Short for Human Experience, HX is an approach to talking about, engaging with, and designing technology in a way that is aligned with our needs as humans. In lives increasingly reliant on the tools of big tech platforms, individuals and communities are struggling to develop healthy and empowered relationships with technology. In this context, HX is emerging as a compelling concept in its own right and a welcome alternative to the limiting focus on screen time.
Everyone, regardless of age, needs positive HX. Because of their immersion and fluency with the technologies of the day, youth are uniquely positioned to receive the benefits of HX, and are under-appreciated experts who can be tapped to improve HX for all. HX is a banner for an emerging coalition of professional communities amplifying the agency of diverse youth and their creativity, voice, and expertise, to support healthy relationships with technology and build a better Internet for all of us.
As an emerging field-building effort, HX aims to develop a shared language, methods, values and goals for growing healthy human and community engagements with technology, particularly for vulnerable and marginalized groups. For more background, see the HX Project website, and our blog post about our involvement in the effort.
The HX effort is guided by the following core values:
- Youth centered: young people, particularly those from marginalized groups, have essential experience, expertise and fluency for advancing HX and social justice
- Committed to diversity and equity: everyone benefits when we elevate the voice and perspectives of those who have been less visible and heard
- Integrative, cross-sector, and interdisciplinary: New problems require new alliances
- Systems-oriented: HX is embedded in complex social and technical systems. Not just an individual and their device
- Solution focused: we recognize the problems but focus on the solutions
Seeking Contributors to an HX Essay Collection
This essay collection aims to bring together expert voices with a range of perspectives to articulate what HX is, why it is important, and how it can be supported among youth and people of all ages. We are in discussion with MIT Press to publish the collection. If accepted, essays would undergo open review on the PubPub platform in parallel with blind peer review for print publication as an edited collection with MITP.
We are inviting book chapter proposals that are both empirical and theoretical in nature, from diverse disciplinary perspectives. We are looking for representation from the following fields:
- Human Centered Design
- Internet research and governance
- Wellbeing research
- Developmental and learning sciences
- Youth research and organizing
We are also seeking essays that represent a diversity of stakeholder perspectives, with attention to diverse youth voices and intersectional identities, including race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and neurodiversity. We particularly welcome essays that center on children and youth experiences and voices.
We also invite essays with diverse methodological approaches, including critical humanistic analysis, qualitative and quantitative social scientific and health research, and design-based approaches. Possible topics include, but are not limited to:
- Frameworks and design principles to guide HX-oriented design practices
- Studies of digital technology engagement and the relation to HX in varied settings, including family, educational, and community settings (both offline and online).
- Case studies of design/co-design efforts that center youth from historically marginalized groups to redesign tech, relationships, and systems toward HX
- Studies of diverse forms of youth engagement with digital platforms such as games, social media platforms, and mobile apps
- Analysis of technology policy and legal frameworks related to youth online engagement
- Critical analyses of how algorithmic biases and digital inequities impact HX for minoritized groups
- Theoretical or meta analyses that offer theoretical and design frameworks, or synthesize empirical research on the relation between digital technology, culture, social practices, or health
Information about Submission
Proposals should include the following:
- An abstract of 500-750 words (not including references)
- Background information about the author(s), including contact information and and abbreviated bio that describes previous and current research that relates to HX
Please submit your information using the submission form below.
Authors of accepted proposals will be expected to develop and submit an original book chapter of 5000-7000 words.
Timeline
Abstract submissions deadline: March 25, 2022 11:59pm EDT
Notification on submitted abstracts: April 11, 2022 April 15, 2022
Full book chapter submission deadline: Aug 1, 2022 11:59pm EDT