Title
Disclosure, Stress, and Support During Gender Transition on Facebook
Abstract
Social computing technologies, such as social networking sites (SNSs), often privilege people who fit within expected, static categories. Thus, users embarking on major identity changes, such as gender transition, often encounter stress when using SNSs to interact with their online social networks. To address this problem and reflect on the design of SNSs and other social computing systems, we present the results of a comprehensive online survey of transgender and gender non-conforming SNS users. Our findings indicate that although Facebook can be a stressful place for gender transition due to difficulties of transition disclosure, support from one's Facebook network can help to mitigate some of this stress. We examine Facebook both as a site of stress and as a site of support. Better understanding the relationships between stress, disclosure, and support on SNSs for these particular users can inform technology design that will benefit people who struggle with navigating a wide range of major identity changes online.
Year
DOI
Venue
2015
10.1145/2675133.2675152
CSCW
Keywords
Field
DocType
support,computer-supported cooperative work,lgbtq,collaborative computing,transgender,identity transitions,life transitions,web-based interaction,online identity,stress,social networking sites
Social psychology,Online identity,Internet privacy,Transgender,Social network,Design technology,Psychology,Knowledge management,Social computing
Conference
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
31
1.10
25
Authors
4
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Oliver L. Haimson117718.01
Jed R. Brubaker232331.02
Lynn Dombrowski3421.94
Gillian Hayes41852155.64