Committed Commenting and the Virtual Visage: Contextualizing Sorority Social Media Encounters - Journal for ...
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Committed Commenting and the Virtual Visage: Contextualizing Sorority Social Media Encounters Jack Portman Wake Forest University—jackportman@alumni.wfu.edu ABSTRACT This article addresses the ways in which collegiate sorority women deploy sorority-specific aesthetic cues to construct socially acceptable and recognizable presentations of themselves online. I suggest that sorority members initiate and invite social media interaction as a means of parlaying their own media posts into discursive sites, thereby participating in a complex and considerably stratified economy of display and recognition. Sorority members also exert social capital through public demonstrations of social network linkages— demonstrations which can only be performed successfully if one maintains legitimacy and good standing within the media economy. I probe the implications of theorizing social media posting (particularly to the digital media platform Instagram) as a communal art creation practice that strengthens group social linkages and reifies communally observed aesthetic guidelines. I also address the stylistic and discursive regimens that shape expectations of media presentation, contrasting these practices with the comparatively candid and informal presentation styles exemplified in Fake Instagram (“finsta”) posting behaviors. Keywords: social media; gift economies; Instagram; sororities ISSN 2369-8721 | The JUE Volume 12 Issue 1, 2022 121
sorority’s executive committee. Although in the same pledge class as Sarah and Maria, Anna is a fourth-year student and thus afforded a similar degree of seniority by virtue of her age classification (Anna transferred to the university as a second-year student and was consequently initiated a year later than usual). This is to say— the social media experiences and practices described in this paper are particular to collegiate sorority members. Although some of A the principles which appear to underlie the nna, a 21 year-old collegiate sorority posting behaviors hereafter described are likely member, described the role of generalizable, the posting criteria, aesthetic Instagram in mediating her first forays preferences, language use, and hierarchical into sorority social life as such: nature of the social media encounters The whole point of joining a sorority is described in this article are particular to really to make friends, that’s really why members of the Alpha Beta sorority. everyone joins. But it's kind of awkward, Scholarship pertaining to digital it's like, ok, now we're supposed to be environments, and particularly to social media friends because we’re in the same practices and behaviors, have leveraged a sorority. So you definitely try to variety of digital ethnographic methodologies comment on their photos probably, and and theoretical approaches to better interact with them. understand media sharing behaviors and digital Throughout the fall of 2020 I met regularly with communications. Ross (2019) posits that Sarah, Anna, and Maria, members of the Alpha Instagram users center a particular form of Beta sorority, to discuss their Instagram posting value within their social media practice—the habits and experiences. In addition to several like—and resultantly focus their content structured and unstructured interviews, production on the accumulation of likes, such informal conversations, and a focus group that posts successfully fulfill their function session, I conducted three “Instagram when they succeed in generating a satisfactory walkthroughs,” during which each participant quantity of likes. This position accounts for both described the creative processes which led to hierarchical and aesthetic considerations in their most recent Instagram posts. I also content creation; posts that generate large conducted activities in which participants quantities of likes could be understood to sorted sample Instagram comments onto reflect a poster’s prevalent social positionality egocentric diagrams to better understand how and/or a communal acknowledgement of a relationship types and strengths become poster’s success in complying with the style embodied in commenting behaviors. guidelines of a particular community. These women, who have been given However, since 2019, Instagram has updated pseudonyms to protect their identities, are its interface such that the number of likes a aged 20-21, and are in the same Alpha Beta post receives is only visible to the poster. My (name also changed) pledge class, meaning research participants affirmed that, while the they were initiated into the sorority receipt of large numbers of likes was once a simultaneously and completed the requisite dominant consideration in Instagram media initiation procedures together. They are all sharing practices, the accumulation of great frequent users of Instagram, having collectively quantities of likes has become a lesser priority posted thirteen photos to their primary given that this metric is no longer visible to Instagram accounts throughout the research other users. Users may still reflect on the period. Their positions within Alpha Beta are number of likes their posts receive and come to relatively senior: Sarah and Maria are third-year conclusions regarding a post’s success based on university students and hold positions on the their private knowledge of its accumulation of likes. However, without the pressure applied by The JUE Volume 12 Issue 1, 2022 122
