- Shawna Buckley
- Feb 23, 2023
- 8 min read
Updated: Feb 24, 2023
How to Harness the Power of Facebook Groups to Overcome Injury
What are Facebook Groups
Bang! In just a moment, you can go from feeling independent to incapable. You cannot take back the moment; now, there is only looking forward. At the beginning of 2022, I tripped and broke my ankle; little did I know I would be off my feet for seven months. My day-to-day activities, which I didn't think twice about, became a marathon. I felt defeated and stuck as the rest of the world kept moving. One of the places I came across while I was in bed and looking for information on my injury was Facebook Groups tailored explicitly to people recovering from ankle surgery.
Initially, Facebook was designed to share posts and show users and friends what you are doing, feeling, and even thinking! In 2017 Facebook re-established Facebook Groups to "give people the power to build community" (Pages, 2020). In 2019, Facebook began emphasising groups. At the F8 conference, it was announced that Facebook is emphasising groups by having a tab in the menu, having group posts appear more often in news feeds, and prompting users to join groups that may be a good fit for them (Lapowsky, 2019).
The ankle support groups created a place for anyone struggling with an ankle surgery or injury to connect and build a community. The creation of this specific group supports the socio-cultural standpoint that technologies evolve in a social and cultural context (Chayko, 2021a). There was a need for people wanting to share their stories and interact with others with a shared experience. One group I used quite often, The Post Ankle Surgery Support Group, was created in 2016 and has evolved based on the needs and perspectives of the users in the group. People needed a safe space to discuss their niche problems and share advice, antidotes, stories, plights, and technology. This Facebook group was created to give people the space to do this and connect with others in the same situation.
The group illustrates the use of tech evolved with people wanting to converse about their struggles, so the Facebook group system was a tool that could be used to felicitate this and emerged because people had this desire.
How to Use Facebook Groups to Overcome Injury
It may feel like there is no light at the end of the tunnel, but niche Facebook groups can provide a safe space to connect with others in a similar situation. Here are some ways you can use Facebook Groups to overcome your injury!
1. Find New Technologies and Solutions
Although your doctor would have recommended recovery methods, utilising other opinions on recovery methods and new technologies can help you find different ways to cope with your injury and find the best fit. The Facebook group and connectedness make spreading innovations, a product or processes significantly different from before. This uses new technology for innovative products. This will assist in assuring that the recovery is more straightforward and opens new ideas for the industry to make life easy. With my ankle injury, I was constantly scrolling through posts recommending new ways to:
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The Facebook group was formed on the demand of injured people needing help with specific mobility issues. Some new ways to get around using new technologies have been tried by users who will post their firsthand experiences on the new device. |
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I loved the tips and tricks individuals and healthcare nurses posted on scarring. Using the group to make the most out of what to do with the injury is beneficial as the information provided is valuable. |
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When breaking your ankle, it is hard to consider all the nitty-gritty details of what will affect your mobility. It is ideal to utilise the group on different tricks in showering, keeping the boot clean in the shower, toilet raiser and many other ways to stay hygienic during recovery. |
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After surgery, I had extensive ankle pain, and my ankle was very swollen. To deal with this, I needed to find another way to keep the ice pack all around my foot, staying cold. I didn't know where to look, so I posted on the Facebook group and had many comments with links to wrap ice packs. No chemists had sold the ice pack, so I ordered this with one of the links provided. This must have been one of the best purchases I had made.
