Embodied Experience and Emotional Labor: An Autoethnography of Capturing and Archiving Screenshots From Ephemeral Social Media

This article interrogates my dual role as an insider and researcher, particularly my practice of capturing screenshots of the EndSARS protest from Instagram and WhatsApp Stories during the 3 years of my doctoral research. For context, EndSARS is a sociopolitical movement in Nigeria mobilized against police brutality and in pursuit of accountability in governance. This article, through a main analytical theme: “My Screenshotting as Emotional Labor: Bearing Witness and Aestheticizing Pain,” and a subtheme: “Device Transitions and the Embodied Conditions of Witnessing,” I argue that my experience of capturing screenshots on the EndSARS movement is not a mere act but an embodied practice laden with tensions between resistance, emotional labor and digital media affordance. Further, I confront questions such as who decides what endures when ephemeral content disappears? What responsibilities do researchers bear toward the pain they research and archive? While unresolved, these questions underscore the stakes of reflexive, affective and ethical engagement in digital activism research. By reflecting on and engaging with my experience, this article extends the research area of contemporary digital activism and screenshot studies.