Births, deaths, sex and marriage… but very few presents? A case study of social support in cyberspace

Abstract

This paper examines the functioning of a Usenet newsgroup designed to provide social support for people suffering from depression. Using a commonly used taxonomy of different sorts of social support - social companionship, informational support, esteem support and instrumental support - the paper examines a random sample of ‘postings' made to the group. Detailed illustrative examples of different types of ‘posting’ are provided and an analytic commentary on the data is offered. Many of the features of computer-mediated interaction which have been noted in previous research are also found in this case study - the playfulness, sexual banter and humour of many of the posts supports the findings of previous research. We also found that the messages exchanged were predominantly supportive; indeed, 45 of the 61 threads in the sample could be coded as such. However, of these very few offered instrumental support.