After my one on one with Benny, I decided to do another round of mind mapping to help narrow down my topic a bit more before I start finding answers to some of the questions I have.
From the conversation, I identified that I’m most interested in peer to peer interaction. I wrote that at the centre of my mind map initially because I knew even within this scope I need to define what type of interaction I’m interested in to further my research. I started writing down the types of peer to peer interactions that I could think of in cyberspace – resource sharing (such as music and information), forum discussion, cyberbullying/trolls, texts, etc.
As I was writing them down, I realized I’m specifically interested in peer to peer interaction between strangers. Of course there are intricate dynamics between you and the people you know, and there are lot of issues that can be discussed in that space. However, as we enter this hyperconnected society, how can we navigate the unknown (aka resources/people that we are unfamiliar with) and turn our natural resistance and fear of unknown into something positive.
After I added the “between strangers”, my interest topics got divided into two main categories – the dark, malicious side of human nature (trolls and cyberabuse) and the bright, supportive side (access to support and resources).
As per usual, I have a ton of questions. Now that I have a somewhat more narrowed down areas of interest, I thought why not just go borrow some books and see where they take me.
I started by reading Hate Crimes in Cyberspace by Danielle Citron, a 2019 MacArther Fellow, and Extreme Mean: Trolls, Bullies, and Predators Online by Paula Todd. Within the first 70 pages or so for each book, I’ve decided that trying to build my thesis around finding a solution to stop this is not going to work. Here are some reasons:
- The scope and extensiveness of these malicious online attacks are beyond my imagination. Many victims of cyberabuse suffer from continuous anonymous, systematic, and mob-scale harassment for YEARS. And a lot of times the attacks seem like they were coming from out of nowhere. I don’t think within the 8-9 months timeframe that I have I would even be able to finish my research phase.
- I don’t think I have the capability to handle the weight of the issue. While I was reading the experiences of these women, I found myself having to constantly stop and take a break because of the emotional weight and I was even tearing up a few times.
My intention to explore this topic of interaction between strangers is to bring the warmth out of people, to build a more positive environment, and maybe along the way help some people. I want to contribute to build a community where everyone can find a sense of belonging and know they are valued. But I realized that the darkness of humanity is always going to be there, and I won’t be able to change anything just within the 8-9 months (and I even feel a bit irresponsible and even arrogant to even think I could try to come up with a “solution”). So I decided to shift focus to foster the positive side of cyberspace interaction – accessing support.
The two main questions I have for this specific topic is who/what community I want to work with and if the virtual support can really translate into concrete help that people need.
To figure out who I want to work with, I first documented a few instances that came to my mind.
Started from about 4, 5 years ago some friends would to me (usually late at night, so I guess night time beings the vulnerability out of people) talking about how they are anxious that they don’t know what to do for their future and that they feel lost. I also have guy friends coming to me sharing their insecurity (lack of self-confidence, feeling alone, etc.) but at the same time tried to brush it off like it’s nothing. While I really appreciate that they trusted me with their guards down, I’m saddened by the fact that they feel like they have no one to talk to (either because they don’t want to “bother” their friends or they feel like no one will understand).
I don’t think this has really helped me narrow down to a community I want to work with yet, but I’m going to continue exploring this. I also borrowed a book called Assessing Social Support and Stress in Autism-focused Virtual Communities. It’s a compilation of research on a very specific topic, but I think this will give me an idea of how people in a specific situation use social media/Internet for support and how that relationship works.
All About Process 
I think some of the realizations and thoughts you had while doing this mapping and starting to research are exactly on point. I also do like the more positive framing as maybe showcasing some of those communities that have been keeping a positive environment will help serve as models for others. I think thinking about what online communities you have seen that have been successful at creating a positive atmosphere and how they have done it will be a good place for you to start. You can also think about doing a small experiment where you try and create a virtual community of strangers yourself to see what happens, what are the challenges that arise. But i think choosing a main theme/topic to build that community around will be important. Maybe you can start interviewing people around you to figure out what supportive communities they belong to, even if they are not virtual, as peer to peer interactions among strangers also take place in the real world and then you can look at how the virtual ones differ? Just a thought. But I think you are on the right path, I would just look at some more literature to see what conversations are happening around this topic. And picking a preliminary example community to study will also help in refining.
LikeLike