Social Media, Communities, & Networks Conference 2026: Semester 1 & SP1

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One response to “Participation as Labour: Social Media Affordances and the Formation of BTS ARMY — aksah mathew”

1. 

   Darci Gilmour

   01/05/2026

   Question 1:
   Your presentation clearly shows how TikTok and X afford different forms of participation (e.g. imitation on TikTok vs coordination through hashtags on X), which aligns with Week 1’s idea that social media affordances shape how users interact and form connections. However, I’m curious how you would extend this further by thinking about whether these affordances just enable participation, or if they actually shape and limit how fandom is expressed. For example, do TikTok’s algorithm and features encourage certain types of content like repetitive trends, instead of more creative or diverse fan content, and how might that affect the kind of community that forms?

   Question 2:
   You talk about BTS ARMY as a strong fan community, but thinking about Week 2 and the idea of “publics” vs “communities,” how would you position BTS ARMY, especially on platforms like X where hashtag participation is so large and visible? Could it be seen more as a networked public rather than a tightly connected community, and do you think this kind of visibility might lead to fragmentation or a loss of shared meaning over time, especially when participation is driven more by trends and visibility than deeper social connections?

   Question 3:
   Your argument that fan participation can function as digital labour is really interesting, and it connects well to Module 2’s ideas around visibility, surveillance, and platform power. Building on this, how might we also think about the downsides of this labour, like pressure to constantly post, compete for visibility, or take part in things like cancel culture or networked harassment, and do you think BTS ARMY’s highly coordinated nature might amplify both the positive aspects, like community and activism, and the negative sides, like toxicity or overwork?

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