B R YA N D O S O N O, P H . D. B E LO N G I N G O N L I N E As social media platforms allow for interactions to scale and reach larger audiences, people in search of community can find others who share similar identities and interests through digitally mediated exchanges. Online platforms allow fraternity and sorority members the opportunity to engage in identity work — a process through which people manage and revise their identities. Online fraternal communities can be open to the public to view (e.g., r/frat on Reddit) or private such that membership is vetted to those who share a common identity (e.g., “Subtle Asian Greeks” on Facebook). Even hyper-curated submission sites like WatchTheYard.com serve as a window to performativity of the Black Greek experience. Today’s students navigate a number of life transitions simultaneously, such as joining a fraternity/sorority, onboarding to a new campus job, or learning how to file taxes for the first time. Through these liminal stages, students make sense of their individual selves and collective place within higher education institutions. YouTube comments, relatable memetic tweets, and virtual learning environments open students to additional perspectives that shape their identity work. This process of discovery and expression is especially liberating for those of marginalized or historically underrepresented backgrounds, as online spaces democratize the way they share their experiences outwardly.
M OT I VAT I O N A N D M E T H O D Having grown up with and alongside the internet, I sought to understand the effects of digital transformation within online communities, deeply captivated by the social networks, governance, and infrastructure that underpin them. My doctoral dissertation uncovered the ways in which individuals that identify within APIDA (Asian Pacific Islander Desi American) communities negotiate collective action in the context of online identity work. Through interviews with online community moderators, I wanted to understand how APIDA folks build resilience in revising their identities; how people build resilience in the technical systems they use so identity work can happen; and how people work to decolonize their identities, or in other words, build an identity that is their own. My fieldwork encompassed a broad, multi-sited investigation of the use of technology within and among online communities engaging in identity work. I conducted semi-structured interviews with 21 moderators on Reddit who facilitate identity work discourse in APIDA spaces, distilled recommendations for improving moderation in online communities centered on identity work, and discussed implications of racial identity in the design of Reddit and similar platforms. In examining how marginalized communities are studied, reflexively understanding one’s race and ethnicity may Issue #4 PERSPECTIVES 28
