The Sensory Perception of the Digital : Towards the Digitalized Management of Belonging Using the Example of a School Ethnography

In regards to digital media action various concepts are circulating in the booming debate about manifestations, modes of emergence and changes. All of these concepts share the focus on one particular sensory modality and sensory activity: Visibility and seeing. In contrast, this article raises awareness for a systematic consideration of the interplay between visibility and invisibility and the temporality of perception. In doing so, it extends the contemporary research and theories on the active production of belonging and the management of belonging. The visual-temporal order of belonging in the context of digital media communication will be developed on the basis of an empirical case study of a group of female friends in the research field of school and their appropriation of two contemporary widespread apps: Instagram and Snapchat. It will be investigated whether and to what extent digital media communication provides a specific resource for displaying belonging on the front and back stage. Additionlly, it will be outlined to what extent the interplay of sensuality and the digital requires an analysis that combines the occurrence of perception and its interpretation. Drawing on the analysis of Snapchat, we identify a currently symptomatic, emphemeral gaze that illustrates this interplay and which can be better described as a glance than a gaze.