Youth blogging and serious illness

Abstract

In recent years, a growing number of young people who experience illness tend to blog about it. In this paper, we question whether and how illness blogs illustrate the intercommunicative aspect of blogging by bringing forth both the literary concept of the implied reader and the sociological concepts of empowerment and agency in the analysis. We argue that young people blogging about serious illness demonstrate the inherent intercommunicative potential of blogging. We also argue that youth blogging about serious illness may represent a fruitful strategy for ill young people to create meaning, stay front-stage in youth communities and build self-esteem and confidence out of chaos. Furthermore, we argue that these blogs may contribute rather unique experience-based knowledge and reflections about existential issues to other young blog readers, who may otherwise not get access to this aspect of life. Youth blogging about serious illness thereby reflects a patient group so far not very visible and through the genre youth stand out as more competent when it comes to illness and healthcare issues than what is often presumed.

Social media use in adolescents and young adults with serious illnesses: an integrative review

“…Eight articles (Table 1) highlighted that the reasons why AYAs use social media impacts the type of social media content shared and the platform used to share the content. (15,30,31,32,33,34,35,36).…”

“…AYAs who share personal and emotive content relating to their condition tended to use blogging sites (15,33,34,35,36). By contrast, more informative content such as threads relating to treatment plans appear on discussion boards and forums (30,32).…”

“…(10) In the UK the Teenage Cancer Trust focuses on a teenage and young adult age group of 13 to 24. (11) Indeed substantial variability exists in how authors define the age group within the literature (12). The changing landscape of palliative care within the UK due to increases in life expectancy as a result of advancements in medicine suggests the AYA age range put forward by the AYAO may becoming more appropriate.…”

Medical performance and the ‘inaccessible’ experience of illness: an exploratory study

“…For example, the postshow discussion at BHC included a lively conversation, prompted by an audience member's question on how nurses might support patients and families. This in turn provoked ideas such as subtle shifts in how medical procedures and therapies (which can be perceived as-and indeed are-invasive, toxic and threatening) are initially proposed to patients and improved internet 34 and phone access for patients in isolation. The theme of isolation emerged repeatedly.…”

Cancer narratives on social media as ‘small stories’

“…Social media is a new important platform for (semi)public narrations of illness, and cancer narratives shared on social media platforms; such as blogs, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube (Kaplan & Haenlein: 2010;Klastrup, 2016) have in particular received increased academic interest over the last decade (Andersson: 2017;Coll-Planas & Visa: 2016;Heilferty: 2018;Nesby & Salamonsen: 2016;Orgad: 2005;Pitts: 2004). However, I would like to argue that analytical approaches to this type of narrative material are still largely modelled on typologies and definitions developed in literary studies aimed at understanding book-based illness narratives (Frank: 1995;Hawkins: 1999;Jurecic: 2012).…”