Men, Social Media and Inflammatory Bowel Disease: A Study

Back in 2019 I received an email from a PhD student (Lucy Prodgers) from the University of Leeds in the United Kingdom inviting me to take part in a study called "Men, Social Media and Inflammatory Bowel Disease". Normally I don't participate in things like this because some of these are just scams, etc. but in this case the PhD student is also a Crohn's patient and, to be honest, I was intrigued by the concept.

The study, with me and two other men, was in two parts, the analysis of my publicly available social media and blog posts specifically related to IBD followed by an interview with her to learn more about my experiences with IBD, blogging and social media use.

I did not have to do anything for the first part, just needed to give her permission to go through, and use, my social media and blog posts pertaining to IBD. The second part, the interview, was not as stressful as I was anticipating. This was almost 3 years after my initial contact with Lucy but the interview was not stressful and in fact was like I was speaking to a friend. Very fluid and comfortable. So much so, I contacted her supervisor complimenting Lucy. I found her "take" on my postings, including pictures, very intriguing and fascinating as I had never realized how others perceived my posts. I actually never thought about it before and was interesting to me.

Now, 5 years after the initial contact, her study, “How Do Men Who Post Publicly on Social Media Author Themselves and Their Experiences of Crohn’s Disease? A Dialogical Analysis of Three Cases”, is available online.

You can read the study here.

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