Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Streams of fun and cringe: talking about Snapchat as mediated affective practice

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Subjectivity Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

How do young people interpret and negotiate their sense of being affected in the context of social media use? Our study draws on recent theorizing that views affective practices as discursive, relational and imbued with power. We specifically address practices that users engage in as they pursue forms of digitally mediated emotional involvement when using Snapchat, an image-based social media application. Our data consist of focus group dialogues with Norwegian students aged 16–19, recruited from schools selected for socio-economic and multicultural diversity. Excerpts exemplify how Snapchat use is not only engagingly talked about, but also affects non-digital everyday interactions. The analysis illustrates how young people’s talk about Snapchat deploys various discursive objects that convey promises of happiness and well-being, and affords particular forms of subjectivity. Image-sharing practices, and how they are communicated and felt, are embedded in and reproduce social norms, yet also provide spaces of belonging.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Ahmed, S. 2004. Affective economies. Social Text 22 (2): 117–139.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ahmed, S. 2008. Sociable happiness. Emotion Space and Society 1 (1): 10–13.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ahmed, S. 2010. The promise of happiness. Durham: Duke University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Alhabash, S., and M. Ma. 2017. A tale of four platforms: motivations and uses of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat among college students. Social Media + Society. https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305117691544.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Barrett, L.F. 2014. The conceptual act theory: A précis. Emotion Review 6 (4): 292–297.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bayer, J.B., N.B. Ellison, S.Y. Schoenebeck, and E.B. Falk. 2016. Sharing the small moments: Ephemeral social interaction on Snapchat. Information, Communication & Society 19 (7): 956–977.

    Google Scholar 

  • Benedek, M., and C. Kaernbach. 2011. Physiological correlates and emotional specificity of human piloerection. Biological Psychology 86 (3): 320–329.

    Google Scholar 

  • Billig, M. 2006. A psychoanalytic discursive psychology: From consciousness to unconsciousness. Discourse Studies 8 (1): 17–24.

    Google Scholar 

  • Binkley, S. 2011. Happiness, positive psychology and the program of neoliberal governmentality. Subjectivity 4 (4): 371–394.

    Google Scholar 

  • Blackman, L., J. Cromby, D. Hook, D. Papadopoulos, and V. Walkerdine. 2008. Creating subjectivities. Subjectivity 22 (1): 1–27.

    Google Scholar 

  • boyd, d. 2014. It’s complicated: The social lives of networked teens. New Haven: Yale University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Castellacci, F., and V. Tveito. 2018. Internet use and well-being: A survey and a theoretical framework. Research Policy 47 (1): 308–325.

    Google Scholar 

  • Charteris, J., S. Gregory, and Y. Masters. 2018. ‘Snapchat’, youth subjectivities and sexuality: Disappearing media and the discourse of youth innocence. Gender and Education 30 (2): 205–221.

    Google Scholar 

  • Diener, E. 2012. New findings and future directions for subjective well-being research. American Psychologist 67 (8): 590–597.

    Google Scholar 

  • Döveling, K., A.A. Harju, and D. Sommer. 2018. From mediatized emotion to digital affect cultures: New technologies and global flows of emotion. Social Media + Society. https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305117743141.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gibbs, A. 2010. After affect: Sympathy, synchrony and mimetic communication. In The affect theory reader, ed. M. Gregg and G.J. Seigworth, 186–205. Durham: Duke University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gillespie, A., K. Corti, S. Evans, and B. Heasman. 2018. Imagining the self through cultural technologies. In Handbook of imagination and culture, ed. T. Zittoun and V. Glaveanu, 303–318. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Giroux, H.A. 2015. Selfie culture in the age of corporate and state surveillance. Third Text 29 (3): 155–164.

    Google Scholar 

  • Grieve, R. 2017. Unpacking the characteristics of Snapchat users: A preliminary investigation and an agenda for future research. Computers in Human Behavior 74: 130–138.

    Google Scholar 

  • Handyside, S., and J. Ringrose. 2017. Snapchat memory and youth digital sexual cultures: mediated temporality, duration and affect. Journal of Gender Studies 26 (3): 347–360.

    Google Scholar 

  • Havas, J., and M. Sulimma. 2018. Through the gaps of my fingers: Genre, femininity, and cringe aesthetics in dramedy television. Television & New Media. https://doi.org/10.1177/1527476418777838.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Heidkamp, B., and D. Kergel. 2017. Precarity and social media from the entrepreneurial self to the precariatised mind. In Precarity within the digital age: Media change and social insecurity, ed. B. Heidkamp and D. Kergel, 99–113. Wiesbaden: Springer Fachmedien.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ipsos. 2018. Sosiale medier tracking Q4’17: Oktober-desember 2017. Oslo: Ipsos.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jeong, D.C., and J. Lee. 2017. Snap back to reality: Examining the cognitive mechanisms underlying Snapchat. Computers in Human Behavior 77 (Supplement C): 274–281.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kahneman, D., E. Diener, and N. Schwartz (eds.). 1999. Well-being: The foundations of hedonic psychology. New York: Russell Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Livingstone, S. 2008. Taking risky opportunities in youthful content creation: Teenagers’ use of social networking sites for intimacy, privacy and self-expression. New Media & Society 10 (3): 393–411.

