Tutorial six: Online communities

The Community I investigated about is the "Post Partum Depression Community". Click on the following link to find out more http://www.postpartumdepression.yuku.com/

The focus of this community is provide women who are experiencing mood disorders after giving birth or adopting out a baby with support and guidance. It also provides a place to share/exchange experiences and stories. Families, friends and health professionals with an interest in reproductive mental health are also welcome as well as women who where originally diagnosed with postpartum mood disorderbut were later diagnosed differentely.

The service provides weekly chats online, every Tuesday night (subject to change). They have eight different topics when one can share information about. There is also an opportunity to have an online blog under"The daily Journal", this can be viewed by others. There are readings to topics of interest like "Life beyond PPMD", "PPD frequently asked questions for spouses and supporters" and "Technical Support". There's also a tab for resourses, books & video revies as well as links to Twitter and Yuku.

Why would people choose to contribute to that site?
Women with PPMD might have never heard of this phenomena until someone diagnosed them with it or they heard about it in other ways. They might feel isolated in their struggle with their emotions and unaware that their are other women around suffering the same fait. They might socially withdraw because nowone seem to understand what they are going through. There could also be a sense of shame and guilt because of the inability to cope. Online communities like this one offers women with PPMD a way of learning more about the condition as well as sharing their feelings with others. Although they are not as connective as a face to face conversation, a certain anonymity might help to share things that they can not otherwise share with anybody else. To learn that others suffer similar things gives them a feeling of not being isolated. The online community can be accessed any time of the night and day, whenever the demand is needed for sharing. They can provide information in the form of links to other websites, readings and videos that can be entertaining, informative and supportive at the same time.

The kind of topics that are being discussed are as follows:

- PPMD concerns

- PPMD for military moms

- Pregnancy and medication, birth stories and breastfeeding

- Symptoms, medication, treatment and tools for recovery

and many more.

Potential ethical issues:

Because there is not face to face contact, it would be rather easy to quote / discuss / share stories in public and mentioning names, while potentially the person you talk about could be sitting right next to you. Privacy issues are not as relevant where the person is not personally known. Women from all over the world can join the community and, compared to a real community, there may never be the development of a real friendship in the traditional sense. Women only talk about problems in relation to PPMD but the possibility is there that their symptoms are aggravated by other everyday problems that, in a "normal" friendship, could be talked about. There is no accountability for information provided, so for example one woman could suggest a particular product that helped with her symptoms that creates health issues in another without being accountable for sharing that information. If you want to know more about online communities in general and looking for examples, the following link might help http://www.freshnetworks.com/blog/category/series/online-community-examples/