This website addresses the ways in which London city farms have had to move their presence into the virtual world due to the government-mandated COVID-19 lockdown. It explores the ways in which existing social media use has changed upon the forced closure of the farm to the public. It also explores which aspects of farms, farm life are emphasized for the public.
To address these questions, I chose to study the Instagram accounts of five London city farms. Every day, for a week, I logged on and viewed all the content that these accounts had uploaded. I recorded my observations, noting common themes, repetition of activities, interaction from other users, and so on. In addition, I also read all the google reviews for these farms, once again noting any repeating themes. Finally, I interviewed the social media managers for two of the city farms, discussing the impact of having the farm exist in the online world.
By studying digital presence of London city farms (mainly on Instagram) one can understand what aspects of the farming experience are most important for different groups. Google reviews by visitors show what it is people go to farms for. Instagram content shows which parts of a visit farms are trying to iterate online and perhaps show the limits of what part of an embodied experience with the environment can be translated to a digital medium. Instagram content also shows recurring themes of certain messages and lifestyles farms want to promote. In this way, digital anthropology can be used as a way to view priorities of city farms and how these can be conveyed almost exclusively through visual content and brief captions on posts. It shows how the use of social media has been expanded and how new ways of communication and engagement come into practice. It is about the adaptation of spaces that offer a very tactile, sensory experience at a time when this type of in-person interaction is impossible.