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From Receivers to Givers: Understanding Practice of Reciprocity in an Online Support Community

Authors:

Hao-Chuan WangAuthors Info & Claims

Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, Volume 6, Issue CSCW1

Article No.: 91, Pages 1 - 17

https://doi.org/10.1145/3512938

Published: 07 April 2022 Publication History

Abstract

In online communities, members often join as resource receivers and later transition to contributors. This study aims to examine the process of the transition through the lens of reciprocity. In the context of Gomusin Café, an online support group where women with romantic partners serving in South Korean military exchange social support, we conducted semi-structured interviews (n = 16) probing how the members return the support they received to unspecified audience (generalized reciprocity) and to repeated interaction partners (direct reciprocity). We found experiencing common hardships and forming social attachment to the community as important preceding conditions for the members to practice generalized reciprocity. The members also sought direct reciprocity despite it's not technically and normatively supported in the platform. We discuss theoretical and practical implications of these findings.

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Cited By

Lai YLee YChang CDai WChen Y(2024)Exploring the Role of Mom's Chat Groups in the Messaging App: Enhancing Support and Empowerment for Stay-At-Home MothersProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/36330688:GROUP(1-20)Online publication date: 21-Feb-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3633068

Index Terms

From Receivers to Givers: Understanding Practice of Reciprocity in an Online Support Community
1. Human-centered computing
  1. Collaborative and social computing
    1. Empirical studies in collaborative and social computing

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cover image Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction

Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction Volume 6, Issue CSCW1

CSCW1

April 2022

2511 pages

EISSN:2573-0142

DOI:10.1145/3530837

Editor:
Jeff Nichols
Apple Inc., United States

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Copyright © 2022 Owner/Author.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution International 4.0 License.

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Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

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Published: 07 April 2022

Published in PACMHCI Volume 6, Issue CSCW1

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Cited By

Lai YLee YChang CDai WChen Y(2024)Exploring the Role of Mom's Chat Groups in the Messaging App: Enhancing Support and Empowerment for Stay-At-Home MothersProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/36330688:GROUP(1-20)Online publication date: 21-Feb-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3633068

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