Suchergebnisse

MySpace is an online social network site (SNS) where users regularly communicate via a particular part of the profile page known as "the wall". This article uses a discursive approach to study the construction of identity in communication on the wall. The analysis shows that wall communication constitutes a set of relational positions that need to be discursively organised in order to manage the presence of a mediated community of other MySpace users. Drawing on the work of Celia LURY, the paper explores this issue in terms of a set of practices for managing the dilemma of closeness and distance that stems from the new forms of individualism that is inherent to a "prosthetic" culture. The article is concerned with the way MySpace users negotiate the issue of distance and closeness as part of the process of identity construction in MySpace. A broader discussion in terms of discourse, community and technology is included.

It is 50 years since the Apollo 13 mission failed to reach the surface of the moon. In this article we examine the audio recording of the post-mission press conference from the Apollo 13 spaceflight. We will focus on the "problem" (an explosion on-board the spacecraft) that prevented the astronauts (Jim Lovell, Jack Swigert and Fred Haise) from reaching the moon and we will analyse how their retrospective talk organises "what happened" and "what we did" in their recollections of the events surrounding the explosion. In the analysis we identify how these accounts are discursively organised in such a way that the explosion is positioned as an external event that was unavoidable and unexpected. Furthermore, the astronaut's responses to witnessing this unexpected event and their subsequent actions on realising the severity of the event are constructed as being measured, rational and logical.

Social media are increasingly being recruited into care practices in mental health. This article analyses how a major new mental health social media site ( www.elefriends.org.uk ) is used when trying to manage the impact of psychiatric medication on the body. Drawing on Henri Bergson's concept of affection, analysis shows that Elefriends is used at particular moments of reconfiguration (e.g. change in dosage and/or medication), periods of self-experimentation (when people tailor their regimen by altering prescriptions or ceasing medication) and when dealing with a present bodily concern (showing how members have a direct, immediate relationship with the site). In addition, the analysis illustrates how users have to structure their communication to try to avoid 'triggering' distress in others. The article concludes by pointing to the need to focus on the multiple emerging relationships between bodies and social media in mental health, due to the ways the latter are becoming increasingly prominent technologies through which to experience the body when distressed.

Social media's networked form of communication provides people with bodies that are combinations of embodied and technologically mediated action. This creates multiple forms of visibility within the infospheres (Terranova) of social media, which require simultaneous production of bodies in and through offline and online spaces. Bergson's non-dualistic model of bodies as images addresses the challenges of experiencing 'bodies online'; understood as expressions that blur the subject–object and representation–being dualisms. This article explores how socially mediated bodies are disposed for action in ways that involve negotiating communication through the mediated noise (Serres) of social media, along with managing bodies that are faced with the spatialisation of time through new features such as Facebook's Timeline.

Mental health apps (MHApps) present a significant change to the field of mental health and represent a major shift in the way people manage and understand their mental health. MHApps are a new strand of apps available on a smartphone or tablet to support people with their psychological health and wellbeing. In these apps, users can record their mood, self-esteem, or other psychological factors via the app and then take part in psychological exercises to help positively impact their data. The data are stored in the app and presented in visual and textual form—acting as an indicator of current mental health. The current article takes a socio-materialist perspective and aims to provide insights into the context and experience of using MHApps. Drawing on qualitative semi-structured interview data with nine active users, this article identifies the following: (1) how MHApps provide a space for releasing distress "in the present," in a way that is distinct from the punctuated nature of formal mental health provision; (2) how MHApps use "streaks" and other social media functions to incentivize attention to one's mental health; and (3) how the collective presentation of data in MHApps affords a personal impression of the present, which provides an opportunity to take stock of the current status of one's mental health. This article provides valuable insight regarding people's experiences of using MHApps, which is important given the continued expansion of the field of apps and provides knowledge that can potentially feed into clinical practice and future app design.