8-Calling All Quitters

Rachel Newman-Green
Jamie Hacker-Blue

Using Google Groups, we discovered a blog regarding people that are trying to quit smoking. We used two different message threads since neither had twenty messages. However, they each had to do with support for quitting smoking.

http://groups.google.com/group/alt.support.stop-smoking/browse_thread/thread/2dc2c7cca1c09f71/82629203c95420aa#82629203c95420aa

http://groups.google.com/group/alt.support.stop-smoking/browse_thread/thread/59ec39569520fa3d/7d70219d8eafcd82#7d70219d8eafcd82

% inter-rater reliability 0.791666667
frequency % of msgs
Information 14 0.7
Tangible assistance 1 0.05
Esteem support 7 0.35
Network support 6 0.3
Emotional support 18 0.9
Humor 5 0.25

Most of our inter-rater reliability percentages were very different from the values that Braithwaite found. For information support, we had a 70% correllation rate, which is very different from Braithwaite's 31.3%. Clearly, these values are highly differentiated which can be explained by the environment of the blog itselsf. This thread for people trying to quit smoking is specifically meant for support purposes. Thus, the entire idea behind the thread is for people to constantly be there for one another and provide support when it is needed. This includes support like information support, which includes providing advice, referrals, situation appraisals or teaching. The nature of this thread implies that advice should be given, and the reality is no different. Almost everyone who wrote on the thread provided some sort of information support in the form of advice. Common pieces of advice inluded people telling each other that reading the posts and writing new ones daily would be extremely helpful in refraining from smoking. This is why our inter-rater reliability was so high. The inclusion of information support and advice was evident.

Braithwaite's tangible assistance value was measured at 2.7% while ours was not much higher at 5%. Tangible evidence refers to support in which a respondant actively participates with the writer by performing a direct or indirect task or expressing a willingness to assist others. Most of the thread posts were filled with advice or encouragement rather than specific instructions or tasks as to how to quite smoking. The numbers generally coincide with Braithwaite's research. This is most likely because people are more likely to give out encouraging words of wisdom rather than telling someone to perform a task. There were a few people on this thread that gave suggestions as to how to quit by mentioning what worked for them. However, these suggestions were not all worded in ways that tell the writer to perform a task, but some of them were slightly suggestive.

In measuring esteem support, our value was significantly higher than those of Braithwaite, with 35% of our messages containing esteem support compared to only 18.6% of Braithwaite's messages. Our thread contained instances where the people needed validation that what they were doing was in fact good for them and that they shouldn't blame themselves for waiting so long to quit. Instead, they should embrace their decision to quit and be showered with compliments for making the right decision. This therefore led to the higher percentage of esteem support found in these messages.

Our values for network support were 30%, while Braithwaite's were only 7.1%. Although Braithwaite thought that people didn't need network support because they were already involved in a thread, the people in these messages wanted to reiterate that they were there for each other and ready to lend any help possible. They were aware of the network they were in and how to use it, but the members still felt the need to really express that they were always going to be there for one another, and that all the members should actively use this resource.

Emotional support was extremely prevalent in our findings while only present 40% of the time in Braithwaite's study. The posts that we read have obvious mentions of emotional support because they mainly focus on encouragement, sympathy, and being understanding or empathetic to the writer's quest for non-smoking status. In comparison to Braithwaite, we found such a hugh inter-rater reliability because quitting smoking is all about getting constant encouragement that "you can do it!" which is mentioned constantly in the thread. Almost all of the posts provide lots of variations on encouraging thoughts as to how to keep it up and preventing the urge to start smoking once again.

Even though humor was not given quantitative date by Braithwaite since it seemed to be common to most social support messages, we found in our study that about 25% of the messages contained humorous or satirical content. Some people wrote about their "tragic" weight gain post quitting or their interest in having someone else quit because it would "get [them] off the top of the list!" that everyone fills out with when they had their last cigarette. In a thread such as this, it may help to hear people being sarcastic in order to quit. Everyone can mention encouraging word after encouraging word and that may not work for everyone. For some people, the idea that the ability to quit smoking could be looked at as humorous, could actually be a positive influence on the reality of them quitting.

Although Wallace thought that "increased numbers reduce helping behavior," we found that there were many people that were willing to help despite the large amount of members in the group. Some people replied multiple times to a certain thread, across many threads, and there were some threads that even had over 60 posts, showing that the numbers did not inhibit people from posting.

According to Walther and Boyd, there are four dimensions of attraction to online social support that are social distance, anonymity, interaction management, and access. We found all of these to be present in this thread for people that have quit or want to quit smoking. The social distance was evident where people felt they weren't being judged no matter what they said or did. One woman had tried to quit but had been unsuccessful and was now trying again. Regardless of her previous failure, everyone was completely confident she could succeed this time and they showed no judgment whatsoever. Anonymity was also present because this person could admit her failure without everyone knowing who she really was. This allowed her to express the truth while knowing that she would not be embarrassed by it. Interaction management was especially helpful because each person could craft their post to truly get across the support they wanted. Some posts were quite lengthy, which enabled them to get their ideas across in a clearly contructed and helpful manner. Also, users could post whenever they wanted and take as much time as they needed to respond. Lastly, and most importantly, this thread allowed access to its users every day at all times of the day. Each post also stressed how important it was to express your feelings at any time of day and there would always be someone there to respond and offer encouragement and guidance.

Being able to quit smoking requires a lot of will-power but support from others is essential in order to give the quitter the confidence and advice they need to feel like they are not alone and quit successfully. Braithwaite's measurements of support were all present in these messages, which shows that they are all important in providing the social support that one needs.