Work

Displaying family on the DNA platform

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: Direct-to-consumer DNA platforms are significant yet overlooked social media platforms through which millions of users worldwide shape their identities. DNA platforms sort and match users using genetic data, creating novel familial ‘networked publics’ and reinforcing ‘genetic thinking’. Drawing on the concept of ‘family display’, we interpret the accounts of 23 Australians who had distinct motivations for engaging with DNA platforms and differing ‘intensities of display’. Our thematic analysis derived three themes: how participants appropriated platform affordances to curate digital displays of family, how the platform enabled participants to foreground multigenerational narratives of familial continuity and how the platform’s focus on genetic relationships led users to reconfigure existing family understandings. Our findings contribute to conceptualisations of how individuals ‘do’ and ‘display’ family through digital platforms and advance theorisation of the ‘digitalisation of family’ and ‘platformised relationality’.

Source: New Media & Society

DOI: 10.1177/14614448261426380

Authors: Giselle Newton, Ashley Barnwell, Romy Wilson Gray

Institutions: The University of Queensland, The University of Melbourne, UNSW Sydney

Language: English

Topic: Media and Digital Communication

Subfield: Computer Networks and Communications

Field: Computer Science

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $3,900

Funder: University of Queensland