Social Role Transitions and Technology: Societal Change and Coping in Online Communities

Technological and societal changes unfold in relation to one another. Many events like becoming a parent, getting divorced, or getting a medical diagnosis dictate a change in one’s social role. Social role transition can have negative consequences including stress, stigmatization, and disempowerment. Social interactions, especially communicating with allies and those facing similar conditions, can alleviate the psychological burden of these challenges. The goal of this dissertation is to understand how people use technology to cope with social role change, and how the features of different online communities provide a range of ways to make sense of their social role transition, find support, and advocate for change. In the first study (Chapter 3), I qualitatively analyze interviews with fathers and a sam- ple of father blogs to show how fathers use do-it-yourself (DIY) language on blogs and in their online interactions as a means of redefining fatherhood. Fathers use the DIY concept to build their own father-centric online communities in order to manage some of the disad- vantages associated with the lack of parenting online communities that cater to them. This new framing of fatherhood allows fathers to make sense of their new role as parents, and at the same time, to redefine the social norms around fatherhood. In Chapter 4, I study how parents use social media sites at scale using natural language processing. The focus of the analysis is on Reddit, a social media site that allows users to comment under pseudonyms. I find that parents use pseudonymous social media sites to discuss topics that might otherwise be considered too sensitive to discuss on real-name social media sites such as Facebook (e.g., breastfeeding and sleep training). This study also outlines similarities and differences in discussion topics among mothers and father on Reddit (e.g., mothers discussing breastfeeding and fathers discussing divorce and custody). Finally, in Chapter 5, I use computational and qualitative methods to study how anony- mous accounts on Reddit (throwaway accounts) provide parents with varying levels of anonymity as they cope with social role changes by sharing potentially stigmatizing infor- mation (e.g., postpartum depression) or advocating for stigmatized identities (e.g., divorced fathers). Finally, based on my findings, I present design recommendations that could pro- mote better social support on platforms beyond Reddit.PHDInformationUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/162933/1/tawfiqam_1.pd

#dadtribe: Performing Sharenting Labour to Commercialise Involved Fatherhood

This study looks at commercial representations of fatherhood within macromarketing. We base our study on ‘Instadads,’ a group of father influencers who use Instagram to document their family lives, and foster a following that is attractive to brand sponsorship. Through a netnography of 21 Instadad accounts and 10 in-depth interviews, we investigate how these influencers perform sharenting labour, which is the labour involved in commodifying and monetising the sharing of parental experiences. We posit that through this labour, father influencers contribute to early attempts at translating the new discursive territory of involved fatherhood into mainstream commercial representations. Sharenting labour has the potential to shift discourses on masculinities, lending more legitimacy to male parental caregiving activities

‘The only thing missing now is her being on the outside’: bodily borders/boundaries within father-foetal bonding interactions for UK expectant fathers

Pregnancy and becoming a parent are heavily gendered experiences, experiences which feminist geographers have convincingly situated as significantly spatial. This paper makes an important contribution by addressing the general absence of expectant fathers’ voices/experiences within geographical work on pregnancy/parenting. Drawing upon periodic in-depth interviews conducted during pregnancy and after the birth, it interrogates the manifold ways geographical notions of bodily borders, boundaries, and interior spaces mediate expectant fathers’ encounters with their unborn baby. It firstly examines how, whilst expectant motherhood is characterised by notions of interiority and (inter)connection with the growing foetus, expectant fathers’ experiences are heavily demarcated by the relentless dichotomy of ‘inside’/‘outside’. Fathers drew on this heavily spatial (though literal) metaphor when describing their interactions with the foetus ‘inside’ the womb and their excitement/anticipation of when (following the birth) their child will finally be on the ‘outside’. Secondly, the paper explores the array of multi-sensory inter-embodied interactions fathers had with their unborn child—literally through the body of another person—exploring how these constitute anticipatory acts of love/intimacy. Thus, it forges an agenda for greater consideration of the everyday ‘pre-parenting’ geographies of expectant fathering, calling for feminist geographers to more critically consider fathers’ care-ful emotional, embodied experiences during pregnancy/expectancy

