In this study we focused on a thread relating to polyamory. This thread starts off with the writer, Danette, discussing her current situation and seeking out support and advice. She begins by telling readers about how she is the "other woman" in a somewhat traditional affair which has been going on for over two years now. Danette’s lover is not legally married, but has been living with another woman for a decade. Danette has begun to accept this fact, but has feelings of jealousy and seeks advice and “words of wisdom”.
After reading all 20 messages and coding each message with 1 (if quality is present) and 0 (if quality is not present) on the topics of information, tangible assistance, esteem support, network support, emotional support and humor, we found an inter-rater reliability figure of 76.667%. This credibility of this figure affirms Braithwaite’s findings, in which he also says that an inter-rater reliability figure of above 70% is trustworthy. The coding was done independently by 3 coders and through the study we were able to capture the interactive quality of social support in this online group.
The first category, informational support is inclusive of advice, referrals to experts, situational appraisal, and teaching. Tangible assistance encompasses loans, performance of a directed and indirected task, active participation, and expressing willingness. Esteem support includes compliments, validation or relief of blame. Network support is encompassing of access and presence of companions. Finally emotional support is anything that ranges from relationship, physical affection, confidentiality, sympathy, understanding or empathy, encouragement, and prayer perhaps.
If we analyze the statistics of each of these categories we find the following:
| | | | frequency | % of msgs |
| Information |
| 20 | 1 | |
| Tangible assistance | 0 | 0 | ||
| Esteem support | | 8 | 0.4 | |
| Network support | | 0 | 0 | |
| Emotional support | 12 | 0.6 | ||
| Humor |
|
| 2 | 0.1 |
As affirmed in Baithwaite’s findings, and seen through our study, we say that emotional support and esteem support were most wide-spread in support threads. Our finding for esteem (8) was significantly lower than that of the study on disability (18.6). This may be due to the fact that polyamory is not widely accepted and esteem support may not be offered as readily. Also, in contrast with disability, polyamory is a lifestyle choice, so people are somewhat responsible for their current situation, potentially decreasing sympathy. This may also be the reason network support was not offered: support groups are often used for people in a situation they could not help; it’s harder to refer someone to an expert on affairs than it is a disability support group. In addition, this online group is already a part of a network of online users and another network may not seem necessary or present in the case of polyamory. Tangible assistance was not present as well. This is probably because as Braithwaite discussed, in a computer mediated environment, it is harder to provide tangible assistance than in a face to face environment. Furthermore, information is an obvious characteristic of all support groups since many people enjoy giving advice when they are offered the opportunity.
Our study also confirmed Walther's theory about online support. Walther countered Wallace's assumption that the increased number of people present in the online community would decrease the help received since there would be a diffusion of responsibility as well as a decrease in "noticeability." Online, Walther found that there would be an increased response to support due to factors other than numbers, such as social distance and anonymity. Social distance leads to a greater availability of expertise since the online network is so large. In this case, Danette was able to seek out advice from other poly's all around the globe and was not confined to her physical location. Many of the respondents to her post made statements such as "good to know I'm not the only one" and "welcome to the club." These are not likely statements she would hear from others in her immediate area. In addition, the anonymity factor may as a whole allow all the members to participate in this support group because they are not really known by the other members even if their information is out there for them to be contacted, i.e. e-mail address and name. Thus, members were able to give information and advice from confiding about past or current experiences without worrying about judgment which would surely be present in a face to face situation. Thus, our own findings validated those of Braithwaite's and supported Walther's theory.
The link to this thread is: http://groups.google.com/group/alt.polyamory/browse_frm/thread/c01cecbfbbaaf5/50bd741840d7c8c1?tvc=1&q=cheating+relationship#50bd741840d7c8c1
My partners were Christina Reda (brown blog) and Heena Kamdar (yellow blog).
1 comment:
Walther's notion that online support would receive an increased number of participants holds especially true in this particular case. Polyamory is a topic that is both taboo and fascinating to most people. I find myself browsing the internet and almost always reading articles such as "how to tell if he's cheating" or "my story of a cheating boyfriend," not because I am actually afraid my boyfriend will cheat on me, but because the topic is almost never discussed in person. Therefore, online discussion of something so rarely spoken of probably draws in a lot of traffic. Also, anonymity plays a huge role. Of course no one is willing to offer face to face advice on such a situation...most people don't want others to know that they've had experience with it.
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