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Existential vulnerability and transition: Struggling with involuntary childlessness on Instagram

Existential vulnerability and transition: Struggling with involuntary childlessness on Instagram AbstractIn 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. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Nordicom Review de Gruyter

Existential vulnerability and transition: Struggling with involuntary childlessness on Instagram

Nordicom Review , Volume 42 (s4): 17 – Sep 1, 2021

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References (47)

Publisher
de Gruyter
Copyright
© 2021 Kristina Stenström et al., published by Sciendo
ISSN
2001-5119
eISSN
2001-5119
DOI
10.2478/nor-2021-0048
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

AbstractIn 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.

Journal

Nordicom Reviewde Gruyter

Published: Sep 1, 2021

Keywords: existential media studies; involuntary childlessness; vulnerability; transition; Instagram

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