This assignment started out by having me read all of the other posts on the Unit 7 Assignment 2 discussion board from my section. Following this, I had to respond to 2 different posts, including one person who read the same article as I did, and one person who read a different article than I did.
As a reminder, these posts required us to discuss what the researchers studied, why they studied this, what they found, and what this means. The first student I responded to was a girl named Stella, who read the same article that I did. In my response to her, I told her how I could tell she read the article thoroughly, and that she truly understands what it is about.
I agreed with her point that connecting with people online can make it easier to find those who understand what you are going through, compared to offline relationships. For example, even though friends and family of an obese person can provide support, it is possible that none of them have struggled with weight loss, so they may not truly understand what it is like. On the contrary, online, you can find people all across the world and can choose to connect with people experiencing similar issues.
I liked how she referenced that connecting online can provide a sense of anonymity and reduce embarrassment, along with how it allows you to stop interacting with those who do not influence you positively. In my post, I also referenced anonymity and embarrassment, but I forgot about cutting people out, and I think it is a very important point.
I discussed how I wonder what direction that this study will lead to for future research. This was focused on weight loss, but it would be interesting to test the effects of offline versus online connections in a different context.
The second person I responded to was a girl named Holly, who read a different article than I did, about internet support groups for patients. In my reply, I first explained how in the past, I had heard about Internet Support Groups for other types of patients, but that I did not know much about their effectiveness. She cleared up that they generally improve patient outcomes, which was good to hear!
I referenced how I liked that her paragraphs were short and right to the point. It led to very smooth transitioning between ideas, and also helped to facilitate my understanding of the study.
I agreed with her thoughts on the findings, that ISG’s may be safe for use on depression. Even though there was only a limited impact, this is still significant, because it still helps, and can at the very least prevent people from getting even more depressed. I lost a friend recently to suicide, so it reminds me of the importance of trying to help those facing mental illness, in any way possible.
I discussed how I wonder what these people with depression think about these ISG’s compared to in-person groups. Perhaps they can help because they seem more anonymous, and they are less embarrassed to share their feelings. This was the case in the article I read about those trying to lose weight, that they had more positive outcomes from their online relationships.
Reflecting on this assignment, I think it is always great to respond to the posts of others. This makes sure that we are reading through everyone else’s posts, and learning their different input on various topics. It allows me to learn more about how different people think, including making connections and seeing things from differing points of view.
Not only this, but we were required to respond to one person who read the same article, and one person who read a different article. I think this is a great setup for an assignment, as reading a post from a different article allows you to learn completely new information, and reading a post from the same article allows you to master what you already knew and had read about. It also allowed us the choice to respond to who we want within those boundaries, which is always nice when they give us opportunities to make our own decisions.
This is a relatively quick assignment, as most of the work went into constructing these posts in assignment 2. However, these posts centered around responding allow us to connect with others and reflect, which is inherently valuable. It brings a variety and allows us to do things rather than just making our own long posts, which I appreciate.
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