this metric’s public visibility, the generation of acceptable usage changed how users likes seems to have declined as a focus of understood the platform’s purpose, illustrating content creation. the tendency of media ideologies to adapt to new circumstances as material constraints and Given that the criteria for awarding likes affordances change. Within these shifting have remained largely the same despite the virtual confines, users develop innovative invisibility of like-totals, it is doubtful that the strategies for posting successfully to, as Ross production of Instagram posts has (2019, 5) describes, “produce content to be fundamentally changed because of the liked.” obsolescence of likes as a public-facing metric; posts are still created to observe certain Likewise, Marwick (2017) grapples with the aesthetic standards, still function as strategies Instagram users employ to generate expressions of self-presentation, and still serve successful content within the platform’s as platforms for affirmative discourses. confines and limitations. Marwick (2015, 138) Nonetheless, that periodic updates to social interprets “microcelebrity” as “a mind-set and a media interfaces might dramatically change collection of self-presentation practices research conditions seems to prescribe a digital endemic in social media, in which users ethnographic approach that is similarly strategically formulate a profile, reach out to adaptive. Caliandro (2017, 552) acknowledges followers, and reveal personal information to that “ethnography is a flexible method that on increase attention and thus improve their the one hand can be effectively adapted to online status.” Microcelebrity, as described by online environments, but on the other hand Marwick, seems to capture a social media continuously needs to be reshaped according praxis oriented towards generating laudative to the features and mutations of online interactions—likes and comments—in much environments.” While virtual communities have the same way that Ross identifies likes as an long been studied ethnographically, social implicit directive of content creation. Marwick media platforms require a unique (2015, 138) situates microcelebrity within an methodological approach given their diffuse “attention economy,” positing that a post’s nature and susceptibility to sudden efficacy can be understood to consist in its transformation. Furthermore, functional and unique capacity to attract attention. This conditional changes experienced by other analysis draws an explicit connection between platforms within the media ecology, such as the qualities of a particular Instagram post and Snapchat, Twitter, and TikTok, may likewise its success in the marketplace. Ross’s impact the ideologies relevant to a particular understanding of the “like” as a primary social media platform and thus require objective in posting behaviors succeeds in flexibility in addressing users’ notions of what identifying a dominant (or, perhaps, once each platform is “for” (Gershon 2014, 284). dominant) metric of success, while Marwick Caliandro (2018) suggests that ethnography of provides for an understanding of how digital environments should thus account for community specific strategies are developed to both the ways in which a particular social media generate the engagement Ross identifies. interface organizes communications, and the Gift giving and gift economies have been strategies, perceptions, and understandings documented extensively and, indeed, are one held and employed by social media users. Such of the most heralded foci in anthropology. a framework provides for a reflexive and Following Bronislaw Malinowski, in Argonauts conversant approach to understanding the of the Western Pacific (1922), Marcel Mauss, in configurations of—and relationships between— The Gift: The Form and Reason for Exchange in users and social media platforms. Archaic Societies (1925), Pierre Bourdieu’s work For example, Sarah observed that “the on the Kabyle society, symbolic capital and gift Instagram Story like, that wasn’t around in high exchange in his Outline of a Theory of Practice school, so I think that really changed (1977) and David Cheal’s efforts in The Gift [Instagram] because it was like, food and more Economy (1988), I will attempt to demonstrate casual posts.” The advent of this form of how social media commenting practices among posting on a platform with existing norms of sorority members proceed as gift exchanges, The JUE Volume 12 Issue 1, 2022 123
layered with meaning and expectation and editing aspects or whatever, but like the connected intimately to the social capital way you look in your photos, so like your invested in intra-sorority relationships and pose, definitely, can mimic the kinds of hierarchies. Particularly, I will focus on the ways poses they show on the Alpha Beta in which deferred Instagram commenting Instagram. practices, conceptualized as gift exchanges, serve to expand the temporality of intra- It would seem that the Alpha Beta official sorority social linkages through contractual Instagram feed is a highly curated stream of reciprocity and debt creation. As Hjorth et al. images—more so than the personal Instagram observe, “the symbolic role of gift giving—as a feeds of Alpha Beta members. The official Alpha practice of reciprocity, obligation and Beta account’s posts are selected from posted negotiating power relations—has long been Instagram photos or images submitted by attached to mobile media cultures” (Hjorth et al. sorority members, and, according to Maria: 2020, 79). Embedded within a particular moral To get on the Alpha Beta Instagram, you economy, Instagram commenting exchanges either have to post a picture that they are used to sustain and protect important like, which has, like, blue in it, or you can relationships and to cohere peer coalitions submit one. So a lot of these people are within the sorority. This system is shaped by the taking these pictures with the goal of it orientations and expectations of sorority to be on the Alpha Beta Instagram. So members who, in dispensing Instagram it's very—I don’t want to say artificial— comments, consider the “objective probabilities but you really need to try to get that of profit” flowing from the likelihood that their look. gift will be reciprocated by its recipient (Bourdieu 1997, 232). The official Alpha Beta Instagram feed is almost uniformly blue—an effect achieved both by In this article, I will demonstrate that sorority filtering posted images with blue tints and by members form coalitions of mutual strategically employing blue clothing, props, respondents in social media environments that and backgrounds in the photos. distribute responsibility for content engagement