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“It's not that I don't have problems, I'm just not putting them on Facebook”: Challenges and Opportunities in Using Online Social Networks for Health
Abstract
To understand why and how people share health information online, we interviewed fourteen people with significant health concerns who participate in both online health communities and Facebook. Qualitative analysis of these interviews highlighted the ways that people think about with whom and how to share different types of information as they pursue social goals related to their personal health, including emotional support, motivation, accountability, and advice. Our study suggests that success in these goals depends on how well they develop their social networks and how effectively they communicate within those networks. Effective communication is made more challenging by the need to strike a balance between sharing information related to specific needs and the desire to manage self-presentation. Based on these observations, we outline a set of design opportunities for future systems to support health-oriented social interactions online, including tools to help users shape their social networks and communicate effectively within those.
... Facebook), making them unsuitable to seek emotional support for major issues. This is because users of public and semi-public systems must navigate the tension between sharing honestly about their struggles and asking for help against the positive and inviting impression they strive to develop for their social network, followers, and outsiders (e.g. a potential employer) who may search and discover their profile [3]. 1 Many kinds of emotional support systems have been implemented, recent examples include 7 Cups of Tea, BlahTherapy, and CrisisChat. 7 Cups of Tea (7cot) is a canonical, long standing example of an online emotional support service. ...
... Past works have also tried to understand how users utilize online social networks and social media to manage emotional and personal problems. to share certain types of information, especially personal or information that may be used as fodder for cyberbullies, to protect themselves and to manage their online impression [3]. on anger management, anxiety etc). ...
... Online mental health communities (OMHCs) offer a convenient way for individuals to access social support [10,45] and has been demonstrated to be helpful for alleviating their distress and fulfilling psychological needs [12,21]. The exchange of social support is a primary motivator for users to join OMHCs [14,50]. ...
... Interestingly, participants adjusted the weights of the detected keywords or specified keywords to infuse their emotions into the process of generating images, which, in turn, inspired them to re-edit the textual content in their posts. Such an interactive text-image generation process can help users strike a balance between sharing information related to specific needs and the desire to manage self-presentation in social media like OMHCs [39,45]. Our findings in Study II and Study III also indicate that generative images could enable clearer communication of support-seekers' thoughts and feelings to the support-providers, which validates the power of images for improved communication [62]. ...
Support-seekers' self-disclosure of their suffering experiences, thoughts, and feelings in the post can help them get needed peer support in online mental health communities (OMHCs). However, such mental health self-disclosure could be challenging. Images can facilitate the manifestation of relevant experiences and feelings in the text; yet, relevant images are not always available. In this paper, we present a technical prototype named MentalImager and validate in a human evaluation study that it can generate topical- and emotional-relevant images based on the seekers' drafted posts or specified keywords. Two user studies demonstrate that MentalImager not only improves seekers' satisfaction with their self-disclosure in their posts but also invokes support-providers' empathy for the seekers and willingness to offer help. Such improvements are credited to the generated images, which help seekers express their emotions and inspire them to add more details about their experiences and feelings. We report concerns on MentalImager and discuss insights for supporting self-disclosure in OMHCs.
... Much of the work has focused on the impacts of (pseudo-)anonymity in online spaces which enables safe disclosure [3,4,7,29,95,115], together with increased chances of receiving valuable social support (such as reciprocal disclosures which can normalise the posters' experience). For example, the degree of anonymity has been linked to the differential expectations on personal impression management, such as in the ratio of 'positive' (e.g., reporting on successes in face of challenges) vs 'negative' (e.g., requests for support) posts, with (pseudo-)anonymous communities more conducive to asking for-and receiving-help (cf., [1,95]. ...
... Much of the work has focused on the impacts of (pseudo-)anonymity in online spaces which enables safe disclosure [3,4,7,29,95,115], together with increased chances of receiving valuable social support (such as reciprocal disclosures which can normalise the posters' experience). For example, the degree of anonymity has been linked to the differential expectations on personal impression management, such as in the ratio of 'positive' (e.g., reporting on successes in face of challenges) vs 'negative' (e.g., requests for support) posts, with (pseudo-)anonymous communities more conducive to asking for-and receiving-help (cf., [1,95]. ...
Early parenting is one of the strongest predictors of child well-being. Online social communities have shown promise in supporting parents across a range of contexts. However, we only have a limited understanding of how posters and commenters interact within a forum, or how well commenter responses can support complex parenting questions, such as attempts to change a child's behaviour or to apply new parenting approaches. We start addressing this gap by combining an empirical analysis of 1 year of parent posts from an exemplar online forum (Mumsnet) with literature on parenting interventions from psychology. In particular, we examine the types of question parents of 2-5 year olds seek help for around their children's behaviour, and the challenges with the support that they do (or do not) receive from the Mumsnet community. Combining empirical and theory-driven insights, we outline an 'information-to-application' gap that conceptually underpins the difficulties observed, and suggest plausible research directions that could address such design problems.
... Arousing support, impulse, accountability, and advice are a spread of the private uses for social media in health information that are identified. However, it has been demonstrated that people don't frequently use social media or social networking websites for these purposes, with social media reaching only a little percentage of all users trying to seek out health information (Newman, Lauterbach, Munson, Resnick, & Morris, 2011). ...
... Users could even be more likely to debate and communicate about various health topics if social media is used in this way. Creating appealing broadcast platforms for organizations and businesses (Newman, Lauterbach, Munson, Resnick, & Morris, 2011). ...
... Disclosure, especially when it relates to stigmatized conditions such as mental health status, can be beneficial, in that it gives people an opportunity to express emotions and develop personal relationships; however, it can also be harmful if the confidant has a negative reaction [9]. The work on self-disclosure is extensive, and multiple theories around self-disclosure exist [10][11][12]. ...
... In addition to work applying NLP, AI, and HCI techniques to understand mental health, we are also inspired by a body of work on self-disclosure. Concerns of impression management can inhibit other goals surrounding self-disclosure (emotional support, accountability, motivation, advice), especially on public social media forums that are linked to real-life identities [10]; still, researchers have found evidence of intimate self-disclosures on both anonymous and identified social media. ...
As social media has proliferated, a key aspect to making meaningful connections with people online has been revealing important parts of one’s identity. In this work, we study changes that occur in people’s language use after they share a specific piece of their identity: a depression diagnosis. To do so, we collect data from over five thousand users who have made such a statement, which we refer to as an identity claim. Prior to making a depression identity claim, the Reddit user’s language displays evidence of increasingly higher rates of anxiety, sadness, and cognitive processing language compared to matched controls. After the identity claim, these language markers decrease and more closely match the controls. Similarly, first person singular pronoun usage decreases following the identity claim, which was previously previously found to be indicative of self-focus and associated with depression. By further considering how and to whom people express their identity, we find that the observed longitudinal changes are larger for those who do so in ways that are more correlated with seeking help (sharing in a post instead of a comment; sharing in a mental health support forum). This work suggests that there may be benefits to sharing one’s depression diagnosis, especially in a semi-anonymous forum where others are likely to be empathetic.
... The feeling of relatedness is not limited to direct relationships and can appear online. For example, researchers have demonstrated the positive effect of social media health platforms on relatedness (72). Similarly, positive and encouraging comments have been observed to increase engagement and the promotion of relatedness in behavior change activities (15). ...
Background
To fight sedentary lifestyles, researchers have introduced various technological interventions aimed at promoting physical activity through social support. These interventions encourage people to exercise together, maintaining high levels of motivation. However, the unpredictable nature of human peers makes it challenging to control behavior and balance these interventions effectively. Artificial intelligence agents, on the other hand, can provide consistent social support and are more controllable. Hence, we propose Simulated Exercising Peers (SEPs) as a promising solution for providing agent-based social support for physical activity.
Method
Participatory design sessions were conducted, involving young adults in the creation of SEP-based interventions. Sixteen participants generated four prototypes that varied in aesthetics, behavior, and communication style, with outcomes analyzed through the lens of Self-Determination Theory to better understand the motivational implications of each design.
Results
Findings highlight key components crucial for designing SEPs that enhance acceptance and efficiently integrate into physical activity interventions. Additionally, the study revealed how the aesthetics and behavior of SEPs could potentially deceive users, which can lead to user disengagement from interventions involving SEPs. Participants also defined two distinct social roles for the SEPs, i.e., coach, and companion, each associated with unique communication styles.
Conclusion
This study offers five design guidelines for the development of SEPs, AI agents aimed at promoting physical activity through social support, and highlights opportunities for their integration into broader physical activity interventions.
... However, relatively few studies have used these methods to explore communication cues presented within live crowdfunding on short-video platforms. Previous research has examined the self-presentation strategies of individuals facing hardship, describing how they emphasize positivity and express their concerns anonymously (De Choudhury and De, 2014;Newman et al., 2011), and how they navigate expectations in asynchronous medical crowdfunding (Kim et al., 2018). Unlike traditional web-based fundraising platforms, live crowdfunding operates within a richer medium where fundraisers can talk with the audience in real time. ...
