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Understanding and Mitigating New Harms in Immersive and Embodied Virtual Spaces: A Speculative Dystopian Design Fiction Approach

  • Guo Freeman
  • , Julian Frommel
  • , Regan L. Mandryk
  • , Jan Gugenheimer
  • , Lingyuan Li
  • , Daniel Johnson
  • , Cecilia Aragon
  • , Syed Ali Asif
  • , Jakki Bailey
  • , Meryem Barkallah
  • , Braeden Burger
  • , Sebastian Cmentowski
  • , Jamie Hancock
  • , Leanne Hides
  • , Hongxin Hu
  • , Yang Hu
  • , Wangfan Li
  • , Ruchi Panchanadikar
  • , Niloofar Sayadi
  • , Devin Tebbe
  • Leslie Wöhler, Xinyue You, Zinan Zhang, Douglas Zytko
  • Clemson University
  • Utrecht University
  • University of Victoria BC
  • Technische Universität Darmstadt
  • University of Texas at Austin
  • Queensland University of Technology
  • University of Washington
  • University of Delaware
  • University of Michigan, Flint
  • University of Waterloo
  • Alan Turing Institute
  • University of Queensland
  • University of Notre Dame
  • The University of Tokyo
  • Pennsylvania State University

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

8 Scopus citations

Abstract

Seeking novel approaches to understand and mitigate emerging and understudied new harms in immersive and embodied social spaces is a critically needed HCI and CSCW research agenda for achieving safer online environments in the future. In this work, we present and discuss the results from a CHI 2024 workshop in which 26 experts engaged in a speculative dystopian design fiction activity. Through the structured design fiction exercise, our participants collectively created six design fictions along four main themes highlighting our shared concerns in this problem space. We contribute to CSCW and HCI research by demonstrating the novelty and value of using speculation and design fiction as a methodological tool to engage with research in this emerging problem space. The identified themes and created design fictions also help us speculate plausible and desirable futures regarding new harms in embodied and immersive virtual spaces in the first place, which will inform our future research on envisioning and identifying potential solutions to prevent these harms from becoming reality.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationCSCW Companion 2024 - Companion of the 2024 Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing
EditorsMichael Bernstein, Amy Bruckman, Ujwal Gadiraju, Aaron Halfaker, Xiaojuan Ma, Fabiano Pinatti, Miriam Redi, David Ribes, Saiph Savage, Amy Zhang
PublisherAssociation for Computing Machinery
Pages288-295
Number of pages8
ISBN (Electronic)9798400711145
DOIs
StatePublished - Nov 13 2024
Event27th ACM Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing, CSCW Companion 2024 - Hybrid, San Jose, Costa Rica
Duration: Nov 9 2024Nov 13 2024

Publication series

NameProceedings of the ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work, CSCW

Conference

Conference27th ACM Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing, CSCW Companion 2024
Country/TerritoryCosta Rica
CityHybrid, San Jose
Period11/9/2411/13/24

Keywords

  • ai
  • embodiment
  • harassment
  • harm mitigation
  • immersive virtual worlds
  • online harm
  • online safety
  • toxicity

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