Design Power and Social Media: From Marginalisation Machines to Pluralistic Publics

Abstract

This thesis explores marginalised experiences with social media from a disabled and queer standpoint (in the sense of Standpoint Theory) to uncover meaningful design alternatives for supporting the thriving of marginalised groups. Specifically, the manifestation of Design Power within popular platforms is examined in terms of how their design characteristics impact neurodivergent and transgender people. To this end, three qualitative studies were conducted: the first study critically analyses the design features of mainstream social media platforms to determine the role of functional and aesthetic design in reifying existing social power structures. The second study comprises an autoethnography of autistic social media usage patterns, connecting experiences to design features and affordances. The third and final study consists of design interviews with young trans people, offering rich insights into their everyday social media experiences, discussing experiences of marginalisation through social media, shifting spaces, and inter-community solidarity. From these studies, salient characteristics of Highly Marginalising Social Media, which act as Marginalisation Machines, are distilled and contrasted with oppositional design considerations for pluralistic virtual places. Critical theories of power are then connected to these insights to understand how current mainstream platforms act as panoptic machineries that enact controlover users to maintain dominant power, including the role of design as an instrument for shaping social power dynamics. Finally, the thesis discusses existing alternatives to Highly Marginalising Social Media, as well aspossible paths forward, while also engaging with the structural barriers preventing potential pluralistic social media.