Table Of ContentVirtual Identities and
Digital Culture
Virtual Identities and Digital Culture investigates how our online identi-
ties and cultures are embedded within the digital practices of our lives,
exploring how we form community, how we play, and how we re-imagine
traditional media in a digital world.
The collection explores a wide range of digital topics – from dating
apps, microcelebrity, and hackers to auditory experiences, Netflix algo-
rithms, and live theatre online – and builds on existing work in digital
culture and identity by bringing new voices, contemporary examples, and
highlighting platforms that are emerging in the field. The book speaks to
the modern reality of how our digital lives have been forever altered by
our transnational experiences – one of those key experiences is the pan-
demic, but so too is systemic inequality, questions of digital privacy, and
the role of joy in our online lives.
A vital contribution at a time of significant social and cultural flux,
this book will be highly relevant to those studying digital culture within
media, communication, cultural studies, digital humanities, and sociol-
ogy departments.
Victoria Kannen is a Professor in the Faculty of Arts and Equity, Di-
versity, and Inclusion Advisor of Research at Laurentian University in
Sudbury, Ontario. She is the author of Gendered Bodies and Public Scru-
tiny: Women’s Stories of Staring, Strangers, and Fierce Resistance (2021).
She is also the co-editor of The Spaces and Places of Canadian Popular
Culture (2019).
Aaron Langille is a Professor and Coordinator of the Game Design pro-
gram at Cambrian College in Sudbury, Ontario. He is a regular columnist
on CBC radio where he talks about games, technology, and the impact
of our digital lives. He is currently writing two textbooks, one of which is
on learning to program through analogies and, the other, is on learning
to program through games.
Virtual Identities and
Digital Culture
Edited by
Victoria Kannen and
Aaron Langille
Designed cover image: Efe Kurnaz/Unsplash
First published 2023
by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
and by Routledge
4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2023 selection and editorial matter, Victoria Kannen and
Aaron Langille; individual chapters, the contributors
The right of Victoria Kannen and Aaron Langille to be
identified as the authors of the editorial material, and of the
authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in
accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs
and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted
or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented,
including photocopying and recording, or in any information
storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from
the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be
trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for
identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
ISBN: 978-1-032-31655-0 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-032-31508-9 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-31073-0 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003310730
Typeset in Times New Roman
by codeMantra
This book is dedicated to everyone who has pivoted each time
technologies and the world have changed.
Contents
List of Contributors xi
Introduction: Exploring Digital Lives and Cultures 1
SECTION I
Online Identity and Connections 19
1 “Hey Handsome”: Gay Dating Apps and a Critical Digital
Pedagogy of Identity 21
SEAN MICHAEL MORRIS
2 “We’re Here for You During This Pandemic, Just Not
Financially or Emotionally”: What TikTok Reveals about
Student Life during the COVID-19 Pandemic 29
SHARON LAURICELLA AND EMILY SMALL
3 Mediated Identities: How Facebook Intervenes in the
Virtual Manifestation of Our Identities 38
LUIS A. GRANDE BRANGER
4 Reassessing Clicktivism: A Tool of the (Pandemic) Times 48
ADIKI PUPLAMPU AND IAIN MACPHERSON
5 “Victims of the System”: Anti-Government Discourse and
Political Influencers Online 57
MICHELLE STEWART, MAXIME BÉRUBÉ, SAMUEL LAPERLE,
SKLAERENN LE GALLO AND STÉPHANIE PANNETON
6 From Networks to Assemblages: An Analysis of Feminist
Activism against Digital Violence in Mexico 69
MARCELA SUÁREZ
viii Contents
7 Navigating Nii’kinaaganaa (All My Relations) Online 79
JOEY-LYNN WABIE AND MICHELLE KENNEDY
8 Virtually Authentic? Digital Bodies, “Blank” Squares, and
Staring Online 89
VICTORIA KANNEN
9 From a Group of Friends to a Mainstream Audience:
Critical Role and New Media Publics 97
BETSY BREY AND ELISE VIST
SECTION II
Games & Play 105
10 Not All Fun and Games in #mypokehood: The Politics and
Pitfalls of Universal Game Design in Pokémon GO! 107
KIERA OBBARD AND ABI LEMAK
11 Lip Dubbing for Fido: Listening to the Internet through
Viral Pet Video Memes 117
KATE GALLOWAY
12 ‘Turn Off That Friggin’ Radio!’: The Canadian Soldier
Figure and Identity Formation in Videogames 126
JASON HAWRELIAK AND VENUS TORABI
13 Inventing with Zoom: How Play and Games Uncover
Affordances in Digital Environments 136
JACOB EUTENEUER
14 Interfaces and Their Affordances: Critical Game Design,
Identity, and Community in MMORPGs 144
CHRIS HUGELMANN
15 Better than the Real You? VR, Identity, Privacy, and the
Metaverse 152
IAIN MACPHERSON AND ADIKI PUPLAMPU
16 Our War Game: Hacker Games as Laborious Play 161
ALEX DEAN CYBULSKI
17 Listening to and Playing Along with the Soundscapes of
Videogame Environments 169
KATE GALLOWAY
Contents ix
SECTION III
Reimagining Traditional Media 179
18 Netflix as the New Television Screen: A Queer Investigation
into Streaming, Algorithms, and Schitt$ Creek 181
LAUREN McLEAN
19 The Missing Live Ingredient: The Search for Ephemerality
in the Screening and Streaming of Theatre 190
AMANDA DI PONIO
20 From Videotape Exchange Networks to On-Demand
Streaming Platforms: The Circulation of Independent
Canadian Film and Video in the Digital Era 201
MARIANE BOURCHEIX-LAPORTE
21 Platforms and Poetry as a Popular Form of Engagement 211
TANJA GRUBNIC
22 Lil Nas X, TikTok, and the Evolution of Music Engagement
on Social Networking Sites 221
MELISSA AVDEEFF
23 “No Friends in the Industry”: The Dominance of Tech
Companies on Digital Music 231
KRISTOPHER R. K. OHLENDORF
24 Say Their Name: How Online News Reports the Death of
Transgender People and Its Intersection with Transnormativity 240
RACHEL PATTERSON
25 The ‘Affinityscapes’ of Young Adult Dystopian Fiction: A
Study of The Hunger Games Series’ Participatory Culture 248
ZAHRA RIZVI
26 Reboot and Rebirth: Artificial Intelligence and Spiritual
Existence in The Good Place 256
LIZ W. FABER
Index 263
