LGBTQ Persons’ Use of Online Spaces to Navigate Conception, Pregnancy, and Pregnancy Loss: An Intersectional Approach

Navigating conception, pregnancy, and loss is challenging for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) people, who experience stigma due to LGBTQ identity, other identities (e.g., loss), and intersections thereof. We conducted interviews with 17 LGBTQ people with recent pregnancy loss experiences. Taking LGBTQ identity and loss as a starting point, we used an intracategorical intersectional lens to uncover the benefits and challenges of LGBTQ-specific and non-LGBTQ-specific pregnancy and loss-related online spaces. Participants used LGBTQ-specific online spaces to enact individual, interpersonal, and collective resilience. However, those with multiple marginalized identities (e.g., people of color and non-partnered individuals), faced barriers in finding support within LGBTQ-specific spaces compared to those holding privileged identities (e.g., White and married). Non-LGBTQ spaces were beneficial for some informational needs, but not community and emotional needs due to pervasive heteronormativity, cisnormativity, and a perceived need to educate. We conceptualize experiences of exclusion as symbolic annihilation and intersectional invisibility, and discuss clinical implications and design directions.

Analysis of Digital Self-Presentation Practices and Profiles of Spanish Adolescents on Instagram and TikTok

This study analyses self-presentation practices and profiles among Spanish teenagers on Instagram and TikTok. Both of these online spaces prioritise and promote visual publications, are structured to allow feedback on self-presentation, and offer the user filters both to control self-image and to target specific audiences. Three research questions guided the methodological process for the twofold analysis of self-presentation practices on social networks: an exploratory factor analysis to identify latent factors among these practices; and a descriptive analysis of the profiles identified by gender and age. Results indicate that adolescents’ self-presentation practices were related to three different factors: social validation; authenticity; and image control. One of the most outstanding results is that self-presentation practices could be less guided by social feedback, since the number of followers or likes was irrelevant for most adolescents, and that adolescents increasingly tend to be guided by innovative predispositions of truthfulness. In turn, conclusions suggest that teens need to be equipped with suitable self-representation practices for safe and sustainable identity narratives on social networks, since the global COVID-19 pandemic has exponentially increased both the usage and the time spent on social networking sites, enlarging the availability of spaces for adolescents to express themselves and build their identities through different self-representation practices.

Fostering Communication

The period of transition for foster youth into independent adulthood is an important life stage, and one that has yet to be explored in HCI circles. We studied an online community centered on the experiences of former foster youth through the first year of its existence to better understand how online spaces are being used by this population. Our mixed-method study included the coding of all posts from the first year of the online community and offers a mix of quantitative and qualitative findings. These findings include alignments and gaps in an established descriptive framework from the field of social work as it relates to the online communication of former foster youth. It also includes how the domains from the framework co-occur, and some potential implications of these co-occurrences. Future research on this subject is warranted, particularly related to why former foster youth seek online platforms to engage in conversations on these topics and how effective community members perceive the platform to be in safely and securely facilitating their needs.

Online construction of romantic relationships on social media

This study draws on Knapp’s offline relationship development model to examine how people construct romantic relationships on social media, with particular attention to the role of affordances in this process. Based on in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 30 relational partners, we show that Knapp’s five traditional stages of relationship construction merge online into three because of social media affordances, including searchability, visibility, anonymity, persistence, storage, and editability. These affordances allow users to search and obtain information about potential partners quickly, conveniently, and anonymously before, during, and after the first interaction. They also enable users to initiate or avoid romantic interactions relatively easily, present shared memories, build a sense of togetherness, and edit or erase online content about previous partners. The findings suggest that most participants perceived Facebook, more than Instagram, as a platform of choice for relationship construction. Addressing the interplay between social media affordances, online relational practices, and offline relationship dynamics, the study shows that offline and online spaces are highly interrelated in terms of interinfluence. Therefore, we argue that the merger of stages is not merely a technical rearrangement but an indication of the fundamental role that online practices play in people’s offline realities, including romantic relationships.

Media Literacy Among Ex-Untouchables in a Networked Society

The caste system, which prescribed punishments for Dalits, is slowly eroding, but the atrocities against Dalits continue on a scale that makes Dalit travails seem extreme. Previous scholars have argued such oppression because of the lack of proper representation of Dalit atrocities in the mainstream media and space for Dalits to voice their concerns. In a networked society, Dalits are creating identities on online spaces. This chapter, hence, discusses Dalit empowerment from the lens of media literacy through a case study approach. Three case studies have been analysed and conceptualised along the lines of media literacy and networked society. Overall, this study reflects that media literacy assists streamlined development of the culture and ideologies with media, creative and communicative abilities, and critical thinking. Considering the absence of regulations or policies to ‘media educate' the school students, especially the minorities, this research creates an awareness and helps in policy establishment aimed towards implementing media literacy education curricula.