and ensure that coalition As Maria points out, this aesthetic isn’t members’ posts meet a threshold of necessarily adopted by members of the interaction. I will likewise use sociogramatic sorority—neither Maria, Sarah, or Anna use data, as well as a discourse analysis of unifying color themes in their personal Instagram comments, to address how sorority Instagram posts. However, their posts that social linkages are expressed in virtual settings. depict sorority life and sorority events, such as parties and initiations, almost always feature Instagram Aesthetics and blue colors prominently. The participants' posts Presentations of the Self that are associated with sorority activities are almost immediately recognizable from their “I don’t have one filter I stick to, so my pictures broader oeuvre of posted material given the don’t go together, like, the way the Alpha Beta distinctive and identifying blue accents. Instagram posts do, but I’ve never really felt the Because their feeds are not uniformly blue need to have one that looks like [the Alpha Beta themed, the juxtaposition of blue and non-blue Instagram account] ...” explained Maria when material on the participants’ accounts creates asked whether the official Alpha Beta Instagram an auspice of two worlds—that of account, run by an executive member of the grandparents, family vacations, and friends sorority, serves as a social media style guide for from home, and that of Alpha Beta sorority life members. She continued: and the aesthetics therein. When users deploy … and I don’t know many people in particular themes and aesthetics to stylize their Alpha Beta who have an entire “blue sorority-related content, they effectively theme” for Instagram. But the way differentiate sorority activities from the rest of people portray themselves might be the sharable quotidian, emphasizing the mimicked. So not at all, like, the artistic stylistic rigor and formality necessary to convey The JUE Volume 12 Issue 1, 2022 124
the nature of sorority experiences. Alpha Beta’s methods and presentation styles to avoid blue theme, and its instantiation in the behaviors that are inconsistent with certain Instagram posts made by Alpha Beta members, standards of performance. It may be tempting directs attention to the refinement, to frame the sorority en masse as one such commitment, and attention to detail required coalition, however Alpha Beta members by sorority life. Such attention-grabbing frequently associate in far smaller groups and strategies are crucial in the social media rarely, if ever, express a deep familiarity with all attention economy (van Dijck and Poell 2013, group members. Rather, members tend to 7). congregate in smaller, more intimate groups, and the performative nature of these small- The deliberation and attention to detail scale coalitions is captured both by their incorporated in the sorority content creation iterative content engagement strategies and the practice seems to reflect Goffman’s (1956) tacit yet highly regulated expectations analysis of self-presentation. Sorority social regarding media practices. media materials are intricately cultivated and rely on a distinct stylistic grammar and Egocentric sociogram data gathered during presentation style to convey membership. participant interviews reflects that sorority Goffman asserts that the act of self- members repeatedly interact with posts made presentation is a performance: “it is a dramatic by small peer coalitions: 62% of comments effect arising diffusely from a scene that is made by sorority affiliated peers on the presented, and the characteristic issue, the participants’ five most recent Instagram posts crucial concern, is whether it will be credited or were produced by peers who had commented discredited” (Goffman 1956, 244-5). The on multiple posts within that time span. leveraging of recognizable and accepted Furthermore, the participants had recently aesthetic elements to convey sorority commented on posts made by 51% of the affiliation—and moreover to convey that one sorority affiliated peers who had commented has bought-in, and so embodied the relevant on their posts. This trend reflects the existence ideologies of presentation—illustrates the of virtual coalitions of interlocutors who extent to which media presentation styles repetitively engage with one another’s material constitute a performative mode of self- (See Figure 1). presentation (Miller 1995, 8). The extent of a Goffman’s analysis of coalitional sorority member’s success in deploying relevant performance suggests that small peer groups of stylistic cues—that is, whether their post is sorority members engage in practices of “credited or discredited”—may be reflected in systematically repetitive interaction to their post’s acquisition of likes and comments, demonstrate commitments to performance the currency animating the attention economy. standards and successful instantiations of The value invested in sorority-wide appropriate social discourse. Consistent within commitments to acknowledged modes of these coalitional bonds are expectations of presentation is a crucial component of the reciprocity germane to media interaction: aesthetic strategy and is the context in which coalitional assemblages that promote the deployment of such presentations should reciprocated interaction enable members to be understood. Goffman (1956) observes that parlay their future media posts into sites for individuals frequently recruit peer coalitions further discourse and thereby benefit from the with whom to perform, relying on shared social capital invested in these forms of understandings of socially acceptable discourse dialogue. Figure 1: Egocentric sociogram data regarding Alpha Beta peers who commented on the participants’ five most recent posts. The JUE Volume 12 Issue 1, 2022 125
