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The increased usage of online cancer support groups as a resource for health-related information and social support has sparked numerous discussions about the role of online support in healthcare. However, little is known about the role of social-networking groups focused on supporting adolescents and young adults (AYAs) dealing with cancer. The current investigation report findings from a content analysis designed to explore how AYAs use an online support group to meet their psychosocial needs. Overall, members of the community focused on exchanging emotional and informational support, coping with difficult emotions through expression, describing experiences of being an AYA dealing with cancer through language (metaphors), enacting identity through evaluations of the new normal (life with and after cancer), and communicating membership as an AYA with cancer. This study highlights the unique needs of the AYA cancer community and offers a preliminary roadmap for practitioners, and network members, such as family and friends, to attempt to meet the needs of this unique community.

Tinder, a mobile dating application (app), facilitates the initiation of new, potentially romantic relationships and promotes itself as a social discovery platform dominating the U.S. with 1.4 billion swipes per day. This exploratory study investigates how people engage in relationship initiation behaviors through Tinder and highlights how interpersonal relationship initiation, selection processes, and strategic pre-interaction behaviors are evolving through contemporary-mediated dating culture. Participants (N ¼ 395) were recruited from Amazon's Mechanical Turk to complete an online survey about their Tinder usage. The study employed descriptive statistics and thematic analysis to analyze reasons for selecting and deleting Tinder, pre-interaction processes, swiping strategies, and Tinder hookup culture. The prevalent view that Tinder is a sex, or hookup app, remains salient among users; although, many users utilize Tinder for creating other interpersonal communication connections and relationships, both romantic and platonic. Initially, Tinder users gather information to identify their preferences. Their strategies show clear implications for explicating the relationship development model and associated information pursuing strategies. Overall, this study argues that new emergent technologies are changing how interpersonal relationship initiation functions; the traditional face-to-face relationship development models and initiation conceptualizations should be modified to include the introduction of the pre-interaction processes apparent in mobile dating applications such as Tinder. KeywordsDating, hookups, mobile dating apps, pre-interaction, relationship development model, relationship initiation, swiping, Tinder J S P RInterpersonal relationship initiation occurs at the touch of a screen through the mobile phone application (app), Tinder. Tallying 50 million users, 10 million daily active users, and over 100 million downloads (C. Smith, 2016), Tinder ignited the romantic spark for 10 billion matches . Tinder (2016) clocks 1.4 billion swipes per day, aiding 6 billion friendships, professional partnerships, and platonic relationship matches, and 26 million matches daily for those ages 18-50. 1 Tinder, a commonly used dating app, promotes itself as a social discovery platform dominating the U.S. and available in 196 other countries. Apps such as Tinder are changing the dating and mating market landscape. 1 Recent advancements in communication technology enable billions of people to connect using mobile phones (Mieczakowski, Goldhaber, & Clarkson, 2011). Now, with a finger swipe, mobile apps increase convenience due to readily accessible smartphone capabilities, geolocation features, and user-friendly platforms. Tinder affords opportunities to familiarize, communicate, and meet potential partners; the platform utilizes converging proximity, convenience, and technology to promote interpersonal interaction and facilitate physical and psychological connections (Quiroz, 2013). Traditionally, individuals' re...

The present study explores how people use social networking sites to adjust to breakups by studying their postdissolution behaviors. We apply Rollie and Duck’s (2006) relationship dissolution model by examining how collegiate Facebook users ( N = 208) enact behaviors in breakups to extend the model to online environments during and after breakups. Furthermore, we employed a retrospective design utilizing qualitative methods to define categories of behavioral responses to a breakup on Facebook. The analysis revealed online behaviors that overlapped with the dissolution model as well as paralleled previous research into online behaviors. Results are discussed using the relationship dissolution model framework to individuals modifying online relationship statuses, “unfriending” previous partners, and limiting profile access in order to manage relationship termination.

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Building on scholarship indicating that uncertainty is a fundamental component of the cancer experience, this study focuses on an understudied population: adolescents and young adults (AYAs) with cancer. Because AYAs' health outcomes lag behind those of older and younger people with cancer, scholars have recommended that the subjective experiences of AYAs be better understood. Using the tripartite model of uncertainty sources as a guiding framework, we analyzed naturally occurring messages from an online discussion forum for AYA cancer survivors. The majority of messages communicating uncertainty expressed medical uncertainty regarding the complexities of understanding treatment options and sequelae. Results indicated that several overarching areas of AYA uncertainty correspond to themes reported by other cancer populations, but that some distinctive concerns arise amid the normative complexities of late adolescence and young adulthood.

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