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Kintsugi-Inspired Design: Communicatively Reconstructing Identities Online After Trauma

Casey Randazzo, Tawfiq Ammari

TL;DR

This paper addresses how trauma survivors reconstruct their identities online by introducing a Kintsugi-inspired, sociotechnical model of identity integration. It combines 30 in-depth interviews with a theoretical framework that extends CTI and incorporates online platform affordances, community norms, and algorithmic influences. The study reveals how identity fractures arise and how online communities can either glaze these fractures into integrated identities or widen them via grief bubbles and misaligned moderation. Design recommendations grounded in trauma-informed principles aim to balance safety and peer support, improve transparency, and foster pathways toward integrated identities with practical implications for online platforms and communities.

Abstract

Trauma can disrupt one's sense of self and mental well-being, leading survivors to reconstruct their identities in online communities. Drawing from 30 in-depth interviews, we present a sociotechnical process model that illustrates the mechanisms of online identity reconstruction and the pathways to integration. We introduce the concept of fractured identities, reflecting the enduring impact of trauma on one's self-concept.

Kintsugi-Inspired Design: Communicatively Reconstructing Identities Online After Trauma

TL;DR

This paper addresses how trauma survivors reconstruct their identities online by introducing a Kintsugi-inspired, sociotechnical model of identity integration. It combines 30 in-depth interviews with a theoretical framework that extends CTI and incorporates online platform affordances, community norms, and algorithmic influences. The study reveals how identity fractures arise and how online communities can either glaze these fractures into integrated identities or widen them via grief bubbles and misaligned moderation. Design recommendations grounded in trauma-informed principles aim to balance safety and peer support, improve transparency, and foster pathways toward integrated identities with practical implications for online platforms and communities.

Abstract

Trauma can disrupt one's sense of self and mental well-being, leading survivors to reconstruct their identities in online communities. Drawing from 30 in-depth interviews, we present a sociotechnical process model that illustrates the mechanisms of online identity reconstruction and the pathways to integration. We introduce the concept of fractured identities, reflecting the enduring impact of trauma on one's self-concept.

Paper Structure

This paper contains 43 sections, 4 figures, 3 tables.

Table of Contents

  1. INTRODUCTION
  2. PRIOR WORK
  3. Identity Reconstruction After Trauma
  4. Defining trauma
  5. Fractured identity: The shattered self
  6. Frames of identity
  7. Navigating Identity Gaps in Online Communities
  8. Personal-relational identity gaps
  9. Personal-communal gaps
  10. Personal-enacted gaps
  11. Trauma-Informed Design
  12. Supportive online spaces
  13. User safety
  14. Transparency and trustworthiness
  15. STUDY DESIGN
  16. ...and 28 more sections

Figures (4)

  • Figure 1: The Japanese art of Kintsugi where broken pottery is repaired by introducing gold into the cracks. We use this metaphor to represent the mending of fractured identities. The image on the top shows a cracked pot. The image on the bottom left shows a failed attempt at Kintsugi as described by a blogger who attempted the art form noauthor_kintsugi_nodate. The image on the bottom right shows a successful attempt at Kintsugi where the cracks in the pottery are glazed.
  • Figure 2: The figure, adapted from kuiper2023bridging, visualizes Hecht's hecht1993 communication theory of identity
  • Figure 3: As is the case in Figure \ref{['fig:glazedpottery']}, this figure starts with a fractured identity as seen to the left. The bottom right shows a fractured identity where fractures were widened, leading to a non-integrated identity. The figure on the top right shows glazed fractures, and thus, an integrated identity.
  • Figure 4: The Sociotechnical Model of Identity Integration