Intrapersonal Groupthink and Online Disclosure: A Thematic Analysis of Reddit’s r/SuicideWatch

This paper examined the anonymous r/SuicideWatch subreddit, a part of the popular anonymous message board, Reddit, to better understand disclosure in anonymous online spaces. r/SuicideWatch takes an ambiguous stance on suicide, neither condoning nor condemning it, thus creating a space where users are often affirmed in pro-suicide beliefs. This study utilized a thematic analysis to consider the semantic, latent, and cultural themes of r/SuicideWatch to better understand what was taking place on the website as users processed ideas that are often culturally taboo. Analysis of dialogue that included phrases like “does anyone else” or “me too” suggests that users seek a shared human experience among other users to discuss suicide. However, the presence of groupthink (Janis, 1972) may indicate that users do not seek real dialogue but rather that they may utilize r/SuicideWatch as a safe space to explore these challenging ideas and engage in fantasy exploration where they will be validated. Also notable was the heavy presence of intrapersonal communication as posters failed to interact with one another even as they replied to posts; the dialogue they shared lacked interaction with other users and appeared to be primarily for their own benefit. This may suggest that users utilize r/SuicideWatch as a means to process their own experiences and ideas rather than to interact with the ideas of others. This in-depth look at r/SuicideWatch is an important part of a much larger conversation about anonymous online communication and the interaction that takes place there

(In)visible cities: an exploration of social identity, anonymity and location-based filtering on yik yak

The recent popularity of mobile, anonymous social interaction applications that filter content based on location (i.e., people see what others nearby have posted) has led to concerns about anonymity enabling negative behavior such as abuse or cyber-bullying. Anonymity can also have positive effects, however, and the social identity model of deindividuation effects (SIDE) suggests that people’s behavior in anonymous online environments can be affected by whether they identify more with the community or more as a disconnected individual. In location-filtered apps, however, online anonymity is combined with a physically local audience. This complicates our understanding of online anonymity because identities users feel can stem both from the online and offline environments. We present an exploratory mixed-methods study of Yik Yak, a popular location-filtered app. Results suggest that people use language to invoke a geographically local group identity via shared references. People’s responses to content, moreover, seem to be related to their identity as members of the online community

College Students and Yik Yak: An Exploratory Mixed-Methods Study

This study, employing an exploratory mixed-methods approach, explores college students’ use of Yik Yak, a pseudo-anonymous social media platform that allows users to post short messages and engage primarily with other nearby users. Study 1 qualitatively examined student uses and perceptions of the app through 12 in-depth interviews with Yik Yak users. Study 2 conducted a content analysis of yaks (N = 3,905) from 24 colleges and universities to gain a better understanding of the content that students post and engage with inside the app. The combination of qualitative and quantitative findings offers insight into the complex phenomena of Yik Yak in a university setting. Limitations and future directions of research are discussed

Sex Talk: Designing for Sexual Health with Adolescents

In this paper, we describe a user-centred design process, where we engaged with 58 adolescents over an 18-month period to design and evaluate a multiplayer mobile game which prompts peer-led interactions around sex and sexuality. Engagement with our design process, and response to our game, has been enthusiastic, highlighting the rich opportunities for HCI to contribute constructively to how HCI may contribute to sexual health in adolescents. Based on our experiences we discuss three lessons learnt: lightweight digital approaches can be extremely successful at facilitating talk among young people about sex; sharing control of the conversation between all stakeholders is a fair and achievable approach; even problematic interactions can be opportunities to talk about sex

A Conversation Analysis of Facebook Confessions Pages: Identity and Identification

