Wrist-bound Guanxi, Jiazu, and Kuolie: Unpacking Chinese Adolescent Smartwatch-Mediated Socialization

Fuente: arXiv
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Auteurs principaux: Liu, Lanjing, Zhang, Chao, Lu, Zhicong
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2024
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author Liu, Lanjing
Zhang, Chao
Lu, Zhicong
author_facet Liu, Lanjing
Zhang, Chao
Lu, Zhicong
contents Adolescent peer relationships, essential for their development, are increasingly mediated by digital technologies. As this trend continues, wearable devices, especially smartwatches tailored for adolescents, are reshaping their socialization. In China, smartwatches like XTC have gained wide popularity, introducing unique features such as "Bump-to-Connect" and exclusive social platforms. Nonetheless, how these devices influence adolescents' peer experience remains unknown. Addressing this, we interviewed 18 Chinese adolescents (age: 11 -- 16), discovering a smartwatch-mediated social ecosystem. Our findings highlight the ice-breaking role of smartwatches in friendship initiation and their use for secret messaging with local peers. Within the online smartwatch community, peer status is determined by likes and visibility, leading to diverse pursuit activities (i.e., chu guanxi, jiazu, kuolie) and negative social dynamics. We discuss the core affordances of smartwatches and Chinese cultural factors that influence adolescent social behavior and offer implications for designing future wearables that responsibly and safely support adolescent socialization.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2403_03306
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Wrist-bound Guanxi, Jiazu, and Kuolie: Unpacking Chinese Adolescent Smartwatch-Mediated Socialization
Liu, Lanjing
Zhang, Chao
Lu, Zhicong
Human-Computer Interaction
Adolescent peer relationships, essential for their development, are increasingly mediated by digital technologies. As this trend continues, wearable devices, especially smartwatches tailored for adolescents, are reshaping their socialization. In China, smartwatches like XTC have gained wide popularity, introducing unique features such as "Bump-to-Connect" and exclusive social platforms. Nonetheless, how these devices influence adolescents' peer experience remains unknown. Addressing this, we interviewed 18 Chinese adolescents (age: 11 -- 16), discovering a smartwatch-mediated social ecosystem. Our findings highlight the ice-breaking role of smartwatches in friendship initiation and their use for secret messaging with local peers. Within the online smartwatch community, peer status is determined by likes and visibility, leading to diverse pursuit activities (i.e., chu guanxi, jiazu, kuolie) and negative social dynamics. We discuss the core affordances of smartwatches and Chinese cultural factors that influence adolescent social behavior and offer implications for designing future wearables that responsibly and safely support adolescent socialization.
title Wrist-bound Guanxi, Jiazu, and Kuolie: Unpacking Chinese Adolescent Smartwatch-Mediated Socialization
topic Human-Computer Interaction
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2403.03306