Likewise, this expectation of exchange can Anna’s description of group participation in be understood as a system of gift giving that content production indicates that media lends itself to servicing and demanding media posting behaviors are not only highly deliberate interactions (Bergquist and Ljungberg 2001, but also essentially collaborative in nature. 312). This exchange system organizes Members value the perspectives of their peers coalitional linkages among Alpha Beta members and rely on their aesthetic judgments to gauge such that the act of commenting grants the the credibility of certain media within the commenter the power to demand reciprocation context of Alpha Beta stylistic norms. These of their gift, allowing relationships to be collaborative practices function to strengthen maintained longitudinally and ensuring their social linkages among coalition members by continued mutual beneficence. Thayne (2012) embedding media posting within a framework poses that reciprocity in content engagement of group reciprocity and service exchange—the prefigures “potential future interaction,” tasks of critiquing a peer’s photos, assisting suggesting that Instagram commenting with their editing, or helping to formulate a behaviors assist in sustaining virtual witty photo-caption can be understood as relationships. In this sense, the debts created services rendered to maintain valuable through deferred commenting exchanges have relationships (Dutton, 1977). Additionally, the effect of expanding and extending the collaborative posting practices formalize certain temporality of social linkages. As Taylor and aesthetic systems that delineate group Harper indicate, “teenagers’ phone-mediated membership and identity—that is, communal activities can be understood in terms of the content creation activities legitimize and obligations of exchange: to give, accept and empower Alpha Beta stylistic norms. reciprocate” (Taylor and Harper 2002, 439). The normative styles that inform posting These exchanges are “characterized by a strong behaviors and content creation largely define set of social obligations to give, to accept gifts, users’ Instagram presentations and and above all to reciprocate gifts,” illustrating experiences. These prevailing aesthetics how reciprocity norms within coalitions exemplify how users enact a nuanced regime of structure gift exchanges and give rise to ornamentation in order to purify and make extended temporality (Elder-Vass 2015, 37). credible one’s presentation of self. Ross (2019) Animating deferred commenting exchanges is a argues that this highly formalized environment particular moral economy, wherein the debts is juxtaposed by users’ interactions on Fake produced through commenting practices are Instagram. ‘Finsta’ (Fake-Instagram) accounts backed by normative behavioral expectations are secondary Instagram accounts that serve as shared by the sorority at large. a comparatively more spontaneous and organic Group oriented posting behaviors are outlet for self-expression than ‘real Instagram.’ further displayed in the tendency of sorority Finstas are unique in that they are typically far members to engage in communal content more private than their ‘real Instagram’ creation processes in preparation for media counterparts—Instagram users typically only posting. In reflecting on her own Instagram allow their closest peers to follow their Finstas. practice, Anna commented that: Finsta content is ostensibly less formal. Anna I think often you will narrow it down to a noted that “finstas are, like, unfiltered, both few [pictures] yourself, and you’ll send literally because you don’t have to look good your top two or three pictures to your and don’t usually edit the posts, and also friends, and then they’ll tell you which metaphorically because you can, like, be one they like best. Sometimes there’s yourself if that makes sense. Like, post stuff you also, like, collaborative editing. [Her wouldn’t post on your main [Instagram account] friend] pays for an editing app, like she that's like, kind of more you.” Ross (2019, 14) has a really nice editing app, so a lot of characterizes Finstas as a “respite from the times I’ll be like ‘oh, can you edit it for social expectations of Instagram, class and me with your app?’ gendered pressure to impress with beautiful portraits and envious locations.” Finsta accounts do indeed facilitate a distinct mode of The JUE Volume 12 Issue 1, 2022 126
content creation and posting behavior, however Throughout the research process I was not I do not necessarily view them as a foil to the granted—nor did I ask for—access to the highly formalized and regimented ideologies of participants’ Finsta accounts. In fact, only Sarah ‘real Instagram’ as does Ross. Finsta content and Maria had their own Finstas, and neither creation is still subject to aesthetic posted on their Finstas regularly. My normativities—posts typically eschew the interviewees discussed their past experiences presentation styles of ‘real Instagram’ and producing Finsta content and their embrace an alternative visual language akin to understandings of the particular media popularly self-deprecating internet memes. ideologies pertaining to “fake Instagram,” however we did not conduct walkthroughs of It is seemingly expected that one not look the interviewee’s Finstas. For this reason, I will presentable in Finsta posts, and that one make refrain from further discussing the aesthetic efforts to sabotage the meticulously particularities and expectations of Finstas for constructed self-presentation crafted on the lack of available data. Nonetheless, it is evident users’ main account. There is certainly a polarity that certain formalities dictate acceptable between the deliberate presentations of one’s posting behaviors on Finstas, such that Finsta primary Instagram account and the ostensibly material may be read as vulnerable and candid less rigorous presentations of the Finsta by other users while still allowing posters to account, however one does not appear to be maintain control over self-presentation more reflective of the “true self” than the other. techniques. Rather, both are artifices, presentations of the self that complement one another. Although Discourse Analysis in the each are seemingly antithetical, the apparent self-sabotage affected by the Finsta may be Comments Section considered a calculated means of bolstering Posting free-standing images to one’s one's most intimate social network. Finsta