Do digital hugs work? Re-embodying our social lives online with digital tact

The COVID-19 pandemic led to social restrictions that often prevented us from hugging the ones we love. This absence helped some realize just how important these interactions are to our sense of care and connection. Many turned to digitally mediated social interactions to address these absences, but often unsatisfactorily. Some theorists might blame this on the disembodied character of our digital spaces, e.g., that interpersonal touch is excluded from our lives online. However, others continued to find care and connection in their digitally mediated interactions despite not being able to touch. Inspired by such contrasting cases, we ask if ‘digital hugs’ can work? We use the Mixed Reality Interaction Matrix to examine hugging as a social practice. This leads us to several claims about the nature of our embodied social interactions and their digital mediation: (1) all social interaction is mediated; (2) all virtual experiences are embodied; (3) technology has become richer and more supportive of embodiment; and (4) expertise plays a role. These claims help make the case that quality social connections online are substantially dependent upon the dynamic skilful resourcing of multiple mediating components, what we term digital tact. By introducing and developing this concept, we hope to contribute to a better understanding of our digital embodied sociality and the possibilities for caring connections online.journal articl

A MIXED METHODS APPROACH TO INITIATING A CRITICAL GLOBAL LITERACY CURRICULUM IN THE RURAL HIGH SCHOOL ENGLISH/LANGUAGE ARTS CLASSROOM

Contemporary society consists of emerging globalization where students will face global issues and will be expected to think critically in the professional realm. However, critical literacy and global literacy are often largely ignored in the rural high school ELA classroom where fewer cultural opportunities exist and less diversity is evident (Riley, 2015). The purpose of this study was to address a significant need for understanding the strengths and weaknesses of implementing a critical global curricular framework in a rural high school ELA classroom. Additionally, this study aimed to uncover both student and teacher perspectives regarding this implementation as well as its effectiveness. This research is framed in Barton & Hamiltion’s (2000) critical theory that learning must be hands on, Fosnot’s (2005) constructivism theory describing a classroom as a mini society, and Hettne & Soderbaum’s (2014) social global theory emphasizing the unification of cultures. Further, this mixed methods research approach includes an exploratory sequential design with three phases; the participants included 12th grade ELA students and teachers in one rural school district in the eastern United States. The qualitative research phase included the implementation of a critical global curriculum with the collection of student journal data and field notes obtained from teacher meetings. The second quantitative phase involved administering the Global Perspectives Inventory (GPI) before and after curriculum implementation to determine effectiveness of curriculum, and a final phase combined qualitative and quantitative research to determine the strengths and weakness as well as the overall effectiveness of a critical global curriculum in the rural high school ELA classroom. Results from this research offer the potential to guide future research in practical models for critical global curriculum across all landscapes in secondary education as well as a resource for the implementation of a critical global curriculum in rural high school ELA classrooms

Beyond the Screen: How Women\u27s Use of Social Media is Changing the Ideological American Wilderness Landscape

American wilderness is a unique and socially constructed landscape. I argue that current wilderness perceptions are perpetuated by tourism, which profits off wilderness as ripe with risk and uncertainty. This in turn creates wilderness as a gendered, masculine space commonly perceived as “authentic wilderness”, but where women are often invisible or seen as ill-suited within. Through surveys and interviews with women active in wilderness recreation and on social media, it was found that women’s use of Facebook, Instagram, and Blogs, increases empowerment and promotes participation in activities through constraints negotiation and contributes to the deconstruction of conventional gender expectations. Women’s only Facebook groups, more specifically, offered safe spaces of support and community for active participants and also those who have not yet participated in wilderness spaces. Social media use actively increases women’s physical and visual presence in wilderness spaces, challenging the assumption that their place is outside of wilderness

Virtual manhood acts within social networks: The enactment of toxic masculinity on Reddit

