Towards planetary-intimate social media research

Feminist perspectives provide important impetus for more socially just research on and with social media platforms through a feminist ethics of care. However, a specific geographical conceptualization of social media platforms is still lacking. We argue for a feminist-geographical understanding of social media platforms and research as intertwined across planetary-intimate scales. We contend that feminist social media research must take seriously the planetary-intimate connections of social media platforms if it wants to contribute to the transformation of these capitalist, exploitative, unsustainable, and unjust digital systems. At the heart of planetary-intimate social media research are questions of power and the more-than-human context realizing social media platforms. We assert that social media platforms should not be viewed as discrete and disembodied in research with and on them, but rather as situated, embodied systems entangled across planetary-intimate scales. • Develops the concept of planetary-intimate social media platforms. • Understands social media platforms as situated, embodied systems across planetary-intimate scales. • Argues for a planetary-intimate approach to social media research to encourage more socially just ways of researching social media platforms.