Participation In Online Communities Research Articles

Online communities as a risk factor for gambling and gaming problems: A five-wave longitudinal study

Online communities are becoming increasingly important in everyday life, providing opportunities for leisure habits and social organization. Some online communities are also considered risky for participants, but longitudinal studies on the potential negative consequences are needed. This social psychological study was grounded in theories of group behavior and social identification. We examined the longitudinal associations between participation in gambling and gaming online communities and excessive gambling and gaming. The role of social media identity bubbles was also considered. We used linear hybrid models and longitudinal data comprising five time points (T1–T5) to analyze within- and between-person associations. Nationally representative data were collected from Finnish respondents aged 18–75 (N = 1530) between 2021 and 2023. The Problem Gambling Severity Index (PGSI) was used to measure gambling problems, and the Internet Gaming Disorder Test (IGDT) was used to measure gaming problems. The Identity Bubble Reinforcement Scale (IBRS) measured involvement in social media identity bubbles. The results indicated that participating in online communities was associated with both gambling and gaming problems at the within- and between-person levels. Interaction analyses showed that these problems were increased among active online community users who were also involved in online identity bubbles. Online identity bubbles play a significant role in the process by which non-problematic leisure activities can become addictive behaviors.

Predicting online participation and adoption of autism unproven interventions: a case study of dietary interventions

ABSTRACT Family caregivers of autistic children are susceptible to unconfirmed fads and false claims regarding to the efficacy of unproven interventions. This study aims to predict family caregivers’ participation and adoption of unproven interventions in online communities. Based on the Diffusion of Innovations theory, we first divided the family caregivers’ adoption process into five stages: awareness, persuasion, decision, implementation, and confirmation. Social network analysis and natural language processing methods were subsequently utilised to characterise personal, environmental, and behavioural factors for predicting the formation of last three stage. The results indicated promising evidence for the application of machine learning algorithms in predicting family caregivers’ decision (AUC = 0.823), implementation (AUC = 0.887), and confirmation (AUC = 0.921). Furthermore, the results showed that factors such as social interaction, social persuasion, and modelling significantly contributed to family caregivers’ online community participation and facilitated the adoption process of unproven interventions. Family caregivers with stronger negative emotions expressed were more likely to adopt unproven interventions and recommend these interventions to other community members, thereby accelerating the diffusion of these interventions.

Virtually united: The role of the internet in building social capital

This article examines the transformation of social capital in the context of the digital era, highlighting the significant role of the Internet in this process. Three main areas of impact are identified: the increase in online community participation, enabling people to overcome geographic and temporal barriers to engage in civic and cultural activities; the strengthening of personal social networks through digital platforms, crucial during periods of physical isolation; and the diversification of social capital, facilitating the inclusion of marginalized groups and access to a wider range of support networks. This study highlights how the Internet has served not only as a tool to maintain and expand interpersonal relationships, but also as a means to promote equity, social inclusion and collective mobilization. However, it emphasizes the need to address challenges such as the digital divide and online privacy concerns in order to maximize the positive potential of the Internet. It is concluded that the Internet represents an invaluable resource for building a more robust and diversified social capital in the 21st century.

Power Relations And Authority in Teachers' Online Communities of Practice: Formation, Impact, And Implications

Teachers' online communities of practice have become ideal environments for teachers' professional learning, however the catalysts and derivatives of interpersonal interactions, such as power relations and authority in teachers’ online practice communities have not received enough attention -- these factors affect the inquiry and learning in teachers’ online practice communities to some extent. This study selected a case study of an online community of practice composed of four teachers. Based on the relevant concepts of Goffman's micro-sociolinguistics, we explored how teachers construct power relations and authority through discursive interactions in an online practice community, as well as its impact and implications for teachers' pedagogical inquiry and learning. This study analyzes discursive interactions in teachers' online communities of practice from a sociological perspective, providing a new perspective for analyzing teacher participation and learning in teachers' online communities of practice.

