Online Self-Disclosure and Social Sharing of Emotions of Women with Breast Cancer Using Instagram–Qualitative Conventional Content Analysis

2021 ◽  
pp. 174239532110397
Author(s):  
Magdalena Pluta

Objectives Women with breast cancer share their experiences and emotions about the illness on Instagram – a tool understudied when it comes to chronic illness. The paper characterizes the women's activities, and both online self-disclosure and social sharing of emotions concepts are used to help explain the women's practices. Methods Using qualitative conventional content analysis, four profiles of women are manually analysed, with posts as the unit of analysis ( n  =  811). Based on eleven subcategories, three broad analytical categories are introduced: self-disclosure of negative information (C1), self-disclosure of positive information (C2) and disclosure of information about other people (C3). Results The women post narratives about suffering resulting from cancer, and the fears they experience. Also, the posts relate to positive emotions, joyful life events, self-acceptance, or self-affirmation. While writing, the women share information about people supporting them on their way to recovery. Discussion The activity of women cannot be explained only by their online self-disclosure, where anonymity and lack of offline support are often emphasized. Women on Instagram are not anonymous and report on support by relatives and other people. Rimé's concept of social sharing of emotions is used to explain this phenomenon.

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rita Moura ◽  
Cristina Camilo ◽  
Sílvia Luís

Women diagnosed with breast cancer often experience unpleasant emotions, resulting in higher levels of emotional burden and decreased levels of wellbeing and quality of life. The present correlational and cross-sectional study aims to compare the implementation of two regulatory levels, intrapersonal and interpersonal (as social sharing of emotions), and two types of strategies, antecedent-focused and response-focused, and explore their impact on breast cancer patients’ perception of quality of life. Sixty-eight women previously diagnosed with the disease participated in this study, with a mean age of 63years old (SD=11.58). Data were collected through a self-report questionnaire to assess emotional experience, intrapersonal regulation, social sharing of emotions, and breast cancer-related wellbeing and quality of life. Data yielded that most of the participants regulated their negative emotions within social interactions and made more use of antecedent-focused strategies to cognitively reformulate the emotional episode. Social and family wellbeing were positively associated with antecedent-focused strategies, as well as intrapersonal and interpersonal regulatory levels. Moreover, the occurrence of sharing episodes and social interactions played an important and beneficial role on patients’ perceived quality of life. These findings reinforce the importance of promoting an adaptive intrapersonal regulation among breast cancer patients. Results also suggest that social sharing of emotions is an efficient process to help them to better cope with the psychological and emotional burden of the disease, thus positively influencing the way they perceive their social and family wellbeing, as well as their quality of life.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rita Moura ◽  
Cristina Camilo ◽  
Sílvia Luís

Abstract Background: Women diagnosed with breast cancer are often subjected to negative emotions, resulting in higher levels of emotional burden and decreased levels of well-being and quality of life. The present study aims to compare the implementation of two regulatory levels, intrapersonal and interpersonal (as social sharing of emotions) and explore their impact on breast cancer patients’ perception of quality of life. Methods: Sixty-eight women previously diagnosed with the disease participated in this study, with a mean age of 63 years old (SD = 11.58). Data was collected through a self-report questionnaire to assess emotional experience, intrapersonal regulation, social sharing of emotions and breast cancer-related well-being and quality of life. Results: Data yielded that most of the participants regulated their negative emotions within social interactions and used more antecedent-focused strategies to cognitively reformulate the emotional episode. Moreover, interpersonal regulation had a greater impact on well-being and quality of life than intrapersonal regulation. In particular, the occurrence of sharing episodes and social interactions played an important and beneficial role on patients’ emotion regulation. Conclusions: These findings suggest that social sharing of emotions is an efficient process to help breast cancer patients better cope with the psychological and emotional burden of the disease, thus positively influencing the way they perceive their well-being and quality of life.


Author(s):  
Martina Valente ◽  
Sophie Renckens ◽  
Joske Bunders-Aelen ◽  
Elena V. Syurina