posts Instagram profile is a single component of an are often read by users as “unfiltered,” array of possible actions an Instagram user can “organic,” “spontaneous,” “candid” and take. Users can also choose to like or comment indicative of the “real” self—an apparently stark on posts made by other users; the participants departure from the media practices and liked and commented on others’ posts regularly ideologies endemic to other Instagram and frequently interacted with the comments environments. Finstas, in this sense, may be made on their own posts as well. In my understood as a curated album of scandalous interviews and sociogram activities I primarily and socially unacceptable material that can be focused on commenting behaviors among entrusted to a close peer with the effect of sorority Instagram users, analyzing both signifying—and possibly enhancing—the quantitative patterns in commenting and strength of the social linkage. The act of general styles of discourse endemic to sorority presenting an unacceptable version of oneself members’ comment sections. My discourse to a peer is a performance of deep trust; we are analysis led me to taxonomize Instagram attentive to around whom we let our guards comments by coding for implicit semantic down and to whom we let drop our masks— meanings and referents. While I identified three those who we allow in to this unpresentable prominent categories of discourse that seem to presentation of selfhood must be be predicated by the nature of the interlocutors’ knowledgeable enough of our person that the relationships with one another, I acknowledge particular deliberateness familiar to primary that many other categorization possibilities are Instagram media creation is unnecessary. The likely just as viable. The discourse taxonomy I Finsta is in this sense a token of appreciation will present is a relatively simple framework for and an acknowledgement of intimacy. But this understanding how commenting behaviors does not preclude a formal, unifying aesthetic arise from certain typologies of social linkages; grammar endemic to Finsta posts, nor does it it seems likely that a more nuanced analysis of guarantee that the material posted on Finsta Instagram discourse could be gleaned by accounts is necessarily as vulnerable and leveraging a more substantial data set. organic as it is understood as being. The JUE Volume 12 Issue 1, 2022 127
The discourse analysis focused on the These comments may be an affirmation of the comments made by other sorority members on acceptability of the presentation style employed the participants’ five most recent Instagram by the poster or an acknowledgment of the posts—the same sample used to generate credibility displayed by the presentation. Maria sociogram data. I identified three primary reflected that “I feel like [comments on her modes of commenting that were ubiquitous posts] give me a sense of validation in a way, to throughout each post’s comment section by know that at least a few people are like, yeah coding for references to the post itself, this looks good, or yeah this is a good picture or references to the poster and/or persons whatever.” Maria’s statement suggests that portrayed in the post, and simple supportive comments operate to affirm the credibility of remarks and/or symbols. I denoted “references particular presentations and acknowledge the to post” as those comments which specifically poster’s successful deployment of group- appeal to the non-personal, primarily aesthetic relevant aesthetics. Similarly, references to the contents of the post, “personal references” as post may also be understood as one of a variety those that referred to the poster or persons of mechanisms by which aesthetic criteria are portrayed in the post, and “vague applause” as formalized by Alpha Beta members. supportive comments that do not substantively Commenters may also refer to the post if engage the post material. they were involved in its creation. Maria noted Following Frege’s (1948) observations that “a lot of times you're like, with them when regarding the relations between signs, senses, they post it, or like, she talked to you about it— and referents, I examined how commenters “oh, should I post this picture”—so then you engaged with posted material by appealing to a kind of want to, like, hype them up because you variety of referents, in so doing revealing the told them yes they should.” Anna affirmed that nature of their relationship with the poster and involvement in the posting process often with the posted material itself. Figure 2 obligates peers to comment affirmatively about provides a selection of material posted to the the quality of a given post: “like, you participants’ Instagram photos, categorized by encouraged them to post it, so you also on each comment’s referent (in the cases of Instagram want to be like, yes, this is a good references to post and personal references) post for sure.” The obligation of peer and by the extent of their engagement with the consultants to affirm the quality of the posts post (with regard to vague applause). they’ve helped see to fruition reflects how the collaborative practice of content production is References to the post and personal succeeded by a similarly collaborative references each demonstrate a comparatively affirmative discourse. Comments to the post, in higher level of engagement with the posted this sense, can be understood as strengthening material than vague applause. References to collaborative relationships among Alpha Beta the post refer to certain of the post’s aesthetic members while likewise formalizing the qualities or acknowledge the posted material as aesthetic standards that shape how members a self-contained object. Uses of the word “this” produce content. frequently indicated that a commenter was referring to the post itself and intended to Personal references enable commenters to articulate some response to its presentation. publicize their social networks, thereby Figure 2: Taxonomy of Instagram comments made by Alpha Beta members on the participants’ five most recent posts. The JUE Volume 12 Issue 1, 2022 128