Introduction. The combination of Live streaming and E-commerce also offers opportunities for people whose family members are severely ill, disabled, or old and facilitates their ability to raise funds by selling commodities and receiving virtual gifts. Unlike other streamers, hardship live streamers are driven by unique motivations and may employ distinct self-presentation techniques. Method. We analysed TikTok video clips and sales data from 14 male and female hardship streamers. Analysis. We used both quantitative and qualitative analyses of the data, including topic modelling, sentiment analysis, and thematic content analysis. Results. We found that 1) hardship streamers used multi-modal cues to facilitate interactivity and authenticity, as they emphasized their hardship and promoted the product; 2) higher literacy level of the streamers and the use of a positive tone positively correlated with better sales; 3) hardship storytelling positively correlated with the time the audience stayed in their live streaming sessions; and 4) females focused more on their hardships, used a more negative tone, and talked faster than males. Conclusion. We provide a unique understanding of the effectiveness of self-presentation strategies used by marginalized live streamers in raising funds on TikTok.
... While past literature mainly focuses on the resistance tactics employed by gig workers, our paper examines the countermeasures used by workers across multiple types of employment, including remote workers, call center workers, and data workers. In line with other studies that focus on sensitive topics such as mental health, addiction, and pregnancy loss, we chose to study forums on Reddit due to its support for anonymous disclosure [13-15, 54, 121], which helps people talk about sensitive or stigmatized topics without having to disclose their real identity [96,121]. Researchers also have looked to Reddit to understand the experiences of gig workers, since online communities have been crucial for gig workers to share knowledge and build community despite the distributed nature of their work [36,101,109]. ...
With the rise of remote work, a range of surveillance technologies are increasingly being used by business owners to track and monitor employees, raising concerns about worker rights and privacy. Through analysis of Reddit posts and in-depth semi-structured interviews, this paper seeks to understand how workers across a range of sectors make sense of and respond to layered forms of surveillance. While workers express concern about risks to their health, safety, and privacy, they also face a lack of transparency and autonomy around the use of these systems. In response, workers take up tactics of everyday resistance, such as commiserating with other workers or employing technological hacks. Although these tactics demonstrate workers' ingenuity, they also show the limitations of existing approaches to protect workers against intrusive workplace monitoring. We argue that there is an opportunity for CSCW researchers to support these countermeasures through worker-led design and policy.
... Specifically, after individuals share fitness-related health information, it involves details about fitness goals, achievements, and challenges, which may help garner social support, thereby promoting further use of such information on social media (72). Secondly, relatedness needs might drive individuals to share personal health achievements, workout plans, and physical changes on social media to establish resonance and comparison (73). Finally, users may lean toward social identification with fitness-related information or perspectives within the framework of relatedness needs, conforming to the expectations of social groups (74). ...
Introduction
The role of social media in providing fitness-related health information has been widely discussed; however, there is a notable lack of research on fitness-related health information behaviors among youth within the social media context. This study aims to address this gap by integrating Self-Determination Theory (SDT)-based internal factors and external factors (social media algorithms and source credibility).
Methods
A voluntary sample of 600 participants, aged 15 to 29, was recruited. Data were analyzed using Partial Least Squares-Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) to examine the relationships between variables.
Results
The analysis revealed that all three intrinsic needs—competence, autonomy, and relatedness—along with social media algorithms and source credibility, positively correlated with fitness-related health information use behaviors among youth. Additionally, social media algorithms moderated the relationship between the need for relatedness and fitness-related health information behavior.
Discussion
These findings provide new insights into developing health communication strategies on social media, particularly targeted toward the youth demographic, enhancing our understanding of effective health information dissemination in digital environments.
... Prior literature extensively explores linguistic behaviors and conversational choices users make in online mentalhealth-related platforms, whether in crisis counseling platforms (Althoff et al., 2016;Zhang and Danescu-Niculescu-Mizil, 2020), peer-support platforms (Yang et al., 2017;Pruksachatkun et al., 2019;Yang and Jurgens, 2024), or therapy platforms (Malgaroli et al., 2023b). Accompanying growing attention to online mental-health resources and use of technology in psychotherapy (Anthony, 2003;Barak et al., 2008), many studies highlighted the benefits of online social support (De Choudhury and Kıcıman, 2017;Newman et al., 2011). We specifically focus on long-term sustained relationships in text-based therapy platforms, offering a novel perspective on development of the patienttherapy relation through longitudinal analyses. ...
... Indeed, online sensitive disclosures can be beneficial in finding community and connection. For example, Newman et al. (2011) found that sharing weight loss and diabetes struggles in Facebook groups provided emotional support, advice, motivation, and accountability. Similarly, Pyle et al. (2023) showed that college applicants disclosing their first-generation, low-income status on platforms like Instagram, Reddit, and Discord received support that enhanced their success in higher education. ...
Despite the growing body of research on people disclosing sensitive details about their identities or experiences online, few studies have focused on how individuals with intersecting stigmas manage these disclosures. Those facing multiple, overlapping sources of discrimination may encounter compounded challenges, which can complicate their assessment of the perceived benefits and risks of disclosure. This study seeks to understand disclosure among individuals with intersecting stigmas by examining how queer-identifying individuals in Mumbai, India, navigate the intersection of queerness and mental health disclosures on social media. Based on qualitative findings from 35 interviews, we identify three key factors that can further enhance existing disclosure frameworks. First, the perceived risk of disclosure can be amplified by intersecting sources of stigma, such that people may be particularly wary of disclosing at all, and especially on social media. Second, the importance of community support and resources for those with intersecting stigmas can increase their focus on the communal benefits of disclosure. Third, prior experiences with disclosing stigma on particular social platforms can affect the perceived safety of disclosing on those platforms and influence the strategies used. We discuss the implications of these findings and suggest areas for further investigation to develop a more comprehensive disclosure framework for those with intersecting stigmas.
... Prior literature extensively explores linguistic behaviors and conversational choices users make in online mentalhealth-related platforms, whether in crisis counseling platforms (Althoff et al., 2016;Zhang and Danescu-Niculescu-Mizil, 2020), peer-support platforms (Yang et al., 2017;Pruksachatkun et al., 2019;Yang and Jurgens, 2024), or therapy platforms (Malgaroli et al., 2023b). Accompanying growing attention to online mental-health resources and use of technology in psychotherapy (Anthony, 2003;Barak et al., 2008), many studies highlighted the benefits of online social support (De Choudhury and Kıcıman, 2017;Newman et al., 2011). We specifically focus on long-term sustained relationships in text-based therapy platforms, offering a novel perspective on development of the patienttherapy relation through longitudinal analyses. ...
Mental-health therapy involves a complex conversation flow in which patients and therapists continuously negotiate what should be talked about next. For example, therapists might try to shift the conversation's direction to keep the therapeutic process on track and avoid stagnation, or patients might push the discussion towards issues they want to focus on. How do such patient and therapist redirections relate to the development and quality of their relationship? To answer this question, we introduce a probabilistic measure of the extent to which a certain utterance immediately redirects the flow of the conversation, accounting for both the intention and the actual realization of such a change. We apply this new measure to characterize the development of patient-therapist relationships over multiple sessions in a very large, widely-used online therapy platform. Our analysis reveals that (1) patient control of the conversation's direction generally increases relative to that of the therapist as their relationship progresses; and (2) patients who have less control in the first few sessions are significantly more likely to eventually express dissatisfaction with their therapist and terminate the relationship.
... attitudes, which have been found among the general public [15,29,102], law enforcement [12,103], and victimsurvivors' friends and family [88]. Online help-seekers for topics such as health often look for specific advice or information, acknowledgement, or sympathy [3,37,68]. Prior work also studies online help-seeking for sexual abuse (e.g., rape); by contrast, our work considers online help-seeking for image-based sexual abuse. When disclosing online about sexual abuse (that was not image-based), victim-survivors perceived online fora as safer spaces to disclose stigmatized experiences and connect with others, with reduced interpersonal risk [1,2,50,66,72]. ...
Image-based sexual abuse (IBSA), like other forms of technology-facilitated abuse, is a growing threat to people's digital safety. Attacks include unwanted solicitations for sexually explicit images, extorting people under threat of leaking their images, or purposefully leaking images to enact revenge or exert control. In this paper, we explore how people seek and receive help for IBSA on social media. Specifically, we identify over 100,000 Reddit posts that engage relationship and advice communities for help related to IBSA. We draw on a stratified sample of 261 posts to qualitatively examine how various types of IBSA unfold, including the mapping of gender, relationship dynamics, and technology involvement to different types of IBSA. We also explore the support needs of victim-survivors experiencing IBSA and how communities help victim-survivors navigate their abuse through technical, emotional, and relationship advice. Finally, we highlight sociotechnical gaps in connecting victim-survivors with important care, regardless of whom they turn to for help.
