Abstract
Social media technologies are increasingly utilized by patients, leading to development of online social groups where patients share experiences and offer support to their peers on these platforms. Yet, there is limited research investigating actual use of social media platforms by patients with chronic illness. In order to gain an understanding of this growing trend, this study conducts a technology feature analysis of the technology features of four of the most used social media tools to date: Facebook, Instagram, Reddit and YouTube in order to determine how the features and mechanisms available on these tools present the key functionalities of these social media tools. We discover that the Uses and Gratifications Framework can augment the Honey Comb framework to examine the features of social media technologies.
Recommended Citation
Isika, Nwakego; Mendoza, Antonette; and Bosua, Rachelle, "The use of social media by adults with chronic illness: analysing the support mechanisms of four social media platforms" (2016). ACIS 2016 Proceedings. 60.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/acis2016/60