Others' Images: Online Social Media, Architectural Improvisations, and Spatial Marginalization in Bangladesh

This paper joins the growing body of work in postcolonial computing in HCI, and critically examines the impacts of online social media on the urban architecture in the Global South. Based on our nine-month long ethnography at eight residential areas in Dhaka, Bangladesh, this paper reports how online fame drives local users to produce digital images of their houses mimicking various Western standards, which in turn, brings changes to the organization, aesthetics, and functions of domestic spaces. This paper also describes how such digital image mediated transformations to local architecture are diminishing traditional spaces, altering their usual functions, and limiting the movement of many women inside their home. Drawing from a rich body of literature in postcolonialism, critical image theory, architecture, and Islamic feminism, we explain how these practices demonstrate a subaltern experience of using social media in the Global South. We further discuss design implications to both HCI and architecture to address these issues, and connect our findings to the broader agendas of HCI around social justice and global development.