I M A G E B Y D A N I E L D R A K E

children in Paraguay who could care less about their XO laptops?

To explore this question, we convened a workshop at ACM’s CHI 2014 conference. The participants included 22 individuals from departments and schools of information, communication, computer science, media studies, and other areas.

Here, the workshop organizers
reflect on key topics, themes, and
questions raised by participants,
discussing how they might provide
feedback to the broader HCI
community. Thus, rather than being
a strict summary or report of the
workshop, this article serves two
Quit Facebook Day. Paraguayan
children indifferent to their OLPC XO
laptop. Digitally disconnected residents
of Sub-Saharan Africa. Facebook pages
of the deceased.

Each of these in some way draws attention to technology non-use. While researchers have explored questions around non-use for some time [ 1, 2], the dominant discourse in HCI still focuses primarily on technology users.

However, non-use and other forms of technological relationships not only are becoming increasingly common but in fact also pervade numerous areas of work in HCI. So what do deceased Facebook users have in common with

Insights

→ Non-use goes beyond the absence of technology.

→ Use and non-use are not binary opposites but represent different configurations of sociotechnical practice.

→ Studying these sociotechnical configurations opens up central questions around “the user” in HCI. Q

On the Importance and Implications of Studying Technology Non-Use Eric P. S. Baumer, Cornell University Jenna Burrell, University of California, Berkeley Morgan G. Ames, University of California, Irvine Jed R. Brubaker, University of California, Irvine Paul Dourish, University of California, Irvine