This article contributes to a better understanding of patterns of social support in relation to digital inequalities. Based on an extensive qualitative study, the diversity of support networks and supports seeking patterns are unveiled. A typology of six patterns of help-seeking is presented and described: the support-deprived, the community-supported, the supported through substitution, the network-supported, the vicarious learners, and the self-supported. The article also critically engages with the often unnuanced academic literature on social support. The research and the typology reveal that the quality of support, as well as the availability of potential or actual support, is not only influenced by socio-economic factors. Rather, the strength of the relationship and the level of intimacy between individuals is an important predictor of support-seeking. As such, this article shows that mechanisms of in/exclusion are highly social, as they entail a diversity of formal and informal support-seeking patterns, which in turn have an important influence on the adoption and use of digital media. The article argues that understanding such mechanisms is rooted in reconciling micro-level interactions to macro-level patterns of inequalities. To show the specificity of social support within digital inequalities research, and to demarcate the concept from definitions of other academic disciplines, the concept of social support for digital inclusion is introduced. It is defined as the aid (emotional, instrumental, and informational) that an individual receives from his/her network in his/her use of digital technologies.

中文翻译：

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数字包容性的社会支持：迈向社会支持模式的类型

本文有助于更好地理解与数字不平等相关的社会支持模式。基于广泛的定性研究，揭示了支持网络和支持寻求模式的多样性。提出并描述了六种寻求帮助的模式：被剥夺了支持，社区支持，通过替代获得支持，网络支持，替代学习者和自我支持。这篇文章还批判性地涉及了关于社会支持的经常不加修饰的学术文献。研究和类型学表明，支持的质量以及潜在或实际支持的可用性不仅受社会经济因素的影响。而是 个人之间的关系强度和亲密程度是寻求支持的重要预测指标。因此，本文表明，融入/排斥机制具有很高的社会性，因为它们需要多种形式的正式和非正式支持寻求模式，这反过来又对数字媒体的采用和使用产生了重要影响。文章认为，理解这种机制的根源在于使微观互动与宏观不平等格局协调一致。为了在数字不平等研究中显示社会支持的特殊性，并从其他学术学科的定义中区分概念，引入了数字包容性的社会支持概念。定义为辅助（情感，工具，