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Who knew I had to break my ankle whilst being at university! Ofc. I had to find a way to all my classes. To do this, I searched the Facebook group for tips and found a page dedicated to little solutions. For example, one individual posted a bag carrying all items while sitting on your back without interfering with crutches sitting on your arms. |
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Another benefit to using the Facebook group to overcome injury is keeping up to date with new products or technology that may have the potential to ensure your recovery is smoother or made more straightforward. |
These ideas and tips spread through this online community are an example of a homophilous communication channel in which individuals who are alike or homophilous interact similarly with beliefs and education (ECourses, 2012). Rather than searching the internet for help and products, the group participants ask their digital community for knowledge and advice. It was shown by Nordin et al. (2021) that Facebook groups are a huge source of knowledge acquisition in digital communities, including seeking information, debate, and discussion. The ideas being spread in this tight-knit group support the theory that homophilous individuals tend to promote the diffusion of innovation among each other due to their similarities and the knowledge being exchanged (McPherson, 2001). Each individual in the Facebook support group has had a particular incident occur and shares real-life experiences and common interests in recovery, even though they are from different backgrounds (Khanam et al., 2020).
Outside the group, individuals may find that people who have not hurt themselves are giving their opinion on technologies and solutions. While it may be helpful, having communication outside their homophily boundary in the Facebook Group may lead to frustration of ineffective communication because they haven't faced the setback, which makes it more difficult for them to comment or give their solutions (ECourses, 2012). Having the Facebook Group as a homophilous communication channel while injured opens an avenue to learn and spread innovations during recovery.
2. Develop a Support System
Accessing other people's stories and experiences also gives perspective on your situation, as someone is always worse off. The posts and comments in the group provide different perspectives on recovery, but the community is also a support group. In my own recovery, I actually ended up messaging and video chatting with a few people in the group because we were at the same point in recovery.
There are many ways you can develop and utilise a support system through Facebook. Having access to the Facebook Group allows you to read through people's posts, comment, ask questions, become a part of messenger groups, and add new friends. Being injured or sick, using the support system can be beneficial and make your recovery less difficult. According to Chayko (2021), most people now look for health information online and turn to their physicians, friends, and family. This engagement now shifts to online with greater access to other people's experiences and recovery timelines. This allows the exchange of ideas to be facilitated around recovery and support allowing users to feel supported and give support.
As a product of TechnoCulture, which is technology influencing culture on the internet, digital media and Facebook allow the spread of groups to represent the structural change in society, as it acts as a product of systems we have, which allows technology to spread with ideas and health care advice. As mentioned in the Superconnected book, online users help one another find information, goods, and services to improve their physical and mental health. Resisting the emotional charge of one's day-to-day health and fitness is becoming more common. Digital and mobile technologies have become special tools in this respect (Chayko, 2021b). More prominently, the internet has created new pathways for patients to find and help each other. Chayko illustrates that people form groups sharing health and medical information to support and care for one another. This is especially crucial when group members can have undergone significant change. They can provide their firsthand experiences and perceptive (Chayko, 2021). Developing a support system in the group can make recovery more accessible in the long term. Facebook groups are being used to spread ideas in a new way and are made possible by our cultural desires. There is also a relationship that can be seen between technology and patterns in social life (Cooper, 2010). The groups reflect the technological institution that underpins our global society.
3. Give Your Input
The use of this Facebook Group for information is a representation of this cultural convergence. This is because instead of only listening to information from one source, technology, or medical website, such as WebMD, there is now a new way to seek out this information. Convergence is the idea of bringing new unrelated technologies together, whether on the internet or on a single device. Jenkins (2006) argues that convergence is more than technological and is instead cultural. He explains there is a shift in cultural logic "whereby consumers are encouraged to seek out new information and make connections between dispersed media content." These individuals now receive and give varied information from personal antidotes, experience, user-generated content, and storytelling.
The ankle recovery support group creates a new experience for getting information on medical advice. The example below compares an article on WebMD (2023) written for people recovering from ankle replacement surgery and a post on the Facebook Group asking about the recovery from ankle replacement. The information from WebMD is quite generalised, and it is based on a timeline that the medical website has identified as "normal", and the advice does not consider the actual difficulty and day-to-day struggle that comes with all these stages. When asking a similar question to the Facebook Group, the person in recovery gets a very different response. The comments included people giving their opinions on the surgery, recovery times, and experience.
