ABSTRACT
In this chapter we explore some resonances and connections among particular uses of social media in the US alongside cultural understandings and experiences of interdependency, vulnerability and disability. Following lines of thought in recent disability scholarship that draw from feminist ethics of care and dependency theory, we consider how certain uses of social media might contribute to the formation of an ethics of vulnerability and reshape cultural understanding of interdependency. By foregrounding the role of connection in human agency rather than the liberal ideal of individual autonomy, these theoretical perspectives prompt us to seek alternatives for understanding and responding to diversity in embodiment and ability. In response to this provocation, we consider how social media can provide a unique arena for envisioning and enacting modes of connection that embrace shared and incommensurate dynamics of dependency and vulnerability. If vulnerability often takes on negative connotations within discussions of disability and illness, an important dimension of this chapter draws upon theoretical discussions that position it as a necessary and productive force rather than a condition to be minimised. Vulnerability, in important ways, underwrites all social relations, and is inextricably entwined with violence and injustice, but also with care and empathy. Our analysis provides us with a lens for examining two examples of social media practices that we see as fostering imaginative collective engagements with disablement.
