#Family: Exploring the Display of Family and Family Leisure on Facebook and Instagram

Abstract

Family leisure is a context in which individuals construct identity and engage in activities considered “doing family.” Social networking sites (SNS) offer a modern tool for sharing photos and narratives and for constructing family identity and conveying it to others. The purpose of this study was to explore how family and family leisure are displayed through the practice of sharing family leisure photos on the SNSs Facebook and Instagram. Semi-structured, face-to-face interviews were conducted with 13 women, 3 men, and 1 gender fluid individual about their experiences with posting about activities or practices considered as “family leisure” on SNSs. The findings indicated that posted family leisure images and narratives were intended to communicate nonnormative definitions of family, clarify family identity, help individuals feel a sense of belonging within their social network and community and resist the typical idealization of family life, and offer authentic representations of family leisure.

Keywords:

• family display
• purposive leisure
• social networking sites