When Handwriting Goes Social: Creativity, Anonymity, and Communication in Graphonymous Online Spaces

TL;DR

This paper explores how anonymous handwriting and drawing in online spaces foster creativity, social connection, and unique conversational strategies, providing insights for designing more engaging digital communication platforms.

Contribution

It introduces Graphonymous Interaction, a novel form of anonymous, collaborative handwriting communication, and analyzes its social and creative dynamics through empirical data.

Findings

Fosters artistic expression and social bonding

Enables recognition despite anonymity through graphology

Features smoother conversational exchanges with fewer repairs

Abstract

While most digital communication platforms rely on text, relatively little research has examined how users engage through handwriting and drawing in anonymous, collaborative environments. We introduce Graphonymous Interaction, a form of communication where users interact anonymously via handwriting and drawing. Our study analyzed over 600 canvas pages from the Graphonymous Online Space (GOS) CollaNote and conducted interviews with 20 users. Additionally, we examined 70 minutes of real-time GOS sessions using Conversation Analysis and Multimodal Discourse Analysis. Findings reveal that Graphonymous Interaction fosters artistic expression, intellectual engagement, sharing and supporting, and social connection. Notably, anonymity coexisted with moments of recognition through graphological identification. Distinct conversational strategies also emerged, which allow smoother exchanges and fewer conversational repairs compared to text-based communication. This study contributes to understanding Graphonymous Interaction and Online Spaces, offering insights into designing platforms that support creative and socially engaging forms of communication beyond text.