facebook groups / online identity / digital third spaces
LIVE ARCHIVE
DIGITAL BLAIR /// INTRODUCTION
Community interaction no longer exists only in physical places.
Local Facebook groups, comment sections and online debates have become digital third spaces where belonging, identity, humour, nostalgia and conflict are performed publicly.
This section explores how Blairgowrie exists online.
DIGITAL OBSERVATION /// BELONGING
Who is considered local?
Who gets accepted?
Who gets questioned?
Digital discussions often reveal hidden social boundaries that are not always spoken openly in face-to-face settings.
DIGITAL OBSERVATION /// DEVELOPMENT DEBATES
Discussions surrounding supermarkets, tourism, housing and local change often become debates about identity itself.
Arguments about buildings and development quickly turn into arguments about belonging, memory, ownership and the future of the town.
DIGITAL OBSERVATION /// FACEBOOK AS PLACE
Local groups function similarly to pubs, streets and cafés.
They are spaces where people gather, observe, comment, perform, argue, remember and become known.
The town is not only experienced on the street. It is also experienced through screens.
DIGITAL OBSERVATION /// HUMOUR AND PERFORMANCE
Online interaction often becomes theatrical.
Sarcasm, local references, in-jokes and familiar names shape digital community culture.
People do not only communicate online. They perform a version of themselves within a local audience.
DIGITAL OBSERVATION /// NOSTALGIA
Shared memories and photographs are constantly used to reinforce ideas about what the town used to be and what it should remain.
Nostalgia becomes a way of discussing change without always naming it directly.
FIELD NOTE /// LOCAL FACEBOOK GROUP
A discussion about development quickly shifts away from buildings and towards identity, belonging and ownership of place.
People defend not only the town itself, but their position within it.