‘루게릭 네트워크’ 온라인 환자공동체 참여경험

This study explores the experiences of patients and their guardians suffering from Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), a rare intractable disease called Lou Gehrig's disease (ALS), by participating in an online patient community activity called 'Lou Gehrig’s Network'. To this end, after diagnosing Lou Gehrig's disease, in-depth interviews were conducted with 10 patients and their guardians participating in the 'Lou Gehrig’s Network' during the course of fighting the disease and analyzed using a grounded theory approach (Strauss & Corbin, 1998). As a result of the study, first, 54 concepts, 33 subcategories and 9 upper categories were derived. Second, a paradigm model for the adaptation process through online community participation after the diagnosis of Lou Gehrig's disease was derived. Specifically, as informal learning, there were learning experiences in indirect experience learning, direct experience learning, and mutual learning. Psychological recovery was also possible by active self-exposure, participation, mutual exchange, and information sharing in the community. Next, the interaction between the members of the Lou Gehrig Network confirmed learning and information exchange, community bond formation, and emotional interaction. Each interaction was deeply linked to each other rather than divided into independent interactions, which affected study participants' learning and psychological recovery. At the same time, the study participants served as mutual aid and mentors in the community. This suggests that mutual dynamics are actively taking place among members within the community. The characteristics of the online patient community, the Lou Gehrig Network, functioned as a self-help group, and at the same time served as a medium for information storage and interaction. Meanwhile, the “Lou Gehrig’s Network” was helping participants learn for life by acting as a learning community. Finally, based on the above results, the significance of this study and suggestions for future research were discussed.

"They have their own people": Emotional connections, community belonging, and Chinese gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men (GBMSM) college students' needs for sexual health support.

Gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men (GBMSM) college students in China have unique sexual health challenges, including a higher risk of HIV infection, stigma and discrimination against LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer) population, and limited access to LGBTQ-affirmative sexual health support. Nonetheless, previous research or policymaking has rarely addressed the students' needs for sexual health support from their perspectives. This study aims to explore GBMSM college students' perceptions and attitudes to current sexual health resources, the challenges they encounter, and their expectations to acquiring LGBTQ-affirmative sexual health information and services. The exploration was carried out through field visits and in-depth interviews with 26 GBMSM college students and eight relevant stakeholders in five cities in China. Qualitative thematic analysis was applied to the interview transcripts and fieldwork memos. Four themes emerged around the preference and needs of GBMSM students in dealing with their sexual health challenges: the association between tackling sexual health challenges and entering LGBTQ communities, the roles of emotional attachment in shaping the preference for HIV-related care and support, the desired modes of acquiring sexual health support, and the current unmet service needs. We discovered that the information-and-care-seeking behaviors of GBMSM college students are highly influenced by and connected to their participation in online and in-person LGBTQ communities. Due to the overall stigmatizing sociocultural environment of LGBTQ in China, GBMSM college students tend to rely on LGBTQ communities, seeking trust and a sense of belongingness for tackling their sexual health challenges. Conventional school-based sexual health educational programs, which often apply top-down, stigma-and-fear-based, and non-LGBTQ-inclusive teaching strategies, rarely help GBMSM college students to solve sexual health problems in real life. GBMSM college students are eager to have LGBTQ-affirmative "health managers" who can understand their emotional experiences and interpersonal contexts and assist them with sexual health issues. However, such support is generally perceived as limited by the students. Our study highlights these unmet needs of the GBMSM students and emphasizes the importance of developing future LGBTQ-affirmative sexual health programs among Chinese GBMSM college students and young GBMSM in general.

Online communities, identity, and leisure: Why online communities mean so much to married women with young children

Social media has generated diverse ways to enjoy leisure activities, for instance, through online communities where people interact and share leisure interests. This study applied qualitative research methods to examine the online and offline leisure activities of 20 married Taiwanese women with young children. It explored how their participation in online communities allowed them to construct collective identities and interact to find meaning in their lives. The results suggest that online communities have become “third places” that enabled these women to satisfy their leisure and social needs and find functional support for their emotional and cognitive needs. The activities and autonomy they experienced in a communal world generated a sense of freedom and offered coping resources for them. Meanwhile, the specific intentions and goals behind their participation suggest that a more nuanced analysis can provide a better understanding of leisure practices and embedded social meanings.

Investigating the Role of Online Communities in Promoting Collaborative Learning and Peer Interaction

The objective of this research is to investigate the correlation between the level of contentment that students experience in their social interactions with peers and their personal evaluations of academic achievements. Additionally, this study aims to analyze the influence of students' involvement in virtual communities on the effectiveness of their collaborative assignments. The data were collected through surveys administered to a subset of the population that was deemed statistically significant. The statistical analysis involved the utilization of both descriptive and inferential methods. The results indicate a positive association between engagement in virtual communities and effective collaboration. A noteworthy correlation was observed between the perceived level of learning among students and their satisfaction with the degree of participation exhibited by their peers during classroom discussions. The findings of this study enhance the existing knowledge by providing distinct empirical evidence specific to the context of Saudi Arabia. The significance of peer relationships is emphasized, and the promotion of collaborative learning through participation in online communities is underscored. The study's findings offer insights for individuals involved in promoting online community-based peer learning and engagement, including educators, politicians, and academics. Further research could be carried out in the future to investigate the mechanisms that support collaborative learning and peer interaction.