Abstract Purpose This mixed-methods study delved into the relationship between orthorexia nervosa (ON) and Instagram. Methods Two quantitative data sources were used: content analysis of pictures using #orthorexia (n = 3027), and an online questionnaire investigating the experience of ON and the use of Instagram of people sharing ON-related content on Instagram (n = 185). Following, interviews (n = 9) were conducted with people posting ON-related content on Instagram and self-identifying as having (had) ON. Results People who share ON-related content on Instagram were found to be primarily young women (questionnaire = 95.2% females, mean age 26.2 years; interviews = 100% females, mean age 28.4 years), who were found to be heavy social media users and favor Instagram over other platforms. Questionnaire respondents agreed in defining ON as an obsession with a diet considered healthy, with bio-psycho-social negative consequences, though those who self-identified as having (had) ON were more likely to point out the negative impairments of ON. Interviewees deemed Instagram partially responsible for the development of ON. Instead, they agreed that Instagram encourages problem realization. Content analysis showed that ON is encoded in pictures of ‘food’, ‘people’, ‘text’ and ‘other.’ Interviewees revealed that they started posting to recover, share information, help others, and they felt inspired to post by other accounts. A sense of belonging to the #orthorexia community emerged, where people share values and ideals, and seek validation from others. Conclusion Conversations around #orthorexia on Instagram generate supportive communities aiding recovery. Individuals use Instagram for helping others and themselves recovering from ON. Understanding how people help each other, manage their health, cope with symptoms, and undertake recovery can inform the implementation of therapeutic interventions for ON. Level of evidence Level III, evidence obtained from well-designed cohort or case–control analytic studies.


Author(s):  
Bárbara Castillo-Abdul ◽  
Daniela Jaramillo-Dent ◽  
Luis M. Romero-Rodríguez

The current media environment is complex and has important effects on all aspects of life, including beauty and health. In this sense, YouTube has become one of the main contexts for the dissemination of tutorials and content related to medical procedures such as the application of Botox. Thus, the present study constitutes the first exploratory analysis of YouTube videos in Spanish related to this procedure. A preliminary analysis of 221 YouTube videos yielded a final sample of the 50 most viewed videos within this genre. The analysis was carried out through a quantitative content analysis assessing the popularity of the videos, contact and emotive strategies by the creator, the credibility conveyed, and the characteristics of information about the procedure itself. Results suggest that these influencers align with mainstream Internet celebrity culture in practices that aim at increasing their following and views, as well as calls for subscriptions and visits to other platforms and profiles. Moreover, they include different strategies to establish their credibility but emphasize personal experience. The positive portrayal of the procedure, including positive emotions and content that highlights the benefits, is interesting and supports the commercial nature of much of the content.


Author(s):  
Natalya N. Bazarova ◽  
Yoon Hyung Choi ◽  
Victoria Schwanda Sosik ◽  
Dan Cosley ◽  
Janis Whitlock

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erin Carbone ◽  
George Loewenstein

Studies suggest that sharing thoughts and information with others may be inherently pleasurable and confer health, psychological, and social benefits to the discloser. At the same time, self-disclosure exposes individuals to scrutiny and the risk of rejection and reputational damage, particularly with the advent of digital applications and social media outlets that promote public, and often permanent, disclosing. In an effort to understand the tradeoffs that underlie the decision to disclose, we introduce a distinction between the propensity to disclose and the psychological desire to disclose and present a preliminary investigation into when and why these two constructs diverge. Findings from two exploratory studies reveal the types of information that individuals are most eager to share, as well as the contextual factors and individual characteristics that moderate the desire to share and the circumstances under which this desire is most likely to translate into actual sharing. We replicate findings from prior research that the decision to disclose is a function of content emotionality and valence, but find that the propensity to withhold negative information is most pronounced when the information is about oneself than about others, and that gender differences in disclosure are largely driven by the tendency for men to withhold negative, but not positive, information. Additionally, we capture motives and traits, many of them previously unexplored in the disclosure context, to model the underlying decision-making process that leads to information sharing and distinguish between the act of sharing information and the psychological desire that differentially engender disclosing behavior.


Author(s):  
Esty Wulandari ◽  

Along with the rapid development of technology, the current use of social media by the community is also increasing. One of the social media that is currently on the rise is the TikTok application. TikTok application users come from various backgrounds and ages, including teenagers. Video-based TikTok features accompanied by music, writing, and pictures are considered attractive so that they are liked by teenagers as a means of showing their existence and self-disclosure. TikTok is also currently developing as a way to share information. The theory applied by the researcher was Alman and Taylor's Social Penetration Theory. In addition to such theory, this paper are supported and strengthened by the concepts of Self-Disclosure, Social Media, Teenagers, TikTok, and also Self-Existence. This paper was a qualitative descritpive study which applied a qualitative study method. This paper involved several informants namely teenagers who were also the users of the TikTok application. The inclusion criteria here were teenagers who had a TikTok account, were active on TikTok, and used TikTok as part of their existence and self-disclosure. The results of this study explored the process of self-disclosure and also the existence carried out by the informants in accordance with the stages proposed in the social penetration theory. Informants passed through the stages of self-disclosure sequentially from the orientation stage to the stable stage so that the existence of teenagers in presenting themselves on social media could be observed.


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