Editing the project of the self: Sustained Facebook use and growing up online

Now in operation for over a decade, Facebook comes to serve as a digital record of life for young people who have been using the site through key periods of transition. With significant parts of their social and cultural lives played out on the site, users are able to turn to these profiles – these texts of transition often documenting significant relationships, work lives, education, leisure, and loss – to reflect on how their use of Facebook has come to constitute a life narrative. Like reading old journals or diaries, the act of ‘scrolling back’ through a Facebook profile can be a nostalgic and challenging experience whereby users are confronted with their younger selves. In this paper, we report on findings from qualitative research into sustained use of Facebook by young people in their twenties in Australia and the UK. Here we focus on the ‘editing’ or re-ordering of narratives that our participants engage in while they scroll back through their years (5+) of disclosures – and the disclosures of others – that make up their Facebook Timelines. We present our analysis through three different arenas (employment, family life, and romantic relationships) subject to what we argue here is a reflexive re-ordering of life narratives. We argue that Facebook profiles represent visual manifestations of Giddens’ (1991) reflexive project of the self, that serve not only to communicate a sense of self to others, but that also act as texts of personal reflection and of growing up, subject to ongoing revision

Uncovering longitudinal life narratives: Scrolling back on Facebook

This article explores the potential role of sustained social media use in longitudinal qualitative research. We introduce the research design and methodology of a research project exploring sustained use (five or more years) of the social network site Facebook among young people in their twenties. By focusing on this group, we seek to uncover how ‘growing up’ stories are told and archived online, and how disclosure practices (what people say and share on social media) change over time. We question how we can understand the ‘digital trace’ inscribed through the Facebook Timeline as a longitudinal narrative text. We argue that ‘scrolling back’ through Facebook with participants as ‘co-analysts’ of their own digital traces can add to the qualitative longitudinal research (QLR) tradition. QLR and the scroll back method attend to a similar set of concerns around change over time, the depth of inquiry, and uncovering rigorous, rich life narratives. We explore limitations (especially around intentionality) and ethical challenges, while also arguing for the inclusion of these often highly personal, deep, co-constructed digital texts in qualitative longitudinal research. We also consider how the scroll back method could apply to other digital media, as the sites and applications that people user diversifies and changes over time

Being strategic and taking control: Bedrooms, social network sites and the narratives of growing up

Despite being distinct, online social spaces are governed by norms and conventions reminis-cent of those that govern offline social spaces. Our research into the ways young people’s ‘private’ or ‘quasi-private’ spaces are managed indicates that the strategies used to exert a sense of control over sites like Facebook borrow heavily from the strategies employed to manage offline private spaces like the teenage bedroom. In this article, we explore these con-tinuities and then consider the limitations of applying a bedroom metaphor to online social spaces. We then consider how these strategies of control are related to a process of ‘marking out’ the narrative of ‘growing up’ both in online and offline social spaces. Keywords Young people, social network sites, bedrooms, bedroom metaphor, strategies of control, growing up, identit

What matters in the queer archive? Technologies of memory and Queering the Map

Queering the Map (queeringthemap.com) is a novel digital platform: a storymap, an anonymous collaborative record, an archive of queer experiences. To contribute to the platform, visitors make their own mark by clicking on an empty space on the map. As to what visitors contribute, the platform’s About section suggests, simply, ‘If it counts for you, then it counts for Queering the Map’. In this article, we probe this guiding principle. What does count in this context? What matters in the queer archive? Drawing on interviews with 14 site users and an analysis of nearly 2000 stories pinned to Australia on the map, we consider what platform practices reveal about queer collective memory-making, to illuminate the how and why of a queer archive. We see that relatability matters because of the affective, affirming and community-building seeds it can generate; situation matters because it is through participatory practices that recognition, visibility and community place-making are enacted; and, the everyday matters as the archive’s visitors collectively claim and gift their varied personal experiences. Through these themes we explore queer contributions or how site visitors are oriented towards giving something of themselves to the archive. We discuss how archival properties of the platform are key to (queer) participation, and to meaning-making – as distinct, as queer, as a valued record. Queering the Map, we argue, is significant in how space is made for queer representation, carving new contours for archival ‘evidence’ and community histories

Investigation of Mechanisms of Blade Failure of Forged Hastalloy B and Cast Stellite 21 Turbine Blades in Turbojet Engine

