Facebook Groups Can Provide Support for Patients with Rare Diseases and Reveal Truths About the Secret Lives of Patients

摘要

Facebook’s corporate mission is “to give people the power to build community and bring the world closer together. People use Facebook to stay connected with friends and family, to discover what’s going on in the world, and to share and express what matters to them.” 1 Facebook Groups are communities within the Facebook network that have shared in- terests. While most of Facebook is about seeing what people you know in the real world are doing and thinking, Facebook Groups is about interacting with people that have similar interests. These groups are created and adminis- tered by Facebook users. The dis- cussions and postings are driven by participant interest. Groups can be open, closed, or secret. Open groups are available by searching and anyone can join; closed groups are visible by search, but potential members must obtain permission from an administrator of the group. Secret groups are invisible, and people can only join after be- ing invited by a group administrator.