Factors Motivating Users of Social Media to Engage with Images about Living with Chronic Illness

Abstract

With the increased uptake of social media platforms, new opportunities arise for utilising these platforms to benefit individuals with chronic health issues. In this research, I investigated how and why individuals share and engage with images online that present everyday life with chronic illness. The research consisted of three studies; each investigated a different aspect of engagement with images. Study one investigated user behaviour on social media by analysing images posted in the online community #typeonediabetes. The findings showed that users mostly shared and interacted with images containing faces and medical aids. Study two focused on understanding what motivates participants to engage with images about living with chronic illness. The study collected data through photo-elicitation interviews with 20 active social media users who have type one diabetes or multiple sclerosis. The findings identified six motivations that drive people to share and explore images about life with chronic illness: informational need, social need, emotional need, the desire for transparency, the desire for advocacy, and the impact of hashtags. The study also found that participants were particularly interested in interacting with images that communicated shared identity and emotional content. This finding supported study one findings by providing more insight into why participants engaged with this type of content. Based on the findings from study two, I developed a framework of user engagement with images about chronic illness (UsEnIC) to describe the different roles users may play during the engagement with images on OHCs. Each role is identified by the motives and the benefits of engagement. Study three was an online survey with 297 respondents, which aimed to validate the findings from study two. In this study, five-point Likert scales were used to examine a hypothesised model which describes the relationships between user intention to engage with images and the motivations of seeking support, providing support, transparency, advocacy, and hashtags. The relationships between intention to engage with images and the identified motivations were supported except for transparency. The USENIC framework was modified based on study three findings. This research contributes to knowledge by proposing a USENIC framework that describes why and how users explore and share images specifically presenting life with chronic illness. The framework describes three roles user may play in image based OHCs: explorer, sharer, and leader. The research addresses different factors that make images interesting for the chronically ill audience. The research has limitations related samples’ sizes and diversity. While the sample was based on two chronic illnesses: type one diabetes and multiple sclerosis, future works should include larger diverse samples with new techniques to improve measurement of user engagement.