Existential vulnerability and transition: Struggling with involuntary childlessness on Instagram
In their efforts to find others who share their experiential reality and existential struggle, many involuntarily childless women turn to Instagram to engage and participate in the practice of trying-to-conceive (TTC) communication. Through the conceptual lens of digital existence, where the digital...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Sciendo
2021-09-01
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| Series: | Nordicom Review |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.2478/nor-2021-0048 |
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| author | Stenström Kristina Pargman Teresa Cerratto |
| author_facet | Stenström Kristina Pargman Teresa Cerratto |
| author_sort | Stenström Kristina |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | In their efforts to find others who share their experiential reality and existential struggle, many involuntarily childless women turn to Instagram to engage and participate in the practice of trying-to-conceive (TTC) communication. Through the conceptual lens of digital existence, where the digital and online are regarded as constitutive of existential transition, we draw on ten interviews and an online ethnography to explore some of the struggles that involuntarily childless women experience with and through technology. We find that TTC communication can be constitutive of coming to terms with the status of involuntary childlessness. In particular, this study illustrates that TTC communication, for involuntarily childless women, is both a site of struggle and a safe space as they transition to nonmotherhood in an existential terrain where they share an intimate journey. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-be5b8f24a67e4c7b97a12373bf1a21cd |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2001-5119 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2021-09-01 |
| publisher | Sciendo |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Nordicom Review |
| spelling | doaj-art-be5b8f24a67e4c7b97a12373bf1a21cd2025-02-02T15:48:50ZengSciendoNordicom Review2001-51192021-09-0142s416818410.2478/nor-2021-0048Existential vulnerability and transition: Struggling with involuntary childlessness on InstagramStenström Kristina0Pargman Teresa Cerratto1Department of Sociology, Stockholm University, and Department of Humanities, University of Gävle, SwedenDepartment of Computer and Systems Sciences, Stockholm University, SwedenIn their efforts to find others who share their experiential reality and existential struggle, many involuntarily childless women turn to Instagram to engage and participate in the practice of trying-to-conceive (TTC) communication. Through the conceptual lens of digital existence, where the digital and online are regarded as constitutive of existential transition, we draw on ten interviews and an online ethnography to explore some of the struggles that involuntarily childless women experience with and through technology. We find that TTC communication can be constitutive of coming to terms with the status of involuntary childlessness. In particular, this study illustrates that TTC communication, for involuntarily childless women, is both a site of struggle and a safe space as they transition to nonmotherhood in an existential terrain where they share an intimate journey.https://doi.org/10.2478/nor-2021-0048existential media studiesinvoluntary childlessnessvulnerabilitytransitioninstagram |
| spellingShingle | Stenström Kristina Pargman Teresa Cerratto Existential vulnerability and transition: Struggling with involuntary childlessness on Instagram Nordicom Review existential media studies involuntary childlessness vulnerability transition |
| title | Existential vulnerability and transition: Struggling with involuntary childlessness on Instagram |
| title_full | Existential vulnerability and transition: Struggling with involuntary childlessness on Instagram |
| title_fullStr | Existential vulnerability and transition: Struggling with involuntary childlessness on Instagram |
| title_full_unstemmed | Existential vulnerability and transition: Struggling with involuntary childlessness on Instagram |
| title_short | Existential vulnerability and transition: Struggling with involuntary childlessness on Instagram |
| title_sort | existential vulnerability and transition struggling with involuntary childlessness on instagram |
| topic | existential media studies involuntary childlessness vulnerability transition |
| url | https://doi.org/10.2478/nor-2021-0048 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT stenstromkristina existentialvulnerabilityandtransitionstrugglingwithinvoluntarychildlessnessoninstagram AT pargmanteresacerratto existentialvulnerabilityandtransitionstrugglingwithinvoluntarychildlessnessoninstagram |