Another area of privacy research in the SML, also led by PhD Candidate Shruti Sannon, explores how gig workers navigate issues of privacy and risk. One study in this area looks at Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk), and how workers make decisions about disclosing their personal data during the course of their work. We found that power imbalances and information asymmetries on MTurk can lead workers to spend a significant part of their energy to protect their privacy on the site, that workers often decide to disclose personal information despite having privacy concerns, and that they engage in several privacy protective behaviors, including lying about their personal information. In the paper, we discuss how privacy protection in crowdwork functions as uncompensated “invisible labor”, and how privacy risks during crowdwork can be mitigated through design. 

Shruti Sannon presented some findings from this work at the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, and this research project has also received seed grant funding from Cornell’s Center for the Study of Inequality. 

We are currently working on two new studies in this project area, so more to come soon!

Sannon, S., and Cosley, D. (2019). Privacy, Power, and Invisible Labor on Amazon Mechanical Turk. In Proceedings of the 2019 ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ’19).

Sannon, S., & Cosley, D. (2018). “It was a shady HIT”: Navigating work-related privacy concerns on MTurk. In Extended Abstracts of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems  – CHI ’18 (pp. 1–6). Montreal QC, Canada: ACM Press.

Communication technologies, such as text messaging, social media, and phone calls, are used to maintain relationships of all types, but what impact does this technology have on well-being? How are intimate relationships of couples being transformed by the capabilities allowed by these new communication methods?

One study, led by recent PhD Samuel Taylor, builds on media multiplexity theory to investigate the media ecosystem used for communication in close relationships. While being always available adds security, knowing that it is possible to reach out and connect with loved ones at any moment, it also adds the stress of maintaining constant availability. A dyadic longitudinal study of cohabitating romantic partners revealed that media multiplexity was associated with the perception that a partner is always available to help, which predicted increased well-being. 

Another project currently in progress is called ‘Parenting Practices in the Digital Age’. This project aims to understand how parents create and enforce technology-related rules in their homes, and how teenagers perceive and respond to those rules.

Taylor, S. H., & Bazarova, N. N. (2020).  Always available, always attached: A relational perspective on the effects of mobile phones and social media on subjective well-being. To be presented at the 70th Annual International Communication Association Conference, Gold Cost, Australia.

Taylor, S. H., & Bazarova, N. N. (2018). Social media and subjective well-being: A relational perspective. In Z. Papacharissi (Ed). A Networked Self and Love (pp. 86-112). New York, NY: Routledge.

Taylor, S. H., & Bazarova, N. N. (2017). Media multiplexity in romantic relationships: A longitudinal test of relational closeness, relational uncertainty, and multimedia communication. Presented at the 67th Annual Conference of the International Communication Association, May 25-29, 2017, San Diego, CA.

Taylor, S. H., & Bazarova, N. N. (2016). The Interaction between relational uncertainty and media affordances: An investigation of date request messages across different interpersonal media. Presented at the 2016 Conference for the International Association of Relationship Research, July 20-24, 2016, Toronto, CA.

This area examines a connection between mental health and communication in social media and other technologies. 

Many people go online for information and support on mental health concerns. Led by the recent PhD graduate Kaylee Kruzan, this project explores how a population that is usually difficult to engage in treatment (individuals who self-injure) exchanges information and support on self-injury through Talklife, an online peer-to-peer support application. This application, developed by clinicians and researchers, allows users to safely share their experiences with different things such as depression, anxiety, and self-harm, and receive support from the community. In this project we aim to (1) describe behavioral and linguistic patterns of users, (2) explore peer support patterns to assess the interaction between solicitation and response, and (3) we examine the relationship between online behaviors and self-injury over the course of two months. 

In another project, we examined how to help people with anxiety and non-suicidal self-injury better manage their well-being. Virtual reality (VR) technology has a lot of potential to be useful in a variety of different communication and health contexts, from raising awareness about environmental issues, to assisting with perspective-taking, to helping people with PTSD. But there’s still a lot that’s not understood about how we respond to being transported into these virtual environments, especially around how we sense our bodies when we can’t actually see them. This study, done in collaboration with the Virtual Embodiment Lab, tests a few different methods to help people manage anxiety by transforming their bodies and their environments in VR (to be presented at CHI’2020). 

Kruzan, K., Whitlock, J., Bazarova, N.N., Miller, K., Chapman, J., & Won, A.S. (2020) Supporting self-injury recovery: The potential for virtual reality intervention. Proceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors and Computing Systems. ACM.

Chang, P. F., Bazarova, N. N., & Whitlock, J.L (2016). To respond or not to respond, that is the question: The decision making process of providing social support do distressed posters. Presented at the 2016 Society for Research on Adolescents Biennial Meeting, March 31-April 2, 2016, Baltimore, MD.

This area of research investigates the privacy implications of digital technologies, including how privacy issues influence user behavior and how people protect themselves from risks online.
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The Social Media Lab is interested in understanding how perceived social norms affect what people choose to disclose online. (more…)