The role of digital technologies during relationship breakdowns

Wendy Moncur; Lorna Gibson; Daniel Herron

doi:10.1145/2818048.2819925

The role of digital technologies during relationship breakdowns

Wendy Moncur, Lorna Gibson, Daniel Herron

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution

35 Citations (Scopus)

248 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Relationship breakdowns are undoubtedly difficult. Access to and use of technology can exacerbate the situation. In our networked society, shared lives generate vast amounts of shared digital data which can be difficult to untangle, whilst social media can provide an outlet to emotions that can take a public and often persistent form. In this paper, we report on a qualitative study that considered the role of technology in the process of a relationship breaking down. Four main themes emerged in our findings: communicating about the separation, change in social status, shared digital assets, and moving on. Opportunities for design are identified in reducing misunderstandings via CMCs, enhancing social media, supporting intimacy in distributed families, and refining service provision.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Proceedings of the 2016 conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work
Subtitle of host publication	Proc. CSCW'16
Place of Publication	New York
Publisher	Association for Computing Machinery
Pages	371-382
Number of pages	4
ISBN (Electronic)	978-1-4503-3592-8
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1145/2818048.2819925
Publication status	Published - 27 Feb 2016
Event	19th ACM Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing : CSCW 2016 - Hyatt Regency San Francisco, San Francisco, United States Duration: 27 Feb 2016 → 2 Mar 2016 http://cscw.acm.org/2016/index.php (Link to conference website)

Conference

Conference	19th ACM Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing
Country/Territory	United States
City	San Francisco
Period	27/02/16 → 2/03/16
Internet address	http://cscw.acm.org/2016/index.php (Link to conference website)

Keywords

Divorce
Separation
HCI
life transitions
computer mediated communications
service design

Access to Document

10.1145/2818048.2819925

Final published versionFinal published version, 261 KB

http://cscw.acm.org/2016/index.php

Cite this

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title = "The role of digital technologies during relationship breakdowns",

abstract = "Relationship breakdowns are undoubtedly difficult. Access to and use of technology can exacerbate the situation. In our networked society, shared lives generate vast amounts of shared digital data which can be difficult to untangle, whilst social media can provide an outlet to emotions that can take a public and often persistent form. In this paper, we report on a qualitative study that considered the role of technology in the process of a relationship breaking down. Four main themes emerged in our findings: communicating about the separation, change in social status, shared digital assets, and moving on. Opportunities for design are identified in reducing misunderstandings via CMCs, enhancing social media, supporting intimacy in distributed families, and refining service provision.",

keywords = "Divorce, Separation, HCI, life transitions, computer mediated communications, service design",

author = "Wendy Moncur and Lorna Gibson and Daniel Herron",

note = "Paper presented at session: Relationships and romance; 19th ACM Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing : CSCW 2016 ; Conference date: 27-02-2016 Through 02-03-2016",

year = "2016",

month = feb,

day = "27",

doi = "10.1145/2818048.2819925",

language = "English",

pages = "371--382",

booktitle = "Proceedings of the 2016 conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work",

publisher = "Association for Computing Machinery",

url = "http://cscw.acm.org/2016/index.php",

}

Moncur, W, Gibson, L & Herron, D 2016, The role of digital technologies during relationship breakdowns. in Proceedings of the 2016 conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work: Proc. CSCW'16. Association for Computing Machinery, New York, pp. 371-382, 19th ACM Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing , San Francisco, United States, 27/02/16. https://doi.org/10.1145/2818048.2819925

TY - GEN

T1 - The role of digital technologies during relationship breakdowns

AU - Moncur, Wendy

AU - Gibson, Lorna

AU - Herron, Daniel

N1 - Paper presented at session: Relationships and romance

PY - 2016/2/27

Y1 - 2016/2/27

N2 - Relationship breakdowns are undoubtedly difficult. Access to and use of technology can exacerbate the situation. In our networked society, shared lives generate vast amounts of shared digital data which can be difficult to untangle, whilst social media can provide an outlet to emotions that can take a public and often persistent form. In this paper, we report on a qualitative study that considered the role of technology in the process of a relationship breaking down. Four main themes emerged in our findings: communicating about the separation, change in social status, shared digital assets, and moving on. Opportunities for design are identified in reducing misunderstandings via CMCs, enhancing social media, supporting intimacy in distributed families, and refining service provision.

AB - Relationship breakdowns are undoubtedly difficult. Access to and use of technology can exacerbate the situation. In our networked society, shared lives generate vast amounts of shared digital data which can be difficult to untangle, whilst social media can provide an outlet to emotions that can take a public and often persistent form. In this paper, we report on a qualitative study that considered the role of technology in the process of a relationship breaking down. Four main themes emerged in our findings: communicating about the separation, change in social status, shared digital assets, and moving on. Opportunities for design are identified in reducing misunderstandings via CMCs, enhancing social media, supporting intimacy in distributed families, and refining service provision.

KW - Divorce

KW - Separation

KW - HCI

KW - life transitions

KW - computer mediated communications

KW - service design

UR - http://confer.csail.mit.edu/cscw2016/schedule#

U2 - 10.1145/2818048.2819925

DO - 10.1145/2818048.2819925

M3 - Conference contribution

SP - 371

EP - 382

BT - Proceedings of the 2016 conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work

PB - Association for Computing Machinery

CY - New York

T2 - 19th ACM Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing

Y2 - 27 February 2016 through 2 March 2016

ER -

The role of digital technologies during relationship breakdowns

Abstract

Conference

Keywords

Access to Document

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Digital Personhood: Charting the Digital Lifespan (Joint with University of Newcastle, University of Nottingham, University of Surrey and Heriot-Watt University)