“It’s Not Worth It”: Digital Activism and Selective Solidarity from Lived-Feed Experiences

Social media users, oftentimes daily, are exposed to a collection of algorithmic feeds that ultimately shape their perceptions and insights around themselves, their surroundings, and issues of the day. This study introduces the concept of lived-feed experience to describe these offline personalized insights from collective online experiences with varied algorithmic outputs. Specifically, this study questions whether Jewish and non-Jewish students have distinct lived-feed experiences when it comes to digital activism efforts on behalf of the Jewish community. This question is approached through qualitatively analyzing interview data with 27 university students in Texas in the spring and summer of 2023. Findings show that Jewish and non-Jewish students have distinct lived-feed experiences when it comes to exposure to posts bringing awareness to, education around, and fighting against antisemitism both on and offline. This article also discusses distinct obstacles faced by activism efforts on behalf of the Jewish community on social media.