Understanding appropriation of social media technology to manage chronic illness: The Facebook case

Nwakego Isika, Antonette Mendoza, R. Bosua

Research output: Contribution to conferencePaperAcademic

Abstract

With the rapid increase of social media appropriation globally, there has been a surge in the number of chronically ill adults who leverage social media tools as part of their illness management practice. While numerous studies discuss the potential benefits of appropriation there seem to be limited studies that have explored appropriation of social media by investigating how and why these technologies have been appropriated by these patients. This paper applies an interpretive case study with mixed methods to examine appropriation of Facebook by these cohorts. Our results highlight the patterns of social media appropriation: lurking as passive learning; liking and reacting to show support and; borderless appropriation of multiple social media tools. Among a range of influences, crafting a positive illness identity, communal filtering of misinformation were found to be positive influences and barriers like emotional overload were found to influence appropriation for chronically ill adults on social media.
Original languageEnglish
Number of pages13
Publication statusPublished - 1 Dec 2018
Event29th Australasian Conference on Information Systems - the University of Technology Sydney's main campus, Sydney, Australia
Duration: 3 Dec 20185 Dec 2018
http://www.acis2018.org/

Conference

Conference29th Australasian Conference on Information Systems
Abbreviated titleACIS2018
Country/TerritoryAustralia
CitySydney
Period3/12/185/12/18
Internet address

Keywords

  • chronic illness management
  • facebook
  • technology appropriation
  • social media appropriation
  • social support

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Understanding appropriation of social media technology to manage chronic illness: The Facebook case'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this