Abstract
Online health communities (OHCs) provide support across conditions; for weight loss, OHCs offer support to foster positive behavior change. However, weight loss behaviors can also be subverted on OHCs to promote disordered eating practices. Using comments as proxies for support, we use computational linguistic methods to juxtapose similarities and differences in two Reddit weight loss communities, r/proED and r/loseit. We employ language modeling and find that word use in both communities is largely similar. Then, by building a word embedding model, specifically a deep neural network on comment words, we contrast the context of word use and find differences that imply different behavior change goals in these OHCs. Finally, these content and context norms predict whether a comment comes from r/proED or r/loseit. We show that norms matter in understanding how different OHCs provision support to promote behavior change and discuss the implications for design and moderation of OHCs.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | CHI 2018 - Extended Abstracts of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems |
| Subtitle of host publication | Engage with CHI |
| Publisher | Association for Computing Machinery |
| ISBN (Electronic) | 9781450356206, 9781450356213 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Apr 20 2018 |
| Externally published | Yes |
| Event | 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI 2018 - Montreal, Canada Duration: Apr 21 2018 → Apr 26 2018 |
Publication series
| Name | Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings |
|---|---|
| Volume | 2018-April |
Other
| Other | 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI 2018 |
|---|---|
| Country/Territory | Canada |
| City | Montreal |
| Period | 4/21/18 → 4/26/18 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2018 Association for Computing Machinery.
Keywords
- Behavior change
- Online health communities
- Social media
- Social support
- Weight loss