Studying cyborgs: re-examining internet studies as human subjects research
(2012) In Journal of Information Technology 27(4). p.301-312- Abstract
- Virtual communities and social networks assume and consume more aspects of people's lives. In these evolving social spaces, the boundaries between actual and virtual reality, between living individuals and their virtual bodies, and between private and public domains are becoming ever more blurred. As a result, users and their presentations of self, as expressed through virtual bodies, are increasingly entangled. Consequently, more and more Internet users are cyborgs. For this reason, the ethical guidelines necessary for Internet research need to be revisited. We contend that the IS community has paid insufficient attention to the ethics of Internet research. To this end, we develop an understanding of issues related to online human... (More)
- Virtual communities and social networks assume and consume more aspects of people's lives. In these evolving social spaces, the boundaries between actual and virtual reality, between living individuals and their virtual bodies, and between private and public domains are becoming ever more blurred. As a result, users and their presentations of self, as expressed through virtual bodies, are increasingly entangled. Consequently, more and more Internet users are cyborgs. For this reason, the ethical guidelines necessary for Internet research need to be revisited. We contend that the IS community has paid insufficient attention to the ethics of Internet research. To this end, we develop an understanding of issues related to online human subjects research by distinguishing between a disembodied and an entangled view of the Internet. We outline a framework to guide investigators and research ethics committees in answering a key question in the age of cyborgism: When does a proposed Internet study deal with human subjects as opposed to digital material? Journal of Information Technology (2012) 27, 301-312. doi:10.1057/jit.2012.30; published online 13 November 2012 (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/3368011
- author
- Schultze, Ulrike LU and Mason, Richard O.
- organization
- publishing date
- 2012
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- research ethics, entanglement, living and virtual bodies, human, subjects, Internet research
- in
- Journal of Information Technology
- volume
- 27
- issue
- 4
- pages
- 301 - 312
- publisher
- Palgrave Macmillan
- external identifiers
-
- wos:000312382800004
- scopus:84871002093
- ISSN
- 0268-3962
- DOI
- 10.1057/jit.2012.30
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- e396de0e-5a99-4a11-8aef-7e181a6da55d (old id 3368011)
- date added to LUP
- 2016-04-01 13:51:31
- date last changed
- 2022-01-27 21:32:39
@article{e396de0e-5a99-4a11-8aef-7e181a6da55d,
abstract = {{Virtual communities and social networks assume and consume more aspects of people's lives. In these evolving social spaces, the boundaries between actual and virtual reality, between living individuals and their virtual bodies, and between private and public domains are becoming ever more blurred. As a result, users and their presentations of self, as expressed through virtual bodies, are increasingly entangled. Consequently, more and more Internet users are cyborgs. For this reason, the ethical guidelines necessary for Internet research need to be revisited. We contend that the IS community has paid insufficient attention to the ethics of Internet research. To this end, we develop an understanding of issues related to online human subjects research by distinguishing between a disembodied and an entangled view of the Internet. We outline a framework to guide investigators and research ethics committees in answering a key question in the age of cyborgism: When does a proposed Internet study deal with human subjects as opposed to digital material? Journal of Information Technology (2012) 27, 301-312. doi:10.1057/jit.2012.30; published online 13 November 2012}},
author = {{Schultze, Ulrike and Mason, Richard O.}},
issn = {{0268-3962}},
keywords = {{research ethics; entanglement; living and virtual bodies; human; subjects; Internet research}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{4}},
pages = {{301--312}},
publisher = {{Palgrave Macmillan}},
series = {{Journal of Information Technology}},
title = {{Studying cyborgs: re-examining internet studies as human subjects research}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/jit.2012.30}},
doi = {{10.1057/jit.2012.30}},
volume = {{27}},
year = {{2012}},
}