Mellem underholdende kedsomhed og bedøvende overstimulering Aff ektive rytmer i oplevelsen af hashtagfænomenet #ProudBoys på Twitter

Abstract

Th is article explores what role minor and ambivalent feelings play in the experience of hashtag phenomena on social media. Th e case study is the hashtag-fl ooding phenomenon that happened on Twitter in the autumn of 2020, where a group of homosexual men and supporters started using the hashtag #ProudBoys to change its connotation to the eponymous far-right group. With an aff ect-driven autoethnographic analysis, I explore how minor feelings are engendered in the experience of the #ProudBoys-phenomenon and how they are part of the aff ective public that is created in the activity of producing a new context for the hashtag. I conclude with the proposition that minor feelings had a signifi cant eff ect on how my attention was kept while engaging in the #ProudBoys-phenomenon on Twitter. Furthermore, I propose that the phenomenon is an example of hashtag activism that is characterized more by everyday collective identity-building than acute urgency around a public matter.