PERFORMING PREVIVORSHIP ONLINE: EXAMINING IDENTITY MANAGEMENT ON TIKTOK

Abstract

Research exploring identity performance on Tiktok has highlighted a departure from older self-making frameworks - such as the networked self- and a move towards a more ‘algorithmized’ version of self-making online. This departure takes us from a framework that emphasises performance in the Goffmanian sense to a model that emphasises the role of the algorithm in shaping our identity practices. Social media platforms, though, have been established as important spaces for the performance health and illness identities. With this in mind, this paper asks whether and how illness performances occur on Tiktok and further explores the extent to which we are departing from more traditional self-making practices. To do this, we draw on findings from an ongoing Leverhulme Trust-funded project focused on social media uses relevant to hereditary cancer syndromes. These syndromes mark health conditions linked to known genetic mutations, also called “cancer genes”, that heighten the risk of having cancer from an early age. Carriers of these genetic mutations are often referred to as ‘previvors’: healthy individuals who are coping with the awareness of having a genetic predisposition to cancer. We used computational techniques to access posts about two hereditary cancer syndromes: BRCA 1/2 and Lynch Syndrome published on TikTok followed by a qualitative content analysis. From this, our initial findings show how strong elements of older identity frameworks remain present in content produced by previvors on TikTok with previvors identity performances remaining very much networked, interactive and connected to specific communities.