Open AccessThe differences of user behavior between forum and Facebook for smoking cessation intervention
Author(s) -
Zhang Mi,
Yang Christopher C.
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
proceedings of the american society for information science and technology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1550-8390
pISSN - 0044-7870
DOI - 10.1002/meet.14504901382
Subject(s) - immediacy , smoking cessation , intervention (counseling) , psychology , user group , internet privacy , world wide web , computer science , medicine , psychiatry , philosophy , epistemology , pathology
QuitNet is one of the most popular websites providing tools and services to help people quit smoking. QuitNet developed forums on its original website to help its users interact with each other. It also built a public page on Facebook, which provides another community for people to discuss issues of smoking cessation. This study compares user behaviors between the two communication channels on smoking cessation – QuitNet Forum and QuitNet Facebook. Social network analysis and user response immediacy were used to analyze user behavior on the two channels. It was found that users of QuitNet Forum participated in discussions more actively, while QuitNet Facebook users behaved more differently from each other.