"My Perfect Platform Would Be Telepathy" - Reimagining the Design of Social Media with Autistic Adults

Abstract

In this paper, we critically examine the design of mainstream social media platforms from the point of view of autistic experiences and perspectives, drawing inspiration from the neurodiversity movement, the notion of autism as neurodivergence, and the concept of autistic sociality. We conducted 12 participatory design sessions with 20 autistic adult collaborators. Through thematic analysis of qualitative data, we identify seven challenges our participants experienced when using social media, and a set of imagined features that represent their vision of how design could better support their social media use. We discuss how mainstream social media platforms are primarily designed to address neurotypical sensitivities, and fail autistic adults through lack of user control, inadequate mechanisms for expressing tone and intention, and an orientation towards phatic interactions. To close, we outline how autistic sociality can inspire the design of kinder and more considerate social media platforms.CCS Concepts: • Human-centered computing → Collaborative and social computing; Empirical studies in collaborative and social computing.

Examining the Unique Online Risk Experiences and Mental Health Outcomes of LGBTQ+ versus Heterosexual Youth

“…Establishing such platforms alone is insufficient; continuous monitoring and timely support are crucial for their effectiveness. Our research emphasizes the need for more focused studies on vulnerable youth, including LGBTQ+ [58,124], neurodiverse [19,105], and foster youth [17,53], concerning their online safety. Recent discourse on youth empowerment and resilience in online spaces [6, 8-11, 84, 143] may not be inclusive of the needs and struggles of more vulnerable youth populations, necessitating a more comprehensive approach.…”

“…To answer our research questions, we conducted a user study with 173 youth (ages [13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21], including 86 LGBTQ+ participants. We measured several pre-validated constructs regarding the youths' mental health and had them upload and flag their Instagram DMs that they felt uncomfortable or unsafe about.…”