A critical element for a successful transition is the ability to disclose, or make known, one’s struggles. In our paper ‘Challenges in Transitioning from Civil to Military Culture: Hyper-Selective Disclosure through ICTs’ we explore the transition disclosure practices of Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) students who are transitioning from an individualistic culture to one that is highly collective. As ROTC students routinely evaluate their peers through a ranking system, the act of disclosure may impact a student’s ability to secure limited opportunities within the military upon graduation. We perform interviews of 14 ROTC students studying how they use information communication technologies (ICTs) to disclose their struggles in a hyper-competitive environment, we find they engage in a process of highly selective disclosure, choosing different groups with which to disclose based on the types of issues they face. We share implications for designing ICTs that better facilitate how ROTC students cope with personal challenges during their formative transition into the military.
Read more in our CSCW 2018 paper.