2023/05/16 by Joanne Leong, Leong, Joanne, Yuanyang Teng +15
Computer Science · Social Sciences · #FOS: Computer and information sciences #Human-Computer Interaction (cs.HC) #Impact of Technology on Adolescents #Innovative Human-Technology Interaction #Privacy, Security, and Data Protection
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2305.09252
openalex publication_date 2023/05/16 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
Ubiquitous computing encapsulates the idea for technology to be interwoven into the fabric of everyday life. As computing blends into everyday physical artifacts, powerful opportunities open up for social connection. Prior connected media objects span a broad spectrum of design combinations. Such diversity suggests that people have varying needs and preferences for staying connected to one another. However, since these designs have largely been studied in isolation, we do not have a holistic understanding around how people would configure and behave within a ubiquitous social ecosystem of physically-grounded artifacts. In this paper, we create a technology probe called Social Wormholes, that lets people configure their own home ecosystem of connected artifacts. Through a field study with 24 participants, we report on patterns of behaviors that emerged naturally in the context of their daily lives and shine a light on how ubiquitous computing could be leveraged for social computing.