Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book considers how identities are made meaningful within online communities. It explores connections, such as online friend groups, gay dating apps, hashtag movements, intra-pandemic educational supports, and intimate publics via social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok and streaming platforms such as Twitch and YouTube. The book then introduces the idea of digital affordances – properties of apps, games, software, and other technological tools that define the ways in which people are able to successfully, and sometimes unsuccessfully, interact with those tools. It also explores how games and play exist within online and digital spaces, but they also explore the elements of play that extend beyond these understandings. The book explores the ways that streaming technology enables a reimagining of traditional forms of media.