Caracterização da interação social de usuários em redes sociais online: Um estudo de caso no orkut

Abstract

Social networks have become a potential interaction environment for social inclusion of deaf users in Brazil. However, the interfaces of these systems are not always prepared to support the interaction of users with special needs. From this hypothesis, the aim of this research is analyze and characterize, through a case study of Orkut, how deaf users interact in this online social network and, in addition, we verified whether the available resources are supporting their sociability. The choice of Orkut was due to the fact that it was the most popular social network system among Brazilians until September, 2011. To conduct this investigation, we adopted a hybrid approach involving both, quantitative and qualitative analysis. From quantitative analysis, it was possible to identify aspects about the friendship network of the deaf, whereas the qualitative analysis allowed us to understand how the available resources in Orkut (e.g., online communities and scrap pages) are supporting sociability among deaf and their friends. The results revealed that the friendship network formed by deaf in Brazil, in Orkut and communities aimed at them in this system, is more connected than the network of listeners. However, this connectivity is not reflected in a greater social interaction within communities. This is because the available communication resources in the communities (e.g. forums, polls and events) do not always address deaf specific needs. In order to verify the validity of the observed phenomena, the last step of our methodology was to triangulate the results from other research sources for the same research question. We applied a survey aimed to gather information about the motivations and preferences of deaf users to interact socially with other users within Okrut communities and scrap pages. This triangulation allowed us to see how this type of user are used this social network to interact socially with other users and also see how their cultural characteristics (e.g., deafness degree and communication preferences face to face) reflect in the interaction phenomena observed. As contribution, in addition to characterize how deaf Brazilian users interact through Orkut resources, our analysis identifies aspects of the proposed interaction which are challenging for deaf users and that may lead them not to use the available communication mechanisms. Complementary to this contribution, as already mentioned, social networks have a (potential) role in social inclusion of deaf, so to detect as the available features are supporting or not their sociability can be able to better support the deaf community and provide them with more accessible systems.