How individuals identify each other through digital media and display their claims of knowledge is at the core of this study. This work contributes new insights into how participants accomplished identity work by looking at the conversational resources they use in addressing matters of identity in their interaction. The study draws on Conversation Analysis (CA), particularly conceptual work on membership categorization analysis (MCA) and epistemics for analysis. The findings based on two interrelated aspects of the data taken from Facebook Confession Pages interaction. The first concerns the features of the initial (confessional) message, and the second relates to subsequent responses on the initial message. Close examination of the initial message shows ways that identity work is initiated as it would implicate in that subsequent response messages. Two primary forms of messages were then identified on the basis of person reference: those that inform and those that inquire. In each category, the analysis demonstrates that person reference is used as interactional resource in making an epistemic claim of the referent. The person reference is contextual in that they are locally based and understood within the specific contexts of the message. Thus, it is shown that the employment of person reference in the initial message illustrates the epistemic level that author has with the referent. Accordingly, analysis of the subsequent response messages demonstrated ways in which the identity, as presented in the initial message, is identified. The analysis of the subsequent response messages offers insight into how identity works is accomplished through a collaborative commenter’s epistemic stance. Additionally, the study also examines the technological element of FCPs that assist participants in their identity work that is Facebook name. It indicates that this Facebook functionality performed various interactional works including identification work as it provides a link to the right identified referent. Overall, the finding shows that as the identity work is performed, epistemic stance is a requisite component of the interactions. It then may challenge the notions of the invisibility of identity in digital contexts

Designing for Employee Voice

Employee voice and workplace democracy have a positive impact on employee wellbeing and the performance of organizations. In this paper, we conducted interviews with employees to identify facilitators and inhibitors for voice within the workplace and a corresponding set of appropriate qualities: Civility, Validity, Safety and Egalitarianism. We then operationalised these qualities as a set of design goals – Assured Anonymity, Constructive Moderation, Adequate Slowness and Controlled Access – in the design and development of a secure anonymous employee voice system. Our novel take on the Enterprise Social Network aims to foster good citizenship whilst also promoting frank yet constructive discussion. We reflect on a two-week deployment of our system, the diverse range of candid discussions that emerged around important workplace issues and the potential for change within the host organization. We conclude by reflecting on the ways in which our approach shaped discourse and supported the creation of a trusted environment for employee voice

Digital Coming Out: the Politics of LGBTQ Culture in Social Media

As a marginalized community in the United States, LGBTQ individuals occupy a precarious space within society. They are afforded representation in some venues, however are often invisible. Through using social media, LGBTQ individuals have sought new ways to forge a community and increase their visibility. With this increase in visibility, there has been an increased way for individuals to both seek out and distribute information to help in the coming out process. After the election of Donald Trump and Mike Pence, social media became a hotbed of activity for LGBTQ individuals trying to raise awareness about issues that affect them specifically. Combining archival research, observation, interviews, and visual discourse analysis of social media feeds, this dissertation sheds light on the role social media plays in expressions of LGBTQ politics, culture, and coming out. Despite not being fundamentally changed, the increased access to LGBTQ stories have amplified the messages that are able to be sent. This has both been positive in acting as interventions in the issues of LGBTQ suicide rates, hate crimes, and discrimination from outside. Unfortunately, social media has also re-centered and prioritized white, cisgender, masculinity, obscuring other stories and creating potentially dangerous environments for women, trans* individuals, and gay men who do not meet this high standard of masculinity.</p

TO LOVE AN(OTHER): NARRATIVES OF MIXED MARRIAGES AMONGST BRITISH PAKISTANI MUSLIMS

The main research objective of this thesis examines how individual, self-identifying British Pakistani Muslims negotiate their senses of belonging through their marital selections. Drawing upon cases on intermarried case studies, I ethnographically explore how these individuals experience and interpret wedding ceremonies, sequences of expected obligations and reciprocity, religious belonging and raising children, and how digital and social media serve as tools of inspiration and mediation around issues of intermarriage. Although disparate in ethnographic representation, what unifies and casts these case studies and themes as an anthropological area of reflection is the individual sense of ‘unique’ life stories, and more importantly how these life stories interlink with similar life stories through a multi-layered narrative process. Considered to be relatively endogamous, British Pakistani Muslims in cultural, religious, and racial intermarriages become anthropologically engaging. While some individuals of this study conceptualise their experiences as transcending kinship boundaries, others are continuously weighing their relationship choices against their traditional upbringings, considered by some participants to be contradictory experiences. In response, I argue that the diverse examples of intermarriage not only demonstrate how narrative is formed and reformed through past-present-and-future imaginings and experiences, but also how navigating social risks plays a significant role in partner selection, child rearing, and other relationship behaviours. Individuals, like those of this study who push the boundaries of risk, do not do so as isolated agents, but are able to do so due to an increasing testing of social boundaries and of weighing risk, emotional labour, and future imaginings that are reflected upon through collective narrative processes