Table Of Content

Virtual Identities and Digital Culture Virtual Identities and Digital Culture investigates how our online identities and cultures are embedded within the digital practices of our lives, exploring how we form community, how we play, and how we re-imagine traditional media in a digital world. The collection explores a wide range of digital topics – from dating apps, microcelebrity, and hackers to auditory experiences, Netflix algorithms, and live theatre online – and builds on existing work in digital culture and identity by bringing new voices, contemporary examples, and highlighting platforms that are emerging in the field. The book speaks to the modern reality of how our digital lives have been forever altered by our transnational experiences – one of those key experiences is the pandemic, but so too is systemic inequality, questions of digital privacy, and the role of joy in our online lives. A vital contribution at a time of significant social and cultural flux, this book will be highly relevant to those studying digital culture within media, communication, cultural studies, digital humanities, and sociol- ogy departments. Victoria Kannen is a Professor in the Faculty of Arts and Equity, Di- versity, and Inclusion Advisor of Research at Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ontario. She is the author of Gendered Bodies and Public Scru- tiny: Women’s Stories of Staring, Strangers, and Fierce Resistance (2021). She is also the co-editor of The Spaces and Places of Canadian Popular Culture (2019). Aaron Langille is a Professor and Coordinator of the Game Design program at Cambrian College in Sudbury, Ontario. He is a regular columnist on CBC radio where he talks about games, technology, and the impact of our digital lives. He is currently writing two textbooks, one of which is on learning to program through analogies and, the other, is on learning to program through games. Virtual Identities and Digital Culture Edited by Victoria Kannen and Aaron Langille Designed cover image: Efe Kurnaz/Unsplash First published 2023 by Routledge 605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158 and by Routledge 4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2023 selection and editorial matter, Victoria Kannen and Aaron Langille; individual chapters, the contributors The right of Victoria Kannen and Aaron Langille to be identified as the authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. ISBN: 978-1-032-31655-0 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-032-31508-9 (pbk) ISBN: 978-1-003-31073-0 (ebk) DOI: 10.4324/9781003310730 Typeset in Times New Roman by codeMantra This book is dedicated to everyone who has pivoted each time technologies and the world have changed. Contents List of Contributors xi Introduction: Exploring Digital Lives and Cultures 1 SECTION I Online Identity and Connections 19 1 “Hey Handsome”: Gay Dating Apps and a Critical Digital Pedagogy of Identity 21 SEAN MICHAEL MORRIS 2 “We’re Here for You During This Pandemic, Just Not Financially or Emotionally”: What TikTok Reveals about Student Life during the COVID-19 Pandemic 29 SHARON LAURICELLA AND EMILY SMALL 3 Mediated Identities: How Facebook Intervenes in the Virtual Manifestation of Our Identities 38 LUIS A. GRANDE BRANGER 4 Reassessing Clicktivism: A Tool of the (Pandemic) Times 48 ADIKI PUPLAMPU AND IAIN MACPHERSON 5 “Victims of the System”: Anti-Government Discourse and Political Influencers Online 57 MICHELLE STEWART, MAXIME BÉRUBÉ, SAMUEL LAPERLE, SKLAERENN LE GALLO AND STÉPHANIE PANNETON 6 From Networks to Assemblages: An Analysis of Feminist Activism against Digital Violence in Mexico 69 MARCELA SUÁREZ viii Contents 7 Navigating Nii’kinaaganaa (All My Relations) Online 79 JOEY-LYNN WABIE AND MICHELLE KENNEDY 8 Virtually Authentic? Digital Bodies, “Blank” Squares, and Staring Online 89 VICTORIA KANNEN 9 From a Group of Friends to a Mainstream Audience: Critical Role and New Media Publics 97 BETSY BREY AND ELISE VIST SECTION II Games & Play 105 10 Not All Fun and Games in #mypokehood: The Politics and Pitfalls of Universal Game Design in Pokémon GO! 107 KIERA OBBARD AND ABI LEMAK 11 Lip Dubbing for Fido: Listening to the Internet through Viral Pet Video Memes 117 KATE GALLOWAY 12 ‘Turn Off That Friggin’ Radio!’: The Canadian Soldier Figure and Identity Formation in Videogames 126 JASON HAWRELIAK AND VENUS TORABI 13 Inventing with Zoom: How Play and Games Uncover Affordances in Digital Environments 136 JACOB EUTENEUER 14 Interfaces and Their Affordances: Critical Game Design, Identity, and Community in MMORPGs 144 CHRIS HUGELMANN 15 Better than the Real You? VR, Identity, Privacy, and the Metaverse 152 IAIN MACPHERSON AND ADIKI PUPLAMPU 16 Our War Game: Hacker Games as Laborious Play 161 ALEX DEAN CYBULSKI 17 Listening to and Playing Along with the Soundscapes of Videogame Environments 169 KATE GALLOWAY Contents ix SECTION III Reimagining Traditional Media 179 18 Netflix as the New Television Screen: A Queer Investigation into Streaming, Algorithms, and Schitt$ Creek 181 LAUREN McLEAN 19 The Missing Live Ingredient: The Search for Ephemerality in the Screening and Streaming of Theatre 190 AMANDA DI PONIO 20 From Videotape Exchange Networks to On-Demand Streaming Platforms: The Circulation of Independent Canadian Film and Video in the Digital Era 201 MARIANE BOURCHEIX-LAPORTE 21 Platforms and Poetry as a Popular Form of Engagement 211 TANJA GRUBNIC 22 Lil Nas X, TikTok, and the Evolution of Music Engagement on Social Networking Sites 221 MELISSA AVDEEFF 23 “No Friends in the Industry”: The Dominance of Tech Companies on Digital Music 231 KRISTOPHER R. K. OHLENDORF 24 Say Their Name: How Online News Reports the Death of Transgender People and Its Intersection with Transnormativity 240 RACHEL PATTERSON 25 The ‘Affinityscapes’ of Young Adult Dystopian Fiction: A Study of The Hunger Games Series’ Participatory Culture 248 ZAHRA RIZVI 26 Reboot and Rebirth: Artificial Intelligence and Spiritual Existence in The Good Place 256 LIZ W. FABER Index 263