Social networking sites for ambivalent socialisers

The Case of Smoking Cessation

Project overview

A mobile phone screen

Social network sites and Web 2.0 technologies generally are among the most significantdevelopments in information technology in the past decade. The aim of this projectis to extend their reach to ambivalent socialisers: groups of people that do notform spontaneously on social network sites but which might nevertheless benefitfrom online participation.

We collaborate with Quit Victoria to develop an empirically derived understandingof ambivalent socialisers in the context of smoking cessation, and we will deploysocial networking technologies to illustrate the benefits of online participationsuch as social support.

Quitting smoking? Try our mobile app!

Do you want to try out a new app that offers stories, tips and distractions to inspire and support you in your quit attempt? We are now looking for participants who own an Internet-enabled phone and who are planning to quit (or have just quit) in order to try the app over several weeks and to comment on it in a diary and through interviews.

Research team

  • Wally Smith
    Wally Smith
  • Bernd Ploderer
  • Jon Pearce
  • Ron Borland
  • Greg Wadley
  • Sarah Webber

Project information

Funding source ARC Linkage Project
Project time frame 2011–2014

Publications

  • Ploderer, B., Smith, W., Pearce, J., & Borland, R. (in press). An object-centred approach to encourage online participation in the context of behaviour change. Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW). DOI
  • Wadley, G., Smith, W., Ploderer, B., Pearce, J., Webber, S., & Whooley, M. (2014). What people talk about when they talk about quitting. In Proceedings of the Australian Computer-Human Interaction Conference (OzCHI 2014). New York: ACM Press.
  • Smith, W., Wadley, G., Webber, S., Ploderer, B., & Lederman, R. (2014). Unbounding the Interaction Design Problem: the Contribution of HCI in Three Interventions for Well-being. In Proceedings of the Australian Computer-Human Interaction Conference (OzCHI 2014). New York: ACM Press.
  • Paay, J., Kjeldskov, J., Brinthaparan, U., Lichon, L., Rasmussen, S., Srikandaraja, N., Smith, W., Wadley, G., & Ploderer, B. (2014) Quitty: Using Technology to Persuade Smokers to Quit. In Proceedings of the Nordic Conference on Human-Computer Interaction (NordiCHI 2014).
  • Ploderer, B., Reitberger, W., Oinas-Kukkonen, H., van Gemert-Pijnen, J. (2014). Social interaction and reflection for behaviour change. Personal and Ubiquitous Computing, 18(7), 1667-1676. DOI
  • Ploderer, B., Smith, W., Pearce, J., & Borland, R. (2014). A Mobile App Offering Distractions and Tips to Cope With Cigarette Craving: A Qualitative Study. JMIR mHealth uHealth, 2(2), e23. PDF, DOI
  • Ploderer, B., Smith, W., Howard, S., Pearce, J.,& Borland, R. (2013). Patterns of support in an online community for smoking cessation. In Proceedings of the Conference on Communities and Technologies (C&T 2013) (pp. 26-35). New York: ACM Press. DOI
  • Ploderer, B., Smith, W., Howard, S., Pearce, J., & Borland, R. (2012). Ambivalence about (Inter)Personal Informatics for Smoking Cessation. In CHI 2012 Workshop on Personal Informatics in Practice: Improving Quality of Life Through Data, Austin, TX.
  • Ploderer, B., Smith, W., Howard, S., Pearce, J., & Borland, R. (2012). Introducing the ambivalent socialiser. In Proceedings of the Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2012). New York: ACM Press. PDF, DOI
  • Ploderer, B., Smith, W., Howard, S., Pearce, J., & Borland, R. (2012). The “we-to-we” design of a social media application for smoking cessation. In SmartHealth 2012 Workshop at OZCHI 2012, Melbourne, Australia.
  • Ploderer, B., Smith, W., Howard, S., Pearce, J., & Borland, R. (2012). Things you don’t want to know about yourself: Ambivalence about tracking and sharing personal information for behaviour change. In Proceedings of the Australian Computer-Human Interaction Conference (OzCHI 2012). New York: ACM Press. PDF, DOI

Workshops organised

  • Roecker, C., Wadley, G., Ziefle, M., Holzinger, A., Ploderer, B., Lederman, R., & Estrada, F. (2014). SmartHEALTH: 6th International Workshop on Smart Technologies for Health and Wellbeing, at OZCHI 2014, Sydney Australia.
  • Wadley, G., Ploderer, B., Vetere, F., & Brereton, M. (2013). Social Technologies for Health and Wellbeing, at OZCHI 2013, Adelaide, Australia.
  • van Gemert-Pijnen, L., Reitberger, W., Langrial, S., Ploderer, B., & Oinas-Kukkonen, H. (2013). Workshop on Behavior Change Support Systems (BCSS), at Persuasive 2013, Sydney, Australia.

Media reports

  • The Saturday Paper (April, 2014) Apps that guide living as a quantified self, Interview with Dr Bernd Ploderer about the Distract Me iPhone app.
  • ABC Radio (January, 2013), Interview with Dr Wally Smith about the Distract Me iPhone app.

Contact details