Toxic masculinity (TM) has emerged as a label for the western hegemonic masculine ideal, which is generally defined by the pressure for boys and men to be aggressive and dominant, restrict emotional expression, and marginalize women and others that do not adhere to these values (Connell & Messerschmidt, 2005; Kupers, 2005). This phenomenon increases the risk for male identified individuals to engage in general acts of bigotry, especially gender-based violence (APA, 2018; Baugher & Gazmararian, 2015; FBI, 2007; Feder, Levant, & Dean, 2010). A contemporary touchpoint associated with proliferating TM ideologies is participation in online anonymous “toxic technoculture” social network communities (Massanari, 2017; Salter, 2018). A timely investigation was conducted by Moloney and Love (2018) that explored the enactments of masculinity in virtual online spaces. They subsequently introduced the concept of Virtual Manhood Acts (VMA) which provides a framework to understand how masculinity is observed online. VMA were characterized as behaviors enacted to maintain a heterosexist environment and to oppress women and others in virtual social spaces. Prior to this study there was limited empirical understanding of how problematic and toxic enactments of masculinity, evident in society, are also enacted in virtual spaces. This study addresses the call to investigate enactments of VMA on other online social platforms. This qualitative investigation of the enactment of VMA was conducted on Reddit, the most popular social network website and seventh most trafficked website in North America (Hardwick, 2020, May 9). Data was captured before and after two publicized mass femicide events from two Manosphere connected Reddit community forums (r/IncelsWithoutHate & r/MensRights). The identified forums have been implicated as featuring misogynistic and bigoted ideological posts. Data was analyzed utilizing the a priori concept of VMA and a modified constructivist grounded theory approach (Charmaz, 2014). This hybrid deductive and inductive approach allowed for identifiable, novel, and divergent themes of manhood enactments to emerge. The results and implications of this study are discussed with select psychological frameworks and other fields of study in mind

Construction and impact of leader identity of dynamic work selves at social enterprises: Linkage of the intrapersonal and interpersonal processes with motivational work outcomes

Three empirical studies conducted for this Ph.D. project investigated the intrapersonal and interpersonal processes related to leader identity construction of employees working at the hybrid institutional work context of social enterprises. Identity work as an intrapersonal process, which is closely linked to leader identity development, has rarely been empirically investigated through experimental studies of leaders-to-be who have motivation to lead. The field experiments in Study 1 (N = 34) and Study 2 (N = 26) examined the employees’ leader-role claiming process that led to leader identity construction

Exploring the etiological pathways of Problematic Pornography Use in NoFap/PornFree rebooting communities: A critical narrative analysis of Internet forum data

Objective: Problematic pornography use (PPU) has been extensively studied in terms of its negative implications for various life domains. The empirical literature reveals measured outcomes of interpersonal and intrapersonal dysfunction in participants’ everyday living, supporting its classification as a disorder. The increasing number of complaints around PPU opens the door to the creation of online self-help rebooting communities. Method: This qualitative study aims to provide a better understanding of this behavior by investigating potential etiological pathways contributing to the onset of PPU, as they were expressed by members of the online NoFap/PornFree self-help communities with self-perceived PPU. Results: The critical narrative analysis reveals a complex web of mutually informing causal connections. The dialectical relationship between situational resources, material conditions and an embodied spectator gives rise to an online persona with motivations of self-exploration, experimentation and socializing. A sense of vulnerability, also, renders the use of pornography as a means of escape and validation. Furthermore, commitment to abstinence, framed by the notions of recovery and relapse, is found to be a major factor for maintaining distress. Conclusions: The study highlighted the need for a thorough understanding of the etiological pathways of PPU for a more effective and targeted intervention. Moving beyond biomedical conceptualizations suggests an intervention whereby PPU is placed in a context of a crisis of meaning

