Gender and role differences in family-based healthy living networks

We have recently witnessed a tremendous increase in popularity and growth of online social networks. Social support and family involvement can play an important supportive role in health management. An increasing number of family members are establishing online social networking relationships with their families. This trend poses new research questions on effectively accommodating family members in online social networks. Family members themselves often have very different requirements based on their gender and family role. There is little research on the design of family-oriented social networking applications. In order to fill this research gap and investigate the impact of social and family relationships in online social networks, we are developing a healthy living online social application to support families in adopting healthy lifestyles. This paper reports the findings of a user study aimed at understanding gender- and role-based characteristics and differences in family-based healthy living social networks. The study shows that female users play a major role in leading the usage of the social technology; parents remain conscious of and concerned about their family's health as they interact with the social technology; and the social technology should support fun, especially for children.