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Chapter 3 - Donor-Linked Families Connecting through Social Media

Creeping and Contact on Facebook

from Part I - ‘DIY’ Donor Linking: Issues and Implications

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 July 2023

By
Adrienne Byrt  and
Deborah Dempsey
Edited by
Fiona Kelly ,
Deborah Dempsey  and
Adrienne Byrt
Fiona Kelly
Affiliation:
La Trobe University, Victoria
Deborah Dempsey
Affiliation:
Swinburne University of Technology, Victoria
Adrienne Byrt
Affiliation:
Swinburne University of Technology, Victoria
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Summary

Curiosity and a desire for medical history often motivate donor-conceived people to search for their donor or other donor relatives. Social-media platforms offer donor-conceived people and their donors opportunities to search for genetic relatives. This chapter takes an in-depth look at how Facebook was used as a search and surveillance tool by the Australian participants in our national study of donor-conceived adults, recipient parents and donors, including their views about acceptable and more controversial uses of the platform. We argue that the affordances of Facebook and the developing cultures of use by members of the donor-conception communities normalise online surveillance of donor relatives. Our research demonstrates how easy it is to find and watch genetically connected others without knowledge or explicit consent. Our research raises questions about how the concept of contact should be understood in the digital age as donor-conceived people and donors navigate virtual boundaries across social-media platforms.

Keywords

donor-linked familiessocial mediacreepingcontact
Type
Chapter
Information
Donor-Linked Families in the Digital Age
Relatedness and Regulation
 , pp. 49 - 66
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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References

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