Structure and evolution of online social networks
Proceedings of the 12th ACM SIGKDD international conference on Knowledge discovery and data mining
Analysis of topological characteristics of huge online social networking services
Proceedings of the 16th international conference on World Wide Web
Yes, there is a correlation: - from social networks to personal behavior on the web
Proceedings of the 17th international conference on World Wide Web
Relationship between the level of intimacy and lurking in online social network services
Computers in Human Behavior
Predicting tie strength with social media
Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Online Social Support: The Interplay of Social Networks and Computer-Mediated Communication
Online Social Support: The Interplay of Social Networks and Computer-Mediated Communication
Data mining emotion in social network communication: Gender differences in MySpace
Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology
Public dialogs in social network sites: What is their purpose?
Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology
A study of informational support exchanges in medhelp alcoholism community
SBP'12 Proceedings of the 5th international conference on Social Computing, Behavioral-Cultural Modeling and Prediction
Ranking User Influence in Healthcare Social Media
ACM Transactions on Intelligent Systems and Technology (TIST)
Shifting dynamics or breaking sacred traditions?: the role of technology in twelve-step fellowships
Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
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People are able to express support for each other through online support groups by communicating their feelings and exchanging personalized information. In the domain of health information, this ability enables patients to connect with each other to build their own sense of community filled with healthy, supportive relationships. This paper reports a comparison of levels of social support types (informational, nurturant, and instrumental) that were identified among interactions across three different types of computer-mediated communication tools (forum, journals, and notes) from an online alcoholism support community. Findings show that people use each communication tool for different purposes, which can be associated with each tool's inherent design characteristics. Forums were used for exchanging information, whereas journals and notes were used for exchanging nurturant support. We suggest that this difference may be explained by the perceived levels of social support for each communication tool. These results can prove useful to health professionals in the development of social support systems for their patients that encourage health behavior change.