“It Began With A Dm”: A Study Of Young Ghanaian Twitter Users’ Search For Intimacy Online

Abstract

Recent statistics have shown a rapid growth in the use of social networking sites among Africa’s youth (Ngwainmbi, 2017). The increasing popularity of these sites highlights how social networking sites have gradually become a place of convergence (Hughes and Palen, 2009), making these sites powerful social intermediaries which mediate how people meet, maintain and negotiate their relationships. This study sought to explore how young Ghanaian adults use Twitter for self-presentation, to create, negotiate, and maintain their intimate relationships, to express their sexual agency and to redefine the traditional codes of intimacy by drawing on the theory of impression management. Using in-depth interviews conducted with 12 young Ghanaian Twitter users, the study found out that young Ghanaian Twitter users use the tool in very similar ways to negotiate their online-based intimate relationships. The findings revealed that Twitter has different implications for how relationships at different stages of evolution are conducted and is enabling a change in the way love and intimate relationships are conducted traditionally.