Social media insecurities in everyday life among young adults - an ethnography of anonymous Jodel disclosures

This paper analyses what makes young adults feel insecure when they use social media to socialise and connect with peers. In a broader sense, the paper discusses what it means to grow up in a digitalized world with social media at the heart of youth life. The analysis is based on a two-year online ethnography conducted on Jodel, an anonymous location based social media app. The paper focuses on Jodel users’ anonymous disclosures about their social media related insecurities – shedding light on discourses related to social media practices that are often hidden or neglected in interview studies.

The analysis finds that it is often the affordances of the platforms or design choices of apps such as Instagram, Snapchat or Tinder that lead to feelings of insecurity or uncertainty in relational maintenance or in the forming of new relationships. Because of the platforms, young adults sometimes find it difficult to know why peers behave like they do online, resulting in unfounded worries and feelings of insecurity.