Identity modulation in networked publics: Queer women's participation and representation on Tinder, Instagram, and Vine

Abstract

This thesis examines queer women's negotiation of multiple audiences on Tinder, Instagram and Vine. It combines analysis of platform interfaces, user content, and interviews to identify queer women's modes of participation and self-representation with attention to platforms' influence on this activity. Findings demonstrate participants' engagement in a set of practices that I term "identity modulation" – a process whereby individuals draw on platform features and functions to adjust the prominence of sexual identity in relation to other personally identifying information. These findings illuminate features, policies, and user cultures that impede identity modulation, warranting changes that facilitate diverse users' digital participation.

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 15 citations exist upstream.

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.