Ambivalent visibilities : Social media bullying and disconnective practice of the youth

Abstract

While bullying on social media among the youth remains a public health problem, there is little that we know about ways of dealing with bullying by disconnection. In this article, we build upon the concepts of disconnective practice (Light, 2014) and visibility (Brighenti, 2007) to explain the ways into which the youth deal with bullying on social media. We draw evidence from in-depth interviews with 152 youth across the Philippines. First, we find that disconnective practice is a continuum of acts that involves disconnecting from people and messages and is anchored on temporality. Second, we find that visibility is both a condition for and a process of disconnective practice. Grounded in the youth’s experiences with bullying on social media, we suggest the concept of ambivalent visibilities to characterize the youth’s efforts to manage their well-being amid the volatile landscape of social media interactions. We conclude this article by discussing the implications of ambivalent visibilities for Filipino youth, their support networks, and technology designers and platform owners.