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By Ana Babi膰 Rosario, Cristel Antonia Russell and Doreen Ellen Shanahan

Imagine finding yourself on a path to a new health and wellness goal. Something鈥攁 health scare, new life circumstances, doctor鈥檚 advice鈥攈as brought you to a place of desiring change. As if getting to this place wasn鈥檛 complex enough, you now might be feeling overwhelmed with information, confused, and unsure exactly where to take your first steps. What do you do next?

Well, millions of consumers turn to social media. On average, U.S. adults spend approximately 90 minutes a day on social networks, including. It is not surprising that earlier in 2021, that was originally aired during, promoting Groups as online places to 鈥渕eet new people, share knowledge or get support.鈥� Around that time, 1.8 billion users used a Facebook group every month, and tens of millions of active communities were available for people to connect to talk about their interests, to learn new things, and to be entertained. From parenting to health and wellness, the number of these virtual support communities keeps growing. And, most academic studies on these topics have documented the positive social dynamics of virtual support: communities provide informational and socio-emotional support that helps members achieve their goals.

Yet, our concludes that within such online gatherings, connections are not always as constructive as Facebook hoped, even in virtual support communities built on the premise of communal accountability and accomplishment. We explored the social dynamics in these virtual communities through three methods: a netnography鈥攁 cultural approach to the study of social media鈥攐f a large (over 50,000 members) nutrition-focused Facebook group, a set of interviews to document members鈥� experiences of a virtual support community and its complex social dynamics, and a national survey of members of a large number of health- and wellness-related virtual support communities. The findings from these studies provide evidence of many paradoxical social dynamics of virtual support communities and document their outcomes in terms of how people feel about the community and how much they engage with or disengage from the community.

For one, we find evidence of both social empathy and social pressure. Social empathy is helpful: it ensures the group provides informational value that can assist the members in accomplishing their  goals. But social pressure is two-sided: some pressure is helpful if it increases social empathy but pressure can become detrimental if it turns into angst. We鈥檝e observed that these anxieties often cause members to disengage from the community.

We find evidence of both social empathy and social pressure. Social empathy is helpful: it ensures the group provides informational value that can assist the members in accomplishing their  goals. But social pressure is two-sided: some pressure is helpful if it increases social empathy but pressure can become detrimental if it turns into angst.

Our study shows that virtual support communities are complex environments and that achieving one鈥檚 goals might need a healthy dose of pressure. Overall, while virtual communities can be very powerful and jump-start positive change among members, they can also incite insecurity and jeopardize mental health and the sense of belonging to a community. Because social pressure can have undesired effects, our study signals that these social networks may require traditional monitoring and moderation.Our findings are also in line with the鈥攁ppearing in front of the U.S. Senate, Frances Haugen tried to illuminate gray areas of social media, where online social interactions can jeopardize the mental health of individuals, groups, and communities. In this research, we are similarly identifying these gray areas, specifically in support communities on Facebook, where social media can be helpful but also damaging. As people鈥檚 reliance on online networks for social interaction continues to increase, it is important to continue to be aware of virtual support communities鈥� internal social dynamics and to understand their many paradoxes.

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Editor鈥檚 Note: This article originally appeared on SAGE Publishing鈥檚 blog and is reprinted with permission.