The Emotional Labor of Holding Digital Literacies

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Friday 7:45 am - Gold 3
  In Roundtable Session: Shaping Identities, Relationships, and Worlds Through Digital Literacies

Abstract

It can be argued that in order to be literate in today’s world, one must hold digital literacies. An information society demands not only that we be able to read, write, and comprehend language and the written word, but to do so within the structures and confines of digital spaces. But what are the physical and emotional costs of acquiring and maintaining digital literacies? What emotional labor is necessary to hold digital literacies? Drawing upon feminist theories of affect, specifically the work of Sara Ahmed and Arlie Russell Hochschild, this paper argues that the costs of obtaining digital literacies are experienced within the body and that the emotional labor of holding digital literacies is more than we frequently consider.

Author

• Layla Coleman, University of Wisconsin - Madison