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There has been a growing interest in reproductive health and intimate wellbeing in Human-Computer Interaction, increasingly from an ecological perspective. Much of this work is centered around women’s experiences across diverse settings, emphasizing men’s limited engagement and need for greater participation on these topics. Our research responds to this gap by investigating cisgender men’s experiences of cultivating sexual health literacies in an urban Indian context. We leverage media probes to stimulate focus group discussions, using popular media references on men’s fertility to elicit shared reflection. Our findings uncover the role that humor and masculinity play in shaping men’s perceptions of their sexual health and how this influences their sense of agency and participation in heterosexual intimate relationships. We further discuss how technologies might be designed to support men’s participation in these relationships as supportive partners and allies. 

Care workers are increasingly using digital technology in their daily lives, for monitoring, financial compensation, training, coordination, and more. State and corporate actors have invested significant resources to enable this digital shift, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, care work has remained chronically underpaid, and continues to rely on women from minoritized and marginalized backgrounds. Our paper examines how care workers carefully navigate digitization, precarity, and complex social relationships, in an attempt to care for their communities and each other. We analyze the emerging digital ecosystem for frontline health workers in India during the COVID-19 pandemic where these dynamics have been highly visible. Our research draws attention to four interconnected ways in which workers practiced care, by directing their efforts towards survival, resilience, advocacy, and/or resistance. We suggest these also as care orientations that can be adopted by researchers and practitioners, to critically reflect on and direct technology design towards enabling more caring futures, for (and with) workers and communities. 

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) disproportionately affects United States veterans, yet they may be reluctant to seek or engage in care. We interview 21 participants, including veterans with PTSD, clinicians who treat veterans and friends and family that support veterans through mental health ordeals. We investigate the military identity these veterans share. We explore how this may add to their reluctance in care-seeking behaviors. We also explore the roles of human and non-human intermediaries in ecologies of care and the potential for enhancing patient empowerment in current clinical treatment contexts. We discuss how military culture can be utilized in clinical care, how multiple perspectives can be leveraged to create a more holistic view of the patient, and finally, how veterans can be empowered during treatment. We conclude with recommendations for the design of sociotechnical systems that prioritize the above in support of the mental well-being of veterans with PTSD.