Supporting the Complex Social Lives of New Parents

One of the many challenges of becoming a parent is the shift in one’s social life. As HCI researchers have begun to investigate the intersection of sociotechnical system design and parenthood, they have also sought to understand how parents’ social lives can be best supported. We build on these strands of research through a qualitative study with new parents regarding the role of digital technologies in their social lives as they transition to parenthood. We demonstrate how sociotechnical systems are entangled in the ways new parents manage their relationships, build (or resist building) new friendships and ad hoc support systems, and navigate the vulnerabilities of parenthood. We discuss how systems designed for new parents can better support the vulnerabilities they internalize, the diverse friendships they desire, and the logistical challenges they experience. We conclude with recommendations for future design and research in this area

"Mothers as Candy Wrappers": Critical Infrastructure Supporting the Transition into Motherhood

Copyright © ACM. The transition into motherhood is a complicated and often unsupported major life disruption. To alleviate mental health issues and to support identity re-negotiation, mothers are increasingly turning to online mothers\u27 groups, particularly private and secret Facebook groups; these can provide a complex system of social, emotional, and practical support for new mothers. In this paper we present findings from an exploratory interview study of how new mothers create, find, use, and participate in ICTs, specifically online mothers\u27 groups, to combat the lack of formal support systems by developing substitute networks. Utilizing a framework of critical infrastructures, we found that these online substitute networks were created by women, for women, in an effort to fill much needed social, political, and medical gaps that fail to see \u27woman and mother\u27 as a whole being, rather than simply as a \u27discarded candy wrapper\u27. Our study contributes to the growing literature on ICT use by mothers for supporting and negotiating new identities, by illustrating how these infrastructures can be re-designed and appropriated in use, for critical utilization

Making at the Margins: Making in an Under-resourced e-Waste Recycling Centre

HCI1and CSCW literature has extensively studied a wide variety of maker cultures. In this paper, we focus on understanding what making is like for people and communities who do not have access to advanced technological infrastructures. We report on six-month-long ethnographic fieldwork at a non-profit, resource-constrained, e-waste recycling centre that engages members from a low socioeconomic status (SES) community in making activities. Our findings show that making in such a setting is shaped by local economic and social factors in a resource-constrained environment and highlight how this community engages in a wide range of making activities. In describing these making activities, we emphasize how making was conducted to purposely enable ongoing and future making by others; promoted the wellbeing and skill development of centre members; and was socially-engaged to address concerns in the local community. We conclude by discussing how such type of making contributes a new understanding of maker culture, one that is appreciative of resource-constraints, integrates different sources of value, and is embedded in local place

"I feel like only half a man"

Infertility can place a significant burden on couples and individuals when trying to conceive. Approximately 20-30% of all cases of infertility are due to male-related factors. Whatever the cause of difficulty in conceiving, little is known about how men find support when dealing with fertility issues, or when or how online resources are being used. This paper reports on a qualitative study of anonymous online posts (N = 603) from forums related to fertility that are used by men. We analysed this data using thematic analysis to understand how men are using online forums as a resource when experiencing fertility issues. We found that online forums play a valued role in facilitating connections between men experiencing an often stigmatised condition. These forums offer men accessible and private spaces which allow for more open discussion, helping them to make sense of their situation. We discuss our findings in relation to Genuis and Bronstein’s model of finding a "new normal" and present our elaborated model of finding a "new normal" in the context of experiencing fertility problems

