Life Modes in Social Media

In 2011, I co-authored Life Modes in Social Media with Shelley Farhnham, a study exploring how people organize their online interactions across different areas of their lives. It was published in the CHI Conference proceedings.

At the time, platforms like Facebook and Twitter treated social relationships as flat networks, failing to account for the nuanced ways people manage personal, professional, and social circles. Our research aimed to understand these dynamics and propose design opportunities for more context-aware social media experiences.

Through qualitative design research, we found that people naturally segment their social worlds into distinct “modes” of life, such as family, work, and social interactions. They strategically use communication tools to control intimacy levels within these modes and adjust the permeability of boundaries between them. Mobile technology played a particularly important role in aggregating and dynamically sharing content across different life modes, allowing users to navigate multiple identities seamlessly.

One of the key takeaways from our study was the need for more focused sharing—the ability to share content only with relevant audiences within a specific life mode. People didn’t want all content to be broadcasted widely; instead, they wanted context-sensitive ways to manage their social presence. This insight foreshadowed later developments in social media, such as circles, close friends lists, and ephemeral content, which now allow for more controlled, audience-specific interactions.

This research was a formative moment in my work, highlighting the importance of designing for social context and user autonomy in digital spaces. It reinforced my interest in building systems that adapt to human behavior rather than forcing people to conform to rigid digital structures—a theme that continues to inform my approach to design today.

See the research paper here.