Exploring Digital Lives and Cultures

part Section I|86 pages

Online Identity and Connections

chapter 1|8 pages

“Hey Handsome”

Gay Dating Apps and a Critical Digital Pedagogy of Identity

chapter 2|9 pages

“We're Here for You During This Pandemic, Just Not Financially or Emotionally”

What TikTok Reveals about Student Life during the COVID-19 Pandemic

chapter 3|10 pages

Mediated Identities

How Facebook Intervenes in the Virtual Manifestation of Our Identities

chapter 4|9 pages

Reassessing Clicktivism

A Tool of the (Pandemic) Times

chapter 5|12 pages

“Victims of the System”

Anti-Government Discourse and Political Influencers Online

chapter 6|10 pages

From Networks to Assemblages

An Analysis of Feminist Activism against Digital Violence in Mexico

chapter 8|8 pages

Virtually Authentic?

Digital Bodies, “Blank” Squares, and Staring Online

chapter 9|8 pages

From a Group of Friends to a Mainstream Audience

Critical Role and New Media Publics

part Section II|73 pages

Games & Play

chapter 10|10 pages

Not All Fun and Games in #mypokehood

The Politics and Pitfalls of Universal Game Design in Pokémon GO!

chapter 11|9 pages

Lip Dubbing for Fido

Listening to the Internet through Viral Pet Video Memes

chapter 12|10 pages

‘Turn Off That Friggin’ Radio!’

The Canadian Soldier Figure and Identity Formation in Videogames

chapter 13|8 pages

Inventing with Zoom

How Play and Games Uncover Affordances in Digital Environments

chapter 14|8 pages

Interfaces and Their Affordances

Critical Game Design, Identity, and Community in MMORPGs

chapter 16|8 pages

Our War Game

Hacker Games as Laborious Play

part Section III|84 pages

Reimagining Traditional Media

chapter 18|9 pages

Netflix as the New Television Screen

A Queer Investigation into Streaming, Algorithms, and Schitt$ Creek

chapter 19|11 pages

The Missing Live Ingredient

The Search for Ephemerality in the Screening and Streaming of Theatre

chapter 20|10 pages

From Videotape Exchange Networks to On-Demand Streaming Platforms

The Circulation of Independent Canadian Film and Video in the Digital Era

chapter 23|9 pages

“No Friends in the Industry”

The Dominance of Tech Companies on Digital Music

chapter 24|8 pages

Say Their Name

How Online News Reports the Death of Transgender People and Its Intersection with Transnormativity

chapter 25|8 pages

The ‘Affinityscapes’ of Young Adult Dystopian Fiction

A Study of The Hunger Games Series' Participatory Culture

chapter 26|7 pages

Reboot and Rebirth

Artificial Intelligence and Spiritual Existence in The Good Place