An investigation was conducted to study the mechanisms of blade failure of forged Hastelloy B and cast Stellite 21. The blades were mounted in a 16-25-6 alloy rotor and subjected to 20-minute cycles consisting of 15 minutes at rated speed and approximately 5 minutes at idle. The first failures of the Hastelloy B and Stellite 21 blades were probably the result of excessive vibratory stresses and occurred after 14.25 and 16.75 hours, respectively. After 28.75 hours of operation, all but 3 of the original 25 Hastelloy B blades had either failed or contained stress-rupture-type cracks and four of the original 27 Stellite 21 blades contained stress-rupture-type cracks

Real-Time 3-Dimensional Ultrasound-Assisted Infraclavicular Brachial Plexus Catheter Placement: Implications of a New Technology

Background. There are a variety of techniques for targeting placement of an infraclavicular blockade; these include eliciting paresthesias, nerve stimulation, and 2-dimensional (2D) ultrasound (US) guidance. Current 2D US allows direct visualization of a “flat” image of the advancing needle and neurovascular structures but without the ability to extensively analyze multidimensional data and allow for real-time manipulation. Three-dimensional (3D) ultrasonography has gained popularity and usefulness in many clinical specialties such as obstetrics and cardiology. We describe some of the potential clinical applications of 3D US in regional anesthesia. Methods. This case represents an infraclavicular catheter placement facilitated by 3D US, which demonstrates 360-degree spatial relationships of the entire anatomic region. Results. The block needle, peripheral nerve catheter, and local anesthetic diffusion were observed in multiple planes of view without manipulation of the US probe. Conclusion. Advantages of 3D US may include the ability to confirm correct needle and catheter placement prior to the injection of local anesthetic. The spread of local anesthetic along the length of the nerve can be easily observed while manipulating the 3D images in real-time by simply rotating the trackball on the US machine to provide additional information that cannot be identified with 2D US alone

Making it 'Facebook Official': Reflecting on romantic relationships through sustained Facebook use

For the past twelve years, Facebook has played a significant role in mediating the lives of its users. Disclosures on the site go on to serve as intimate, co-constructed life records, albeit with unique and always-evolving affordances. The ways in which romantic relationships are mediated on the site are complex and contested: What is the significance of articulating a romantic relationship on Facebook? Why do some choose to make socially and culturally critical moments like the beginning and ends of relationships visible on Facebook, whereas others (perhaps within the same relationship) do not? How do these practices change over time? When is it time to go ‘Facebook official’? In this paper we draw on qualitative research with Facebook users in their twenties in Australia and the UK who have been using the site for five or more years. Interviews with participants revealed that romantic relationships were central to many of their growing up narratives, and in this paper we draw out examples to discuss four kinds of (non-exclusive) practices: 1) overt relationship status disclosures, mediated through the ‘relationship status’ affordance of the site; 2) implied relationship disclosures, mediated through an increase in images and tags featuring romantic partners; 3) the intended absence of relationship visibility; and 4) later-erased or revised relationship disclosures. We also critique the ways in which Facebook might work to produce normative ‘relationship traces’, privileging neat linearity, monogamy, and obfuscating (perhaps usefully, perhaps not) the messy complexity of romantic relationships

Why do avian responses to change in Arctic green-up vary?

Global climate change has altered the timing of seasonal events (i.e., phenology) for a diverse range of biota. Within and among species, however, the degree to which alterations in phenology match climate variability differ substantially. To better understand factors driving these differences, we evaluated variation in timing of nesting of eight Arctic-breeding shorebird species at 18 sites over a 23-year period. We used the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index as a proxy to determine the start of spring (SOS) growing season and quantified relationships between SOS and nest initiation dates as a measure of phenological responsiveness. Among species, we tested four life history traits (migration distance, seasonal timing of breeding, female body mass, expected female reproductive effort) as species-level predictors of responsiveness. For one species (Semipalmated Sandpiper), we also evaluated whether responsiveness varied across sites. Although no species in our study completely tracked annual variation in SOS, phenological responses were strongest for Western Sandpipers, Pectoral Sandpipers, and Red Phalaropes. Migration distance was the strongest additional predictor of responsiveness, with longer-distance migrant species generally tracking variation in SOS more closely than species that migrate shorter distances. Semipalmated Sandpipers are a widely distributed species, but adjustments in timing of nesting relative to variability in SOS did not vary across sites, suggesting that different breeding populations of this species were equally responsive to climate cues despite differing migration strategies. Our results unexpectedly show that long-distance migrants are more sensitive to local environmental conditions, which may help them to adapt to ongoing changes in climate. climate change, migration, NDVI, nest initiation, phenology, shorebirdspublishedVersio