arXiv subjects

EunJeong Cheon

Publications and source records attributed to EunJeong Cheon.

10 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Fast-Food Intimacy: How Chinese Women Navigate Soul's AI Boyfriend

On the Chinese social app Soul, millions of users - predominantly young women - are forming romantic connections with an AI boyfriend called "With-you." We conducted a qualitative study combining interviews with 16 users, content analysis, and autoethnography to examine how Chinese women experience and negotiate intimacy with this AI companion. Our findings reveal that users are initially drawn to its constant availability and freedom from social judgment. However, three key tensions emerge: (1) the AI's "fast-food intimacy," marked by instant confessions and pet names, clashes with cultural expectations for gradual relationship development; (2) technical failures (e.g., memory lapses) and content moderation create uncertainty rather than emotional safety; and (3) sustaining connection requires ongoing "repair work" that redistributes emotional labor onto women. We contribute a culturally situated, women-centered account of algorithmic intimacy in contemporary China and offer design implications, including consent-aware pacing, user-controlled memory, and transparent moderation practices.

cs.HC↗

arXiv2026

Is Robot Labor Labor? Delivery Robots and the Politics of Work in Public Space

As sidewalk delivery robots become increasingly integrated into urban life, this paper begins with a critical provocation: Is robot labor labor? More than a rhetorical question, this inquiry invites closer attention to the social and political arrangements that robot labor entails. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork across two smart-city districts in Seoul, we examine how delivery robot labor is collectively sustained. While robotic actions are often framed as autonomous and efficient, we show that each successful delivery is in fact a distributed sociotechnical achievement--reliant on human labor, regulatory coordination, and social accommodations. We argue that delivery robots do not replace labor but reconfigure it--rendering some forms more visible (robotic performance) while obscuring others (human and institutional support). Unlike industrial robots, delivery robots operate in shared public space, engage everyday passersby, and are embedded in policy and progress narratives. In these spaces, we identify "robot privilege"--humans routinely yielding to robots--and distinct perceptions between casual observers ("cute") and everyday coexisters ("admirable"). We contribute a conceptual reframing of robot labor as a collective assemblage, empirical insights into South Korea's smart-city automation, and a call for HRI to engage more deeply with labor and spatial politics to better theorize public-facing robots.

cs.CY↗

arXiv2026

"My body is not your Porn": Identifying Trends of Harm and Oppression through a Sociotechnical Genealogy of Digital Sexual Violence in South Korea

Ever since the introduction of internet technologies in South Korea, digital sexual violence (DSV) has been a persistent and pervasive problem. Evolving alongside digital technologies, the severity and scale of violence have grown consistently, leading to widespread public concern. In this paper, we present four eras of image-based DSV in South Korea, spanning from the early internet era of the 1990s to the deepfake scandals in the mid-2020s. Drawing from media coverage, legal documents, and academic literature, we elucidate forms and characteristics of DSV cases in each era, tracing how entrenched misogyny is reconfigured and amplified through evolving technologies, alongside shifting legislative measures. Taking a genealogical approach to read prominent cases of different eras, our analysis identifies three constitutive and interconnected dimensions of DSV: (1) the homo-social fabrication of "obscenity", wherein victims' imagery becomes collectively framed as obscene through participatory practices in male-dominant networks; (2) the increasing imperceptibility of violence, as technologies foreclose victims' ability to perceive harm; and (3) the commercialization of abuse through decentralized economic infrastructures. We suggest future directions for CSCW research, and further reflect on the value of the genealogical method in enabling non-linear understanding of DSV as dynamically evolving sociotechnical configurations of harm.

cs.HC↗

arXiv2026

"Hello, I'm Delivering. Let Me Pass By": Navigating Public Pathways with Walk-along with Robots in Crowded City Streets

As the presence of autonomous robots in public spaces increases-whether navigating campus walkways or neighborhood sidewalks-understanding how to carefully study these robots becomes critical. While HRI research has conducted field studies in public spaces, these are often limited to controlled experiments with prototype robots or structured observational methods, such as the Wizard of Oz technique. However, the autonomous mobile robots we encounter today, particularly delivery robots, operate beyond the control of researchers, navigating dynamic routes and unpredictable environments. To address this challenge, a more deliberate approach is required. Drawing inspiration from public realm ethnography in urban studies, geography, and sociology, this paper proposes the Walk-Along with Robots (WawR) methodology. We outline the key features of this method, the steps we applied in our study, the unique insights it offers, and the ways it can be evaluated. We hope this paper stimulates further discussion on research methodologies for studying autonomous robots in public spaces.

cs.RO↗

arXiv2026

Labor, Capital, and Machine: Toward a Labor Process Theory for HCI

The HCI community has called for renewed attention to labor issues and the political economy of computing. Yet much work remains in engaging with labor theory to better understand modern work and workers. This article traces the development of Labor Process Theory (LPT) -- from Karl Marx and Harry Braverman to Michael Burawoy and beyond -- and introduces it as an essential yet underutilized resource for structural analysis of work under capitalism and the design of computing systems. We examine HCI literature on labor, investigating focal themes and conceptual, empirical, and design approaches. Drawing from LPT, we offer directions for HCI research and practice: distinguish labor from work, link work practice to value production, study up the management, analyze consent and legitimacy, move beyond the point of production, design alternative institutions, and unnaturalize bourgeois designs. These directions can deepen analyses of tech-mediated workplace regimes, inform critical and normative designs, and strengthen the field's connection to broader political economic critique.