Indonesian online news and digital culture: a media ecology perspective

The number of Internet users in Indonesia continues to increase, with more and more people using electronic gadgets connected to the Internet. It is also quite clear to see the phenomenon related to the emergence of online news in the digital realm. The researchers review and characterise Indonesian online news from the media ecology perspective. By doing library research, a literature review will be composed and used to describe online news and digital culture in Indonesia in media ecology. The result shows that the increasing use of the Internet has resulted in the rise of online news media, which seem to have replaced traditional media. In the context of Indonesia's digital culture, multimedia features in online news have the potential to attract readers' interest. At the same time, social media provides space for independent online news and community participation in the digital world to shape social, political, and cultural values.

Forecasting User Interests Through Topic Tag Predictions in Online Health Communities.

The increasing reliance on online communities for healthcare information by patients and caregivers has led to the increase in the spread of misinformation, or subjective, anecdotal and inaccurate or non-specific recommendations, which, if acted on, could cause serious harm to the patients. Hence, there is an urgent need to connect users with accurate and tailored health information in a timely manner to prevent such harm. This article proposes an innovative approach to suggesting reliable information to participants in online communities as they move through different stages in their disease or treatment. We hypothesize that patients with similar histories of disease progression or course of treatment would have similar information needs at comparable stages. Specifically, we pose the problem of predicting topic tags or keywords that describe the future information needs of users based on their profiles, traces of their online interactions within the community (past posts, replies) and the profiles and traces of online interactions of other users with similar profiles and similar traces of past interaction with the target users. The result is a variant of the collaborative information filtering or recommendation system tailored to the needs of users of online health communities. We report results of our experiments on two unique datasets from two different social media platforms which demonstrates the superiority of the proposed approach over the state of the art baselines with respect to accurate and timely prediction of topic tags (and hence information sources of interest).

Unleashing Knowledge Sharing in Emerging Economy Startups: A Multilevel Analysis

The knowledge-sharing process in digital startups is under development in current discussions, even though its importance for sustainable economic growth is acknowledged. This paper analyses the connections and traits regarding how knowledge is distinguished and shared at different levels in an emerging economy. Twelve focus groups were conducted with 72 startup founders, managers, and employees, and in-depth interviews reveal that, in contrast to the results from studies about more extensive firms, individuals consider knowledge sharing based on their particular judgment of the absorptive capacity of the recipient and the perceived gains associated with the maturation of individual and organisational image and reputation. Digital cultural factors inherent in this type of enterprise, remote first, meritocracy, and online community participation, have directly influenced the adoption of digital knowledge-sharing systems. Individuals desire to share knowledge for recognition, to establish credibility, and to establish connections with investors and mentors. A communal and collaborative atmosphere can foster the exchange of information among employees, influencing the intention to share knowledge. Knowledge sharing is reinforced when employees perceive knowledge sharers as specialists. Incentives and intra-organisational reward campaigns, talent improvement programs, external training sessions, workshops, and collaborative team assessments can cultivate personal relationships. A theoretical framework has been proposed that can examine digital startups’ effectiveness on micro-level elements. In emerging economies, social rewards are personally more critical than financial achievements. Our empirical statements reinforce the arguments that the digital age, the pandemic, and the migration crisis have substantially changed most aspects of knowledge sharing.

Is intellectual humility related to more accuracy and less overconfidence?

ABSTRACT Is intellectual humility (IH) related to more accuracy and less overconfidence in decision-making contexts? Here we sought to answer this question and clarify ambiguities in the literature by examining the relations among IH, critical thinking, and overconfidence measures. We assessed these relations in both online community and college participants. Overall, IH tended to be related to more accuracy on a range of critical thinking measures and to less overestimation and overclaiming. We also found some evidence for a Dunning-Kruger effect (i.e. those scoring the lowest on IH significantly overestimated their performance). Results tended to be significantly stronger in the online community participants than in the college participants, and the Dunning-Kruger effect was not present in the college sample. Overall, the current findings invite questions about how IH contributes to more accuracy and less overconfidence and whether IH can be leveraged to bolster critical thinking.

Understanding the Dynamics of Online Social Support Among Postpartum Mothers in Online Communities.