leveraging the social capital consistent within necessarily iterative process which protects certain high-value social linkages During an against the entropic invisibility—the natural activity focusing on the relationships between difficulty of ever knowing who knows who comment types and perceived levels of within the confusing field of intra-sorority friendship between commenters and posters, relationships—constantly threatening to Maria humorously reflected that, “there’s no undermine one’s capacity to make use of the reason to say ‘I love my peeps’ other than to social capital at one’s disposal. Such is partially show people who you know.” The value in why commenting practices reiterate “showing who you know” was expressed constantly—one needs always to carefully tend regularly throughout the research process: both one’s relationships and the public participants frequently alluded to the representations of one’s relationships to stave complexity and nuance of social networks off invisibility in the attention economy, a within Alpha Beta. According to Maria, “there’s a marketplace—only accessible to visible actors— lot of connections in Alpha Beta altogether, and where social capital can be put to use. it's kind of hard … to like know really who By producing a comment that expresses knows who. That would be hard, to like, gauge one’s familiarity with the poster, commenters completely without [Instagram].” According to publicly locate themselves within a complicated Maria, cultivating public displays of one’s social matrix of intra-sorority relationships. This type network in comment sections allows members of comment likely reflects a relatively strong to record proof of—and thus reap benefits social tie between the commenter and poster— from—having “participat[ed] in the craziness” of comments that emphasize “closeness of intra-sorority sociality. The payout may not be relationship” are seen as inappropriate when immediate, however the capacity to the commenter is perceived as being too demonstrate a robust intra-sorority social hyperbolic about the strength of their network can, in the long run, “open doors.” relationship. When asked whether a comment Because so much social capital—understood reading “my favorite people” would be as the “more or less institutionalized acceptable if the commenter were a distant relationships of mutual acquaintance and acquaintance, Maria responded: “that would be recognition” (Bourdieu and Wacquant 1992, weird because we’re not that close and it would 119)—becomes embedded in the tangled and seem like she’s trying to make it seem like we disorderly fabric of intra-sorority social linkages, are.” efforts to publicize and accentuate one’s Personal references and, to a slightly lesser relationships through the use of public facing degree, references to the post, are seemingly comments serves both to reinforce such indicative of intimate social ties between relationships in the face of ever-shifting internal commenters and posters. Vague applause in politics and to make them effectively large part enables peers with weaker ties to the canonical—that is, to embed close and poster to nonetheless maintain their familiarity important relationships within a corpus of through low-effort affirmative comments. These common knowledge accessible to and comments, which frequently consist of a single recognizable by the rest of the sorority. This is a emoji or word, laud the poster’s appearance or process through which relationships can vaguely express affection without designating become institutionalized, such that they exist or implying a close relationship to the poster. beyond the linkages between private Weak ties, those that are peripheral to an individuals and come to be known and individual's core network, are susceptible to accepted at large among sorority members. So, untrustworthiness (Völker and Flap 2001, 401). while “showing who you know” can be Vague applause may be a means of maintaining understood as a practice of leveraging social relationships with those on one’s social capital, wherein a valuable relationship is periphery by occasionally re-establishing publicly demonstrated in order to make use of familiarity through simple, supportive remarks any prestige or power to be had as a result, it (Haythornthwaite 2002, 391). The value of these also can and should be understood as a means comparatively weak relationships is well of institutionalizing such relationships. This is a documented—although they provide less The JUE Volume 12 Issue 1, 2022 129
support than strong ties, weak ties constitute media profiles. Images depicting underage crucial sources of information given that these alcohol consumption, drug use, or violations of peers frequently liaise between members of the university’s COVID-19 protocols are multiple groups (McPherson et al. 2006, 355). It prohibited. Likewise, depictions of certain illicit is therefore advantageous to maintain weak social events that have been formally banned ties and reciprocated social media encounters by the university, but which the sorority may be one way of doing so. continues to host in secret, violate the sorority’s social media policy. The sorority has co-opted a This economy of interaction illustrates how particular emoji to convey when a user posts an Alpha Beta Instagram users embody their social illicit image—the emoji is an acronymized four networks—and their social positionality—in letter word (the first words of which are “That their online encounters. The shape one’s Ain’t” and the latter of which are the sorority’s Instagram comment takes largely reflects the initials) and revealing it would likely nature of the interlocutors’ relationship. compromise the identity of the research group. Instagram comments are an exercise of However, the formulation of the particular relations and relatedness; likewise, the act of emoji’s meaning within Alpha Beta discourse commenting is an act of embodiment. can be analogously conveyed with the greek Hierarchy and Media Surveillance letter Tau (τ). When an Alpha Beta member’s post violates the sorority’s posting guidelines, a Upon initiation into Alpha Beta, new members senior