Research master thesis | Middle Eastern Studies (research) (MA)
open access
Recent studies on social media have begun to unravel how these sites pave the way for a new type of surveillance: social media surveillance (Trottier 2012). Compared to conventional understandings...Show moreRecent studies on social media have begun to unravel how these sites pave the way for a new type of surveillance: social media surveillance (Trottier 2012). Compared to conventional understandings of surveillance as top-down and hierarchical, social media surveillance is mutual: users watch and are watched. Most studies on the practice of watching and being watched on social media are based on the experiences of ‘white’ North-American students and tend to overlook the experiences of a more diverse global population. This qualitative study aims to contribute to a broader understanding of social media surveillance, by examining the experiences of fifteen female Dutch-Moroccan students in higher education. Findings from the interviews suggest how the students engage with social media surveillance in ways that represent their personal, cultural and religious values of modesty. This study argues that the students’ emphasis on online modesty can be explained in two-fold: (1) as a general effect of institutionalized disciplinary techniques on social media, and (2), as online pious micro-practices, conceptualized in this study as ‘virtual piety’. In doing so, this study not only contributes to a broader understanding of social media surveillance, but also contributes to studies investigating the way everyday practices are part of the process of becoming a pious Muslim subject (Jouili 2009).Show less
