publications

2025

1. arXiv

   

   Social Media Isn’t Just Instagram: A Youth-Envisioned Platform for Meaningful Social Connections

   JaeWon Kim , Hyunsung Cho, Fannie Liu, and Alexis Hiniker

   arXiv e-prints, 2025

   Abs Bib HTML PDF

   We conducted co-design workshops with 23 participants (ages 15-24) to explore how youth envision an ideal remote social connection. Using the Fictional Inquiry (FI) method within a Harry Potter-inspired narrative, we found that youth perceive a disconnect between platforms labeled as "social media" (like Instagram) and those where they actually experience meaningful connections (like Minecraft or Discord). Participants envisioned an immersive 3D platform that would bridge this gap by prioritizing meaningful social connections, enabling time that feels well spent through presence and immersion, natural individual expression, intuitive social navigation that leverages physical-world norms, and playful, low-stakes opportunities for gradual friendship development. We introduce the design framework of spatial integrity, which encompasses four dimensions of spatial affordances that facilitate meaningful social connections online. The FI method proved effective in generating innovative ideas while empowering youth by fostering a sense of hope and agency over the future of social media through their own design contributions.

   @article{kim2025socialmediaisntjust,
     title = {Social Media Isn't Just Instagram: A Youth-Envisioned Platform for Meaningful Social Connections},
     author = {Kim, JaeWon and Cho, Hyunsung and Liu, Fannie and Hiniker, Alexis},
     year = {2025},
     journal = {arXiv e-prints},
     pages = {arXiv: 2501.09951},
     eprint = {2502.06696},
     archiveprefix = {arXiv},
     primaryclass = {cs.HC},
   }

2. arXiv

   

   Discord’s Design Encourages “Third Place” Social Media Experiences

   JaeWon Kim , Thea Klein-Balajee, Ryan M Kelly, and Alexis Hiniker

   arXiv e-prints, Jan 2025

   Abs Bib HTML PDF

   In light of the diminishing presence of physical third places – informal gathering spaces essential for social connection – this study explores how the social media platform Discord fosters third-place experiences. Drawing on Oldenburg’s conceptual framework, we analyze how Discord’s design elements support the creation of virtual third places that foster both dyadic and community-based relationships. Through 25 semi-structured interviews with active Discord users, we identified 21 design elements aligned with Oldenburg’s third-place characteristics. These elements cluster around four core principles: providing themed spaces for repeated interactions, supporting user autonomy and customization, facilitating mutually engaging activities, and enabling casual, low-pressure interactions. This work contributes to understanding how intentional platform design can cultivate virtual spaces that support meaningful social connections. The findings have implications for designing future social technologies that can help address growing concerns about social isolation in an increasingly digital world.

   @article{kim-2025-discord,
     title = {Discord's Design Encourages ``Third Place'' Social Media Experiences},
     author = {Kim, JaeWon and Klein-Balajee, Thea and Kelly, Ryan M and Hiniker, Alexis},
     journal = {arXiv e-prints},
     pages = {arXiv: 2501.09951},
     month = jan,
     year = {2025},
     eprint = {2501.09951},
   }

3. CSCW ’25

   

   Privacy as Social Norm: Systematically Reducing Dysfunctional Privacy Concerns on Social Media

   JaeWon Kim , Soobin Cho^*, Robert Wolfe^*, Jishnu Hari Nair, and Alexis Hiniker

   arXiv e-prints, Jan 2025

   Abs Bib HTML PDF

   Through co-design interviews (N=19) and a design evaluation survey (N=136) with U.S. teens ages 13-18, we investigated teens’ privacy management on social media. Our study revealed that 28% of teens with public accounts and 15% with private accounts experience "dysfunctional fear," that is, fear that diminishes their quality of life or paralyzes them from taking necessary precautions. These fears fall into three categories: fear of uncontrolled audience reach, fear of online hostility, and fear of personal privacy missteps. While current approaches often emphasize individual vigilance and restrictive measures, our findings show this can paradoxically lead teens to either withdraw from beneficial social interactions or resign themselves to accept privacy violations, viewing them as inevitable. Drawing on teen input, we developed and evaluated ten design prototypes that emphasize empowerment over fear, system-wide explicit emphasis on privacy, clear privacy norms, and flexible controls. Survey results indicate teens perceive these approaches as effectively reducing privacy concerns while preserving social benefits. Our findings suggest that platforms will be more likely to protect teens’ privacy and less likely to manufacture unnecessary fear if they include designs that minimize the impact on other users, have low trade-offs with existing features, require minimal user effort, and function independently of community behavior. Such designs include: 1) alerting users about potentially unintentional personal information disclosure and 2) following up on user reports.

   @article{kim-2025-dysfunctional-fear,
     journal = {arXiv e-prints},
     pages = {arXiv: 2410.16137},
     title = {Privacy as Social Norm: Systematically Reducing Dysfunctional Privacy Concerns on Social Media},
     author = {Kim, JaeWon and Cho, Soobin and Wolfe, Robert and Nair, Jishnu Hari and Hiniker, Alexis},
     year = {2025},
     eprint = {2410.16137},
   }

2024

1. CSCW ’24

   

   “Sharing, Not Showing Off”: How BeReal Approaches Authentic Self-Presentation on Social Media Through Its Design

   JaeWon Kim , Robert Wolfe, Ishita Chordia, Katie Davis, and Alexis Hiniker

   Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, Nov 2024

   Abs Bib HTML PDF Slides

   Adolescents are particularly vulnerable to the pressures created by social media, such as heightened self-consciousness and the need for extensive self-presentation. In this study, we investigate how BeReal, a social media platform designed to counter some of these pressures, influences adolescents’ self-presentation behaviors. We interviewed 29 users aged 13-18 to understand their experiences with BeReal. We found that BeReal’s design focuses on spontaneous sharing, including randomly timed daily notifications and reciprocal posting, discourages staged posts, encourages careful curation of the audience, and reduces pressure on self-presentation. The space created by BeReal offers benefits such as validating an unfiltered life and reframing social comparison, but its approach to self-presentation is sometimes perceived as limited or unappealing and, at times, even toxic. Drawing on this empirical data, we propose design guidelines for platforms that support authentic self-presentation while fostering reciprocity and expanding beyond spontaneous photo-sharing. These guidelines aim to enable users to portray themselves more comprehensively and accurately, ultimately supporting teens’ developmental needs, particularly in building authentic relationships.