Participation in music festivals: publics and contexts

Esta investigação insere-se na área de lazer e eventos, com um especial enfoque no comportamento do consumidor em Festivais de Música. Portugal é um dos países do mundo com maior tradição em Festivais de Música, uma tradição que se acentuou com os festivais de verão, suporte de uma atividade económica que se desenvolve ao longo de todo o ano. A relevância económica e social dos festivais e a pouca investigação em torno deste fenómeno justifica a pertinência desta tese, que analisa o comportamento dos festivaleiros e dos que por várias razões, nunca participaram e não têm intenções de vir a participar. Esta investigação adota um paradigma positivista, com uma metodologia mista. Elucida motivações, explora inibidores e facilitadores da decisão de forma a identificar intenções comportamentais. Distingue públicos (turistas e residentes) e reconhece diferentes contextos (antes e durante a pandemia COVID-19) bem como organizações alternativas (festivais tradicionais e festivais digitais). Com esta tese pretende-se analisar o processo de decisão turística de diferentes segmentos e em diferentes contextos. Numa primeira fase, estuda-se segundo a teoria ecológica dos sistemas dos facilitadores e inibidores da decisão de participação ou não participação, distinguindo residentes e turistas. Numa segunda fase desenvolve-se um modelo conceptual para analisar a decisão de participação em festivais, mais uma vez destacando as diferenças comportamentais entre turistas e residentes. Numa terceira fase, analisa-se a decisão de participação ou não participação em festivais realizados em formatos alternativos ao presencial, face à situação pandémica, com o objetivo de identificar caminhos alternativos para os festivais de música. Os resultados sugerem que existem diferenças na relação entre motivações, intenções comportamentais e perceções, quando os contextos e os públicos se alteram, sendo a segurança dos participantes um fator importante a ter em conta em contextos como uma pandemia mundial.This research has been developed in the area of leisure and events, with a special focus on consumer behavior at music festivals. Portugal is one of the countries in the world with the longest tradition of holding music festivals, a tradition that was later accentuated with summer festivals and now supports significant economic activity that takes place throughout the whole year. The economic and social relevance of festivals, and the little research surrounding this phenomenon justifies the relevance of this thesis. This thesis analyzes the behavior of festival goers and those people who, for various reasons, have never participated in, and have no intention of participating in, such festivals in the future. This research adopts a positivist paradigm, with a mixed methodology. It elucidates motivations, explores constraints and facilitators of decision making, in order to identify behavioral intentions. It distinguishes and defines audiences (tourists and residents) and recognizes different contexts (before and during the COVID-19 pandemic) as well as acknowledging alternative organizations (traditional festivals and digital festivals). This thesis intends to analyze the tourism decision making process of different segments and in different contexts. In the first phase, the ecological systems theory of the facilitators and constraints of the decision to participate or not to participate is studied, distinguishing between local residents and tourists. In the second phase a conceptual model has been developed to analyze the decision to participate in festivals, distinguishing between tourists and residents. In the third phase, the decision to participate, or to not participate, in festivals held in alternative formats to that of traditional (and previously normal) face-to-face festivals, in the face of the situation caused by the pandemic, is analyzed, with the aim of identifying alternative paths for music festivals. The results suggest that there are differences in the relationship between motivations, behavioral intentions and perceptions when contexts and publics change, such as the safety of participants being a vital factor to be taken into account in contexts such as the global pandemic

The impact of active learning and learning style on blended learning: Insights from higher education students

Blended learning is a progressive teaching technique combining online and face-to-face instruction to encourage active learning and improve academic achievement. However, various problems, such as different attitudes and learning styles between educators and students, influenced the implementation of blended learning effectively. Therefore, there is a need to identify the factors that impact blended learning to improve students’ performances and enhance blended learning. In this study, the proposed framework examines the mediation effect of active learning on the relationship between learning styles and accessibility of learning through blended learning. The study sample consisted of undergraduate students from Universiti Putra Malaysia. In addition, this study also utilized a random sampling method. In total, 224 responses were collected and analyzed using a partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). The findings revealed that active learning fully mediated the relationship between learning style and blended learning. Active learning also mediated the relationship between accessibility and blended learning with complementary mediation. Moreover, this study offers several practical suggestions for essential parties, including the government and the education sector, to optimize blended learning approaches in Malaysia

Do digital hugs work? Re-embodying our social lives online with digital tact

The COVID-19 pandemic led to social restrictions that often prevented us from hugging the ones we love. This absence helped some realize just how important these interactions are to our sense of care and connection. Many turned to digitally mediated social interactions to address these absences, but often unsatisfactorily. Some theorists might blame this on the disembodied character of our digital spaces, e.g., that interpersonal touch is excluded from our lives online. However, others continued to find care and connection in their digitally mediated interactions despite not being able to touch. Inspired by such contrasting cases, we ask if ‘digital hugs’ can work? We use the Mixed Reality Interaction Matrix to examine hugging as a social practice. This leads us to several claims about the nature of our embodied social interactions and their digital mediation: (1) all social interaction is mediated; (2) all virtual experiences are embodied; (3) technology has become richer and more supportive of embodiment; and (4) expertise plays a role. These claims help make the case that quality social connections online are substantially dependent upon the dynamic skilful resourcing of multiple mediating components, what we term digital tact. By introducing and developing this concept, we hope to contribute to a better understanding of our digital embodied sociality and the possibilities for caring connections online