Illuminate the darkness with your social media data
We are researching how people interact in the digital space and what those interactions mean for human well-being
What is this about?
Social interactions play a key role in human life. To better understand this role, we are developing methods to measure digital social interactions for research.
You can support us by anonymously donating your chat meta-data from WhatsApp
Why should I participate?
Receive feedback
You will receive graphs on your messaging behavior, such as in which chats you write the most, when are you the most active, how fast you reply, etc. This study is not intended to be a clinical-psychological diagnosis.
Stay anonymous
We will ask you to donate anonymized chat data (number of words for text messages, length in seconds for voice messages, message timestamp and pseudonyms of the chat participants). We will have no access to any names, message texts, voice message content or any other content.
Support research
The results of this study will contribute to the overall goal of better understanding the effects of social interactions on human well-being.
How do I participate in the study?
This study will be completely anonymous and online. To participate in this study, we will ask you to donate your anonymized messages and complete questionnaires. After downloading the interaction data from WhatsApp, the study will only last for about 30 minutes.
Can I drop out during the study?
First things first: Before uploading the data to our research platform, you may revoke, without giving reason, your consent concerning the storage of your anonymized data, without any negative consequences.
How do I donate my data?
Data request: You request your social media data from WhatsApp and download it to your device.
Anonymization: We will remove all content from your data and limit it to metadata (e.g. length and timestamp of message). Your name, as well as the names of other participants, will get replaced by random pseudonyms (eg. "James" → "anonymous13"). You may examine the anonymization of your data before uploading it to our servers.
Storage: Only anonymized and reduced data will be uploaded to one of our secure servers.
The purpose of this website is to inform you about the background and process of this online study. If any questions or concerns arise during the process, please write to the principal investigator (Prof. Dr. Hanna Drimalla, AG Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence: Multimodal Behavior Processing, Technische Fakultät, Universität Bielefeld, drimalla@techfak.uni-bielefeld.de, Tel. +49 521 106-12043)
Problem Report and Suggestions
If you encounter a problem while using our application or you have other recommendations and feedback for us, please use the "Report Problem" button at the top right of the page. We are continuously working to improve the application.
Thank you!
