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Algorithmic Closeness in Mourning: Vernaculars of the Hashtag #grief on TikTok
Umeå University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Sociology. Digsum. (Digital Sociology)ORCID iD: 0000-0003-3665-2476
2021 (English)In: Social Media + Society, E-ISSN 2056-3051, Vol. 7, no 3Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

This study looks at how mourning is expressed using the hashtag #grief on the social media app TikTok using qualitative content analysis. In a dataset of 100 TikTok videos, this article explores how the TikTok ranking algorithms, which orders content based on previous user engagements, may connect people in mourning across the platform and how these platform-enabled interactions may shape grief expressions. The study shows how grief was narrated on TikTok, which sociotechnical templates (such as duets, stitches, and audios) were incorporated into such expressions, and how these expressions of grief challenged societal mourning norms. This article ends with a discussion about how different subcultural norms on TikTok are linked to the way in which ranking algorithms create social connections across the platform. This study proposes that the "algorithmic closeness" of TikTok users in grief allows them to challenge societal mourning norms in imagined safe spaces, shaped by the algorithmic ranking systems on the platform.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Sage Publications, 2021. Vol. 7, no 3
Keywords [en]
Mourning practices, TikTok, Platform vernaculars, Visibility labor, Algorithmic closeness
National Category
Social Anthropology
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-187166DOI: 10.1177/20563051211042396ISI: 000697984000001Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85114320722OAI: oai:DiVA.org:umu-187166DiVA, id: diva2:1590987
Available from: 2021-09-04 Created: 2021-09-04 Last updated: 2022-02-10Bibliographically approved

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Eriksson Krutrök, Moa

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