Exploring how People with Spinal Cord Injuries Seek Support on Social Media

Individuals who have sustained a Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) undergo abrupt changes in their functional abilities, impacting all aspects of their lives and imposing a life-long reliance on assistive tools and support from others. This paper aims to understand individuals’ support-seeking behavior in social media as they adjust to their “new normal”—life with reduced mobility and sensation. To understand their online support-seeking behavior, we conducted content analysis on 960 post-threads from SCI-specific subreddit groups. We found that individuals seek informational and emotional support regardless of injury level and time elapsed since injury. Additionally, individuals seek and receive online informational support concerning assistive logistics, motor-functionality, newly acquired self-care, and daily living activities. Similarly, individuals seek emotional support for motivation, and creating new self-identity. Finally, we discuss how social media support dynamics might facilitate reconstructing self-identity, adopting assistive technology, and improving relationships to help adjust to the “new normal.”