Building Online Platforms for Peer Support Groups as a Persuasive Behavior Change Technique

Alrobai, Amen; Doğan, Hüseyin; Phalp, Keith; Ali, Raian

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-78978-1_6

Cited by 10 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…Our future work will be to provide countermeasures for FoMO (both social and technical); e.g. online peer support groups [24] in order to increase digital wellbeing for SNS users.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How Can Social Networks Design Trigger Fear of Missing Out?

Alutaybi

Arden‐Close

McAlaney

et al. 2019

2019 IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man and Cybernetics (SMC)

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Social Network Sites (SNSs) are meant to facilitate interaction between people. The design of SNSs employs persuasive techniques with the aim of enhancing the user experience but also increasing interaction and user retention. Examples include the personalisation of content, temporarily available feeds, and notification and alert features. Socialness is now being embedded in new paradigms such as the Internet of Things and cyber-physical systems where devices can link people to each other and increase relatedness and group creation. One of the phenomena associated with such persuasion techniques is the experience of Fear of Missing Out (FoMO). FoMO typically refers to the preoccupation of SNS users with being deprived of interaction while offline. The salience, mood modification and conflict typically experienced as part of FoMO, are symptoms of digital addiction (DA). Despite recognition of the widespread experience of FoMO, existing research focuses on user psychology to interpret it. The contribution of SNS design in triggering FoMO remains largely unexplored. In this paper, we conduct a multi-stage qualitative research including interviews, a diary study and three focus group sessions to explore the relationship between SNS features and FoMO. Our findings demonstrate how the different SNS features act as persuasion triggers for certain kinds of FoMO. Also, we suggest features that could be introduced to social network sites to allow individuals to manage FoMO and identify the principles and challenges associated with engineering them.

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“…Our future work will be to provide countermeasures for FoMO (both social and technical); e.g. online peer support groups [24] in order to increase digital wellbeing for SNS users.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How Can Social Networks Design Trigger Fear of Missing Out?

Alutaybi

Arden‐Close

McAlaney

et al. 2019

2019 IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man and Cybernetics (SMC)

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Providing this information at the right time may improve users' belief and trust in the software. Because users exhibit different skills and self-esteem levels, transparency concerning the delivering and sharing of performance feedback collectively should be considered by all parties involved [29,30] in case group therapy approach or online peer support groups are applied [26]. Delivering such transparency information without consideration of these factors may lower some users' self-esteem and reduce their motivation, commitment towards the goals and, in the worst cases, may lead them to abandon their goals.…”

Section: Software Transparencymentioning

confidence: 99%

Digital Addiction: Negative Life Experiences and Potential for Technology-Assisted Solutions

Cham

Algashami

Aldhayan

et al. 2019

Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing

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There is a growing acceptance of the association between obsessive, compulsive and excessive usage of digital media, e.g., games and social networks, and users' wellbeing, whether personal, economic or social. While specific causal relations between such Digital Addiction (DA) and the negative life experience can be debated, we argue in this paper that, nevertheless, technology can play a role in preventing or raising awareness of its pathological or problematic usage styles, e.g. through monitoring usage and enabling interactive awareness messages. We perform a literature review, with the primary aim of gathering the range negative life experiences associated with DA. We then conduct two focus groups to help gather users' perception of the key findings from the literature. Finally, we perform a qualitative analysis of experts and practitioners' interviews and comments from a user survey on DA warning labels. As a result, we develop eight families of the negative life experiences associated with DA, examine the role of software in facilitating the reduction of such negative experiences, and consider the challenges that may be encountered in the process.

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“…Another research study found that using peer groups to mediate interventions can be harmful as it may introduce negative behaviours such as normalising the problematic behaviour and reducing its culpability due to excessive peer support [19]. Also, utilising traditional software design processes and models to build persuasive systems for behavioural change is questionable, e.g., in the notion of user requirements and its peculiarities when users can have a degree of denial and conflict in their requirements and preferences [20]. Also, the reliance on de-facto social software constructs may not be sufficient enough for designing online environment to influence behaviours for users who want to achieve specific goals and make a positive change [20].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Also, utilising traditional software design processes and models to build persuasive systems for behavioural change is questionable, e.g., in the notion of user requirements and its peculiarities when users can have a degree of denial and conflict in their requirements and preferences [20]. Also, the reliance on de-facto social software constructs may not be sufficient enough for designing online environment to influence behaviours for users who want to achieve specific goals and make a positive change [20]. In addition, using such systems and their features, e.g., chat and praise, to mediate behavioural change may lead to adverse consequences as they were not built for this purpose but mainly to increase openness and connectedness which is a double-edged sword if used for problematic behaviour such as DA.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

COPE.er Method: Combating Digital Addiction via Online Peer Support Groups

Alrobai

Algashami

Doğan

et al. 2019

IJERPH

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Digital addiction (hereafter DA) denotes a problematic relationship with technology described by being compulsive, obsessive, impulsive and hasty. New research has identified cases where users’ digital behaviour shows symptoms meeting the clinical criteria of behavioural addiction. The online peer groups approach is one of the strategies to combat addictive behaviours. Unlike other behaviours, intervention and addictive usage can be on the same medium; the online space. This shared medium empowers influence techniques found in peer groups, such as self-monitoring, social surveillance, and personalised feedback, with a higher degree of interactivity, continuity and real-time communication. Social media platforms in general and online peer groups, in particular, have received little guidance as to how software design should take it into account. Careful theoretical understanding of the unique attributes and dynamics of such platforms and their intersection with gamification and persuasive techniques is needed as the ad-hoc design may cause unexpected harm. In this paper, we investigate how to facilitate the design process to ensure a systematic development of this technology. We conducted several qualitative studies including user studies and observational investigations. The primary contribution of this research is twofold: (i) a reference model for designing interactive online platforms to host peer groups and combat DA, (ii) a process model, COPE.er, inspired by the participatory design approach to building Customisable Online Persuasive Ecology by Engineering Rehabilitation strategies for different groups.

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Building Online Platforms for Peer Support Groups as a Persuasive Behavior Change Technique

Cited by 10 publications

References 20 publications

How Can Social Networks Design Trigger Fear of Missing Out?

How Can Social Networks Design Trigger Fear of Missing Out?

Digital Addiction: Negative Life Experiences and Potential for Technology-Assisted Solutions

COPE.er Method: Combating Digital Addiction via Online Peer Support Groups

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