the ways people think about themselves as well as manage the expressions and performances of
their identities. In this research project I aim to refine and extend the latest theories on social
media and identity, especially about 1) fixating the fragmented self (van Zoonen 2013), 2)
collapsed contexts (boyd 2011) and 3) the multiplication of contexts (Papacharissi 2011), by
investigating those phenomena from the perspective of diasporic LGBTQs (Polish post-accession
immigrants to the UK). I will examine what diasporic LGBTQs and their social media’s uses can
teach us about the relationship between the internet and identity, as well as what opportunities
and difficulties social media create to a group that faces different challenges of exclusion and
discrimination. I will first use a quantitative survey to map the diversity of social media used by
Polish LGBTQs in the UK. However, because I am primarily interested in meanings of daily media
practices, it is qualitative methods, and in-depth interviews in particular, which will form the core
of my methodological toolkit. At the same time, to trigger more and better quality data I will
combine traditional qualitative methods with such innovative approaches as think-aloud protocols
(which require from participants to talk about the activity in which they are involved) and digital
methods (the methods of the medium under scrutiny).
