Social Technologies for Digital Wellbeing Among Marginalized Communities

Discussions of online social technologies focus on their negatives in relation to wellbeing, prioritizing offline relationships and reduced screen time. However, many communities depend on online social technologies for building community, gaining social support, and even exploring identity. This makes the use of these technologies crucial for the wellbeing of these communities. Numerous CSCW-related disciplines examine marginalized people's use of social technology and its relationship to wellbeing. Yet opportunities to converse across domains and engage in thinking around these topics are scarce. We aim to bring together health, design, communication, HCI, STS, and a spectrum of diversity science researchers to discuss what digital wellbeing looks like for marginalized populations, share the state of knowledge in respective fields, and identify opportunities for leveraging social technologies for wellbeing across these communities. We will engage in exercises intended to foster mutual understanding, identify commonalities between areas of inquiry, and bridge gaps between research areas. Our goal is to stimulate interdisciplinary collaboration, with the hope of advancing a research agenda regarding digital wellbeing for marginalized populations.