Involuntary childlessness online: Digital lifelines through blogs and Instagram

Abstract

Platformed sociality has become an elemental part of existential processes and struggles. Previous research has shown that digital contexts offer lifelines of support and a sense of belonging based on shared vulnerabilities. By combining phenomenological and ethnographic approaches, this article explores involuntary childlessness (IC) online in so-called trying-to-conceive (TTC) contexts on Instagram and in blogs. The analysis is driven by the following questions: What are the particularities of digital lifeline communication in the context of IC? Can lifeline communication shape what is coming into being in the context of wished-for children and/or motherhood? Can (digital) life be challenged, extended, or created in this context? Drawing on interviews and online posts from 260 Instagram accounts and three blogs, I argue that digital lifeline communication in TTC environments facilitates digital existence and “digital life” as the notions of motherhood and longed-for and lost children attain a form of digital materiality through posts and discussions.