Susannie Watt- Member of Brown Blog Thomas Liu – Member of Yellow Blog
Our subject of study was something near and dear to our heart as college students: sleep. There are many sleep disorders, and many more that are afflicted with it, which in turn means that there are many support groups for said disorders. In our study, we analyzed twenty different posts related to sleep disorders, especially narcolepsy, from Usenet. Our inter-rater reliability was a solid ~93%, a good indicator of dependable coding. Due to the nature of the disorders, many posts enlightened the OP (original poster) about the little-known illness and did not often offer as much emotional support compared to support groups for depression and cancer. A sizable amount of posts, 95%, were coded as information support as posters tried to help others cope with the difficulty of diagnosing and treating sleep disorders like narcolepsy, in constrast to Braithwaite's most frequent code category, emotional support. Network support, at 25%, tied with humor in third most common type of post, was another means for people to meet other more knowledgeable narcoleptics, since the sources of knowledge are more likely to be fellow narcoleptics rather than from the medical community, being that there are not large amounts of scientific resources availbale on sleeping disorders.
Emotional support came as the second most frequent, at 30%, being that the population of narcoleptics is so small and every bit of encouragement helps. Also, the fact that those afflicted as so far and few, Wallace’s number theory suggests that those who see the plea for help are more inclined to reply, since they bear the responsibility more strongly. After recalling their own difficulties with the disorders, they want to share their wealth of experience as well as their sympathy. There was also a desire to raise others’ spirits through humor, since the disorders are less grave than say, cancer, and the light hearted tone would encourage others to do something about their problem. The esteem support was not as high as reported by Braithwaite, because the community was more focused on getting the information out and less on validating the afflicted or clearing them from blame. However, sometimes, the sleep-deprived are considered lazy or late-night party- participants, and some posters quickly dispelled that notion. Our results for tangible assistance remained low as well, just as in Braithwaite's analysis.
Interestingly enough, anonymity was not a strong factor in narcoleptics or others suffering from sleep disorders to seek support groups. Many of the posters in alt.narcoleptics signed their posts with their name or provided their own website about the disorders. Although Walter states that anonymity would encourage those seeking and those providing help to be more inclined, in this case, the effect was not as strong. An interesting manifestation of interaction management, in the case of sleep disorders, is that those afflicted tend to fall asleep during daily activities, hence making forums and support groups difficulty to attend FtF. Online, people can give input and address concerns whenever they can (aka, when they’re awake), due to the nature of 24/7 access and the asynchronicity of Usenet. This lends evidence to Walter’s theory that online support groups can be as successful, if not more, than FtF support.
Reference Links:
Susannie Watt- Member of Brown Blog 
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