Disrespectful Technologies: Social Norm Conflicts in Digital Worlds

Social norms are the informal understandings that govern the behavior within a society and are crucial for the feeling of togetherness and social cohesion. However, technology-mediated behavior often stands in conflict (e.g., parallel smartphone use undermining the norm of full attention for the conversation partner). Under the umbrella term 'disrespectful technologies', the present research discusses potential conflicts between technology use and social norms. We present four general types of frequent social norm conflicts, illustrate these by examples from research in different fields of HCI and a user survey, and discuss possibilities to address these in design. Altogether, we see the integration of social norm considerations in the user centered design approach as a long-term goal in HCI, with important consequences on an individual and societal level.