Negative health events can cause considerable stress in patients, negatively impacting both physical health and psychological well-being. To cope, many patients turn to socially supportive interactions and social media has become an important tool for accessing social support networks. However, research on the mental and physical health outcomes of social media-enabled social support seeking has produced conflicting results. This inconsistency in research findings has made it difficult for practitioners to make recommendations to patients on how to access online social support following negative health events. In this short commentary, I argue that effective access to stress-buffering social support online is intimately tied up in features of the social media platforms through which that support is transmitted. I propose three theory-backed distinctions between social media platforms with the goal of directing users toward effective, helpful social media engagement following negative health events.

负面的健康事件会给患者带来巨大的压力，对身体健康和心理健康造成负面影响。为了应对，许多患者转向了社交支持的互动，社交媒体已成为访问社交支持网络的重要工具。但是，对基于社交媒体的社会支持寻求的心理和身体健康结果的研究产生了矛盾的结果。研究结果的不一致使从业人员很难就负面健康事件后如何向患者提供有关如何获得在线社会支持的建议。在这篇简短的评论中，我认为有效在线获取压力缓冲社会支持与支持通过其传播的社交媒体平台的功能紧密相关。