Reflexive Contamination in Digital Ethnography: Humor, Norm Violation, and Ontological Stress in Researcher–Subject Interaction

This paper examines a reflexive methodological event occurring during a digital ethnographic study of ontological panic in human–AI interaction. After formally archiving an interaction specimen characterized by affective withdrawal (“I feel AI vibes”), the researcher deliberately introduced a non-clinical, humorous response that violated the established analytical register. Rather than treating this intervention as a lapse in rigor, the paper argues that such moments of researcher contamination constitute valuable data, revealing the stability or fragility of the subject’s ontological boundary defense. By formalizing humor as a controlled perturbation, this study contributes to reflexive digital ethnography by demonstrating how intentional norm violation can function as a diagnostic instrument rather than a methodological failure.