Resumo

KAMEL, Shaden. Exploring the affordances of popular private Facebook groups for women-only in Egypt. JDMI [online]. 2022, vol.5, n.12, pp.55-71.  Epub 29-Jul-2022. ISSN 2184-3120.  https://doi.org/10.34624/jdmi.v5i12.28873.

In Egypt, the creation and usage of private Facebook groups for women-only is vastly popular. Despite scholarship on women’s social media use, research examining the emergence of online women communities, particularly in the Middle East and North Africa region, is scarce. This article draws upon a case study of five popular Facebook groups for women-only, which includes data collected from observation of the Facebook groups’ features, twelve semi-structured face-to-face with Facebook group creators and members, and archival content. It uses the conceptual framework of Affordances to account for the mutual influence of the Facebook groups’ structure, their users’ perceptions, and their social context to understand why and how Facebook group creators and members use these Facebook groups. Results show that Facebook group creators and members perceive Facebook groups as safe spaces to express their personal and social distresses due to their privacy and exclusivity to women. These collective experiences have led to the manifestation of these Facebook groups as self-care spaces where FB group creators provide their members with information and entertainment to improve their health and well-being. Concurrently, FB group creators embarked on entrepreneurial practices by collaborating with brands and entities to provide these services.

Palavras-chave : Affordances; Facebook groups; social media; women-only; safe spaces; online communities.

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