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Understanding Perceptions of Selfies & Dangerous Selfies

Research with Minors from Lower Socioeconomic Backgrounds in India

Source: The New Indian Express

Overview

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Conducting research with children and teenagers is a challenging task. We interacted with school-going population between the age range of 10 to 15 years coming from lower socioeconomic backgrounds in urban India and performed semi-structured interviews to understand their
insights about selfies and dangerous selfie-taking behavior. Further, the findings from this study are used to inform guidelines - including practices to address challenges around data collection, privacy, confidentiality, and ethics - for conducting research with such populations.

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Role

Researcher

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Advisor

Shriram Venkatraman

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Duration

3 months

The Problem

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Selfies have become a medium of self-portrayal, and their craze has burgeoned in recent times. However, in the past few years, there have been numerous cases of selfie-deaths across the world. These deaths or injuries happen when people click selfies in dangerous locations only to end up harming themselves. Causes of deaths include falling from a height, drowning, vehicle accident, and animal-related dangers among others. A "KillFie" is a dangerous selfie that has resulted in death (or injuries) of the person taking it or the people around him/her. Various studies have been performed to analyze selfies on social media websites, such as Twitter and Instagram, and predictive models have been built to identify such dangerous selfies. We attempt to study the perception of 10 to 15-year olds coming from economically weaker sections of the Indian society, on selfies and dangerous selfie-taking behavior.

Population

Population description

  • 8th to 10th grade students

  • Age range: 10 to 15 year-olds

  • Equal number of males and females

  • From a Delhi-based government/public school - associated with the lower socioeconomic class

Data Collection

interview process

  • One-on-one semi-structured interviews with 17 students from a Delhi-based government school

  • Students could speak in hindi/english/both

  • Study conducted during a summer camp for government school students held at IIIT Delhi in 2017

  • Interview duration: 5 to 15 minutes

  • Verbal consent taken

  • Interviews were anonymized, audio-recorded, and transcribed for analysis

  • Interviews were conducted in empty classrooms or quiet outdoors

ETHICAL PRACTICES & STRATEGIES

 

  • Created an ethics form inspired by the Parenting for a Digital Future project since it is rare to find a good ethics form in India for social research. The study was approved by the IRB at IIIT-Delhi.

  • Written consent was taken from the principal of the school.

  • Verbal audio-recorded consent was taken from the participant prior to the interview.

  • Parent(s)/teacher(s)/guardian(s) were absent during the interviews.

  • Participants were given an overview of the study, informed about consent and maintaining anonymity, and informed that they could leave at any point in time. They were given the freedom to ask questions and raise any concerns about the research.

  • Sensitive language was used and participants were not made to feel uncomfortable or provoked/incited at any point in time

  • Information was validated by asking for examples or framing the questions differently.

  • Participants were not coerced to disclose information they were unwilling to.

  • We are also refraining from directly quoting responses by the participants in academic publications.

Challenges

Self-Disclosure

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Being a woman of Indian origin, my background and personal experiences of being raised in India have shaped my motivation to work in the field of HCI4D and ICT for Development (ICTD). I have conducted research in HCI and social science across multiple domains including health and social awareness. Also familiar with ICT and social media usage in India, I have an understanding of the
"attention-seeking", "social status", and "thrill" driven behavior of users in light of selfies. Born and brought up in New Delhi, I also have experience with the Indian education system.

  • Participants might feel inferior being interviewed by “privileged” people

  • High power distance: challenging to interact with the lower socioeconomic class and children

  • Social mobility associated with cultural capital: Upper-middle-class elite researcher vs lower socioeconomic class informant

  • “Empathize” and don’t “sympathize”

  • Absence of an ethics consent form in India for conducting non-medical research with minors

  • No guidelines for similar studies

  • Oral approval vs written consent 

  • Approval from the school principal/parents/legal guardian

  • Our solution: Created an ethical consent form inspired from LSE’s “Parenting for a Digital Future” project and got approval from other social scientists in the department. The principal of the school then signed this form.

children ethics

power distance

OTHER CHALLENGES

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  • Lack of clear class distinction

  • Absence of principal and parents/guardians at the summer camp

  • Inability to conduct follow-up interviews; data from a single interview needs to be taken as the ultimate truth

  • Inability to check their phones for collecting material artifacts like photographs

  • Language issues - some students were unable to understand the questions

  • Chances of interview bias due to the influence of peers

Intersectionality & Solidarity

 

In conducting research with stigmatized communities in India, various challenges arise. It would be interesting to apply the lens of intersectionality and solidarity in proposing practices, strategies, and guidelines for conducting research with such populations. It may also make visible patterns among different segments of populations spread around the world, separated by contexts, yet possessing commonalities.

Self-Disclosure

 

Being a woman of Indian origin, my background and personal experiences shape my motivation to work in the field of HCI4D and ICT for Development (ICTD). I have conducted research in HCI and social science across multiple domains including health and social awareness. Also familiar with ICT and social media usage in India, I have an understanding of the "attention-seeking", "social status", and "thrill" driven behavior of users in light of selfies. Born and brought up in New Delhi, I also have experience with the Indian education system. With this perspective, I approach this topic of research.

Publications

Screen Shot 2019-11-08 at 00.37.37.png

Studying Intersections in Conducting Research with Minors
from Lower Socioeconomic Background in India 

 

 

Author: Shaan Chopra

 

Venue: HCI Across Borders & Intersections Symposium at Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI) 2019.

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Screen Shot 2019-11-08 at 00.44.20.png

Working with Stigmatized Communities in India: Minors
from Lower Socioeconomic Background 

 

 

Author: Shaan Chopra

 

Venue: Conducting Research with Stigmatized Populations Workshop at Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work & Social Computing (CSCW) 2018.

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