Positive Effects
Benefi ts to Members
personalized
Not surprisingly, most studies of online communities report that information benefi ts are important to their members (e.g., Baym 1999 ; Lakhani and von Hippel 2003 ;
Wasko and Faraj 2000 . What is noteworthy is the form that the information takes. It is not the disembodied,
depersonalized information that can be found in databases or offi cial documents, which are themselves easily accessible on the Web. Instead, it is often profoundly information. Its form and content are personal—personal experiences and thoughts—whether they take the form of
refl ections published on blogs, profi les on social network sites, or posts on discussion sites. Likewise, its audience is personal. Questions or requests for comment do not look like database queries: They are framed for human understanding and response. (A discourse analysis of Usenet
groups found that almost all questions included a specifi reference to readers; the few that did not were much less likely to receive replies; Galegher et al. 1998 .)
Replies typically address the person or situation engendering the request and are based on the replier’s own situation or experience. In consumer communities, personalized information can increase members’ pleasure in using or experiencing the product or property. Personalized information can increase members’ pleasure or competence in practicing their (a)vocation. It can also challenge one’s assumptions and beliefs (e.g., Kendall 2002 ). Members derive more than information benefi ts from online communities, however. Some also derive the social and emotional benefi ts that can come from interacting with other people: getting to know them, building
relationships, making friends, having fun (e.g., Baym 1999 ;
Butler et al. 2007 ; Cummings, Sproull, and Kiesler 2002 ; Kendall 2002 ; Quan y Hasse et al. 2002 ; Rheingold, 2000 ). Of course social benefi ts are the primary benefi t of social networking sites. Occasionally these social benefi ts are strong enough that they lead some members to organize ancillary face-to-face group activities, such as parties,
rallies, show and tell, reunions, or meetings at conferences or shows. Members of medical and emotional condition communities may derive actual health benefi ts from their participation in addition to information and socio-emotional benefi ts. The evidentiary base for these benefi ts is small, but it comes from carefully designed studies that use either random assignment or statistical procedures to control for other factors that could infl uence health status. Reported benefi ts for active participants include shorter hospital stays (Gray et al. 2000 ), a decrease in pain and disability (Lorig et al. 2002 ), greater support seeking (Mickelson
1997 ), a decrease in social isolation (Galegher et al. 1998
), and an increase in self-effi cacy and psychological wellbeing (Cummings et al. 2002 ; Mackenna and Bargh 1998 ). Membership benefi ts do not accrue equally to all members of online communities. Passive members—those who only read messages—may derive the least benefi t. This
observation is consonant with research on groups and communities in the offl ine world that fi nds that the most active participants derive the most benefi t and satisfaction from their participation (e.g., Callero, Howard, and Piliavin 1987 ; Omoto and Snyder 1995 ). Most studies of online communities investigate only active participants because
they use the e-mail addresses of posters to identify their research population; they have no way of identifying or systematically studying people who never post but only read. The few studies that have investigated passive members systematically fi nd that they report mostly information benefi ts; their total level of benefi ts is lower than that for more active participants; they are more likely to drop
out (Butler et al. 2007 ; Cummings et al. 2002 ; Nonnecke and Preece 2000 ). Among active participants, people who participate more extensively report having a greater sense of online
community (Kavanaugh 2003 ; Quan y Hasse et al. 2002 ). More frequent seekers of information report receiving more helpful replies than less frequent seekers (Lakhani and von Hippel 2003 ). More frequent providers of information report greater social benefi ts, pleasure in helping
others, and pleasure in advancing the cause of the community
(Butler et al. 2007 ).
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