New ICTs redefining social sustainability and information ecologies

In this paper we explore perceptions of social sustainability surrounding three new information technologies — virtual reality, telepresence robots, and holograms — and what their use may mean for social sustainability and information ecologies. A total of 30 interviews were conducted with researchers, developers, and early users of these technologies. The interviews asked participants to define sustainability and how they feel their technologies can contribute to it. Reflexive thematic analysis was then used to generate themes from the data. Our results show that social sustainability is the most complex and diverse aspect of sustainability, and new information technologies have the capability to contribute both positively and negatively to it. How they are used and how they coevolve alongside social practices will define how sustainable they are. By challenging how we understand inclusivity and locality, these new technologies pose interesting new questions for both social development and information ecologies.