Between discovery and responsibility: Facebook groups and the intimate practices of donor-conceived peers

Facebook groups remain popular among individuals with a specific health condition or marginalised identity. Existing research has documented the benefits of online support groups, yet little work has explored how intimacy develops through these interactions and shapes discourses of responsibility and activism. Drawing on interviews with 28 Australian donor-conceived adults, we conceptualise experiences within Facebook groups through the lens of cultures of care and practices of intimacy. Our thematic analysis derived three themes: intimate feelings (the affects of disclosure, solidarity and belonging), intimate engagement (the ways of interacting, accruing knowledge and paying it forward) and intimate imperatives (the negotiation of a shared responsibility to act, agitate and create social change). Tracing the trajectories between discovery and responsibility, supported and supporter, and novice and expert, we argue that attention to digital intimate practices is critical to understanding belonging, care and activism in a digital age.