Can Social Media Help Individuals in Recovery?

Check out this interview about The Social Interactome featured on Addiction Blog.

Our researchers at the Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute were asked about our new ground breaking study looking at how social media could be used to help those struggling with addiction. In the interview, Dr. Warren K. Bickel explains that a number of studies show that social interactions have important  influences on human behaviors. Social learning is related to the spread of both pro-social and negative behaviors within a network or community of individuals. Within an online community he hypotheses that people within the social network will feel connected to people in their network because of shared social experiences and the spread of pro-social information, even just knowing a buddy has engaged in a “pro-health” activity, will act as a contagion and affect another individuals behavior. This has been shown in other studies regarding social learning. You can read the entire interview here.

You can be a part of this exciting research!

The Social Interactome is accessed through the International Quit & Recovery Registry. This is a confidential study involving social media to advance our understanding of addiction. This study involves 16 weeks of participation for people who are in recovery from an addiction and compensation is up to $280 based on extent of participation.

For more complete details and to sign up click here.