The myth of women having it all : gender performativity in American media

The effects of the cult of domesticity, which have been fought against since the first suffragette movements, have permeated the history of the culture of the United States. In what follows, I will examine the ways the cult of true womanhood influences the media's treatment of women in the twenty-first century, and how this oppression of women, particularly oppression of women of color, has been furthered by these outlets. To do this analysis, I will use Pinterest, blogs, and books picked for book clubs.Barbara Welter's famous article from 1966, "The Cult of True Womanhood: 1820-1860" details the rise of the cult of domesticity and gender performativity in the United States. Welter asserted that in order to have worth in American society as a woman, one must adhere to the duties of the Bible, which for many involved marriage and bearing children. Although marriage was not the only option, it was a woman's duty to have a higher purpose to uphold society the way it was constructed; if not as a wife, then a woman would help the less fortunate and the children. This meant women would do the work related to the social construct of the home, so men could continue to run society's business dealings. Much of the literature/media of the day pertaining to women was centered around upholding these gender, spiritual, and familial roles.It should be noted that Welter's explanation of the cult of domesticity and gender performativity specifically pertains to White, mostly middle- to upper-class women who were practicing or claiming to be Protestants, but that does not mean its influence did not affect women of other intersectionalities in America. Welter's article, though discussing a cultural phenomenon which in many ways led to first wave feminism in the United States, was written during the height of second wave feminism. Shari Kendall and Deborah Tannen in their chapter "Discourse and Gender" from The Handbook of Discourse Analysis explore how research has shown that America's use of language/discourse affects gender performativity and maintains normative patriarchal hierarchy in society, from the time of second-wave feminism to fourth wave feminism and postfeminism. This gender performative discourse is learned from childhood, and again, seems to be characteristic of White, middle-class Americans more than Americans of color and/or working classes. This study seeks to examine how the cult of domesticity and gender performativity continues to influence the lives of American women of all intersectionalities through social media, lifestyle blogs, and popular literature studied in book clubs, and how it particularly has a negative impact on women of color and women of lower socioeconomic status.To study this phenomenon, I will first examine the ways in which social media sites such as Pinterest portray the ideal "woman who has it all": a job, a family, and a social life. I will focus on how these sites reinforce the gender performativity of being a healthy woman, a mother, and a wife even with a career and relationships outside the family. Furthermore, I will investigate how Pinterest reinforces the cult of true womanhood to the detriment of women of all races and classes, because the "woman who has it all" stereotype is typically a White, middle-class wife and mother with a career. To do this, I will use a new Pinterest account with no prior search history to search for ideas related to health, motherhood, careers, and womanhood. I will then argue how these search results confirm how Pinterest, despite empowering many women to chase their health, career, hobby, and motherhood goals, often ignores the reality of women of color and lower socioeconomic status, thus promoting a new form of the cult of true womanhood: the woman who is the perfect career woman, wife, and mother.In Chapter Two, I will highlight how many lifestyle blogs written by Americans, while on the surface may appear to be supporting the ideas of postfeminism, often demonstrate there is still a need for feminism within their posts about being a mother, wife, and/or career woman. To find blogs to analyze, I will utilize three blogs I discovered within my Pinterest results for Chapter One that were made by Americans, regardless of gender, and cover different topics. I will then analyze three posts from each blog based on a) whether or not the creator wrote them and b) a theme related to how the blog was found on Pinterest and/or a theme related to the cult of domesticity. These analyses will aid me in emphasizing how the "ideal" woman for American society has shifted from a woman who takes care of her husband, children, and the household to a woman who maintains her own physical and mental health, has a career, and takes care of her husband, household, and children. Finally, I will explore in Chapter Three what impact book clubs have on gender performativity of American women, particularly those who have careers and children. I will utilize previous research on women's book clubs and analyze book clubs which are meeting or have met online within the past five years. I will then assert that these book clubs, while allowing women to express themselves creatively and/or intellectually outside of their career and their family, also reinforce the idea that a) women can "have it all" and b) still uphold the gender roles of the patriarchy. For control purposes, I looked at the book picks of two all-women's clubs, two all-men's clubs, and two book clubs open to everyone and analyzed their results based on the year 2021 unless otherwise necessary. Just like Pinterest and blogs from working mothers, these book clubs are important in empowering women to network among themselves and reclaim the importance of domestic work, but they also tend to leave behind women of color and/or women of lower socioeconomic status due to lack of time and financial resources, as well as lack of shared experience. As a result, those of intersectionalities besides White, middle- to upper-class married women feel as if a sort of "double standard" is placed upon them when it comes to gender performativity in America, thus furthering the need for feminism in the United States and beyond.The research done in this study affirms gender performativity in American media negatively influences women, especially women of color and of lower socioeconomic status. These findings suggest that Americans are attempting to dissolve the binary between men and women through giving women more opportunities to be successful outside of the home. However, these opportunities, rather than dissolving the binary and making women equitable to men in American society, put more pressure on women by mixing the "new" expectations of being a financial provider of the family with the "old" expectations of tending the household. Further research is needed on how gender performativity in media like Pinterest, blogs, and books studied in book clubs affects women of all intersectionalities, particularly women of the LGBTQ community