    Google Scholar 

  • Marková, I., P. Linell, M. Grossen, and A. Salazar-Orvig. 2007. Dialogue in focus groups: Exploring socially shared knowledge. London: Equinox.

    Google Scholar 

  • Martinussen, M., and M. Wetherell. 2019. Affect, practice and contingency: Critical discursive psychology and Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick. Subjectivity 12 (2): 101–116.

    Google Scholar 

  • Marwick, A.E., and d boyd. 2014. Networked privacy: How teenagers negotiate context in social media. New Media & Society 16 (7): 1051–1067.

    Google Scholar 

  • Massumi, B. 1995. The autonomy of affect. Cultural Critique 31: 83–109.

    Google Scholar 

  • Minh-ha, T.T. 1997. Not you/like you: Postcolonial women and the interlocking questions of identity and difference. In Dangerous liaisons: Gender, nation and postcolonial perspectives, ed. A. McClintock, A. Mufti, and E. Shohat, 415–419. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Moran, J.B., K.J. Salerno, and T.J. Wade. 2018. Snapchat as a new tool for sexual access: Are there sex differences? Personality and Individual Differences 129: 12–16.

    Google Scholar 

  • Paasonen, S. 2015. A midsummer’s bonfire: Affective intensities of online debate. In Networked affect, ed. K. Hillis, S. Paasonen, and M. Petit, 27–42. Cambridge: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Piwek, L., and A. Joinson. 2016. “What do they snapchat about?” Patterns of use in time-limited instant messaging service. Computers in Human Behavior 54 (Supplement C): 358–367.

    Google Scholar 

  • Prøitz, L., E. Carlquist, and K. Roen. 2018. Affected and connected: feminist and psychological perspectives on emotion in social media. Feminist Media Studies. https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2018.1546210.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sedgwick, E.K. 2003. Touching, feeling: Affect, pedagogy, performativity. Durham: Duke University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thrift, N. 2008. The material practices of glamour. Journal of Cultural Economy 1 (1): 9–23.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tomkins, S. 1978. Script theory: Differential magnification of affects. Nebraska Symposium on Motivation 26: 201–236.

    Google Scholar 

  • Utz, S., N. Muscanell, and C. Khalid. 2015. Snapchat elicits more jealousy than Facebook: A comparison of Snapchat and Facebook use. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking 18 (3): 141–146.

    Google Scholar 

  • Valsiner, J. 2014. An invitation to cultural psychology. London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vaterlaus, J.M., K. Barnett, C. Roche, and J.A. Young. 2016. “Snapchat is more personal”: An exploratory study on Snapchat behaviors and young adult interpersonal relationships. Computers in Human Behavior 62 (Supplement C): 594–601.

    Google Scholar 

  • Veum, A., and L.V.M. Undrum. 2018. The selfie as a global discourse. Discourse & Society 29 (1): 86–103.

    Google Scholar 

  • Waddell, T.F. 2016. The allure of privacy or the desire for self-expression? Identifying users’ gratifications for ephemeral, photograph-based communication. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking 19 (7): 441–445.

    Google Scholar 

  • Weinstein, E. 2018. The social media see-saw: Positive and negative influences on adolescents’ affective well-being. New Media & Society. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444818755634.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wetherell, M. 2012. Affect and emotion: A new social science understanding. London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wetherell, M. 2013. Affect and discourse—what’s the problem? From affect as excess to affective/discursive practice. Subjectivity 6 (4): 349–368.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wetherell, M. 2015a. Tears, bubbles and disappointment—new approaches for the analysis of affective-discursive practices: A commentary on “researching the psychosocial”. Qualitative Research in Psychology 12 (1): 83–90.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wetherell, M. 2015b. Trends in the turn to affect: A social psychological critique. Body & Society 21 (2): 139–166.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wetherell, M., T. McCreanor, A. McConville, H. Moewaka Barnes, and J. le Grice. 2015. Settling space and covering the nation: Some conceptual considerations in analysing affect and discourse. Emotion, Space and Society 16: 56–64.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wetherell, M., L. Smith, and G. Campbell. 2018. Introduction: Affective heritage practices. In Emotion, affective practices, and the past in the present, ed. L. Smith, M. Wetherell, and G. Campbell, 1–22. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Funding

This work was supported by the Norwegian Research Council (Samansvar programme) Grant Number 247921/O70, and the University of Oslo.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Bjørknes University College, Oslo, Norway

    Erik Carlquist

  2. Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, P.O. Box 1094 Blindern, 0317, Oslo, Norway

    Erik Carlquist & Katrina Roen

  3. Østfold University College, Halden, Norway

    Lin Prøitz

Authors
  1. Erik Carlquist
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Lin Prøitz
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Katrina Roen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Erik Carlquist.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The authors declare no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Carlquist, E., Prøitz, L. & Roen, K. Streams of fun and cringe: talking about Snapchat as mediated affective practice. Subjectivity 12, 228–246 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41286-019-00074-9

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/s41286-019-00074-9

Keywords

Search

Navigation