MOBILE HEALTH USABILITY WITH SNAPCHAT’S SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORM

open_access
Open Access
Author:
Gerhart, David Jon
Area of Honors:
Information Sciences and Technology
Degree:
Bachelor of Science
Document Type:
Thesis
Thesis Supervisors:
Alison Murphy, Thesis Supervisor
David Joseph Fusco, Thesis Honors Advisor
Keywords:
Snapchat
Social Media
Mobile Health
Usability
Extrinsic Motivation
Peer Groups
Abstract:
Snapchat has been a rising social media platform across the world since its creation in 2011. The Snapchat platform is different from many forms of social media because it combines temporary pictures, video, and text all in one media platform. With the combination of data types that can be sent through Snapchat, it provides cognitive affordances that are most similar to face-to-face communication of any social media platform. Face-to-face communication has been deemed the most positive and motivating form of communication, and with Snapchat being the closest to that, it would only make sense for it to be used for motivational purposes. Mobile Health (mHealth) technology companies have been struggling with retaining users of their products, and there is potential for a technical integration with Snapchat to increase motivation and improve user retention rates. The research presented in this paper highlights the importance of using Snapchat as a motivational social media platform and aims to discuss the potential implications of this idea. Findings and results are presented, but since the paper is widely exploratory in nature, the conclusions determine that much more research needs to be done before an extensive technical integration can be made.