Social media mediation in adolescent and young adult cancer experiences: a qualitative study integrating lived and clinical perspectives.

PURPOSE: Adolescents and young adults with cancer face psychosocial challenges as illness disrupts developmental transitions. Social media may provide information, connection and emotional support, but their role in cancer care remains poorly understood and is often framed primarily in terms of risk. This study examined social media use as a psychological, social and temporal mediating process.

METHODS

A qualitative design combined netnographic observation of TikTok content with semi-structured interviews. Four TikTok accounts documenting cancer experiences among adolescents and young adults were initially identified. Two accounts were included after the young adults who created them provided informed consent. Both participants, aged 21 and 22, were interviewed, along with four healthcare professionals specialising in adolescent and young adult oncology. Data were analysed using inductive thematic analysis and integrated at an interpretative level.

RESULTS

In the two cases examined, social media functioned as a mediating environment through which participants negotiated agency, emotional self-regulation, peer recognition and disrupted temporalities. Posting supported meaning-making, emotional modulation and continuity during uncertainty. Platform norms privileging visibility and positivity also created pressures to perform resilient illness narratives, emotional vulnerability and exposure to distressing content. Professionals acknowledged the supportive potential of these practices but had limited insight into their everyday uses and emotional effects.

CONCLUSION

Social media may constitute an informal but meaningful component of psychosocial accompaniment in adolescent and young adult oncology. Reflective, non-judgmental discussions of digital practices may support more developmentally sensitive and patient-centered care.