Social media and sorting out family relationships

Families and extended families already present an entangled terrain of emotional experience that are further complicated by the range of technologies available for communication. This chapter argues that choosing between platforms to convey different content is deeply embedded in relationships, drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in a small down in Trinidad. For this argument, 'polymedia', a term coined by Madianou and Miller (2012) is a particularly useful theory of communications for personal relationships. Polymedia captures how Trinidadians navigate the expectations and etiquette within the messiness of lived relationships, where resolving conflicts and tensions have consequences, face-to-face. As social media bridges different aspects of relationships, polymedia is particularly concrete when thought of in relation to transnational family connections. Most often, sorting out which platforms to use is heavily intertwined with sorting out relationships, where sparing emotions and keeping peace is values in extended families who live in small towns