Suicidality, understood as the risk of suicide with intent or the idea of suicide, has been increasingly prevalent in our country, yet the topic of suicidality is one that is often spoken in hushed tones and behind closed doors (Pam, 2013). While suicide statistics trend upwards, there is a growing need to understand representations of suicidality, particularly within media (Centers for Disease Control, 2017). This thesis looks to explore the representations of suicidality in media, specifically Netflix’s original series, Thirteen Reasons Why. Data collection for this thesis will be collected from online social media forums dedicated to the show in the form of episode discussions reflecting on each episode in the season. Through an emergent, grounded analysis, this paper will address current representations of suicidality within Thirteen Reasons Why as well as identify common themes found in online social media forums. This research established common themes of resilience-enhancing, community building, and individuals feeling at-risk or triggered by representations of suicidality in Thirteen Reasons Why as found throughout the online social media forums.

Smart technology is now pervasive in society and has partnered with people on every level, yet its social and cultural implications are easily overlooked by the majority. In this thesis, I work on building a silent partnership between humans and smart technology and creating smart devices/systems as silent partners by revealing the complexity of smart technology and tackling the current issues of unilateral transparency, a lack of negotiation, and the dynamic of the sense of control. This work draws on varied fields such as critical cultural studies, science and technology studies (STS), media studies, information studies, sociology, psychology, and design and consists of three main themes: materiality, politics, and affect. In addition, I utilize theoretical frameworks such as posthumanism, actor-network theory (ANT), assemblage, materialism, and affect theory to analyze the underlying factors and relationships among human and nonhuman actors such as technology companies, governments, engineers, designers, users, as well as infrastructure, algorithms, and smart devices/systems. Finally, I offer four roles to rethink smart technology (an actor, a fluid, a peer, and a silent partner) and propose 15 design principles to redesign smart devices/systems as silent partners.

Marijuana legalization will likely result in increased marijuana consumption with uncertain social and health impacts. This thesis looks to share user perspectives on marijuana, specifically addressing how users represent marijuana risks, benefits, and uncertain or unknown dangers. Data were collected from an online social-media forum that initiated the discussion by prompting readers to reflect on marijuana risks in a context of growing accolades concerning its benefits. Grounded theory and thematic analysis were both utilized to identify consistent themes or patterns across user comments. It was found that users identified both benefits and risks of marijuana, while some users had disputes about certain known risks (such as impaired driving) or uncertain or unknown dangers (such as reduced dream activity). Despite disagreements about the degree of risk associated with a particular activity (such as driving and dreaming), this thesis found risks and benefits were discussed in relatively narrow ways that suggest more education is needed around the full spectrum of the effects of various strains, including benefits, risks, and uncertainties.

The biohacker movement is an important and modern form of activism. This study broadly examines how positive-activist-oriented biohackers emerge, organize, and respond to social crises. Despite growing public awareness, few studies have examined biohacking's influence on prevailing notions of organizing and medicine in-context. Therefore, this study examines biohacking in the context of the 2016 EpiPen price-gouging crisis, and explores how biohackers communicatively attempted to constitute counter-narratives and counter-logics about medical access and price through do-it-yourself (DIY) medical device alternatives. Discourse tracing and critical case study analysis are useful methodological frameworks for mapping the historical discursive and material logics that led to the EpiPen pricing crisis, including the medicalization of allergy, the advancement of drug-device combination technologies, and role of public health policy, and pharmaceutical marketing tactics. Findings suggest two new interpretations for how non-traditional forms of organizing facilitate new modes of resistance in times of institutional crisis. First, the study considers the concept of "pop-up maktivism" to conceptualize activism as a type of connective activity rather than collective organizing. Second, findings illustrate how activities such as participation and co-production can function as meaningful forms of institutional resistance within dominant discourses. This study proposes “mirrored materiality” to describe how biohackers deploy certain dominant logics to contest others. Lastly, implications for contributions to the conceptual frameworks of biopower, sociomateriality, and alternative organizing are discussed.

This dissertation explores the historical development and contemporary deployment of discursive practices that constitute the “truth” of addiction, which in turn serve as the bases for interventions into the lives of people who use intoxicants for any number of reasons. A number of interrelated research questions structure this governmentality analysis. First, what is the evolution of the governmental frames developed and deployed to understand, discipline, and recover addiction in the arena of alcohol and illicit drug use in United States? Second, how does twelve-step serve to transform unruly addicts into self-disciplining citizens? Finally, how does The Meth Project (TMP) exemplify and/or diverge from the dominant addiction governmental frames developed during the Temperance and Progressive eras in the United States? My overall goal is to destabilize our ready understanding of addiction and demonstrate that it is as much a tool of social needs as it is a mental illness by demonstrating: 1) the historically contingent nature of our understandings of addiction and addicts; 2) how these historically contingent understandings are actualized as technologies geared toward “recovering” unruly subjects; and 3) how these historically contingent understandings are taken up as “epistemological scripts” used to conceptualize the “true nature” of certain types of drugs and drug users while simultaneously supporting various regimes of discipline and punishment for those determined to remain “unruly subjects.”