Losing One's Story: How Vulnerable Users Experience Harm in Online Support Seeking

[2311.15427] Losing One's Story: How Vulnerable Users Experience Harm in Online Support Seeking Skip to main content Search Submit Donate Log in Computer Science > Human-Computer Interaction arXiv:2311.15427 (cs) [Submitted on 26 Nov 2023 ( v1 ), last revised 26 Aug 2026 (this version, v2)] Title: Losing One's Story: How Vulnerable Users Experience Harm in Online Support Seeking Authors: Yingfan Zhou , Priya Kumar , Anna Squicciarini , Sarah Rajtmajer View PDF HTML (experimental) Abstract: Online support communities are a critical resource for individuals facing distress, stigma, and limited offline support. However, these spaces are not uniformly supportive, particularly for users with little margin for error. In this paper, we examine how vulnerable users experience harm within online support-seeking interactions. Through 25 semi-structured interviews with Reddit users, we show that support seeking is often a constrained practice shaped by structural vulnerability. We introduce the concept of \emph{narrative harm} to describe how participants experience harm through losses of narrative authority, coherence, and space. Their personal disclosures are questioned, reframed, or displaced by others, reflecting asymmetries in voice, credibility, and interpretive power embedded in platform dynamics and moderation regimes. In response, users engage in defensive strategies, including selective self-disclosure, self-silencing, identity separation, and informal mutual aid, shifting the burden of safety onto those already most vulnerable. Our findings highlight how current platform designs insufficiently account for situated vulnerability and redistribute discursive power away from support seekers. We discuss implications for the design of online support systems that better preserve narrative integrity and reduce the burden of safety labor. Subjects: Human-Computer Interaction (cs.HC) Cite as: arXiv:2311.15427 [cs.HC] (or arXiv:2311.15427v2 [cs.HC] for this version) https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2311.15427 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite Submission history From: Yingfan Zhou [ view email ] [v1] Sun, 26 Nov 2023 21:17:50 UTC (540 KB) [v2] Wed, 26 Aug 2026 20:09:21 UTC (800 KB) Full-text links: Access Paper: View PDF HTML (experimental) TeX Source view license Additional Features Audio Summary Current browse context: cs.HC < prev | next > new | recent | 2023-11 Change to browse by: cs References & Citations SciX Google Scholar Semantic Scholar export BibTeX citation Bookmark Bibliographic Tools Bibliographic and Citation Tools Bibliographic Explorer Toggle Bibliographic Explorer ( What is the Explorer? ) Connected Papers Toggle Connected Papers ( What is Connected Papers? ) Litmaps Toggle Litmaps ( What is Litmaps? ) scite.ai Toggle scite Smart Citations ( What are Smart Citations? ) Code, Data, Media Code, Data and Media Associated with this Article alphaXiv Toggle alphaXiv ( What is alphaXiv? ) Links to Code Toggle CatalyzeX Code Finder for Papers ( What is CatalyzeX? ) DagsHub Toggle DagsHub ( What is DagsHub? ) GotitPub Toggle Gotit.pub ( What is GotitPub? ) Huggingface Toggle Hugging Face ( What is Huggingface? ) ScienceCast Toggle ScienceCast ( What is ScienceCast? ) Demos Demos Replicate Toggle Replicate ( What is Replicate? ) Spaces Toggle Hugging Face Spaces ( What is Spaces? ) Spaces Toggle TXYZ.AI ( What is TXYZ.AI? ) Related Papers Recommenders and Search Tools Link to Influence Flower Influence Flower ( What are Influence Flowers? ) Core recommender toggle CORE Recommender ( What is CORE? ) Author Venue Institution Topic About arXivLabs arXivLabs: experimental projects with community collaborators arXivLabs is a framework that allows collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on our website. Both individuals and organizations that work with arXivLabs have embraced and accepted our values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these values and only works with partners that adhere to them. Have an idea for a project that will add value for arXiv's community? Learn more about arXivLabs . Which authors of this paper are endorsers? | Disable MathJax ( What is MathJax? ) We gratefully acknowledge support from our major funders , member institutions , and all contributors. About · Help · Contact · Subscribe · Copyright · Privacy · Accessibility · Operational Status (opens in new tab)

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