Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and Computer Supported Collaborative Work (CSCW) have a longstanding tradition of interrogating the values that underlie systems in order to create novel and accessible experiences. In this work, we use a neurodiversity framing to examine how people with ways of thinking, speaking, and being that differ from normative assumptions are perceived by researchers seeking to study and design social computing systems for neurodivergent people. From a critical analysis of 84 publications systematically gathered across a decade of social computing research, we determine that research into social computing with neurodiverse participants is largely medicalized, adheres to historical stereotypes of neurodivergent children and their families, and is insensitive to the wide spectrum of neurodivergent people that are potential users of social technologies. When social computing systems designed for neurodivergent people rely upon a conception of disability that restricts expression for the sake of preserving existing norms surrounding social experience, the result is often simplistic and restrictive systems that prevent users from "being social" in a way that feels natural and enjoyable. We argue that a neurodiversity perspective informed by critical disability theory allows us to engage with alternative forms of sociality as meaningful and desirable rather than a deficit to be compensated for. We conclude by identifying opportunities for researchers to collaborate with neurodivergent users and their communities, including the creation of spectrum-conscious social systems and the embedding of double empathy into systems for more equitable design.

Responding to misinformation online can be an exhausting and thankless task. It takes time and energy to write effective content, puts users at risk of online harassment, and strains personal relationships. Despite these challenges, there are people who voluntarily respond to misinformation online, and some have established communities on platforms such as Reddit, Discord, and X (formerly Twitter) dedicated to these efforts. In this work, we interviewed 8 people who participate in such communities to understand the type of support they receive from each other in these discussion spaces. Interviewees described that their communities helped them sustain motivation, save time, and improve their communication skills. Common practices included sharing sources and citations, providing emotional support, giving others advice, and signaling positive feedback. We present our findings as three case studies and discuss opportunities for future work to support collaborative practices in online communities dedicated to misinformation response. Our work surfaces how resource sharing, social motivation, and decentralization can make misinformation correction more sustainable, rewarding, and effective for online citizens.

Online communities can offer many benefits for youth including peer learning, cultural expression, and skill development. However, most HCI research on youth-focused online communities has centered communities developed by adults for youth rather than by the youth themselves. In this work, we interviewed 11 teenagers (ages 13-17) who moderate online Discord communities created by youth, for youth. Participants were identified by Discord platform staff as leaders of well-moderated servers through an intensive exam and application-based process. We also interviewed 2 young adults who volunteered as mentors of some of our teen participants. We present our findings about the benefits, motivations, and risks of teen-led online communities, as well as the role of external stakeholders of these youth spaces. We contextualize our work within the broader teen online safety landscape to provide recommendations to better support, encourage, and protect teen moderators and their online communities. This empirical work contributes one of the first studies to date with teen Discord moderators and aims to empower safe youth-led online communities.

Prior research links teens’ social media use to a reduction in their sense of well-being. The current study investigates how design mediates this link, with an overarching goal of designing better social media experiences for teens. We conducted a mixed-method study with teens (N=25, Mage= 16.5 years) to investigate their moment-by-moment experiences and emotional states while using Instagram. Our analysis showed that teens’ experiences on Instagram often entailed sifting through a content soup dominated by uninteresting, irrelevant content. Boredom served as a reason to enter Instagram, a justification to leave, and as a dominant feeling during a session. The promise of social connection was the main motivator for teens to use Instagram. Teens developed strategies to maintain a state of emotional equilibrium as they sought moments of connection with friends: (1) Feed gatekeeping, (2) Backpedaling away from negative content, (3) Choosing to hide like-counts, and (4) Avoiding notification whiplash.

Self-experiments allow people to explore what behavioral changes lead to improved health and wellness. However, it is challenging to run such experiments in a scientifically valid way that is also flexible and able to accommodate the realities of daily life. We present a set of design principles for guided self-experiments that aim to lower this barrier to self-experimentation. We demonstrate the value of the principles by implementing them in SleepBandits, an integrated system that includes a smartphone application for sleep experiments. SleepBandits guides users through the steps of a single-case experiment, automatically collecting data from the built-in sensors and user input and calculating and presenting results in real-time. We released SleepBandits to the Google Play Store and people voluntarily downloaded and used it. Based on the data from 365 active users from this in-the-wild study, we discuss opportunities and challenges with the design principles and the SleepBandits system.