The impact of online social support amongst the gay community

Eimear811

Hi guys,
My name is Eimear Morrissey and I'm studying Applied Psychology at UCC. For my final year project I'm conducting a piece of research into gay people's use of online communication and it's effects on well-being. I have a survey which only takes 10-15 minutes to complete and I would really really appreciate it if ye could take the time to respond. The link is http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/J8LFSR8
Thanks!!:)

fluffybiscuits

Doing it now

Eimear811

Awh you're the best, thanks The results could turn out to be really interesting so hopefully lots more people will be as kind as you!

fluffybiscuits

anytime. Was a breeze

Norderburse

Done now too, best of luck with the work!

ninty9er

Done. I'd be interested to see the findings in the finished product.

Coeurdepirate

Done, hope I helped!

Captain Graphite

Just did it there.
I liked the wide number of options you gave when asking for orientation. "Predominately, but not exclusively, homosexual" works much better for me than either "gay" or "bi" but unfortunately is a bit of a mouthful to use in everyday conversation.

wonderfulname

And gender, it's a well thought out survey, kudos.

Eimear811

Captain Graphite wrote: »

Just did it there.
I liked the wide number of options you gave when asking for orientation. "Predominately, but not exclusively, homosexual" works much better for me than either "gay" or "bi" but unfortunately is a bit of a mouthful to use in everyday conversation.

I based the orientation question on the Kinsey Scale, here's a link if you're interested http://www.kinseyinstitute.org/research/ak-hhscale.html

Thanks to everyone else who's done it so far too!

oisindoyle

Eimear811 wrote: »

I based the orientation question on the Kinsey Scale, here's a link if you're interested http://www.kinseyinstitute.org/research/ak-hhscale.html

Thanks to everyone else who's done it so far too!

To me the sentence "Predominately, but not exclusively, homosexual" ,,,gives the impression that being gay/homosexual is somewhat of a "choice"...
Well I am sorry being gay is NOT a choice and you cannot be "half gay" either,,,
Its a ridiculous statement and offensive

floggg

No it's not. It's a recognition that for many people sexuality is a sliding scale. See the link to the Kinsey scale posted.

For example, I'm gay but Ive been with girls and enjoyed it. Who knows, I might be with them again.

I imagine if I was exclusively homosexual girls wouldn't arouse me in any way. But they have done in the past and I never found the idea of being with one in any way off putting.

stephen_n

Think this fairly much proves the point that no matter how delicately you phrase things someone will always seek offense!

Captain Graphite

oisindoyle wrote: »

To me the sentence "Predominately, but not exclusively, homosexual" ,,,gives the impression that being gay/homosexual is somewhat of a "choice"...
Well I am sorry being gay is NOT a choice and you cannot be "half gay" either,,,
Its a ridiculous statement and offensive

:rolleyes: This is one of the stupidest posts I have read on any forum on boards. Shall we ignore the Kinsey scale and the fact that sexuality is not always fixed, and is sometimes fluid, just because you say so?

you cannot be "half gay" either

So you think everyone is either gay, straight or 50/50 bi, and that there is no in between?
Look, I like guys. All my relationships so far have been with guys. I generally find them more attractive than girls and am very probably gonna continue dating guys. But there are still a few girls out there that I find very attractive, and although it's unlikely it's by no means impossible that I may end up in a relationship with a girl someday. So I'm not 100% gay but I'm also not comfortable calling myself bi when I prefer one much more than the other.

Now according to you that's not a valid orientation. I'm either gay or bi and should just choose. Well I find that much more offensive than anything contained in that survey. In fact, I'm going to report your post because I find it so infuriating.

OP I hope you ignore that ridiculous comment and don't take it to heart. Your survey was worded very well.

Zillah

Captain Graphite wrote: »

Now according to you that's not a valid orientation. I'm either gay or bi and should just choose. Well I find that much more offensive than anything contained in that survey.

How dare you have an ambiguous and confusing sexuality! We only just got people to take the gays seriously, now you're muddying the waters with the sort of carry on.

In fact, I'm going to report your post because I find it so infuriating.

Ok that's just silly.

OP I hope you ignore that ridiculous comment and don't take it to heart. Your survey was worded very well.

These student surveys are often quite poorly done, but this was a good one. The section on online/offline community was perhaps a little strange at parts, generally well done. Good luck!

Captain Graphite

Zillah wrote: »

Ok that's just silly.

Meh, possibly. But that post just hit a nerve 'cause I've heard similar stuff said to me in real life. *shrug*

jaffacakesyum

stephen_n wrote: »

Think this fairly much proves the point that no matter how delicately you phrase things someone will always seek offense!

Nail on the head there.

OP I did the survey. Well done on it. Good luck with your research

Eimear811

Thanks for all the responses so far, I really appreciate it!

Eimear811

Any more takers?

DubArk

Eimear811 wrote: »

Any more takers?

Done.

Slang_Tang

I filled it out a few days ago. Best of luck with your project. Keep us updated on the results/findings.

Eimear811

Thanks a million! I really need as many participants as possible in order to have some reliable results.

Yeah I'll post up my findings, no problem. I'm aiming to have a full results section written up in January so I'll post a summary of the findings then

Slang_Tang

You could try getting in touch with gcn.ie to see if they'll post a notice on their website. You never know, it's worth a shot.

Sardonicat

Done!

Very well put together, OP! Best of luck getting respondents and have fun writing up your results

Eimear811

Slang_Tang wrote: »

You could try getting in touch with gcn.ie to see if they'll post a notice on their website. You never know, it's worth a shot.

I've already emailed them twice with no reply
Do any of ye know of any other news type sites I could try?

Thanks Sardonicat

L.Jenkins

Well try a few of the other organisations like LGBT Diversity and TENI. They may help.

Annasopra

Eimear811 wrote: »

I've already emailed them twice with no reply
Do any of ye know of any other news type sites I could try?

Thanks Sardonicat

Gaelick.com

Annasopra

You should also contact belongto, LGBT noise and LGBT diversity and ask them to forward on their.members or mailing lists or groups they are affiliated to

Vojera

Done! Hope you get some good data.

baby and crumble

Also, try sending an email to the college LGBT societies, they could fire it out to their mailing lists.

Eimear811

I've emailed all of those and it's now on gaelick and lgbt diversity. Thanks guys!

Eimear811

Any kind soul still feeling the festive spirit want to help me out and do the survey?

Calleja

Just finished it there, good luck with the data

L.Jenkins

I've done it a while back. Hope it helps with your research.

number10a

Just did it. Seems like the results would be interesting.

Eimear811

Thanks guys, I really appreciate it!

sapere_aude

That was interesting, best of luck Eimear

Eimear811

Hi guys,

A few of ye asked for the results of my study to be posted up so here they are!

I ended up focusing on gay males as the sample of gay females wasn't large enough. What I basically found with the male sample was that offline (real-life) social support was beneficial in terms of happiness and depression as expected, but online social support was just beneficial in terms of depression, and not for happiness.
This implies that being involved in an online community is a healthy and positive thing for gay males to do. However, it seems that the social support found online only works to a certain point and doesn’t quite fulfil the role that real-life physical contact does.

I've now submitted my thesis, thanks to everyone who participated!