Staccato social support in mobile health applications

Abstract

Social support plays an important role in health systems. While significant work has explored the role of social support in CMC environments, less analysis has considered social support in mobile health systems. This paper describes socially supportive messages in VERA, a mobile application for sharing health decisions and behaviors. The short and bursty interactions in social awareness streams [36] afford a particular style of social support, for which we offer the label staccato social support. Results indicate that, in comparison to previous work, staccato social support is characterized by a greater prevalence of esteem support, which builds respect and confidence. We further note the presence of 'following up', a positive behavior that contributes to supportive interactions, likely via social pressure and accountability [7,38]. These findings suggest design recommendations to developers of mobile social support systems and contribute to understanding technologically mediated social support for health.