   @article{kim-2024-bereal,
     title = {``Sharing, Not Showing Off'': How {BeReal} Approaches Authentic
                    Self-Presentation on Social Media Through Its Design},
     author = {Kim, JaeWon and Wolfe, Robert and Chordia, Ishita and Davis, Katie and Hiniker, Alexis},
     journal = {Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction},
     publisher = {Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)},
     volume = {8},
     number = {CSCW2},
     pages = {1--32},
     month = nov,
     year = {2024},
     doi = {10.1145/3686909},
     issn = {2573-0142},
     language = {en},
   }

2. CSCW ’24 Workshop

   

   Envisioning new futures of positive social technology: Beyond paradigms of fixing, protecting, and preventing

   JaeWon Kim , Lindsay Popowski, Anna Fang, Cassidy Pyle, Guo Freeman, Ryan M Kelly, Angela Y. Lee, Fannie Liu, Angela D R Smith, Alexandra To, and Amy X. Zhang

   In Companion Publication of the 2024 Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing, Nov 2024

   Abs Bib HTML PDF

   Social technology research today largely focuses on mitigating the negative impacts of technology and, therefore, often misses the potential of technology to enhance human connections and well-being. However, we see a potential to shift towards a holistic view of social technology’s impact on human flourishing. We introduce Positive Social Technology (Positech) , a framework that shifts emphasis toward leveraging social technologies to support and augment human flourishing. This workshop is organized around three themes relevant to Positech: 1) “Exploring Relevant and Adjacent Research” to define and widen the Positech scope with insights from related fields, 2) “Projecting the Landscape of Positech” for participants to outline the domain’s key aspects and 3) “Envisioning the Future of Positech,” anchored around strategic planning towards a sustainable research community. Ultimately, this workshop will serve as a platform to shift the narrative of social technology research towards a more positive, human-centric approach. It will foster research that goes beyond fixing technologies to protect humans from harm, to also pursue enriching human experiences and connections through technology.

   @inproceedings{kim-2024-positech,
     title = {Envisioning new futures of positive social technology: Beyond
                    paradigms of fixing, protecting, and preventing},
     author = {Kim, JaeWon and Popowski, Lindsay and Fang, Anna and Pyle, Cassidy and Freeman, Guo and Kelly, Ryan M and Lee, Angela Y. and Liu, Fannie and Smith, Angela D R and To, Alexandra and Zhang, Amy X.},
     booktitle = {Companion Publication of the 2024 Conference on
                    Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing},
     publisher = {ACM},
     address = {New York, NY, USA},
     pages = {701--704},
     month = nov,
     year = {2024},
     doi = {10.1145/3678884.3681833},
   }

3. IDC ’24

   

   “I Just Don’t Care Enough To Be Interested”: Teens’ Moment-By-Moment Experiences on Instagram

   Rotem Landesman, Jina Yoon,  JaeWon Kim , Daniela E Munoz Lopez, Lucia Magis-Weinberg, Alexis Hiniker, and Katie Davis

   Jun 2024

   Bib HTML PDF

   @article{Landesman-2024-IInstagram-j,
     title = {``I Just Don't Care Enough To Be Interested'': Teens' Moment-By-Moment Experiences on Instagram},
     author = {Landesman, Rotem and Yoon, Jina and Kim, JaeWon and Munoz Lopez, Daniela E and Magis-Weinberg, Lucia and Hiniker, Alexis and Davis, Katie},
     booktitle = {Proceedings of the 23rd Annual ACM Interaction Design and
                    Children Conference},
     publisher = {ACM},
     address = {New York, NY, USA},
     month = jun,
     year = {2024},
     doi = {10.1145/3628516.3655812},
   }

4. DIS ’24

   

   Tuning into the World: Designing Community Safety Technologies to Reduce Dysfunctional Fear of Crime

   Ishita Chordia,  JaeWon Kim , Zhuoyan Liu, Hayley Park, Lesley Garrett, Sheena Erete, Christopher A Le Dantec, Jason Yip Yip, and Alexis Hiniker

   Proceedings of the 2024 ACM Conference on Designing Interactive Systems, Jul 2024

   Bib HTML PDF

   @article{chordia2024-safety,
     title = {Tuning into the World: Designing Community Safety Technologies to Reduce Dysfunctional Fear of Crime},
     author = {Chordia, Ishita and Kim, JaeWon and Liu, Zhuoyan and Park, Hayley and Garrett, Lesley and Erete, Sheena and A Le Dantec, Christopher and Yip, Jason Yip and Hiniker, Alexis},
     journal = {Proceedings of the 2024 ACM Conference on Designing Interactive Systems},
     publisher = {ACM},
     address = {New York, NY, USA},
     pages = {3097--3116},
     month = jul,
     year = {2024},
     doi = {10.1145/3643834.3661578},
   }