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Full text at: http://www.socresonline.org.uk/5/2/pleace.html
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Nicholas Pleace, Roger <http://www.socresonline.org.uk/5/2/biography.html>
Burrows, Brian Loader, Steven Muncer and Sarah Nettleton (2000) 'On-Line
with the Friends of Bill W: Social Support and the Net.'
Sociological Research Online, vol. 5, no. 2,
<http://www.socresonline.org.uk/5/2/pleace.html>
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Received: 25/7/2000 Accepted: 25/8/2000 Published: 6/9/2000
Abstract
The Internet is now being used as a mechanism for the delivery of social
support on a global scale, chiefly through the formation of self-help
groups. Most of the research that has been undertaken on these groups has
focussed on Usenet and the use of newsgroups for social support. This paper
examines the use of an Internet Relay Chat (IRC) 'room', by a self-help
group composed of problem drinkers. The group had an international
membership and advocated the use of social support, rather than intervention
by professional services, to help its membership overcome problem drinking.
The paper considers the roles that these new forms of Internet mediated
self-help and social support might play in changing the relationships of
those who participate in them towards traditional health and social care
services. The paper also critically examines the extent to which such fora
might function as virtual 'communities' of care.
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Keywords:
Internet; Problem Drinking; Social Policy; Social Support
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