This demonstrates cultural convergence, where people get information from various media content and share their own identity and experience (Akmeemana, 2021). Facebook groups are just one of the many technologies changing the healthcare industry (Australia Government, 2022). They work in conjunction for recovery alongside WebMD and other technologies, which represents the convergence that Jenkins is talking about. There are all different media types for people to get information from, for example, WebMD, Doctors' advice, Facebook groups, Quora and other platforms online that are provided to society for information based on personal experience (Jiao et al., 2021). Along with asking for advice on the platform, it also gives people a place to share their own content and experience that can help others. As we can see in this post, the author was able to share with other people preparing for surgery what she used during her recovery that was beneficial for a smoother recovery. Compared to the previous WebMD article, which was very generalised, her user-generated content puts essential information in a relatable format.
Recovery can be difficult, but it is all about making the most out of the experience; looking for the positive throughout the hard times is crucial. One of the ways we can make a recovery positive is by harnessing the power of Facebook Groups. Although this hard time seems never-ending, it does end! I am here to tell you this will shape the course of your life for the better, and there is a whole online community to support you.
References:
Akmeemana, C. (2021) Pulling the marketing lever for the first time. A new breed of technology solutions & consultants. Retrieved February 2023, from https://www.convergence.tech/news/pulling-the-marketing-lever-for-the-first-time
Australia Government. (2022, July 7). Digital Health. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. Retrieved February 2023, from https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/australias-health/digital-health
Chapter 1 - Superconnectedness. (2021b). In M. Chayko, Superconnected : the internet, digital media, and techno-social life (3rd edition., pp. 1–17). SAGE Publications, Inc.
Chapter 8 - Superconnectedness. (2021a). In M. Chayko, Superconnected : the internet, digital media, and techno-social life (3rd edition., pp. 1–17). SAGE Publications, Inc.
Cooper, Simon (2010) Questions Concerning Technoculture, Science as Culture, 19:2, 255-258. (2010, June 11). Questions concerning technoculture. Taylor & Francis.
ECourses. Communication and adoption. Homophily- Heterophilly. (2012). Retrieved
February 2023, from http://ecoursesonline.iasri.res.in/mod/page/view.php?id=115746
Facebook. (2023). Post ankle surgery support group. Facebook. Retrieved February 2023, from https://www.facebook.com/groups/1565596967089258
Jenkins. (2006, June 19). Welcome to convergence culture - pop junctions. Henry Jenkins. Retrieved February 2023, from http://henryjenkins.org/2006/06/welcome_to_convergence_culture.html
Jiao, H., Yang, J., & Cui, Y. (2021, December 7). Institutional pressure and open innovation:
The moderating effect of digital knowledge and experience-based knowledge. Journal
Khanam, K. Z., Srivastava, G., & Mago, V. (2020, August 21). The homophily principle in social network analysis. arXiv.org. Retrieved February 2023, from https://arxiv.org/abs/2008.10383
Lapowsky, I. (2019, April 30). Mark Zuckerberg wants Facebook's future to be private. Wired. Retrieved February 2023, from https://www.wired.com/story/f8-zuckerberg-future-is-private/
McPherson, M; Smith-Lovin, L; Cook, JM (2001). "Birds of a Feather: Homophily in Social Networks". Annual Review of Sociology. 27: 415–44. doi:10.1146/annurev.soc.27.1.415. S2CID 2341021.
Md Nordin, S., Ahmad Rizal, A. R., & Zolkepli, I. A. (2021, October 5). Innovation diffusion: The influence of social media affordances on complexity reduction for decision making.
Frontiers. Retrieved February 2023, from https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.705245/full
Pages, M. (2020, December 9). History of Facebook groups. Online Group Success. Retrieved February 2023, from https://www.onlinegroupsuccess.com/facebook-group-history/
WebMD. (2023). Ankle replacement surgery recovery timeline. WebMD. Retrieved February 23, 2023, from https://www.webmd.com/osteoarthritis/ss/slideshow-ankle-replacement-recovery-timeline