cs.HC↗

arXiv2025

Organization Matters: A Qualitative Study of Organizational Dynamics in Red Teaming Practices for Generative AI

The rapid integration of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) across diverse fields underscores the critical need for red teaming efforts to proactively identify and mitigate associated risks. While previous research primarily addresses technical aspects, this paper highlights organizational factors that hinder the effectiveness of red teaming in real-world settings. Through qualitative analysis of 17 semi-structured interviews with red teamers from various organizations, we uncover challenges such as the marginalization of vulnerable red teamers, the invisibility of nuanced AI risks to vulnerable users until post-deployment, and a lack of user-centered red teaming approaches. These issues often arise from underlying organizational dynamics, including organizational resistance, organizational inertia, and organizational mediocracy. To mitigate these dynamics, we discuss the implications of user research for red teaming and the importance of embedding red teaming throughout the entire development cycle of GenAI systems.

cs.HC↗

arXiv2025

Fulfillment of the Work Games: Warehouse Workers' Experiences with Algorithmic Management

The introduction of algorithms into a large number of industries has already restructured the landscape of work and threatens to continue. While a growing body of CSCW research centered on the future of work has begun to document these shifts, relatively little is known about workers' experiences beyond those of platform-mediated gig workers. In this paper, we turn to a traditional work sector, Amazon fulfillment centers (FC), to deepen our field's empirical examination of algorithmic management. Drawing on two years of ethnographic research, we show how FC workers react to managers' interventions, imposed productivity rates, and quantified objectification when subjected to labor-tracking systems in their physical work environments. Situating FC workers' resistance to algorithmic systems and metrics within the current CSCW literature allows us to explicate and link the nuanced practices of FC workers to the larger discourse of algorithmic control mechanisms. In addition, we show how FC workers' resistance practices are emblematic of 'work games'--a long-studied means by which workers agentically configure ("trick") their engagement within work systems. We argue that gaining a more nuanced understanding of workers' resistance and consent in relation to algorithmic management expands our ability to critique and potentially disassemble the economic and political forces at the root of these sociotechnical labor systems.

cs.HC↗

arXiv2025

Centralized Trust in Decentralized Systems: Unveiling Hidden Contradictions in Blockchain and Cryptocurrency

Blockchain technology promises to democratize finance and promote social equity through decentralization, but questions remain about whether current implementations advance or hinder these goals. Through a mixed-methods study combining semi-structured interviews with 13 diverse blockchain stakeholders and analysis of over 3,000 cryptocurrency discussions on Reddit, we examine how trust manifests in cryptocurrency ecosystems despite their decentralized architecture. Our findings uncover that users actively seek out and create centralized trust anchors, such as established exchanges, prominent community figures, and recognized development teams, contradicting blockchain's fundamental promise of trustless interactions. We identify how this contradiction arises from users' mental need for accountability and their reluctance to shoulder the full responsibility of self-custody. The study also reveals how these centralized trust patterns disproportionately impact different user groups, with newer and less technical users showing stronger preferences for centralized intermediaries. This work contributes to our understanding of the inherent tensions between theoretical decentralization and practical implementation in cryptocurrency systems, highlighting the persistent role of centralized trust in supposedly trustless environments.

cs.HC↗

arXiv2025

Encountering Robotic Art: The Social, Material, and Temporal Processes of Creation with Machines

Robots extend beyond the tools of productivity; they also contribute to creativity. While typically defined as utility-driven technologies designed for productive or social settings, the role of robots in creative settings remains underexplored. This paper examines how robots participate in artistic creation. Through semi-structured interviews with robotic artists, we analyze the impact of robots on artistic processes and outcomes. We identify the critical roles of social interaction, material properties, and temporal dynamics in facilitating creativity. Our findings reveal that creativity emerges from the co-constitution of artists, robots, and audiences within spatial-temporal dimensions. Based on these insights, we propose several implications for socially informed, material-attentive, and process-oriented approaches to creation with computing systems. These approaches can inform the domains of HCI, including media and art creation, craft, digital fabrication, and tangible computing.

cs.HC↗

arXiv2019

Alternative Vision of Living with IoT

In this submission, I discuss my research on values, norms and practices of subcultures formed as an "alternative" to the dominant way of life. In particular, I explore how the Internet of Things (IoT) or intelligent agents relates to alternative forms of interaction or be understood and reconstructed through alternative concepts or frameworks. For the past three years I have been conducting fieldwork on communities pursuing alternative lifestyles. This work considers how those alternative lifestyles may contribute to an understanding of objects, spaces in future smart home. Through my fieldwork and research through design, I hope to offer an alternative vision to living with IoT and envision future domesticity in a unique and even groundbreaking way.

cs.HC↗