Online peer support groups provide a conducive environment, allowing members to get connected with peers who share similar difficulties. There, members are able to provide informational and emotional support to each other without restrictions of time and geographic location. However, peer support also suffers from a variety of challenges, including members' lack of commitment and expertise in providing support. Failure to address these challenges might lead to unwanted consequences such as volunteer burnout and mistreatment of helpees.

In my work, I started off studying peer support in a health-related context, emphasizing two research questions, 1) how to keep members committed to providing support and 2) how to empower committed members with skills so that they can provide better support. It is not clear, however, the extent to which conclusions obtained from this research can be applied to support groups where members might have conflicts of interest. I then expand my work to peer support groups where members have competition by examining how gig workers provide and receive support online. In a specific case study, I explored how gig workers collectively make sense of algorithms that manage their work in online communities.

117 pages

Thesis Committee:
Robert E. Kraut (Co-chair)
Haiyi Zhu (Co-chair)
Sarah Fox
Julia Ticona (University of Pennsylvania)

Brad A. Myers, Head, Human-Computer Interaction Institute
Martial Hebert, Dean, School of Computer Science

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