The use of social media by adults with chronic illness: analysing the support mechanisms of four social media platforms

Social media technologies are increasingly utilized by patients, leading to development of online socia l groups where patients share experiences and offer support to their peers on these platforms. I n o r der to gain an understanding of this growing trend, this study conducts a technology feature analysis of the technology features of four of the most used social media tools to date: Facebook, Instagram, Re ddit and Y ouTube in order to determine how the features, functionalities and affordances available on these social media tools. We discover that the Uses and Gratifications Theory can augment the Ho ne y Comb framework to examine the features of social media technologies .