member may simply comment “τ” in the are required to enter their social media offending post’s comment section. τ in this usernames into a spreadsheet accessible by all context serves as an acronym for “That Ain’t active members of the sorority, following which Us,” and although innocuous to non-Alpha Beta they usually experience a deluge of new Instagram users who may see the symbol in a Instagram followers. “I remember when I comment section, the receipt of a τ on one’s joined,” Anna recalled, “all the older girls—not post is considered “super, like really, really all of them, a lot of them—just followed me. I embarrassing.” was like ‘I don’t know who this is but she’s in Alpha Beta so okay.’” This exercise is partially a When a poster receives a τ they are required means of disseminating new members’ social to remove their post, illustrating how senior media information so that existing members members leverage their seniority to monitor can follow new members, but the activity also social media behaviors and take action against enables existing members to monitor the social content that belies the sorority's standards of media activities of new members who may be discourse and presentation. Older members, less trusted to observe the sorority’s social therefore, have a hand in how younger media guidelines. Maria noted that “they ask members construct their self-presentations on you to put your Instagram, Snapchat, you have Instagram—they delineate what content is to put it into a Google Doc so that they can all suitable and litigiously address media that follow you and monitor what you’re saying and violates these boundaries of expression. The posting.” This spreadsheet also equips the surveillance program enacted by senior sorority’s social media chair to follow the new members suggests a form of panopticism, and members’ accounts using an unofficial Alpha the “fear” of being monitored is apparently Beta Instagram account: “They have an successful in affecting self-regulation among Instagram separate from the Alpha Beta new members. “Getting tau-ed” is relatively Instagram … and it doesn’t have any posts, and uncommon, largely because the threat of being it just follows active members, so I think, like, “tau-ed” is so severe that members post the social media chair can easily just scroll diligently to avoid this punishment. through and see what everyone’s posting, like Social media platforms are frequently on a regular basis, so I guess there’s kind of an conceptualized as public spaces that are element of fear.” constructed and contested by users (Poell and There are Alpha Beta guidelines that shape van Dijk 2015, 2). Institutional efforts to surveil what users can and cannot post on their social and desocialize public spaces are one means by which discipline may be internalized by users of The JUE Volume 12 Issue 1, 2022 130
public space (Foucault 1975, 198). The unique; the other participants affirmed that surveillance strategy employed by Alpha Beta’s following initiation, older members commented senior membership exemplifies how monitored on newer members’ posts more regularly than social media environments affect an newer members commented on older internalization of media discipline in new members' posts. sorority members. The tendency of older members to comment Foucault’s theorization of surveillance as extensively on newer members’ posts reflects permanent visibility illustrates the ways in their comparatively more comfortable situation which social media users navigate inclinations within the Alpha Beta hierarchy and might towards media prominence and the suggest that the initial surge of comments concomitant susceptibility to surveillance made by senior members is a largely (Livingstone 2008, 12). Maria’s previously pedagogical activity. Maria mentioned that “on referenced remark that Instagram comments my bid day photo, I was looking through the made by other users on her posts “give me a comments, I have a lot of older girls that I sense of validation in a way, to know that at barely talked to, so I think there definitely is like least a few people are like, yeah this looks good, that kind of welcoming stage where everyone or yeah this is a good picture or whatever,” kind of commented on any Alpha Beta bid day reflects Bucher’s (2012) articulation of the pictures.” She described these initial “threat of invisibility,” a reversal of Foucault’s interactions with older members as being analysis of surveillance that suggests that informative about how to proceed socially: possibilities of virtual obsolescence configure “they kind of showed me, like, the kinds of media orientations towards attention-seeking things you can say and the right tone and stuff. strategies. While Foucault describes panoptic Like, I felt like I could kind of go from there in surveillance methods as systems of perpetual terms of reaching out to my PC [pledge class] visibility, Bucher (2012) suggests that social and starting to get to know them.” These initial media users regularly work to sustain visibility interactions might be understood as a means of in their online activities. The “attention demonstrating acceptable discourse styles and economy” articulated by Marwick (2017) a method for equipping new members to safely similarly incentivises strategies that support interact with their peers. This introductory media visibility while exposing users to regimes deluge of comments from senior Alpha Beta of virtual surveillance. This tradeoff likely members may constitute a passing on of a informs users’ media switching behaviors—by corpus of a unique sociolinguistic repertoire, a toggling between primary Instagram accounts rite of passage whereby members are made and “finstas,” users can dictate the visibility or familiar with the modes of discourse they will obscurity of their content (Ross 2019, 4). be required to employ throughout their membership. Senior Alpha Beta members enjoy an overall more comfortable situation within the sorority Conclusion and are consequently better able to engage in social media activities with a broad range of Its material affordances and adaptable interlocutors. “For