Suhyeon Yoo
University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Creating dedicated accounts to post users’ pet content is a growing trend on Instagram. While these account owners derive joy from this pursuit, they may also struggle with criticisms and challenges. Yet, there remains a knowledge gap on how pet account owners manage their pets' online presence and navigate these obstacles successfully. Drawing from interviews with 21 Instagram pet account owners, we uncover the motivations behind pet account creation, spanning personal, altruistic, and commercial goals. We learn about the strategies employed for crafting their pets' online identities and personas, as well as the challenges faced by both owners and their pets in navigating the complexities of digital identity management. We discuss the evolving dynamics between humans and their pets, positioning pet identity cultivation as a form of collaborative work, akin to the ``third shift'', highlighting the need to design interfaces that support this unique identity management process.
doi.org/10.1145/3613904.3642367
The ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (https://chi2024.acm.org/)