'Keeping It Real': Women's Enactments of Lay Health Knowledges and Expertise on Facebook

Sociology of Health & Illness
Sarah Maslen, Deborah Lupton

Abstract

This article presents findings from a qualitative study concerning Australian women's use of Facebook for health and medical information and support and the implications for understanding modes of lay knowledge and expertise. Thinking with feminist new materialism theory, we identify the relational connections, affective forces and agential capacities described by participants as technological affordances came together with human bodily affordances. Affective forces were a dominant feature in users' accounts. Women were able to make relational connections with peers based on how valid or relevant they found other group members' expertise and experiences, how supportive other members were, how strong they wanted their personal connection to be and how much privacy they wanted to preserve. We identified three modes of engagement: 1) expertise claims based on appropriation and distribution of biomedical knowledge and experience; 2) sharing experiential knowledge without claiming expertise and 3) evaluation and use of knowledge presented by others principally through observing. We conclude that an 'expert patient' is someone who is familiar with the rules of engagement on sites such as Facebook and is able to negotiate and understa...Continue Reading

References

Aug 1, 1997·Social Science & Medicine·D Lupton
Sep 23, 2003·Sociology of Health & Illness·Lindsay Prior
Mar 27, 2004·BMJ : British Medical Journal·Joanne Shaw, Mary Baker
Mar 29, 2011·Social Science & Medicine·Kristin K Barker, Tasha R Galardi
Oct 26, 2016·American Journal of Infection Control·Megha SharmaKeith C Ferdinand
Nov 27, 2016·Journal of Transcultural Nursing : Official Journal of the Transcultural Nursing Society·Ni ZhangShelly Campo
Mar 24, 2018·Journal of Medical Internet Research·Tammy Harpel
Jan 27, 2019·Journal of Medical Internet Research·Deborah Lupton, Sarah Maslen

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Citations

Jun 12, 2020·Sociology of Health & Illness·Alan PetersenAlison Anderson
May 30, 2021·Sociology of Health & Illness·Alberto Ardissone
Aug 20, 2021·Social Science & Medicine·Nicola MackintoshNervo Verdezoto

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