Digital Volunteers during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Care Work on Social Media for Socio-technical Resilience

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dc.contributor.authorSchmid, Stefka
dc.contributor.authorGuntrum, Laura
dc.contributor.authorHaesler, Steffen
dc.contributor.authorSchultheiß, Lisa
dc.contributor.authorReuter, Christian
dc.date.accessioned2023-11-13T14:48:52Z
dc.date.available2023-11-13T14:48:52Z
dc.date.issued2023
dc.description.abstractLike past crises, the COVID-19 pandemic has galvanized individual volunteers to contribute to the public response. This includes digital volunteers who have organized physical aid and conducted social media activities. Analyzing German volunteering support groups on Facebook and related Reddit threads in the context of COVID-19, we show what types of help are offered and how social media users interact with each other to cope with the situation. We reveal that most users offering help online mostly perform typical care work, such as buying groceries or giving advice. Crucially, volunteering is characterized by relationships of care. This means it builds on affirmative interactions. In spite of some misdirected offers and regressive interruptions, people use the possibility to make their voices heard and, showing empathy, help each other to live with the crisis. Social media like Facebook mediate societal structures, including relationships of care, offering a space for the continuous, cumulatively resilient conduct of care work. Reflecting on the traditional division of labor in crisis volunteering and counter-productive dynamics of care and empathy, we aim to articulate a feminist ethics of care that allows for interactions on social media that foster generative computer-supported collaboration.
dc.description.sponsorshipThis publication has been funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research of Germany (BMBF) (grant no.: 16DII121, 16DII122, 16DII123, 16DII124, 16DII125, 16DII126, 16DII127, 16DII128 – “Deutsches Internet-Institut”).
dc.identifier.citationSchmid, S., Guntrum, L. G., Haesler, S., Schultheiß, L., & Reuter, C. (2023). Digital Volunteers during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Care Work on Social Media for Socio-technical Resilience. Weizenbaum Journal of the Digital Society, 3(3). https://doi.org/10.34669/WI.WJDS/3.3.6
dc.identifier.doihttps://doi.org/10.34669/wi.wjds/3.3.6
dc.identifier.eissn2748-5625
dc.identifier.urihttps://doi.org/10.34669/WI.WJDS/3.3.6
dc.identifier.urihttps://www.weizenbaum-library.de/handle/id/418
dc.language.isoeng
dc.publisherWeizenbaum Institute
dc.rightsopen access
dc.rights.urihttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
dc.subjectcrisis
dc.subjectsocial media
dc.subjectcare work
dc.subjectempathy
dc.subjectresilience
dc.titleDigital Volunteers during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Care Work on Social Media for Socio-technical Resilience
dc.typeArticle
dc.type.statuspublishedVersion
dcmi.typeText
dcterms.bibliographicCitation.issue3
dcterms.bibliographicCitation.issue3
dcterms.bibliographicCitation.journaltitleWeizenbaum Journal of the Digital Society
dcterms.bibliographicCitation.originalpublisherplaceBerlin
dcterms.bibliographicCitation.volume3
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Vol. 3 No. 3 (2023)