Despite previous attempts to identify types of social support among postpartum mothers, researchers have overlooked how and why postpartum mothers seek and offer social support as well as the dynamics of participation in online communities. The objective of the current study was to explore possible answers through grounded theory approach of interviews with 24 mothers who have experienced postpartum depression and psychological distress. The primary motivation to join the community was a desire for connectedness and reassurance. Initially engaged to seek information, users began to share not only informational and tangible support, but also emotional and esteem support as they gained comfort with their membership in these groups. Findings suggest that affirming normalcy while coping with postpartum distress is an integral part of the social support shared among postpartum mothers. Moreover, the findings indicated that to maximize the sustainability as well as the effectiveness of online communities for postpartum mothers, motivating silent users to participate and reciprocate is crucial.

Healing-Centered Educator Activism in Mathematics Actualized by Women of Color Mathematics Teacher Activists

ABSTRACT Many teacher activists engage in justice-oriented work within and outside their classrooms, yet the work of mathematics teacher activists has been understudied. In this qualitative interview study, I investigated ten women of Color mathematics teacher activists’ actualization of their organizing work, which includes the creation of and participation in grassroots collectives, podcasts, and online communities that aim to disrupt dominant conceptualizations of mathematical knowledge. Building on theories of teacher activism and healing-centered engagement, I share findings of participants’ healing-centered educator activism. From the findings, I theorize a healing-centered educator activism in mathematics framework, which entails centering relationships and community wellness (of humans and the earth) for collective healing, examining and dismantling systems of oppression, broadening conceptualizations of mathematical knowledge, and fostering healthy relationships with dominant mathematics. I discuss constraints and considerations for engaging in healing-centered educator activism as a teacher of mathematics.

EFFECT OF SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING ON BRAND EQUITY

Consumers are increasingly turning to brand communities on social media in order to learn more about respective brands and inform their decision-making regarding those brands. This study investigates the impact that marketing via social media has on the value of a brand. Building on the theory of uses and gratifications as well as the concept of brand experiences, our hypothesis was that the relationship between social media marketing activities and consumer benefits, such as brand awareness and value consciousness, is mediated by consumer experiences with brands, brand experiences, and participation in online communities. A survey with a total of 350 consumers who use social media and are actively engaged in branding was carried out, and the data collected from the survey were analyzed using a variety of statistical tools. The findings indicate that social media marketing had a significant impact on all aspects of the brand experience, including value consciousness, brand awareness, and brand experience.

Parents of Children With High Weight Are Viewed as Responsible for Child Weight and Thus Stigmatized

Courts in seven U.S. states have removed children with “obesity” from parental custody until children could maintain “healthy weights.” These rulings—alongside qualitative reports from parents of children with high weight (PoCHs)—suggest that PoCHs are judged as bad parents. Yet little work has tested whether people genuinely stigmatize PoCHs or what drives this phenomenon. In three experiments with U.S. online community participants (N = 1,011; two preregistered), we tested an attribution theory model: Social perceivers attribute children’s weights to parents and thus stigmatize those parents. Experiments 1 and 2 support this model (across parent and child gender). Experiment 3 manipulated attributions of parental responsibility for child weight, revealing attenuated stigma with low attributions of responsibility. Findings are among the first to describe and explain stigma toward a large demographic (parents of children with obesity)—with real-world implications (e.g., for family separation, health care)—and may additionally illuminate the psychology underlying stigma toward parents of children with other potentially stigma-evoking identities.

Role of brand engagement and co-creation experience in online brand community continuance: A service-dominant logic perspective

Value creation and acquisition are pivotal for continuous participation in online communities and thus have become goals that brand companies strive to develop in online brand communities (OBCs). Prior studies, however, predominately adopted the goods-dominant logic to assess the role of OBC members’ value perceptions in their value experiences. Such an approach overlooks the fact that one's value experiences in OBCs manifest in the co-creation with the brand and with other OBC members, benefiting from technology platforms and one's community motives. We thus draw on the service-dominant logic to formulate a research model with seven research hypotheses. These hypotheses depict relationships among five research constructs, in which (1) OBC continuance intention serves as the ultimate dependent variable, (2) brand engagement and co-creation experience represent OBC members’ value experiences in consumer-to-brand and consumer-to-consumer interactions, respectively, and (3) social media affordances and members’ OBC identification serve as the antecedents of OBC members’ value experiences. We used the Amazon MTurk platform to collect 246 valid samples worldwide that represent general OBC members. We adopted PLS-SEM to assess the measurement model and test the proposed hypotheses. Our findings indicate that co-creation experience and brand engagement are pivotal value experiences that can increase OBC continuance intention. In addition, social media affordances and OBC identification are instrumental to both value experiences through their facilitation of technology-mediated and communal interactions for resource integration and service exchange among OBC members and the brand. This study sheds light on OBC research by identifying the central role of brand engagement and co-creation experience in OBC continuance. We also discuss theoretical and practical implications and provide future research suggestions.

