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The goal of this chapter was to provide an insight into rules and norms behind generation Y social media presence and inform future research through an exploration of the norms underpinning digitally mediated interaction and behavior among college-age students in Ireland.

The authors administered a questionnaire containing both closed- and open-ended questions among 131 first-year college students in Ireland, asking them to identify online behaviors and actions with a purpose of recognizing rules and norms that guided how they handled sharing, interaction, and mediated aspects of relationships in their use of mobile devices and social media platforms.

This study reveals that the driving force is the desire for and implementation of what can be called the norm of “Do No Harm Lest Others Do Harm to You.” This norm, rather than being driven by the Hippocratic Code of principled awareness is an expression of an acute consciousness of audience segregation and the need for self-protection in online interaction. The respondents were asked about the rules and norms that guided how they handled sharing, interaction, and mediated aspects of relationships in their use of mobile devices and social media platforms. Their responses demonstrated that millennials, in their everyday and intensive use of digitally mediated technologies, have begun to observe a new social contract of “Do No Harm Lest Others Do Harm to You” where internet becomes a space of entertainment and private messaging devoid of conflict and exchanges of opinion with others. Millennials seem to be closing down the scope of online interaction which in the long run can limit the function of internet as a social sphere where various issues, including political views, are exchanged and discussed.

The research is exploratory in nature and relied up on a relatively small sample size. For this reason, while the study produces new analytic frameworks, the findings could not be generalized. Additionally, there are certain features that appear to be specifically Irish such as a blurred line between perception of bullying and harmless having the “craic.”

This research makes explicit the harm mitigation and conflict avoidance strategies underpinning the use of social and digital media as it has been deployed and shaped by Irish millennials and discusses the consequences of their reluctance to engage in the public realm of the internet.

This study uses the ‘Dragon Age’ series by BioWare as a case study to examine the impact of video game player diversity on the inclusion of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) content in mainstream games. It explores the degree to which the perception of video games as ‘hegemonically masculine and heteronormative’ accurately reflects gamers’ own experiences.

The study is based on an online survey in the Dragon Age community forum, including open-ended qualitative questions.

The main findings show that male and female respondents widely believed in the presence of heterosexual (male) privilege within gaming culture at large. However, respondents’ own personal views and experiences demonstrated that they largely accept the inclusion of LGBT content in games. Finally, respondents showed considerable ‘disinhibition’ when it came to experimenting with sexuality and sexual identity in video games as compared to in real life.

This was a small exploratory study and was limited by its size and a possible self-selection bias.

The findings indicate that gender diversity, diversity of sexualities and acceptance of LGBT content are all greater than previously thought. Moreover, role-playing games are fertile ground for experimentation with sexual identities among gamers. These results call for more research in this area.