... Another characteristic of health-related information is that it is often presented through personal health stories, motivated by the need to find people with shared experiences and the desire for social support or, to some extent, for self-presentation purposes [97,113,122]. Consequently, health-related information in social media often includes opinions and personal experiences [63]. These are difficult to mark as "true" or "fake, " even when any treatments that are mentioned contradict expert consensus. ...
Health misinformation, defined as health-oriented information that contradicts empirically supported scientific findings, has become a significant concern on social media platforms. In response, platforms have implemented diverse design solutions to block such misinformation or alert users about its potential inaccuracies. However, there is limited knowledge about users' perceptions of this specific type of misinformation and the actions that are necessary from both the platforms and the users themselves to mitigate its proliferation. This paper explores social media users' (n = 22) perceptions of health misinformation. On the basis of our data, we identify specific types of health misinformation and align them with user-suggested countermeasures. We point to the critical demands for anti-misinformation solutions for health topics, emphasizing the transparency of information sources, immediate presentation of information, and clarity. Building on these findings, we propose a series of design recommendations to aid the future development of solutions aimed at counteracting misinformation.
... While researchers have also explored integrating multiple sources of data, these similarly focus on deriving insights that are relevant to a singular dimension, i.e., health [59] or wellbeing [4]. PI researchers have also considered how self-tracking systems can hold individuals accountable for their behavior change goals [31] through the social accountability that manifests through publicly posting one's own tracked data [78,81,112], the support they receive from posting [20,28,78], and in-app rankings [39]. In contrast, our findings illustrate that gig workers employ self-tracking to simultaneously manage a broad spectrum of accountabilities that extend beyond holding oneself responsible for behavioral change goals. ...
Tracking is inherent in and central to the gig economy. Platforms track gig workers' performance through metrics such as acceptance rate and punctuality, while gig workers themselves engage in self-tracking. Although prior research has extensively examined how gig platforms track workers through metrics -- with some studies briefly acknowledging the phenomenon of self-tracking among workers -- there is a dearth of studies that explore how and why gig workers track themselves. To address this, we conducted 25 semi-structured interviews, revealing how gig workers self-tracking to manage accountabilities to themselves and external entities across three identities: the holistic self, the entrepreneurial self, and the platformized self. We connect our findings to neoliberalism, through which we contextualize gig workers' self-accountability and the invisible labor of self-tracking. We further discuss how self-tracking mitigates information and power asymmetries in gig work and offer design implications to support gig workers' multi-dimensional self-tracking.
... For instance, Hobfoll and colleagues (Hobfoll, Nadler, & Leiberman, 1986;Hobfoll, Shoham, & Ritter, 1991) have shown that intimacy fuels emotional support independently of social network parameters. Intimacy as a precondition of transacting emotional support may limit SNS users' willingness to pose requests for emotional support to their online friends (Newman, Lauterbach, Munson, Resnick, & Morris, 2011). The collapse of contexts requires a request for emotional support to fit to very different recipients from different social groups and with a variety of role expectations (Nissenbaum, 2010;Vitak, 2012). ...
People around the globe now regularly interact with family and friends through social network sites (SNSs). In the present paper, we investigated the differences between social interactions in online and offline contexts as well as users’ satisfaction with the social support received in these contexts. It was hypothesized that SNSs are better set up for the task of leveraging informational support, but that they are inferior to offline contexts in terms of emotional or instrumental support. We further assumed that users might feel similarly satisfied with how support is rendered online and offline, but that only social support transacted in offline contexts would contribute to overall life satisfaction. All hypotheses were supported by longitudinal data (N = 327) that were used to investigate social support over the course of 2 years with four points of measurement.
... Media interactions influence and shape interpersonal relationships, and the use of both traditional mass media and new media has positive implications for the accumulation of social capital among audiences (58). Social media, with the original intention of creating connections, not only deepens the maintenance of strong relationships but also provides a new ground for the establishment of weak relationships (59), becoming an important way for people to maintain social connections. In addition to building relationships, using social media for social interactions such as liking, commenting, and sharing can increase social capital (60). ...
Correction is an important tool to reduce the negative impact of health misinformation on social media. In the era of “I share, therefore I am” social media, users actively share corrective information to achieve the “anti-convincing” effect of health misinformation. Focusing on the local Chinese context, this study constructs a structural equation model using social capital as a mediating variable to explore whether usage of Chinese users’ social media can promote corrective information sharing by influencing the structural, cognitive, and relational dimensions of social capital and the role of health literacy in corrective information sharing. It was found that social media use did not significantly affect corrective information share willingness but significantly influenced share willingness through social interaction connections, trust, and shared experiences, and share willingness significantly influenced sharing behavior. The moderating effect showed that health literacy played a significant moderating effect in the influence of corrective information share willingness on sharing behavior. This study introduces the three dimensions of social capital at the theoretical level and finds that users will share corrective information for the purpose of social capital accumulation. It also provides empirical evidence for specific practices, including improving users’ health literacy and actively mobilizing them to participate in the blocking and management of health misinformation in social media.
... The anonymity of subreddits as online communities makes them a particularly revealing and valuable source of information regarding the thoughts and emotionally engaged perspectives of internet users on the topics of discussion. This is especially apparent when compared to platforms like Facebook, which displays the names and identities of the users [16,17]. Additionally, unlike some online platforms like Twitter, Reddit does not have a limitation on the word or character count of each post, allowing users to express themselves more freely. ...
Background
Behçet disease (BD) is a type of vasculitis with relapsing episodes and multisystemic clinical features, associated with significant morbidity and impact on patients’ lives. People affected by BD often participate in discussions of their illness experiences. In-person support groups have limited physical accessibility and a relative lack of anonymity; however, online communities have become increasingly popular.
Objective
This study investigates the perspectives and experiences of people affected by BD by examining the content shared and discussed on a subforum of the website Reddit—a popular online space for anonymous discussions.
Methods
All discussion threads posted between March 9, 2021, and March 12, 2022, including posts and comments, were examined from the subforum “r/Behcets,” an anonymous online community of 1100 members as of March 2022. A Grounded Theory analysis was completed to identify themes and subthemes, and notable quotes were extracted from the threads. Parameters extracted from each post included the number of comments, net upvotes, category, and subcategories. Two research team members read the posts separately to identify initial codes and themes to ensure data saturation was achieved.
Results
Six recurring themes were identified: (1) finding connectedness and perspectives through shared experiences, (2) struggles of the diagnostic odyssey, (3) sharing or inquiring about symptoms, (4) expressing strong emotions relating to the experience of BD, (5) the impact of BD on quality of life and personal relationships, as well as (6) COVID-19 and the COVID-19 vaccination in relation to BD. Subthemes within each theme were also identified and explored.
Conclusions
This novel study provides a qualitative exploration of the perspectives and experiences of people affected by BD, shared in the anonymous and accessible online community of Reddit. The study found that people impacted by an illness seek to connect and receive validation through shared conditions and experiences. By examining the content shared in r/Behcets, this study highlights the needs of people affected by BD, identifying gaps and areas for improvement in the in-person support they receive.
... In contrast, Reddit is often used to discuss experiences with mental illness and share specific health information; for example, Reddit users may seek a diagnosis or treatment [15]. In contrast, Facebook updates can raise concerns about privacy, prompting individuals to share more positive news and information [28]. ...
Background
Artificial intelligence chatbot research has focused on technical advances in natural language processing and validating the effectiveness of human-machine conversations in specific settings. However, real-world chat data remain proprietary and unexplored despite their growing popularity, and new analyses of chatbot uses and their effects on mitigating negative moods are urgently needed.
Objective
In this study, we investigated whether and how artificial intelligence chatbots facilitate the expression of user emotions, specifically sadness and depression. We also examined cultural differences in the expression of depressive moods among users in Western and Eastern countries.
Methods
This study used SimSimi, a global open-domain social chatbot, to analyze 152,783 conversation utterances containing the terms “depress” and “sad” in 3 Western countries (Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States) and 5 Eastern countries (Indonesia, India, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Thailand). Study 1 reports new findings on the cultural differences in how people talk about depression and sadness to chatbots based on Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count and n-gram analyses. In study 2, we classified chat conversations into predefined topics using semisupervised classification techniques to better understand the types of depressive moods prevalent in chats. We then identified the distinguishing features of chat-based depressive discourse data and the disparity between Eastern and Western users.
Results
Our data revealed intriguing cultural differences. Chatbot users in Eastern countries indicated stronger emotions about depression than users in Western countries (positive: P<.001; negative: P=.01); for example, Eastern users used more words associated with sadness (P=.01). However, Western users were more likely to share vulnerable topics such as mental health (P<.001), and this group also had a greater tendency to discuss sensitive topics such as swear words (P<.001) and death (P<.001). In addition, when talking to chatbots, people expressed their depressive moods differently than on other platforms. Users were more open to expressing emotional vulnerability related to depressive or sad moods to chatbots (74,045/148,590, 49.83%) than on social media (149/1978, 7.53%). Chatbot conversations tended not to broach topics that require social support from others, such as seeking advice on daily life difficulties, unlike on social media. However, chatbot users acted in anticipation of conversational agents that exhibit active listening skills and foster a safe space where they can openly share emotional states such as sadness or depression.
