Collaborative Research: HCC: Small: Investigating Social Connectedness as a Primary Design Goal for Social Computing Systems

People engage with social technologies such as social media and online communities intending to increase their sense of social connectedness, however, the opposite can occur and they can instead experience relational harms through these systems. This problem is even more critical for people navigating changes in social development, such as adolescents or older adults, and those who are in life circumstances causing them to face social isolation, such people who are homeless or living in a domestic violence environment. A wealth of public health research has identified how to promote social connectedness, but it is not straightforward for social technology experts to apply this research in making decisions about how social technologies should be designed, implemented, or used. This project will translate public health research into concrete tools, practices, and guidelines that stimulate design of social technologies focused on increasing people’s sense of social connectedness and decreasing unintended consequences and harm. A primary aim of the research is to develop a Social Connectedness Toolbox, designed to enable technology developers to prioritize social connectedness as a primary goal. The project will advance the field of social computing by contributing: (1) design features of social computing systems that users perceive to promote or impede social connectedness, based on insights from lived experiences within and across targeted user groups; (2) tools for designers to operationalize and measure social connectedness as a focus for design and evaluation; (3) evaluation results of the SC Toolbox; (4) example concepts of novel social computing platforms that can be further developed and tested; (5) dissemination plans to promote the use of the Social Connectedness Toolbox among designers. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.