by
Michael D. Benter
Abstract
The pervading ubiquity of social networking sites has given rise to the reconfiguration of traditional forms and norms of expressions and impressions. Hence, from the gaze of cultural studies, this paper discoursed on how technologically-mediated communications became a medium and a mobile cultural platform in fostering and bolstering one’s sense of personhood and social affiliative attachments. The study sought to identify the nature of a text clan regarding its membership/motives in joining, organizational arrangement, interactions, themes of interactions, and consequences of joining. The descriptive qualitative research method was utilized in this study. Key informant interviews, focus group discussions and open—ended semi-structured informal interviews were used to gather information from the participants. There were twenty research informants that agreed to be ‘cultural consultants.’ Findings revealed that the recurring theme from the limitless flow of their digitized and ‘face time’ interactions is conventional anomic sentiments (like longing for an emotional attention, support or comfort, as well as suppressed curiosities). Consequently, a text clan became a strand that led to a confluence of people that are undergoing certain emotional issues and setbacks. A text clan has become an imaginative socio-cultural outlet to ventilate certain emotional sentiments. As a result, a text clan became a platform to escape momentarily the day-to-day norms, pressures, and expectations that the informants are experiencing in their real-world socio-cultural milieu.
Key words: Text clan, personhood, anonic, ludic imagination, clanhood, clanners, imagined communities, anonymity
| Published October 23, 2018 |
Issue UB RJ Vol. XL, No. 1 2016 |
Source: UB Research Journal, Vol. XL, No. 1 2016
