The Good, The Bad and The Ugly: The Opportunities, Challenges and the Mitigation Strategies of the Young Indigenous Social Media Users of the Chittagong Hill Tracts in Bangladesh

Research Background and Issues

• Challenges and Issues Identified by the Author:
  The author focuses on the unique challenges faced by young indigenous community members in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) of Bangladesh when using social media. These challenges include privacy violations, cyber harassment, misinformation dissemination, and maintaining their cultural identity.

• Significance of the Issue:
  The Jumma indigenous community in the Chittagong Hill Tracts is one of the most marginalized groups in Bangladesh. With the rise of globalization and the widespread use of social media, their culture and way of life are subject to unprecedented external influences. However, cultural conflicts and identity differences with mainstream society pose challenges for their sense of digital belonging, safety, and self-expression.

• Research Motivation and Related Work:
  The author aims to expand the current body of literature on indigenous technology use in the Global South by studying the impact of social media on these young indigenous members. While previous studies have explored the relationship between technology and indigenous communities in the West (Global North), there is a lack of research on indigenous populations in regions like the CHT in the Global South.

Proposed Solutions

• Proposed Solution:
  The author conducted a three-month field study involving 30 young indigenous members in the CHT, using focus group discussions and individual interviews to investigate the impact of social media on cultural preservation, identity expression, privacy, and cyber harassment.

• Innovative Aspects of the Solution:

  1. The study identified the "dual role of technology," where social media can both aid cultural preservation and collective action while exacerbating risks such as privacy threats and cyber harassment.
  2. It proposed localized mitigation strategies, such as cultural "social ciphering," linguistic camouflage, and strategic avoidance.

• Implementation Steps and Key Techniques:

  • Employed qualitative research methods, including 12 individual interviews and 4 group discussions with 30 participants.
  • Used thematic analysis and open coding methods for data analysis.
  • Based on the findings, proposed design recommendations, such as more nuanced privacy settings and AI-enhanced contextual understanding of cultural content.

Research Findings

• Specific Findings:
  Social media acts as a double-edged sword for members of the CHT indigenous community: it serves as an empowering tool for cultural preservation, raising public awareness, and fostering resistance, but it also exposes them to issues like privacy violations and cyber harassment. The author summarized strategies employed by these users, such as collective actions like language encryption, to protect their online safety.

• Advantages Over Existing Methods:
  This study provides culturally sensitive considerations for social media design and policy recommendations. These approaches go beyond the usual discussions of technology's impact on indigenous populations, offering richer contextualized narratives and a stronger focus on cultural preservation compared to studies in the Global North.

• Experimental or Evaluation Results:

  1. Young indigenous people effectively use social media platforms like YouTube and Facebook to preserve and transmit their culture and identity.
  2. Misunderstandings and attacks on these cultural practices by other internet users have led to widespread racial hostility.
  3. The localized use of language as an encryption strategy has proven effective in protecting user privacy.
  4. Certain social media content, such as YouTube videos lacking contextual information, has contributed to misunderstandings and stereotypes, which is an issue that needs to be addressed.

• Limitations and Future Directions:

  1. This study only covered young individuals with higher education, excluding those with little formal education or digital literacy.
  2. Sensitive topics such as "fear and censorship" were not deeply explored to protect participants.
  3. Future research should include a broader segment of the Jumma community and investigate other social media ecosystems (as this study primarily focused on Facebook usage).

Conclusion

Through an in-depth study of social media usage among young indigenous people in the Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh, this paper enriches the field of Indigenous Human-Computer Interaction (Indigenous HCI) and highlights the importance of culturally sensitive technology design. The author also proposed a series of localized recommendations to enhance the safety and participation of indigenous communities in digital spaces, making a significant contribution to HCI research in developing country contexts.