"If I hadn't seen it that day, I wouldn't be here today": The Role of Digital Awareness Content on Social Media in Recognizing Gender-based Violence

This study examines how digital awareness content on social media and other platforms is perceived by individuals affected by gender-based violence, focusing on its role in recognizing abuse and initiating early help-seeking. Drawing on 63 survey responses and 12 interviews with individuals who self-identified as having experienced GBV, we analyze how participants described, reflected on, and engaged with awareness content. Our findings show that such content often served as an entry point for processing experiences and building recognition, while also carrying risks of retraumatization and emotional overload when poorly designed. Participants emphasized that recognition and information-seeking are gradual, nonlinear processes shaped by emotional readiness and informal supports, yet much current awareness content overlooks this reality, pushing immediate reporting rather than supporting the slow work of sense-making. This work contributes to HCI by offering trauma-informed design strategies for awareness content and platforms that foster recognition and respect user agency.