Netnography to uncover the new aesthetic of the zoomie

Abstract

Since the first COVID-19 lockdown, video conferencing platforms like Zoom have emerged as a fast-growing virtual context where people can have experiences such as education, entertainment, and tourism. Even now that restrictions have ceased, people are still seeking virtual experiences, particularly in the context of cultural tourism. This has brought to life a new practice of selfie-taking: the ‘zoomie’. In this paper, we explore the emerging aesthetic of zoomies to understand how self- and place-presentation practices are evolving in virtual contexts. To reach our goal, we conducted a netnography of zoomies in the context of cultural tourism. Our findings depict zoomie as the repository of three types of tourist gaze and highlight an unkempt aesthetic and comfy culture that differentiates it from travel selfie. We finally elaborate how netnography helped us uncover the zoomie as a new technocultural object.