Jed R. Brubaker

Developing a Life Story: Constructing Relations between Self and Experience in Autobiographical Narratives

In this paper, we consider how the life story develops through the creation of self-event connections in narrating experiences. We first outline the ways in which such connections have been implied by existing work on the life story, and then consider the varieties of such connections that we see in our own work. That work suggests that self-event connections can construct both a stable sense of self as well as a sense of how the self has changed across time. Moreover, different types of connections have different implications for the development of the life story. We also consider developmental and other factors which make one or another type of connection more likely. Finally, we consider two issues for future work, as well as some methodological considerations involved in testing those proposals.

Beyond the Grave: Facebook as a Site for the Expansion of Death and Mourning

Online identities survive the deaths of those they represent, leaving friends and families to struggle with the appropriate ways to incorporate these identities into the practices of grief and mourning, raising important questions. How are practices of online memorialization connected to conventional rituals of grief and mourning? What is the role of online digital identity postmortem? How do trajectories of death and dying incorporate both online and offline concerns? Based on our qualitative study of death and mourning online, we identify the way that social networking sites enable expansion—temporally, spatially, and socially—of public mourning. Rather than looking at online practices as disruptions of traditional practices of grief and memorialization, we examine them as new sites in which public mourning takes place.

We will never forget you [online]: an empirical investigation of post-mortem myspace comments

The proliferation of social network sites has resulted in an increasing number of profiles representing deceased users. In this paper, we present the results of a mixed-methods empirical study of 205,068 comments posted to 1,369 MySpace profiles of users who have died. Our results reveal interesting practices surrounding issues of authorship and audience, temporal patterns in posting, and continued social networking with the dead. These results suggest that post-mortem commenting behavior blends memorializing practices with existing practices and communication patterns for social network sites. We conclude by outlining future directions for research and implications for the understanding and use of social network sites in light of a deeper understanding of post-mortem comments.

Focusing on shared experiences: moving beyond the camera in video communication

Even with the investment of significant resources, video communication in professional settings has not gained mass appeal. This contrasts with the consumer space where, despite limited resources and low quality solutions, services such as Skype have seen widespread adoption. In this paper, we explore the behavior and attitudes of individuals who actively use video communication in both their personal and professional lives. We highlight similarities and differences across these two domains, with particular focus on the interpersonal relationships, spaces, and activities that each domain supports and enables. We conclude by discussing how our study leads to a new perspective that focuses on the shared experiences enabled by video communication.

Departing glances: A sociotechnical account of ‘leaving’ Grindr

Grindr is a popular location-based social networking application for smartphones, predominantly used by gay men. This study investigates why users leave Grindr. Drawing on interviews with 16 men who stopped using Grindr, this article reports on the varied definitions of leaving, focusing on what people report leaving, how they leave and what they say leaving means to them. We argue that leaving is not a singular moment, but a process involving layered social and technical acts – that understandings of and departures from location-based media are bound up with an individual’s location. Accounts of leaving Grindr destabilize normative definitions of both ‘Grindr’ and ‘leaving’, exposing a set of relational possibilities and spatial arrangements within and around which people move. We conclude with implications for the study of non-use and technological departure.

Disclosure, Stress, and Support During Gender Transition on Facebook

Social computing technologies, such as social networking sites (SNSs), often privilege people who fit within expected, static categories. Thus, users embarking on major identity changes, such as gender transition, often encounter stress when using SNSs to interact with their online social networks. To address this problem and reflect on the design of SNSs and other social computing systems, we present the results of a comprehensive online survey of transgender and gender non-conforming SNS users. Our findings indicate that although Facebook can be a stressful place for gender transition due to difficulties of transition disclosure, support from ones Facebook network can help to mitigate some of this stress. We examine Facebook both as a site of stress and as a site of support. Better understanding the relationships between stress, disclosure, and support on SNSs for these particular users can inform technology design that will benefit people who struggle with navigating a wide range of major identity changes online.

Identity, identification and identifiability: the language of self-presentation on a location-based mobile dating app

Location-aware mobile applications have become extremely common, with a recent wave of mobile dating applications that provide relatively sparse profiles to connect nearby individuals who may not know each other for immediate social or sexual encounters. These applications have become particularly popular among men who have sex with men (MSM) and raise a range of questions about self-presentation, visibility to others, and impression formation, as traditional geographic boundaries and social circles are crossed. In this paper we address two key questions around how people manage potentially stigmatized identities in using these apps and what types of information they use to self-present in the absence of a detailed profile or rich social cues. To do so, we draw on profile data observed in twelve locations on Grindr, a location-aware social application for MSM. Results suggest clear use of language to manage stigma associated with casual sex, and that users draw regularly on location information and other descriptive language to present concisely to others nearby.

Refusing, limiting, departing: why we should study technology non-use

In contrast to most research in HCI, this workshop focuses on non-use, that is, situations where people do not use computing technology. Using a reflexive pre-workshop activity and discussion-oriented sessions, we will consider the theories, methods, foundational texts, and central research questions in the study of non-use. In addition to a special issue proposal, we expect the research thread brought to the fore in this workshop will speak to foundational questions of use and the user in HCI.

Digital Footprints and Changing Networks During Online Identity Transitions

Digital artifacts on social media can challenge individuals during identity transitions, particularly those who prefer to delete, separate from, or hide data that are representative of a past identity. This work investigates concerns and practices reported by transgender people who transitioned while active on Facebook. We analyze open-ended survey responses from 283 participants, highlighting types of data considered problematic when separating oneself from a past identity, and challenges and strategies people engage in when managing personal data in a networked environment. We find that people shape their digital footprints in two ways: by editing the self-presentational data that is representative of a prior identity, and by managing the configuration of people who have access to that self-presentation. We outline the challenging interplay between shifting identities, social networks, and the data that suture them together. We apply these results to a discussion of the complexities of managing and forgetting the digital past.

It takes a network to get dinner: designing location-based systems to address local food needs

Based on an 18-month qualitative study that included the creation and testing of design considerations and a prototype location-based information system (LBIS), this research provides empirical insight into the daily practices of a wide variety of individuals working to address food insecurity in one U.S. county. Qualitative fieldwork reveals that nonprofit organizations in the food assistance ecology engage in location-based information practices that could be enhanced by the design of a LBIS. Two practices that would benefit from a collaborative LBIS are 1) practices of matching in which nonprofit workers help individuals who are seeking assistance to food resources and 2) practices of distribution in which nonprofit workers help organizations access and deliver food resources to clients. In order to support such practices across organizations the cooperative design component of this research suggests that an LIBS should: support the role of intermediaries who engage in practices of matching and distribution; provide interactive mapping tools that match resources to need; enable organizations to control visibility over specific data; and document work and impact. This research further suggests that designers should explore the wide variety of spatial patterns that must align and overlap such that ecologies of nonprofit organizations might synergistically work together to address pressing social needs.