Social media and sorting out family relationships

Kendra and Lenora are 24-year-old twin sisters from a small town in Trinidad. In 2010, Lenora moved to Jamaica to study for a year. The young women were incredibly close growing up and shared the same bedroom up until Lenora left home. While Lenora was at school in Kingston, the sisters would look at each other’s Facebook page to see what the other was up to, and they spoke over webcam at least a few times a week. Most of the time, the conversations were similar to how they talked at home; they are both loud and typically compete to see who can make the other laugh the most. But when they disagreed, their arguments also resembled the arguments from home. Lenora “louds” Kendra down, quarrelling relentlessly, and Kendra’s first response is that she “wants to get out of that, fast as,” Kendra explains in familiar terms that she wants to leave the situation as fast as she can. With the immediacy of the tension and seeing Lenora’s face filling the screen in front of her, Kendra reacts as if she could simply walk away, “well if that’s what you think,” click, she ends the call. A couple of hours later, Kendra sends Lenora a text asking if she wants to talk, and Lenora calls back on her mobile phone almost immediately. They talk through their issues calmly without the pressure of feeling put on the spot, which is the way Kendra feels when using the webcam.