me personally,” commented interface make Instagram a powerful means of Sarah, “going into freshman year, the projecting self-presentation and community confidence you had in high school is not there membership. Ross (2019, 19) argues that “the really. I would not have been confident enough various factors that go into the image-making to post on these older girls’ pictures. It’s and -sharing process can be traced back to the intimidating, and it's like, in high school you desire to have one’s posts liked by others.” This knew everyone. Now you don’t know these girls, paper primarily explores the role of Instagram and I was like, oh, they’re going to think I’m a commenting as a crucial mediator of content weirdo … I felt like the girls I knew and their creation and posting behavior, as well as the friend groups, that were older, were broader function of Instagram commenting in commenting on my stuff more than I was facilitating socialization among sorority commenting on their stuff at first, because I members. Partially owing to the recent was like, awkward.” Sarah’s experience is not obsolescence of visible Instagram “like” metrics, The JUE Volume 12 Issue 1, 2022 131
“like” accumulation has seemingly declined as a hauntological, given frequent reappropriations directive of media activity. of vintage and retro styles in reimagined and recontextualised environments. Ambiguities Commenting behaviors provide for analysis surrounding linearity and aesthetic not only of content creation practices but also recapitulations suggest a need for further of how particularized virtual discourse methods scholarship concerning the situation of sorority shape and maintain group membership. media aesthetics within broader histories of Whereas “likes” may be a means of gauging image making and production. Moreover, posting success and a principle for fine-tuning attending to the ways in which sorority image production, Instagram comments reflect members contest existing aesthetic regiments the situation of social media encounters within could clarify the tensions between agency and broader contexts of social relatedness, conformity in online activities (Code 2013, 41; coalitional expectations, and intra-sorority Bullingham and Vasconcelos 2013, 7). Many of dominance hierarchies. The discursive my interview conversations explored how potentialities invited by commenting platforms sorority members adopt existing media underlays the sociality of social media. ideologies to instantiate their membership and Baudrillard (1985, 577) dictates that truly group-commitment, however participants “social” media most fundamentally serve as frequently alluded to instances in which they “reciprocal spaces of speech and response,” departed from these norms, such as in exemplifying the centrality of comment portrayals of non-sorority activities. These cases discourse as a powerful and pervasive media reflect that, just as members toggle between practice. primary and “fake” Instagram accounts, so do Alpha Beta affiliated Instagram users employ they toggle between presentation styles within the platform to communicate their membership single accounts. This code-switching behavior by mobilizing distinct, sorority-specific suggests that agency and coercion in media aesthetics. Style guidelines are formalized posting are context-dependent and contingent through intra-sorority power dynamics and on the nature of the material being portrayed. iterative commenting processes that Furthermore, participants commented that congratulate successful uses of group restrictions on in-person gatherings acknowledged aesthetics. Virtual and face-to- implemented by the university in response to face collaborative practices also enabled the COVID-19 pandemic expanded how social sorority Instagram users to establish stylistic media was used as a tool for initiating new modes of content production that complement Alpha Beta members. Research regarding the existing organizations of group relations (Yates changing role of social media as a result of the et al. 1997, 3). pandemic, and the extent to which these The implementation of acceptable content changes become formalized beyond the creation and discourse practices enables users pandemic, could provide insight concerning the to project their sorority identities and establish adaptability of media environments to changing expectations of membership (Nisa 2018, 92). By conditions. interacting with media posted by sorority Adaptability is a primary component of members and sorority affiliated accounts media usage and is precisely what enables (particularly, the official Alpha Beta Instagram users to direct their content creation practices account), users learn to operationalize certain towards particular audiences. Posting with the stylistic and discursive aesthetics in order to sorority in mind necessitates attention to group inform their own participation in and power dynamics and stylistic cues, however embodiment of sorority life. these formalities may be circumscribed by Instagram comment forums and image feeds leveraging alternative channels, such as are largely palimpsestic in nature, owing to the “finstas.” Group-acknowledged aesthetic capacity of new media content to overwrite normativities shape how and what users post, existing material and the tendency of users to and in so doing systematize a practice of delete posted material entirely. Moreover, communal content creation that affects media posting behaviors are frequently perceptions and presentations of the self. The JUE Volume 12 Issue 1, 2022 132
Acknowledgements Thank you, Dr. Clark, for supporting my research, both within and without the classroom, and for connecting me to people, organizations, and ideas that enabled me to refine my research skills. Your mentoring, which began before I was your student and did not end when I was no longer your student, has shaped my trajectory as an anthropological thinker in a truly profound way. Thank you, as well, to the reviewer, who offered valuable suggestions which ultimately improved this article. The JUE Volume 12 Issue 1, 2022 133
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