Conclusions
The findings highlight the potential of chatbot-assisted mental health support, emphasizing the importance of continued technical and policy-wise efforts to improve chatbot interactions for those in need of emotional assistance. Our data indicate the possibility of chatbots providing helpful information about depressive moods, especially for users who have difficulty communicating emotions to other humans.
... In contrast, Reddit is often used to discuss experiences with mental illness and share specific health information; for example, Reddit users may seek a diagnosis or treatment [15]. In contrast, Facebook updates can raise concerns about privacy, prompting individuals to share more positive news and information [28]. ...
BACKGROUND
Research into AI chatbots has primarily focused on technical advances and validating their effectiveness at decreasing depression symptoms and increasing user engagement. However, real-world chat conversations related to depressive moods remain unexplored. Therefore, further analysis of the uses and effects of chatbots is urgently required.
OBJECTIVE
Here we investigate whether and how chatbots facilitate the expression of user emotions, specifically sadness, and depression. We also examine cultural differences in the expression of depressive moods among Western and Eastern chatbot users.
METHODS
The study used SimSimi, the world's largest open-domain social chatbot, to analyze 152,783 conversation utterances containing the terms "depress" and "sad" in three Western countries (Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States) and five Eastern countries (Indonesia, India, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Thailand). The Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) and N-gram techniques were used to compare cultural variations (Study 1). A semi-supervised learning method was also used to determine the most prevalent categories of depressive mood in chatbots (Study 2).
RESULTS
We find that chatbots can provide helpful information in discussions about depressive moods, especially for users who have difficulty communicating emotions to other humans. Individuals are more likely to express emotional vulnerability related to depressive or sad moods to chatbots (50%) than on social media (8%). Eastern users tend to send more emotionally intense messages, both positive and negative, than Western users when using chatbots (positive = p< .001, negative = p< .05). For example, eastern users use more words associated with sadness (p< .05). However, western users use more words related to vulnerable topics such as mental health (p< .001). This group also has a greater tendency to break taboos, such as using swear (p< .001) and discussing death (p< .001). Chatbot conversations tend not to broach topics that require social support from others, such as seeking advice on daily life difficulties, unlike social media conversations that often include such discussions. However, chatbot users seem to want conversational agents that exhibit active listening skills and foster a safe space where they can openly share emotional states such as sadness or depression. We observe that user seek help for depressive moods, share emotional messages, and seek information related to depression with the chatbot.
CONCLUSIONS
The findings highlight the potential for chatbot-assisted mental health support, emphasizing the importance of continued academic efforts to improve chatbot interactions for those in need of emotional assistance. Chatbots are potentially an economical, user-friendly, and patient-centered digital platform for mental health care providers, especially as the pandemic has left longer-term mental health issues.
CLINICALTRIAL
Not available
... However, for health-related topics, including both accurate information and misinformation, altruistic motivation emerges as one of the primary factors influencing sharing behavior [4,46]. In relation to this, sharing health-related information in social networks often takes the form of personal stories, motivated by the search for people with shared experiences and seeking social support [35,40] or, to some extent, for self-presentation purposes [29]. That means, in many cases, health-related information in social networks incorporates opinion-based features and personal experiences, which makes it difficult to be marked as "true" or "false, " even if the mentioned treatments contradict expert consensus. ...
Health misinformation in social networks requires immediate attention due to its severe consequences, as exemplified by the COVID-19 pandemic response on social media. However, the existing solutions designed to combat misinformation generally overlook the unique characteristics of health misinformation domain. Through a review of relevant literature and a critical analysis of current anti-misinformation solutions, we have identified significant user-side issues that undermine the effectiveness of existing approaches in addressing health misinformation. To tackle these issues, we put forth several strategies to empower users in combating health misinformation. Our research contributes to understanding the challenges associated with health misinformation correction on social networks.
... Reddit was chosen as a platform because it allows anonymous profiles, enabling honest conversations (Choudhury and De, 2014;Ammari et al., 2019) that would be difficult to have on other social media sites (Newman et al., 2011). Despite the fact that Reddit posts are not accompanied by formal clinical diagnoses, Reddit has several advantages over traditional mental health datasets. ...
Introduction
The purpose of this study was to use text-based social media content analysis from cancer-specific subreddits to evaluate depression and anxiety-loaded content. Natural language processing, automatic, and lexicon-based methods were employed to perform sentiment analysis and identify depression and anxiety-loaded content.
Methods
Data was collected from 187 Reddit users who had received a cancer diagnosis, were currently undergoing treatment, or had completed treatment. Participants were split according to survivorship status into short-term, transition, and long-term cancer survivors. A total of 72524 posts were analyzed across the three cancer survivor groups.
Results
The results showed that short-term cancer survivors had significantly more depression-loaded posts and more anxiety-loaded words than long-term survivors, with no significant differences relative to the transition period. The topic analysis showed that long-term survivors, more than other stages of survivorship, have resources to share their experiences with suicidal ideation and mental health issues while providing support to their survivor community.
Discussion
The results indicate that Reddit texts seem to be an indicator of when the stressor is active and mental health issues are triggered. This sets the stage for Reddit to become a platform for screening and first-hand intervention delivery. Special attention should be dedicated to short-term survivors.
... This interactivity is characterized by two features: user control and two-way communication (Sreejesh et al., 2020). User control allows consumers to selectively browse and access social media information by swiping, tapping, and sharing (Newman et al., 2011). Two-way communication allows for real-time conversation between users, including brands and their audiences (Sreejesh et al., 2020). ...
Purpose — The study aimed to analyze the content on Instagram and to examine the relationship between the content categories and the reach and impressions of the posts.Method — This study analyzed 58 content posts from the Instagram account @Generasi_kenzu using purposive sampling, divided into five categories and measured based on accounts reached and impressions, using descriptive statistics, a Kolmogorov-Smirnov test for normality, and a Kruskal-Wallis test for comparison of mean reach and impressions across the categories.Result — The content analysis revealed that promotion was the most prevalent category, followed by information and education, with a mean reach of 64.22 and a significant proportion of views from the user's profile, and found hashtags to be an effective method of increasing visibility, though with a considerable degree of variation among individual posts. The Kruskal-Wallis test showed no significant difference in the distribution of accounts reached, reach from follower, reach from non-follower, impressions, from profile, from hashtags, from home and from other across the five content categories.Contribution — This study contributes by adding knowledge about content categories' effectiveness on social media platforms, providing valuable insights into content and reach of Instagram posts, and suggesting the need for further research to explore impacting factors.
... Social networking sites, or web-based platforms designed to build social relationships, allow people to share experiences, ask questions, and seek support from others within a web-based community. Some scientists and experts argue that the anonymous nature of certain platforms makes them uniquely appealing to individuals who are seeking information about sensitive or stigmatized concerns like contraception [31][32][33][34][35] and may lead to the promotion of more authenticity and openness than other identifiable platforms or in-person interactions [36][37][38]. Web-based social communication may therefore be an important and rich source of data for studying contraceptive decision-making, needs, and preferences. Current research indicates that social networking sites are an important avenue for reproductive-age individuals to access information about sexual health, including contraceptive options. ...
Background:
Contraceptive choice is central to reproductive autonomy. The internet, including social networking sites like Reddit, is an important resource for people seeking contraceptive information and support. A subreddit dedicated to contraception, r/birthcontrol, provides a platform for people to post about contraception.
Objective:
This study explored the use of r/birthcontrol, from the inception of the subreddit through the end of 2020. We describe the web-based community, identify distinctive interests and themes based upon the textual content of posts, and explore the content of posts with the most user engagement (ie, "popular" posts).
Methods:
Data were obtained from the PushShift Reddit application programming interface from the establishment of r/birthcontrol to the start date of analysis (July 21, 2011, to December 31, 2020). User interactions within the subreddit were analyzed to describe community use over time, specifically the commonality of use based on the volume of posts, the length of posts (character count), and the proportion of posts with any and each flair applied. "Popular" posts on r/birthcontrol were determined based on the number of comments and "scores," or upvotes minus downvotes; popular posts had 9 comments and a score of ≥3. Term Frequency-Inverse Document Frequency (TF-IDF) analyses were run on all posts with flairs applied, posts within each flair group, and popular posts within each flair group to characterize and compare the distinctive language used in each group.
Results:
There were 105,485 posts to r/birthcontrol during the study period, with the volume of posts increasing over time. Within the time frame for which flairs were available on r/birthcontrol (after February 4, 2016), users applied flairs to 78% (n=73,426) of posts. Most posts contained exclusively textual content (n=66,071, 96%), had comments (n=59,189, 86%), and had a score (n=66,071, 96%). Posts averaged 731 characters in length (median 555). "SideEffects!?" was the most frequently used flair overall (n=27,530, 40%), while "Experience" (n=719, 31%) and "SideEffects!?" (n=672, 29%) were most common among popular posts. TF-IDF analyses of all posts showed interest in contraceptive methods, menstrual experiences, timing, feelings, and unprotected sex. While TF-IDF results for posts with each flair varied, the contraceptive pill, menstrual experiences, and timing were discussed across flair groups. Among popular posts, intrauterine devices and contraceptive use experiences were often discussed.
Conclusions:
People commonly wrote about contraceptive side effects and experiences using methods, highlighting the value of r/birthcontrol as a space to post about aspects of contraceptive use that are not well addressed by clinical contraceptive counseling. The value of real-time, open-access data on contraceptive users' interests is especially high given the shifting landscape of and increasing constraints on reproductive health care in the United States.
... Una de las que cobra más fuerza y necesita de mayor estudio se relaciona con el tipo de contenidos que suelen publicarse en las redes y las reacciones que esto genera. Por ejemplo, en redes como Facebook, las personas tienden a presentarse de un modo excesivamente virtuoso (Kross et al., 2013;Mehdizadeh, 2010;Newman et al., 2011), esto es, resaltan los aspectos positivos (logros) con mayor frecuencia que los negativos (fracasos) (Kross et al., 2013). Por lo tanto, exponerse continuamente a contenidos positivos sobre los demás tendería a provocar envidia, una emoción comúnmente asociada a malestar y bajos niveles de bienestar (Salovey y Rodin, 1984;Smith y Kim, 2007). ...
... Social networking sites, or web-based platforms designed to build social relationships, allow people to share experiences, ask questions, and seek support from others within a web-based community. Some scientists and experts argue that the anonymous nature of certain platforms makes them uniquely appealing to individuals who are seeking information about sensitive or stigmatized concerns like contraception [31][32][33][34][35] and may lead to the promotion of more authenticity and openness than other identifiable platforms or in-person interactions [36][37][38]. Web-based social communication may therefore be an important and rich source of data for studying contraceptive decision-making, needs, and preferences. Current research indicates that social networking sites are an important avenue for reproductive-age individuals to access information about sexual health, including contraceptive options. ...
BACKGROUND
Contraceptive choice is central to reproductive autonomy, and the internet, including online communities like those formed on Reddit, is an important resource for people seeking contraceptive information and peer support. A subreddit dedicated to contraception, r/birthcontrol, provides a platform for people to share narratives, offering real-time insights in contraceptive decision-making processes and use experiences.
OBJECTIVE
This study explored use of r/birthcontrol, from the inception of the subreddit through the end of 2020, to describe the online community, identify distinctive interests and themes based upon the textual content of posts, and identify and explore the content of posts with the most user engagement (i.e. ‘popular’ posts).
METHODS
Data were obtained from the PushShift Reddit API from the establishment of r/birthcontrol to the start date of this analysis (July 21, 2011-December 31, 2020). User interactions within the subreddit were analyzed to describe use of this community over time, specifically the commonality of use based on the volume of posts, the length of posts (character count), and the proportion of posts with any and each flair applied. ‘Scores’, or upvotes minus downvotes serving as a proxy for the popularity of each post, were used to determine ‘popular’ posts on r/birthcontrol (posts with 9 comments and a score of ≥3). TF-IDF analyses were run on all posts with flairs applied, posts within each flair group, and popular posts within each flair group to characterize and compare distinctive language used in each group of posts.
RESULTS
There were 105,485 posts to r/birthcontrol during the study period, with use of the subreddit increasing over time. The majority of posts were exclusively textual content (96%), had comments (86%), and had a score (96%). Posts averaged 731 characters in length, with a median of 555 characters. Within the timeframe that flairs were available on r/birthcontrol (since February 4, 2016), users applied flairs to 78% of posts with increasing use over time. “SideEffects?” was most frequently used flair among all posts (40% of posts), while “Experience” and “Side Effects” were most frequently applied among popular posts (31% and 29%, respectively). TF-IDF analyses of all posts showed interest in contraceptive methods, menstrual experiences, timing, feelings, and unprotected sex. While n-gram results for posts with each flair varied, the contraceptive pill, menstrual experiences, and timing were discussed across flair groups. Among popular posts, IUDs and contraceptive use experiences were often discussed.
CONCLUSIONS
This study provides insights into how r/birthcontrol has been used as a resource for contraceptive information and support since 2018 and presents a case study of how public health researchers can use Machine Learning methods to study social networking sites, contributing to and expanding public health research and discourse.
... Social networks have deeply shaped our daily lives, our relationships, and our connections to friends and families [8][9][10][11]. Complex systems and network analysis [12][13][14][18][19][20][21] have proved to be a very powerful tool to discover and analyze network behaviors in many different field. In social networks, in particular, social experiments and network theory have created a strong tie, to understand human behaviours and trends. ...
The analysis of social networks, can lead to important discoveries concerning society and trends. Can in fact imply the discovery of several new aspects of social behavior, as well as understanding the interest behind certain topics. Facebook, is now used worldwide, by approximately 3 billions of users, and has become one of the main sources of information. For analyzing facebook data, not only worldwide scales are important, but it is crucial to interpret local data behavior. In this paper we address and analyse Facebook at a regional dimensionality of Facebook, and evaluate the properties of regional Facebook as a small world network. To do this, we propose a novel approach a novel experimental setup, to simulate worldwide known Milgram six degrees of separation experiment. The novel repeated sampling random procedure proposed to reproduce the Milgram experiment showed promising and interesting results, allowing to evaluate the regional Facebook scale.
... Big data are free from this concern as data are usually collected as a by-product of another process, meaning answers may be a more accurate reflection of a person's behaviour. However, just because data are collected this way does not necessarily mean they reflect 'natural processes', especially when considering an online activity that may not always be genuine (Newman et al., 2011;Salagnik, 2018). ...
Recent computing power and storage advancements have meant more data are being collected and stored. Referred to as 'Big data', these data sources offer researchers myriad opportunities to make observations about the social world. These data can be massive, provide insight into whole populations rather than just a sample, and be used to analyse social behaviour in real time. Administrative data, a subcategory under the big data umbrella, also offers researchers abundant opportunities to conduct highly relevant research in many areas, including sociology, social policy, education, health studies and many more. This paper offers reflections on social research during the digital age by examining different forms of data, both 'big' and 'small', and their associated advantages and disadvantages. The paper concludes by suggesting that although big data has some promising elements, it also comes with some limitations and povwill not replace 'traditional' social surveys. And yet, when used in conjunction with social surveys, appropriately and ethically, big data could offer the researchers additional valuable insights.
Objectives
Limiting abortion within the formal health care system is associated with more self‐managed abortion (SMA). Reddit is a publicly available social networking site that allows users to create and join communities (“subreddits”) around a specific topic. R/abortion is a subreddit dedicated to providing support and advice to people seeking or having an abortion. The purpose of this study is to analyze r/abortion data after the Dobbs leak in 2022 to explore SMA access and use experiences shared in the community.
Methods
We employed a hybrid qualitative thematic analysis approach to describe experiences, concerns, and questions related to SMA as shared in posts from r/abortion. A simple random sample of 10% of posts was obtained from those shared from May 2, 2022 through December 23, 2022 ( n = 523).
Results
Among the analyzed posts, 111 described experiences with SMA. Four themes emerged during the analysis. First, some posters noted concerns and questions related to online ordering and receiving mailed medication abortion, including shipping delays, cost, and discreet packaging. The second theme was related to concerns and questions about the SMA process, such as when and how to take medication, bleeding amount, and abortion completion. The final two themes were related to seeking support/advice for SMA and sharing SMA experiences, with community members seeking and sharing support to combat isolation while self‐managing.
Discussion
R/abortion is an important resource for some people self‐managing abortions. This study provided key insights into areas that are commonly discussed, which can inform the provision of practical support for SMA.
Support-seekers' self-disclosure of their suffering experiences, thoughts, and feelings in the post can help them get needed peer support in online mental health communities (OMHCs). However, such mental health self-disclosure could be challenging. Images can facilitate the manifestation of relevant experiences and feelings in the text; yet, relevant images are not always available. In this paper, we present a technical prototype named MentalImager and validate in a human evaluation study that it can generate topical- and emotional-relevant images based on the seekers' drafted posts or specified keywords. Two user studies demonstrate that MentalImager not only improves seekers' satisfaction with their self-disclosure in their posts but also invokes support-providers' empathy for the seekers and willingness to offer help. Such improvements are credited to the generated images, which help seekers express their emotions and inspire them to add more details about their experiences and feelings. We report concerns on MentalImager and discuss insights for supporting self-disclosure in OMHCs.
With the rise of remote work, a range of surveillance technologies are increasingly being used by business owners to track and monitor employees, raising concerns about worker rights and privacy. Through analysis of Reddit posts and in-depth semi-structured interviews, this paper seeks to understand how workers across a range of sectors make sense of and respond to layered forms of surveillance. While workers express concern about risks to their health, safety, and privacy, they also face a lack of transparency and autonomy around the use of these systems. In response, workers take up tactics of everyday resistance, such as commiserating with other workers or employing technological hacks. Although these tactics demonstrate workers' ingenuity, they also show the limitations of existing approaches to protect workers against intrusive workplace monitoring. We argue that there is an opportunity for CSCW researchers to support these countermeasures through worker-led design and policy.
Online health communities (OHCs) offer the promise of connecting with supportive peers. Forming these connections first requires finding relevant peers—a process that can be time-consuming. Peer recommendation systems are a computational approach to make finding peers easier during a health journey. By encouraging OHC users to alter their online social networks, peer recommendations could increase available support. But these benefits are hypothetical and based on mixed, observational evidence. To experimentally evaluate the effect of peer recommendations, we conceptualize these systems as health interventions designed to increase specific beneficial connection behaviors. In this paper, we designed a peer recommendation intervention to increase two behaviors: reading about peer experiences and interacting with peers. We conducted an initial feasibility assessment of this intervention by conducting a 12-week field study in which 79 users of CaringBridge.org received weekly peer recommendations via email. Our results support the usefulness and demand for peer recommendation and suggest benefits to evaluating larger peer recommendation interventions. Our contributions include practical guidance on the development and evaluation of peer recommendation interventions for OHCs.
When a child is admitted to the hospital with a critical illness, their family must adapt and manage care and stress. CSCW researchers have shown the potential for collaborative technologies to support and augment care collaboration between patients and caregivers. However, as a field CSCW lacks a holistic, theory-driven understanding of how collaborative technologies might best augment and support the family caregiving circle as a socio-technical system. In this paper, we report findings from interviews with 14 parents of children with cancer admitted for extended hospitalizations. We use the resilience-based Family Adaptive Systems framework from family therapy as a lens to characterize their challenges and practices across four key subsystems: Emotion, Control, Meaning, and Maintenance. Then, we introduce a fifth system-the Information system-and draw on our empirical findings to suggest theory-driven opportunities for designing future collaborative technology to augment collaborative caregiving and enhance family resilience.
People often leverage multiple platforms to share activities they undertake in their lives, from music listening to eating. Broad-purpose platforms, which people use to share a wide variety of activities with a diverse audience, and dedicated platforms, which often focus on tracking and sharing a specific activity with connections with similar interests, both help individuals seeking social benefits from sharing their activity. Researchers designing systems for activity sharing have often reflected on whether to support sharing on dedicated or broad-purpose platforms, suggesting a need to better understand their relative utility. We collected and compared the responses received between 700,000 pairs of activity-sharing posts on four sets of broad-purpose and dedicated platforms across two domains: physical activity (Strava, MapMyRun) and creativity (Dribbble, Behance). Results showed that dedicated platforms were more likely to receive responses (likes and comments), and comments were more likely to be encouraging and refer to specific qualities of the activities being shared. We reflect on the tradeoff between sheer audience volume and likelihood of response, and discuss how to design prompts and templates into sharing features which better align with the norms of respective platforms.
Menopause is often overlooked or medicalized, consequently devaluing individual experiences and failing to support individuals experiencing this life event. Family dynamics, death, and taboo further mean that individuals often miss out on information that could help them contextualize their experiences. We examine participant experiences with menopause and explore designs of digital and non-digital legacies for sharing menopause experiences across generations. We conducted semi-structured interviews and design sessions with 17 participants who experienced or are experiencing menopause. We report participant information needs and sense-making practices, including what personalized information participants wish to pass down and preferred formats for intergenerational sharing. Findings highlight the potential of using storytelling and life-logging to create 'holistic' memories of the menopause journey, to support self-reflection, and for using legacies to initiate conversations about marginalized health experiences. We identify future design and research opportunities for the HCI and CSCW communities to support intergenerational sharing of non-medicalized and stigmatized health experiences.
Youth who undergo a kidney transplant can experience a fluctuation of successes and challenges throughout their chronic illness journey. Designing to capture their journey could help youth to reflect on their experiences, collaborate on their care, and be empowered to live their lives to the fullest. We interviewed 11 youth kidney transplant patients and 12 caregivers to elicit their transplant journey experiences. We found that probing participants about specific parts of their transplant journey gave them structure to tell us rich stories about their experiences. Based on our findings, we discuss informing the design of a tool to support the capturing of stories for youth with chronic illnesses. Designing such tool could help youth and their caregivers to identify barriers, support reflection, and promote self-efficacy. Youth with chronic illnesses already have to change so many aspects of their lives to accommodate their illness, however, by giving them a platform to capture their chronic illness journey, it could encourage them to take more control of their lives and better collaborate with others.
This paper considers how subjectivities are enlivened in algorithmic systems. We first review related literature to clarify how we see “subjectivities” as emerging through a tangled web of processes and actors. We then offer two case studies exemplifying the emergence of algorithmic subjectivities: one involving computational topic modeling of blogs written by parents with children on the autism spectrum, and one involving algorithmic moderation of social media content. Drawing on these case studies, we then articulate a series of qualities that characterizes algorithmic subjectivities. We also compare and contrast these qualities with a number of related concepts from prior literature to articulate how algorithmic subjectivities constitutes a novel theoretical contribution, as well as how it offers a focal lens for future empirical investigation and for design. In short, this paper points out how certain worlds are being made and/or being made possible via algorithmic systems, and it asks HCI to consider what other worlds might be possible.
The accessibility and popularity of social networks makes them appropriate tools for promotion and prevention interventions in health, reaching a large audience with greater efficiency. One of its most attractive features is interaction , which not only allows great diffusion of the messages, but also supplies them with greater interest and credibility. Platforms such as Facebook are very popular among young people, a high risk group for Human papilloma virus (HPV) infection due to ignorance, prejudice and sexual behavior that is risked and active. The objective of this research is to know the preferences and attitudes of young people towards (1) interaction and (2) type of information about HPV on Facebook. Increasing our knowledge in this area will help to make interventions in this field more useful. Through a questionnaire validated in previous research, was made a cross-sectional descriptive study of the preferences of 120 young universities in the use of facebook as a tool for health promotion about HPV. More than half of the participants would follow a page on the HPV to be informed and share information on prevention, vaccines and campaigns. The preferred resources were: multimedia, testimonials and articles by specialists. They prefer to “share” to “create themselves” messages. A group of subjects who reject the use of the tool is detected, arguing that they would not do it for (1) a lack of interest, (2) because people can relate them personally to the sickness or (3) for possible bugs and criticisms.
Technology plays an increasingly pivotal role in mediating mental health support in people's everyday lives. However, it is not clear how that mediation is occurring, to what end, and what technologies are implicated. In this study, we examine these questions with a mixed-methods analysis of conversations among participants in several Bipolar Disorder (BD) communities on Reddit. Analyzing posts produced over four years, we identify a wide variety of technologies that people employ to manage their mental conditions, such as communication technologies, online communities and tracking tools. Using this taxonomy of technologies as a framework, we then summarize three technology-mediated management strategies that these technologies enable, including serving as community, episode, and information mediators. We argue that with a comprehensive and nuanced understanding of people's in situ technology use, we can identify research and design opportunities for designing human-centered technologies to help people manage mental health challenges more effectively.
Digital tools have potential to support collaborative management of mental health conditions, but we need to better understand how to integrate them in routine healthcare, particularly for patients with both physical and mental health needs. We therefore conducted interviews and design workshops with 1) a group of care managers who support patients with complex health needs, and 2) their patients whose health needs include mental health concerns. We investigate both groups' views of potential applications of digital tools within care management. Findings suggest that care managers felt underprepared to play an ongoing role in addressing mental health issues and had concerns about the burden and ambiguity of providing support through new digital channels. In contrast, patients envisioned benefiting from ongoing mental health support from care managers, including support in using digital tools. Patients' and care managers' needs may diverge such that meeting both through the same tools presents a significant challenge. We discuss how successful design and integration of digital tools into care management would require reconceptualizing these professionals' roles in mental health support.
Online social support platforms (discussion forums, Facebook groups, chat rooms, etc.) are increasingly used by people living with chronic diseases and their caregivers, who aspire to exchange with people living with similar problems outside their traditional network. The objective of this literature review is to present online social support interventions described in recent scientific literature, to: 1) guide organizations that want to develop such intervention or improve an existing program, and 2) identify research avenues for researchers and recommendations for health planners. Some 59 scientific articles presenting online social support interventions (2006-2016) were analyzed using a grid emphasizing the theoretical conceptions of social support, the web platforms used and their functionalities, the design process and evaluation of the interventions, the methods of participation and animation set up by the organizations, the documented impacts of the interventions on the populations, and finally the lines of research and the recommendations for the field planners. A narrative methodology was used to highlight development and implementation challenges to support our partner organizations in developing or improving their online social support interventions.
KEYWORDS
Social support ; Internet ; Review literature as topic ; Patients
COVID-19 has led to an unprecedented surge in unemployment associated with increased anxiety, stress, and loneliness impacting the well-being of various groups of people (based on gender and age). Given the increased unemployment rate, this study intends to understand if the different dimensions of well-being change across age and gender. By quantifying sentiment, stress, and loneliness with natural language processing tools and one-way, between-group multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) using Reddit data, we assessed the differences in well-being characteristics for age groups and gender. We see a noticeable increase in the number of mental health-related subreddits for younger women since March 2020 and the trigger words used by them indicate poor mental health caused by relationship and career challenges posed by the pandemic. The MANOVA results show that women under 30 have significantly (p = 0.05) higher negative sentiment, stress, and loneliness levels than other age and gender groups. The results suggest that younger women express their vulnerability on social media more strongly than older women or men. The huge disruption of job routines caused by COVID-19 alongside inadequate relief and benefit programs has wrecked the economy and forced millions of women and families to the edge of bankruptcy. Women had to choose between being home managers and financial providers due to the countrywide shutdown of schools and day-cares. These findings open opportunities to reconsider how policy supports women’s responsibilities.
As social network sites like MySpace and Facebook emerged, American teenagers began adopting them as spaces to mark identity and socialize with peers. Teens leveraged these sites for a wide array of everyday social practices - gossiping, flirting, joking around, sharing information, and simply hanging out. While social network sites were predominantly used by teens as a peer-based social outlet, the unchartered nature of these sites generated fear among adults. This dissertation documents my 2.5-year ethnographic study of American teens' engagement with social network sites and the ways in which their participation supported and complicated three practices - self-presentation, peer sociality, and negotiating adult society. My analysis centers on how social network sites can be understood as networked publics which are simultaneously (1) the space constructed through networked technologies and (2) the imagined community that emerges as a result of the intersection of people, technology, and practice. Networked publics support many of the same practices as unmediated publics, but their structural differences often inflect practices in unique ways. Four properties - persistence, searchability, replicability, and scalability - and three dynamics - invisible audiences, collapsed contexts, and the blurring of public and private - are examined and woven throughout the discussion. While teenagers primarily leverage social network sites to engage in common practices, the properties of these sites configured their practices and teens were forced to contend with the resultant dynamics. Often, in doing so, they reworked the technology for their purposes. As teenagers learned to navigate social network sites, they developed potent strategies for managing the complexities of and social awkwardness incurred by these sites. Their strategies reveal how new forms of social media are incorporated into everyday life, complicating some practices and reinforcing others. New technologies reshape public life, but teens' engagement also reconfigures the technology itself.
Participants in social network sites create self-descriptive profiles that include their links to other members, creating a visible network of connections — the ostensible purpose of these sites is to use this network to make friends, dates, and business connections. In this paper we explore the social implications of the public display of one's social network. Why do people display their social connections in everyday life, and why do they do so in these networking sites? What do people learn about another's identity through the signal of network display? How does this display facilitate connections, and how does it change the costs and benefits of making and brokering such connections compared to traditional means? The paper includes several design recommendations for future networking sites.
Online communities allow millions of people who would never meet in person to interact. People join web-based discussion boards,
email lists, and chat rooms for friendship, social support, entertainment, and information on technical, health, and leisure
activities [24]. And they do so in droves. One of the earliest networks of online communities, Usenet, had over nine million unique contributors,
250 million messages, and approximately 200,000 active groups in 2003 [27], while the newer My Space, founded in 2003, attracts a quarter million new members every day [27].
To address the needs of cancer patients and their caregivers, Microsoft Research and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center developed HutchWorld, an online community environment, to provide computer-mediated social and informational support. In a controlled clinical study, we deployed HutchWorld to bone marrow transplant patients and their caregivers and assessed the impact of Internet access and HutchWorld on their quality of life. We found that Internet access and the use of HutchWorld helped to buffer study participants against reductions in life satisfaction and social support following the transplant procedure. In particular, participants used the Internet to seek out support from family and friends
Overweight and obesity are a global epidemic, with over one billion overweight adults worldwide (300+ million of whom are obese). Obesity is linked to several serious health problems and medical conditions. Medical experts agree that physical activity is critical to maintaining fitness, reducing weight, and improving health, yet many people have difficulty increasing and maintaining physical activity in everyday life. Clinical studies have shown that health benefits can occur from simply increasing the number of steps one takes each day and that social support can motivate people to stay active. In this paper, we describe Houston, a prototype mobile phone application for encouraging activity by sharing step count with friends. We also present four design requirements for technologies that encourage physical activity that we derived from a three- week long in situ pilot study that was conducted with women who wanted to increase their physical activity. Author Keywords
Social media treats all users the same: trusted friend or total stranger, with little or nothing in between. In reality, rela- tionships fall everywhere along this spectrum, a topic social science has investigated for decades under the theme of tie strength. Our work bridges this gap between theory and practice. In this paper, we present a predictive model that maps social media data to tie strength. The model builds on a dataset of over 2,000 social media ties and performs quite well, distinguishing between strong and weak ties with over 85% accuracy. We complement these quantitative findings with interviews that unpack the relationships we could not predict. The paper concludes by illustrating how modeling tie strength can improve social media design elements, in- cluding privacy controls, message routing, friend introduc- tions and information prioritization.
This paper investigates the uses of social networking site Facebook, and the gratifications users derive from those uses. In the first study, 137 users generated words or phrases to describe how they used Facebook, and what they enjoyed about their use. These phrases were coded into 46 items which were completed by 241 Facebook users in Study 2. Factor analysis identified seven unique uses and gratifications: social connection, shared identities, content, social investigation, social network surfing and status updating. User demographics, site visit patterns and the use of privacy settings were associated with different uses and gratifications.
Despite concerns raised about the disclosure of personal information on social network sites, research has demonstrated that users continue to disclose personal information. The present study employs surveys and interviews to examine the factors that influence university students to disclose personal information on Facebook. Moreover, we study the strategies students have developed to protect themselves against privacy threats. The results show that personal network size was positively associated with information revelation, no association was found between concern about unwanted audiences and information revelation and finally, students' Internet privacy concerns and information revelation were negatively associated. The privacy protection strategies employed most often were the exclusion of personal information, the use of private email messages, and altering the default privacy settings. Based on our findings, we propose a model of information revelation and draw conclusions for theories of identity expression.
A mundane but theoretically interesting and practically relevant situation presents itself on social networking sites: the co-presence of multiple groups important to an individual. This primarily qualitative study concentrates on the point of view of individual SNS users and their perspectives on multiple group affiliations. After charting the perceived multiplicity of groups on the social networking site Facebook, we investigated the relevance of multiple groups to the users and the effect of group co-presence on psychological identification processes. Users deal with group co-presence by managing the situation to prevent anticipated conflictive and identity-threatening situations. Their behavioral strategies consist of dividing the platform into separate spaces, using suitable channels of communication, and performing self- censorship. Mental strategies include both the creation of more inclusive in-group identities and the reciprocity of trusting other users and being responsible. In addition to giving further evidence of the existence of group co-presence on SNSs, the study sheds light on the management of the phenomenon. Management of group co-presence should be supported, since otherwise users may feel the urge to resort to defensive strategies of social identity protection such as ceasing to use SNSs altogether or, less dramatically, limit their use according to "the least common denominator". Hence, the phenomenon merits the attention of researchers, developers, and designers alike.
This study examines the relationship between use of Facebook, a popular online social network site, and the formation and maintenance of social capital. In addition to assessing bonding and bridging social capital, we explore a dimension of social capital that assesses one's ability to stay connected with members of a previously inhabited community, which we call maintained social capital. Regression analyses conducted on results from a survey of undergraduate students (N=286) suggest a strong association between use of Facebook and the three types of social capital, with the strongest relationship being to bridging social capital. In addition, Facebook usage was found to interact with measures of psychological well-being, suggesting that it might provide greater benefits for users experiencing low self-esteem and low life satisfaction.
Social support is a critical, yet underutilized resource when undergoing cancer care. Underutilization occurs in two conditions: (a) when patients fail to seek out information, material assistance, and emotional support from family and friends or (b) when family and friends fail to meet the individualized needs and preferences of patients. Social networks are most effective when kept up to date on the patient's status, yet updating everyone takes effort that patients cannot always put in. To improve this situation, we describe the results of our participatory design activities with breast cancer patients. During this process, we uncovered the information a social network needs to stay informed as well as a host of barriers to social support that technology could help break down. Our resulting prototype, built using Facebook Connect, includes explicit features to reduce these barriers and thus, promote the healthy outcomes associated with strong social support.
PatientsLikeMe is an online quantitative personal research platform for patients with life-changing illnesses to share their experience using patient-reported outcomes, find other patients like them matched on demographic and clinical characteristics, and learn from the aggregated data reports of others to improve their outcomes. The goal of the website is to help patients answer the question: "Given my status, what is the best outcome I can hope to achieve, and how do I get there?"
Using a cross-sectional online survey, we sought to describe the potential benefits of PatientsLikeMe in terms of treatment decisions, symptom management, clinical management, and outcomes.