Factors Affecting Conversation Design for Digital Political Personae

<p>Digital political personae are common on social media, representing a potential avenue to inform and engage citizens in political conversation. While personae that function as a digital extension of politicians and commentators are clearly identifiable, large numbers of automated personae of limited sophistication also engage in political exchanges in online spaces. Despite their prevalence, little prior work has addressed conversation design approaches to maximise the effectiveness of digital political personae in their interactions with users. A review of the literature highlighted a range of approaches for effective use of digital tools in political contexts, including strategies for conveying information, sustaining engagement and employing and responding to emotive language on polarising topics. Examination of interactions with existing political personae on social media revealed that many of these approaches were limited or absent from the current conversational paradigm. Chatbot software was used to explore methods that would address the issues identified with existing digital political personae through an iterative design process. A layered interaction scenario was developed that supports branching political conversation on a central topic, with a base of secondary topics to enhance the utility of the persona. The conversation design developed incorporates lessons from the literature on use of effective digital tools for political conversation, and has the potential to engage and inform large numbers of participants, as well as gather information from them for analysis.</p>

Factors Affecting Conversation Design for Digital Political Personae

<p>Digital political personae are common on social media, representing a potential avenue to inform and engage citizens in political conversation. While personae that function as a digital extension of politicians and commentators are clearly identifiable, large numbers of automated personae of limited sophistication also engage in political exchanges in online spaces. Despite their prevalence, little prior work has addressed conversation design approaches to maximise the effectiveness of digital political personae in their interactions with users. A review of the literature highlighted a range of approaches for effective use of digital tools in political contexts, including strategies for conveying information, sustaining engagement and employing and responding to emotive language on polarising topics. Examination of interactions with existing political personae on social media revealed that many of these approaches were limited or absent from the current conversational paradigm. Chatbot software was used to explore methods that would address the issues identified with existing digital political personae through an iterative design process. A layered interaction scenario was developed that supports branching political conversation on a central topic, with a base of secondary topics to enhance the utility of the persona. The conversation design developed incorporates lessons from the literature on use of effective digital tools for political conversation, and has the potential to engage and inform large numbers of participants, as well as gather information from them for analysis.</p>

Policing harmful content on social media platforms

Social media content moderation is an important area to explore, as the number of users and the amount of content are rapidly increasing every year. As an effect of the COVID19 pandemic, people of all ages around the world spend proportionately more time online. While the internet undeniably brings many benefits, the need for effective online policing is even greater now, as the risk of exposure to harmful content grows. In this paper, the aim is to understand the context of how harmful content - such as posts containing child sexual abuse material, terrorist propaganda or explicit violence - is policed online on social media platforms, and how it could be improved. It is intended in this assessment to outline the difficulties in defining and regulating the growing amount of harmful content online, which includes looking at relevant current legal frameworks at development. It is noted that the subjectivity and complexity in moderating content online will remain by the very nature of the subject. It is discussed and critically analysed whose responsibility managing toxic online content should be. It is argued that an environment in which all stakeholders (including supranational organisations, states, law enforcement agencies, companies and users) maximise their participation, and cooperation should be created in order to effectively ensure online safety. Acknowledging the critical role human content moderators play in keeping social media platforms safe online spaces, consideration about their working conditions are raised. They are essential stakeholders in policing (legal and illegal) harmful content; therefore, they have to be treated better for humanistic and practical reasons. Recommendations are outlined such as trying to prevent harmful content from entering social media platforms in the first place, providing moderators better access to mental health support, and using more available technological tools.

Digital Citizenship: Technology Access and Use for Youth With and Without Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities

Technology is integral to the lives of youth who, as digital citizens, use technology to participate in social and civic action to improve their communities. Using a digital citizenship framework and National Longitudinal Transition Study of 2012 data, we explored technology access and use between youth with and without intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). We found youth with IDD have less access and less participation across four digital citzienship elements putting them at greater risk for digital social isolation and community disengagment. Given the COVID-19 pandemic, which has thrust employment, school, health, and social lives to online spaces, we situate our findings on digital access, opportunity, and support and call for individual and systems-level investment in digital citizenship to support full participation.