This assignment started off by reading a Tumblr post discussing the perceived benefits of online versus in-person emotional support. It suggested 3 reasons, starting with that it was good because it allows you to be alone but also get support. Second, it explained that you can tell people awful things that just happened even if no one is around. Finally, it claimed that you can tell people your feelings without them having to see you cry.
Next, out of a list of 16, we had to choose one research article to read, each of which describes an investigation of online emotional support. Following this, we had to make a discussion board post explaining what the researchers studied, why they studied this, what they found, and what the findings mean.
The article I read was Pagoto et al.’s (2014) article called “Tweeting it off: characteristics of adults who tweet about a weight loss attempt”. In my discussion board post, I explained that the researchers studied adults who use twitter while attempting to lose weight and comparing the good and bad social influences from their online friends, offline friends, and members of their immediate family.
They wanted to study this because obesity is a common occurrence in today’s society, but obese people often receive little social support when it comes to losing weight. It is possible that increasing social support will help lead to more permanent weight loss. Additionally, they may be too embarrassed to ask friends or family, so finding support online may be a successful way for them to be encouraged to lose weight, without being stigmatized.
In this study, the results supported this idea. Their connections on Twitter were much greater sources for positive social influence for weight loss and many fewer sources for negative social influence than their offline friends and family, as well as Facebook friends. Greater positive social influence from Twitter and Facebook was correlated with more weight loss on the person’s last attempt.
Specifically to this study, these findings mean that online social networks can be used to help heavier people who don’t have social support to lose weight connect. However, more broadly, these findings mean that online connections can be a key to overcoming different obstacles. Since online interactions can be relatively more convenient and anonymous, they may be more advantageous that interacting with friends or family in person, in some cases.
Reflecting on this assignment, it was nice to start by reading the Tumblr post. It was much quicker, more lighthearted, and introduced the subject. It allowed me to ease into the topic in an easy way, which I enjoyed, rather than starting with a complex research article.
Moving on to the research articles, I thought it was fantastic that we were provided with 16 different choices to read from. They were all on the same general topic, but each article definitely varied in how they studied it and what issue they were approaching. Giving us the choice allowed me to be more excited about the assignment, because I had more of a say in what I was learning about. This lead me to enjoy reading and writing about the article more.
Also, breaking the discussion board post into what the researchers studied, why they studied it, what they found, and what the findings mean was a great idea. This method forced us to truly understand the study, the reasons behind it, and what ended up happening. This made me read the article more carefully, and I ended up learning more about it, because I was focused on picking these points out of the article.
This assignment was good because it brought simplicity by only requiring me to do a few steps, it brought choice by allowing me to pick which article I wanted to read, and it brought me mastery by requiring me to go back and pick out specific points from the article. This was very well designed, and was not a pain to complete. I hope there are more assignments like this moving forward the rest of the semester!
Nicky's Blog 