Human beings are inherently social. While the rise of social technologies has given people countless ways to connect, express themselves, and build communities, widespread access doesn't guarantee positive outcomes. People are simultaneously exploring new opportunities for support and creative self-expression while navigating concerns about privacy, miscommunication, and conflict.
Our group researches how to design everyday social technology for social good—helping people stay connected, supported, and collaborative. We believe social technologies should inherently facilitate positive behaviors while preventing harm. We're dedicated to evaluating, designing, and building social technologies that support human values in real-world settings.
When using social media platforms to socialize, people invest large amount of effort in managing their impressions. This includes everything from their presence and language used in their interactions. Specifically, Social norms in digital environments heavily influence these self-presentation decisions. While structured spaces (Discord, Reddit, Facebook Groups) often have norms shaped by explicit rules and active moderation, most social media platforms create complex, less structured environments.
Current social media platforms aggregate users in multiple ways - through existing connections or algorithmic "semi-communities" that appear in social feeds. This leads to the complexity and unpredictability in navigating self-presentation. The layered nature of these displays often leads to conflicts between users with different sharing goals and practices, making communication less effective. Our goal is to make computationally-mediated environments places where people can engage positively.
Social technology promised greater connection and resource sharing, but experiences vary significantly across populations. Platform affordances may lead people with different abilities to adopt platforms differently, sometimes creating barriers to usage.
People's backgrounds and goals across demographic groups influence how they adopt social technology—for example, vulnerable populations often seek platforms with stronger privacy protections. Understanding social technology usage across populations remains crucial. This requires careful study, thoughtful design, and reflection on current usage patterns while envisioning what should guide new system development.
Social affordances built into platforms largely shape online interactions and relationships. While current designs help facilitate benefits like social support exchange and creative self-expression, they also create issues such as social comparison and oversimplified self-presentation.
As research explores alternative platform infrastructures, we can ask how different platforms or features might enable interactions that broaden social benefits while mitigating potential harms from online engagement.
Work with us!
(Updated: Sep 1st, 2025)
The Social Computing for Well-being Lab is actively seeking undergraduate and graduate students (Master's and Ph.D.) to join our lab. I've been maintaining a frequently asked questions page that may be helpful for your decision making.
For prospective graduate students: Please apply to either the Institute of Computer Science and Engineering (資訊工程所甲組) or Multimedia Engineering (多媒體工程) programs and reach out after getting acceptance.
If you're looking to join, please reach out to me through email with your CV/resume and include a short response to the following questions. This would help me learn a little more about whether we may fit: