#T1DLooksLikeMe: Exploring Self-Disclosure, Social Support, and Type 1 Diabetes on Instagram

Abstract

Type 1 diabetes (T1D) is diagnosed mostly during childhood or adolescent years. During such transitional phases of life, having support from others in similar situations can reduce feelings of isolation and loneliness. Instagram, a platform with high use among teens or young adults, acts as an alternative to traditional online health communities. To better understand individuals self-disclosure on Instagram related to T1D, we conducted an exploratory quantitative content analysis of a sample of 423 posts using the hashtag #t1dlookslikeme. These posts were collected using Netlytic between July-October 2018. Our research questions asked about the types of hashtags used, the content of the images, the sentiments of the posts, the relationship between post engagement and post sentiment, if and how the posts represented self-disclosure, and the presence of social support. A codebook containing 43 items on the image and 10 codes for captions was created for this study, and all data were analyzed using SPSS. Our dataset included 89% images compared to 6.4% video clips. Additionally, 83.5% of the posts were personal images whereas 11.6% were categorized as memes. We noted the most popular hashtags, and other characteristics of the images used by individuals to self-disclose their T1D. Overall, our random sample contained more positive sentiment posts rather than negative-and these positive sentiment posts were correlated with a higher number of hashtags in each post. Indicating a possible connection between self-disclosure and positive sentiment. This finding also reflected elements of empowerment (such as taking the "power" away from T1D and returning it to themselves), which is also discussed.

Online self-disclosure and well-being among Vietnamese adolescents: online social support as a mediator

“…Based on previous studies, the authors explain the above results as follows: the fact that individuals express their feelings, moods and thoughts to friend groups on SNSs makes individuals’ online relationships close and growing (Mohan Masaviru, 2016; Holtz and Kanthawala, 2020). As online relationships develop, individuals receive support (instrumental, informational and emotional) from virtual groups on SNSs (Trepte et al , 2018).…”

“…According to some researchers, individuals with high levels of online self-disclosure are often more interested in bridging, linking, maintaining social capital and online social support (Lee et al , 2013). Exposure to self-disclosure leading people to disclose each other, which further leads to the development of trust and relationships (Mohan Masaviru, 2016; Holtz and Kanthawala, 2020). Individuals can establish and maintain successful and supportive relationships only when they express their feelings and thoughts to the communicator (Trepte et al , 2018).…”

“…Individuals can establish and maintain successful and supportive relationships only when they express their feelings and thoughts to the communicator (Trepte et al , 2018). In addition, self-disclosure induces cognitive, emotional and behavioral responses from the discloser and the recipient of the disclosure (Holtz and Kanthawala, 2020). Therefore, the more self-disclosure, the closer the relationship between the revealer and the recipient will be, and the relationship will develop.…”

Social media to promote treatment adherence among adolescents and young adults with chronic health conditions: A topical review and TikTok application.

“…One study used a free, open-source data collection tool (Netlytic) to gather and code Instagram posts with the popular hashtag #t1dlookslikeme, finding that users were using this hashtag to self-disclose about Type I diabetes and gain social support (Holtz & Kanthawala, 2020). Another study found that diabetes-related TikTok videos in Chinese were primarily about disease management and created by three different types of users: health professionals, science communicators, or general users, suggesting that some professionals have begun to use this platform to spread chronic health information (Kong et al, 2021).…”

Verbal and Visual Framing of Responsibility for Type 1 Diabetes by Patient Influencers on Instagram

“…The platform is especially favored among digital natives (Laestadius, 2017). A growing amount of users on this platform share their experiences and everyday life of living with T1D (Elnaggar et al, 2020;Holtz & Kanthawala, 2020;Ranjanala et al, 2022). T1D is an autoimmune disease with serious short-term and long-term implications, a significant impact on health care systems (Lancaster et al, 2010) and mostly diagnosed during childhood or adolescence (Atkinson et al, 2014).…”