Almost 7,000 members from six PatientsLikeMe communities (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis [ALS], Multiple Sclerosis [MS], Parkinson's Disease, human immunodeficiency virus [HIV], fibromyalgia, and mood disorders) were sent a survey invitation using an internal survey tool (PatientsLikeMe Lens).
Complete responses were received from 1323 participants (19% of invited members). Between-group demographics varied according to disease community. Users perceived the greatest benefit in learning about a symptom they had experienced; 72% (952 of 1323) rated the site "moderately" or "very helpful." Patients also found the site helpful for understanding the side effects of their treatments (n = 757, 57%). Nearly half of patients (n = 559, 42%) agreed that the site had helped them find another patient who had helped them understand what it was like to take a specific treatment for their condition. More patients found the site helpful with decisions to start a medication (n = 496, 37%) than to change a medication (n = 359, 27%), change a dosage (n = 336, 25%), or stop a medication (n = 290, 22%). Almost all participants (n = 1,249, 94%) were diagnosed when they joined the site. Most (n = 824, 62%) experienced no change in their confidence in that diagnosis or had an increased level of confidence (n = 456, 34%). Use of the site was associated with increasing levels of comfort in sharing personal health information among those who had initially been uncomfortable. Overall, 12% of patients (n = 151 of 1320) changed their physician as a result of using the site; this figure was doubled in patients with fibromyalgia (21%, n = 33 of 150). Patients reported community-specific benefits: 41% of HIV patients (n = 72 of 177) agreed they had reduced risky behaviors and 22% of mood disorders patients (n = 31 of 141) agreed they needed less inpatient care as a result of using the site. Analysis of the Web access logs showed that participants who used more features of the site (eg, posted in the online forum) perceived greater benefit.
We have established that members of the community reported a range of benefits, and that these may be related to the extent of site use. Third party validation and longitudinal evaluation is an important next step in continuing to evaluate the potential of online data-sharing platforms.
To describe social support for weight loss shared by members of a large Internet weight loss community.
We conducted a mixed-methods study with surveys (n=193) and interviews (n=13) of community members along with a content analysis of discussion forum messages (n=1924 messages). Qualitative data were analyzed for social support themes.
Survey respondents were primarily white (91.4%) and female (93.8%) with mean age 37.3 years and mean body mass index 30.9. They used forums frequently, with 56.8% reading messages, 36.1% replying to messages, and 18.5% posting messages to start a discussion related to weight loss on a daily or more frequent basis. Major social support themes were encouragement and motivation, mentioned at least once by 87.6% of survey respondents, followed by information (58.5%) and shared experiences (42.5%). Subthemes included testimonies, recognition for success, accountability, friendly competition, and humor. Members valued convenience, anonymity, and the non-judgmental interactions as unique characteristics of Internet-mediated support.
This Internet weight loss community plays a prominent role in participants' weight loss efforts. Social support within Internet weight loss communities merits further evaluation as a weight loss resource for clinicians to recommend to patients. Understanding these communities could improve how health professionals evaluate, build, harness, and manipulate social support for weight loss.
What happens when patients go online to not only discuss health and daily living but to share detailed health data? PatientsLikeMe is an online platform where patients with life-altering conditions share structured information about symptoms, treatments, and outcomes, view individual and aggregated reports of these data, and discuss health and garner support on forums and through private messages. In this case study, we describe the components of this platform and how people with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis have used the site to manage and improve pulmonary health. A qualitative analysis of forum content containing preset terms reveals patterns in use. As in other online communities, members of PatientsLikeMe offer one another support based on their own personal experience and advise each other on both medical issues and how to improve day-to-day life. Unique to this patient platform, members tailor questions and consults by referencing concrete data displayed for each patient member. PatientsLikeMe adds data into patient investigations on how to improve daily life and long term health outcomes.
This study focuses on the role of an Internet-based group for people who have an autoimmune liver disease, primary biliary cirrhosis. Primary biliary cirrhosis is a relatively rare disease, affects primarily women in their 40's and older, and is not well understood. The PBCers Organization (PBC stands for primary biliary cirrhosis) provides electronic mailinglists (listservs) and informational resources for those with primary biliary cirrhosis.
(1) to identify the issues of greatest importance to those posting to the listserv, specifically the relative importance of biomedical, socioemotional, and organizational/systems messages; (2) to compare frequency and content of posts by people at different stages of disease; (3) to identify how people with primary biliary cirrhosis represent the psychosocial challenges and dilemmas (role and identity change, uncertainty, and stigma) identified in the social-scientific literature as key elements of the experience of chronic disease.
The paper is based on content analysis of messages posted during two months to the Daily Digest listserv for people who have primary biliary cirrhosis. To analyze the posts, we developed a coding system with three major categories--biomedical, socioemotional, and systems/organizations--and 12 codes in each category.
A total of 275 people posted 710 messages. Of the 250 people for whom information on gender was available, 239 (95.6%) were women and 11 (4.4%) were men. Analysis of 710 messages posted to the listserv revealed a predominance of requests for and reports of biomedical information, such as health care providers (32.7%), medications (30.9%), tests and procedures (25.8%), and symptoms (25.7%), combined with very frequent expressions of emotional support. The most frequent single topics were peer support (included in 40.6% of all posts) and positive emotions (25.3%). Posters who reported fewer years since diagnosis were more likely to be seeking biomedical information than those who were further in time from their diagnosis (r= -.241, P<.001, n=313). Those in later stages posted an average of 3.87 messages, compared to an average of 2.64 for people in earlier stages (t= 1.786, P=.08, n=90), which is different from what we expected. No relation between years since diagnosis or age and number of messages was found. Contrary to our expectations, the topics reflecting issues of role change/identity (2.9%), stigma (0.7%), and thoughts about the future (3.9%), all identified in social-scientific literature as key concerns for people with chronic illness, appeared infrequently in this set of messages.
Messages exchanged on this particular mailing list have a biomedical, rather than socioemotional or organizational, emphasis. The Internet offers a highly valued opportunity for those with rare diseases to connect with, learn from, and provide support to others having similar experiences. Research that compares those with primary biliary cirrhosis, who are involved in an Internet support group and those who are not, would be an important next step to better understanding the role of the Internet among patients with chronic liver disease and the implications of it in the course of their illness.
Pick any current issue of a journal such as Social Science & Medicine or the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health and one is bound to see a featured article about social capital and health. Search on Pubmed for “social capital and health”,
and one sees over 27,500 articles listed (as of December 2006). Enter the same search term in Google, and you get over 9 million
hits. Yet wind the clock back to circa 1996 and one would be hard pressed to find an article in the public health literature
that even mentioned this concept. In other words, within a short span of a decade, social capital has entered the mainstream
of public health discourse, where it is now the theme of professional conferences, as well as the topic of white papers put
out by government health agencies worldwide. For sure social capital was talked about in fields outside public health prior
to 1996 – in sociology (Bourdieu, 1986; Coleman, 1990), economics (Loury, 1992), and political science (Putnam, 1993) – but
the explosion of interest in applying the concept to public health is a comparatively recent phenomenon (Figure 1.1).
I analyze the use of emotion words for approximately 100 million Facebook users since September of 2007. "Gross national happiness" is operationalized as a standardized difference between the use of positive and negative words, aggregated across days, and present a graph of this metric. I begin to validate this metric by showing that positive and negative word use in status updates covaries with self-reported satisfaction with life (convergent validity), and also note that the graph shows peaks and valleys on days that are culturally and emotionally significant (face validity). I discuss the development and computation of this metric, argue that this metric and graph serves as a representation of the overall emotional health of the nation, and discuss the importance of tracking such metrics.
As the use of social networking websites becomes increasingly common, the types of social relationships managed on these sites are becoming more numerous and diverse. This research seeks to gain an understanding of the issues related to managing different social networks through one system, in particular looking at how users of these systems present themselves when they are using one site to keep in contact with both their past social groups from school and their current social connections in the workplace. To do this, we examined online profile pages and interviewed employees at a large software development company who frequently use the website Facebook, a site primarily used by college students and young graduates transitioning into the work force. The outcome of this initial case study is a framework for understanding how users manage self-presentation while maintaining social relationships in heterogeneous networks.
The aim of this research is to develop an in-depth understanding of the dynamics of online group interaction and the relationship between the participation in an online community and an individual's off-line life. The 2½-year study of a thriving online health support community (Bob's ACL WWWBoard) used a broad fieldwork approach, guided by the ethnographic research techniques of observation, interviewing, and archival research in combination with analysis of the group's dynamics during a one-week period. Research tools from the social sciences were used to develop a thick, rich description of the group. The significant findings of this study include: dependable and reliable technology is more important than state-of-the-art technology in this community; strong community development exists despite little differentiation of the community space provided by the software; members reported that participation in the community positively influenced their offline lives; strong group norms of support and reciprocity made externally-driven governance unnecessary; tools used to assess group dynamics in face-to-face groups provide meaningful information about online group dynamics; and, membership patterns in the community and strong subgroups actively contributed to the community's stability and vitality.
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