Living Digitally

Our physical, social and digital lives are all becoming increasingly complex, but also interwoven with one another. Emanating from the same individual, they yet have synchronous and asynchronous aspects

Interstate Migration of College Freshmen: An Economic Analysis

We examine the economic determinants of interstate migration of college-bound freshmen, using state-level data. Our analysis provides a richer explanation of the striking differences among the U.S. states in out-migration of college-bound freshmen. States that provide more educational choices and higher quality education services, charge lower tuition, have broad-based merit scholarship programs and have lower income levels tend to retain a higher percentage of their college-bound freshmen at home.

Digital Ownership across Lifespans

As technology adoption continues to increase across the lifespan, the question of what happens to the resulting digital content at the end of life is increasingly topical. We are embracing opportunities to create and share digital content that has personal significance: photos, emails, blogs, videos and more. This content is superseding the boxes of memory-laden letters and photos which were previously stored in our homes. Digital content has the advantage that it can be created, accessed and shared anywhere, at any time. However, unlike boxes of letters and photos, digital content cannot easily be inherited when its creator dies – especially if it is stored in online accounts. Facilities for users to nominate an inheritor for their digital content are largely absent, and (with few exceptions) lack support in law. Inheritors struggle to identify and access online accounts and their content. Internet Service Providers usually refuse to give inheritors access to the deceased’s account details, as terms of service commonly stipulate that accounts are non-transferrable. Processes of bequest and inheritance are further clouded because digital and physical death are very rarely simultaneous. Users may linger on in a virtual world indefinitely after physical death. If inheritors gain access to digital content, they are repurposing it. New levels of personalisation are being introduced into funerals and memorial services, as digital content is used to evoke the life of the deceased. Online memorial sites provide opportunities for shared grieving and the maintenance of continuing bonds with the dead. Yet if they lack appropriate moderation, these sites may generate further distress when insensitive posts cannot be removed by those most deeply affected by bereavement. This chapter explores the issues surrounding ownership of digital content across multiple lifespans, and the ways in which digital content lives on after its creator dies. We first consider what it means to exist in the digital age, before describing the digital assets which people may own, and the challenges which they face in bequeathing and inheriting them

Sonic Flock; Crowdsourcing, Exhibiting and Gifting Interactive Textile Birds for Wellbeing

This paper outlines the crowdsourcing, display and gifting of a “Sonic Flock” of interactive textile birds in the Outer Hebrides. The research explores how the Sonic Flock can enhance wellbeing, social connection and facilitate conversation within and between dementia-friendly communities (DFC). A range of themes - including bringing the outside in, birds and textile making were identified through conversations with care home residents, staff and families of those living in care homes in the Outer Hebrides. These themes were fed into the Sonic Flock project. Knitted and sewn birds were crowdsourced from makers throughout the UK. The resulting Sonic Flock; over 80 birds, were displayed in An Lanntair as part of Cuimhne (‘memory’ in Gaelic) exhibition. Some of the textile birds were designed and developed to play bird songs when touched. After the exhibition, the birds were gifted to island residents living in care homes throughout Lewis, Harris and Uist. They acted as social objects and conversation starters, building relationships between the researcher, staff, residents and wider DFC

The Therapeutic Lie: A reflective account illustrating the potential benefits when nursing an elderly confused patient

Reprinted with permission of the Australian Nursing & Midwifery Federation.This article explores, through case study examples from practice, the circumstances when it might be considered appropriate, even beneficial, to lie to patients

Spomenik: resurrecting voices in the woods

Spomenik (‘monument) is a digital memorial architecture that transposes in time otherwise hidden cultural memories of atrocity. Spomenik was designed as a simple digital audio guide, embedded in a remote rural location (Kočevski Rog, Slovenia), and working without the infrastructure normally present at national memorial sites. By resurrecting voices and cultural narratives of the deceased, positing them back in to the landscape through digital means, Spomenik opens a dialogue about the events of the past, in relation to networks of the living, exploring the role of voice and agency, as serviced through design in the act of memorialization. We contribute a detailed case study of a design-led inquiry about digital memorialization and digital preservation of cultural heritage, and a reflective account about the nature of legacy and the extent to which it is (and perhaps should be) necessarily bound to networks of collective memory, mediated through designed cultural tools

Adapting Emotional Support to Personality for Carers Experiencing Stress.

Carers - people who provide regular support for a friend or relative who could not manage without them - frequently report high levels of stress. Good emotional support (e.g. provided by an Intelligent Virtual Agent) could help relieve this stress. This study investigates whether adaptation to personality affects the amount and type of emotional support a carer is given and possible interaction effects with the stress experienced. We investigated the personality trait of Emotional Stability (ES) as it is interlinked with low tolerance for stress. Participants were presented with stressful scenarios experienced by a fictitious carer and description of their personality and asked to rank 6 emotional support messages. We predicted that people with low ES would be given more emotional support messages overall and that ES would affect the type of emotional support messages given in each scenario. We found that participants gave more praise to the high ES carer with a trend towards other support types for the low ES carer

Digital Possessions After a Romantic Break Up

© 2016 ACM. With technology becoming more pervasive in everyday life, it is common for individuals to use digital media to support the enactment and maintenance of romantic relationships. Partners in a relationship may create digital possessions frequently. However, after a relationship ends, individuals typically seek to disconnect from their ex-partner. This becomes difficult due to the partners' interwoven digital presence and digital possessions. In this paper, we report on a qualitative study exploring individuals' experiences of relationship break up in a digital context, and discuss their attitudes towards digital possessions from those relationships. Five main themes emerged: digital possessions that sustain relationships, comparing before and after, tainted digital possessions, digital possessions and invasions of privacy, involved and emotional reminiscing. Design opportunities were identified in managing attitudes towards digital possessions, disconnecting and reconnecting, and encouraging awareness of digital possessions