Plan de Gestión de Basuras

A review of the literature suggests that OSGs have a set of advantages and disadvantages some of which are included below:

3.3.4.1 Advantages

1. OSGs for people with cancer offer personal and professional support, information, patient advocacy and shared experiences (Bastian, 2008).

2. Reducing barriers associated with face-to-face support groups:

a. Geographic distance; people who live in remote places can receive and give support from the comfort of their homes (Scott, 1999).

b. Members do not have to be physically present in a particular place and at a certain time with others, and there is no need to wait for a weekly group meeting

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as they can post their messages at any time, even out of the normal working business hours. Online groups were found to be more active between 7:00pm and 1:00am (Ferguson, 1996). Members, therefore, can still receive support even when they are alone at night which is usually the time when doubts and fears surface (Hoybye, 2002; Weis, 2003; Winzelberg et al., 2003).

c. Visual distractions such as gender, age, dress and socioeconomic status which are common drawbacks in conventional face-to-face support groups are not found in OSGs (Madara and White, 1997; Martin and Youngren, 2002).

d. Size of the group no longer represents a barrier to the members (Scott, 1999). In addition, other barriers such as children and baby sitters, health condition of the participants, parking, accommodation and any related social anxiety are also eliminated (Braithwaite et al., 1999; Sullivan, 2003; Winzelberg et al., 2003).

3. Online support groups provide an accessible and convenient environment for participants (Fernsler and Manchester, 1997; Sharf, 1997) for example:

a. Beside the 24 hours accessibility and availability of communication with people enrolled in OSGs, another benefit is the opportunity to participate selectively without any pressure (Klemm et al., 1999; Han and Belcher, 2001).

b. The anonymity provided by OSGs appears to enable participants to discuss their anxieties and difficult feelings in a less stressful way (Sharp, 2000), since they can raise “taboo topics” or express negative emotions without embarrassment of fear of rejection (Scott, 1999). In addition, some researchers suggest that anonymity can provide safer surroundings to the participants to undertake creative and non-conforming examples of support such as poetry writing (Braithwaite et al., 1999).

4. OSGs are connected with reduced costs compared to face-to-face groups, since fewer resources are needed for managing online groups (Finfgeld, 2000; Winzelberge

et al., 2003). Online groups may reduce the economic expense of phone calls for

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feelings of connectedness between people with cancer and their support environment (Fisher et al., 2009).

5. The ability to share ideas and feelings in virtual or real time can act as a way of sharing information and help people with cancer to become more conscious of the disease and its treatments (Smith, 1998). The informational support that members receive from others with the same disease may supply members with a sense of control over their experiences (Martin and Youngren, 2002).

6. The flexibility provided by OSGs can allow users to read others’ postings without making an immediate response, deciding on what is of relevance to them, and the amount of time and support they feel they require (Finfgeld, 2000; Sullivan, 2003).

7. Participation in OSGs allows people with cancer to avoid being looked at particularly if there is a lot of surgery that alters their face or speech, and people who may hesitate to join face-to-face groups may feel more comfortable using OSGs (Finfgeld, 2000).

8. People with uncommon or rare cancers who use OSGs may have the opportunity to feel the sense of “they are not alone”. Such an opportunity is hard to achieve in face- to-face support groups because the group is restricted to a small number of people locally compared to an online group which people can access and participate from anywhere in the world (Sharp, 2000).

9. OSGs provide cancer survivors who have finished their treatments with the opportunity to help others (Sharp, 2000). They can write messages on specific topics to hundreds of people (Sullivan, 2003).

10. Many cancer OSGs consist of members who are medical professionals specialising in cancer (Sharp, 2000).

11. It has been noticed that OSGs are unique since they create and enforce their own rules (Sharp, 2000).

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3.3.4.2 Disadvantages

1. There is doubt about the quality of the information and support offered by some online OSGs (Martin and Youngren, 2002; Coulson, and Knibb, 2007; Malik and Coulson, 2010; Mo, and Coulson, 2014a), this might be because of the difficulties in controlling interactions (Kraan et al., 2006) or the lack of professional moderators for cancer OSGs (Klemm, et al., 1998). Information might be based only on personal experience or unproven methodologies and not on scientific evidence or medical advice, it may, therefore provide wrong or misleading information (Sharp, 2000). In addition, users should be told that clinical information from the physician should not be replaced by other information from a person on the Internet (Martin and Youngren, 2002).

2. The credentials of the message posters are hard to be verified and it is possible that anyone can post messages posing as a cancer survivor. This may reduce the credibility of OSGs (Martin and Youngren, 2002).

3. Individuals from different backgrounds can participate from anywhere in the world and not all OSGs are monitored, security and use of offensive language may be possible issues, therefore, users should be warned to not provide personal details, such as name, address and bank account. They also should be informed about the possibility of finding offensive language in the OSGs (Mizsur, 1997). Presence of such inappropriate behaviour in OSGs can be considered as a potentially disempowering process (Mo, and Coulson, 2014a).

4. Communication through OSGs means that there is a lack of verbal intonation which aids communication and facial expressions making it difficult to perceive and decipher meaning and is considered a disempowering process (Finfgeld, 2000; Mo, and Coulson, 2014a).

5. Delay in response to enquiries and the normal lag time between posing an enquiry or seeking support and receiving responses may be distressing to the senders (Martin and Youngren, 2002).

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6. Sometimes, people may require a long time to gain confidence and display a level of trust great enough to interact with OSGs (Finfgeld, 2000).

7. As in conventional support groups, unsupportive communications or conflicts may happen in online groups (Sharp, 2000). For example, expressing and reinforcing negative emotions and remarks or posting negative experiences with OSGs can be seen widely (Kraan et al., 2006; Malik and Coulson, 2010; Holbrey, and Coulson, 2013).

8. Lack of professional moderators from many OSGs may put those who feel emotionally vulnerable at risk of being victimised (Sharp, 2000).

9. As in face-to-face support groups, the issue of death is one of the problems that affect OSGs, persons in the OSGs may be affected emotionally when they hear a member of the group has died. This issue is dealt with online as in real life with empathy, whilst at the same time being remote from the situation. However, the fear of a similar fate for other members in the future is still an issue (Sharp, 2000).