Abstract
This paper reports on a qualitative interview study of ICT use amongst a population undergoing transition following a life disruption. We interviewed 13 veterans who were reintegrating into civil society. Veterans are unique in that they experience several transitions at once-that is, after returning home, they often suffer from PTSD, become homeless, change occupations, etc. Amongst other challenges, veterans often undergo identity crises as caused by the lack of continuity between military and civilian social structures. We show how veterans are resilient through their uses of ICTs when navigating identity crises. We find that they use ICTs to develop identity awareness- that is, they connect with a human infrastructure through which they can develop a "big picture" understanding of unfamiliar rules and norms and receive support when navigating civil society. We discuss the implications of our study and identify implications for design.
Original language | English (US) |
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Title of host publication | CHI 2016 - Proceedings, 34th Annual CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems |
Publisher | Association for Computing Machinery |
Pages | 2882-2894 |
Number of pages | 13 |
ISBN (Electronic) | 9781450333627 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - May 7 2016 |
Event | 34th Annual Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI 2016 - San Jose, United States Duration: May 7 2016 → May 12 2016 |
Other
Other | 34th Annual Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI 2016 |
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Country | United States |
City | San Jose |
Period | 5/7/16 → 5/12/16 |
Keywords
- Crisis
- Disruption
- ICTs
- Identity
- Identity awareness
- Resilience
- Social media
- Transition
- Veterans
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Human-Computer Interaction
- Computer Graphics and Computer-Aided Design
- Software