Ditchfield, H. orcid.org/0000-0001-8612-620X and Vicari, S. orcid.org/0000-0002-4506-2358 (2025) Identity roles and sociality on TikTok: Performance in hereditary cancer content (#BRCA and #Lynchsyndrome). Social Media + Society, 11 (2). ISSN 2056-3051
Abstract
Digital platforms have long been understood as important spaces where identity performance takes place with networks and interpersonal interaction forming the basis of many theoretical approaches to self. Due to TikTok’s distinctive technical structure, scholars have argued that processes of sociality and identity construction have changed, calling into question some of the founding principles of how we understand identity performance on social media. In this article, we critically engage with these debates by asking how identity is performed in TikTok content in the context of health and illness. Specifically, we explore identity performance in content on two hereditary cancer conditions: BReast CAncer (BRCA) and Lynch Syndrome, carriers of which have a much higher disposition to getting certain types of cancer in their lifetime. Through using computational data collection tools and conducting a qualitative content analysis, we find that identity is performed through the enactment of roles, all of which demonstrate how TikTok’s features still enable interpersonal and networked elements of self to emerge. This article contributes to knowledge on experiences of social media and hereditary cancer by shedding light on the kinds of identity performance that become most visible through ways of sociality shaped by powerful multimodal and algorithmic platforms such as TikTok. In so doing, it also provides unprecedented insight into what content users are exposed to when seeking information and support in relation to a hereditary cancer diagnosis on TikTok.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © The Author(s) 2025. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage). |
Keywords: | identity; sociality; TikTok; hereditary cancer; dramaturgy; qualitative content analysis; cancer communication; social media |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Social Sciences (Sheffield) > Department of Sociological Studies (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 04 Jun 2025 15:29 |
Last Modified: | 04 Jun 2025 15:29 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | SAGE Publications |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1177/20563051251340862 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:227342 |