Peer Support in Online Communities

  Online peer support groups provide a conducive environment, allowing members  to get connected with peers who share similar difficulties. There, members are able  to provide informational and emotional support to each other without restrictions  of time and geographic location. However, peer support also suffers from a variety  of challenges, including members’ lack of commitment and expertise in providing  support. Failure to address these challenges might lead to unwanted consequences  such as volunteer burnout and mistreatment of helpees.  

In my work, I started off studying peer support in a health-related context, em phasizing two research questions, 1) how to keep members committed to providing  support and 2) how to empower committed members with skills so that they can  provide better support. It is not clear, however, the extent to which conclusions  obtained from this research can be applied to support groups where members might  have conflicts of interest. I then expand my work to peer support groups where mem bers have competition by examining how gig workers provide and receive support  online.In a specific case study, I explored how gig workers collectively make sense of  algorithms that manage their work in online communities