Finding a new normal: the role of technology in life disruptions

In recent years, the HCI and CSCW communities have begun to examine the role technology plays in personal, rather than professional settings. Part of this work has begun to address a specific class of life events that are unpredictable, uncontrollable, and destabilizing - what we refer to as life disruptions. While each disruption is unique, we find that patterns of social and technical reconfigurations occur in a variety of different contexts. Drawing on three case studies of severe life disruptions - intimate partner violence, homelessness, and death - we remark on the ways that life disruptions prompt a journey towards a "new normal." We enumerate the common lessons learned among our case studies and seek to inform future technology research and design work which may involve life disruptions.

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