Gender Based Differences in Business Model, Online Community Participation and Period of Becoming Entrepreneur in Relation to Product Creativity and Social Marketing

Becoming an entrepreneur is one of the opportunities for today's young generation, especially during a pandemic that causes them to lose their jobs. Efforts made by the government to facilitate the emergence of an entrepreneurial spirit are in the form of financial assistance and coaching needed by new entrepreneurs. This study observed three variables that can improve entrepreneurs' business performance: business models, marketing through social media, and product creativity. The three variables are distinguished by gender, membership in online communities, and period of being a food entrepreneur. The study results indicate differences between men and women in the business model and product creativity variables and their online food entrepreneurship community participation. However, there is no difference between men and women as community members on social media marketing.

Exploring the impact of innovation guidance on user participation in online communities: A mixed methods investigation of cognitive and affective perspectives.

In recent years, many online communities have launched opinion-gathering activities to promote user participation in innovation and improve the quality of new products. The current methods for online innovation activities can be divided into two categories: cognitive guidance and affective guidance. However, the studies on online communities have mainly focused on user engagement motivations, and little attention has been paid to investigating the impact and underlying mechanism of innovation guidance on user participation at the linguistic level. This study first collected secondary data from NetEase.com and conducted an econometric model to explore the impact of cognitive guidance and affective guidance on users’ participation in online innovation activities. Subsequently, we investigated the impact mechanism of different innovation guidance methods on user participation through two experiments, here by drawing on mental simulation theory. The experimental results showed that outcome simulation and process simulation imposed a dual mediating effect of innovation guidance on user participation. In addition, we also found that product types moderate the dual mediating effect of outcome simulation and process simulation. The findings can deepen and expand the research on user participation while providing practical implications for companies and platforms as they attempt to promote user participation in innovation activities.

Effects of Substance Use, Recovery, and Non-Drug-Related Online Community Participation on the Risk of a Use Episode During Remission From Opioid Use Disorder: Longitudinal Observational Study.

BackgroundOpioid addiction is currently one of the most pressing public health issues. Despite several treatment options for opioid addiction, the recurrence of use episodes during remission remains high. Research indicates that meaningful membership in various social groups underpins the successful transition from addiction to long-term remission. However, much of the current literature focuses on online peer-support groups for individuals in remission from substance use, sometimes also called recovery groups, a term we will use in line with the terminology used by the online community we studied. In contrast, online group memberships that promote substance use and groups that are unrelated to substance use and remission (non–drug-related groups) are rarely studied.ObjectiveThis study aims to understand whether engagement with a variety of Reddit subforums (subreddits) provides those in remission from opioid use disorder (OUD) with social capital, thereby reducing their risk of a use episode over several years. More specifically, it aims to examine the different effects of engagement with substance use, recovery, and non–drug-related subreddits.MethodsA data set of 457 individuals in remission from OUD who posted their remission start date on Reddit was collected, of whom 219 (47.9%) indicated at least one use episode during the remission period. Using a Cox proportional hazards model, the effects of the number of non–drug-related, recovery, and substance use subreddits an individual had engaged with on the risk of a use episode were tested. Group engagement was assessed both in terms of the absolute number of subreddits and as a proportion of the total number of subreddits in which an individual had posted.ResultsEngagement with a larger number of non–drug-related online communities reduced the likelihood of a use episode irrespective of the number of posts and comments made in these forums. This was true for both the absolute number of non–drug-related communities (P<.001) and the proportion of communities with which a person engaged (P<.001). The findings were less conclusive for recovery support and substance use groups; although participating in more recovery support subreddits reduced the risk of a use episode (P<.001), being part of a higher proportion of recovery support groups relative to other subreddits increased the risk (P=.01). A higher proportion of substance use subreddits marginally increased the risk of a use episode (P=.06); however, the absolute number of substance use subreddits significantly reduced the risk of a use episode (P=.002).ConclusionsOur work indicates that even minimal regular engagement with several non–drug-related online forums may provide those in remission from OUD with an opportunity to grow their social capital and reduce the risk of a use episode over several years.