LAUSR

This article presents an analysis of life-political themes in online discussions about the hikikomori phenomenon, acute social withdrawal. In a Finnish online image-board, socially withdrawn individuals anonymously take part in conversations concerning, for example, welfare and the difficulties of working life. The aim of this study is to bring new perspectives to the discussion about anonymous online communication, and especially its relationship with social exclusion and anti-social behaviour. In the article, I examine how ‘the anti-social’ is produced and understood in this anonymously used forum. Through a thematically constructed textual analysis of online discussions, the following questions are answered: What kinds of life-political themes are found in the discussion concerning social withdrawal? How is the feeling of being an outsider in one’s own society voiced in this online community? What kind of space for public discussion does this specific forum provide? In the online space, an intimate public is formed around shared narratives and the conversations seem to offer at least a space of expressive politics and social criticism for the participants in a situation that is labelled by precariousness.