Online Interviewing and Inauthentic Participants in the ‘Bot’ era: Methodological Reflections on Using Online Methods in Contemporary Social Research

Online methods are becoming increasingly normalised in qualitative social research due to their benefits, low-cost and ease of access. Yet, they can pose risks for social researchers who are using such methods in their work. This article presents some reflections on these topics based on a range of inauthentic responses – including ‘bots’ and real people who were not always ‘authentic’ – to a research project exploring graduates perspectives of in-work precarity. We argue for reflexive and considered approaches in sociological research that can parse different forms of identity in online social research contexts, through exploring identity and lived experience. Our contribution is to emphasise some of the messiness of social research as a continuous socially embodied process and reflect on our sought connection to lived experiential data when using online methods.