How User-to-User Co-Creation on Social Media Benefits Individuals During Times of Heightened Uncertainty

Although social media use during times of high uncertainty (e.g. public health crises) can pose risks to user well-being, we suggest that co-creation among users can derive meaningful benefits for them under such circumstances. Drawing on the taxonomic framework of value co-creation and the DART model, our study investigated how social media environmental cues (i.e. user-to-system and user-to-user cues) could facilitate the user-to-user co-creation process and benefit users’ well-being. Through a two-phase online survey involving social media users in Australia, Canada, and the UK, we found that user-to-system and user-to-user cues promote access and transparency, which form the foundational elements of the co-creation process. In addition, we showed that dialogue and risk assessment—triggered by access and transparency—further contributed to psychological well-being and social connectedness. These results were relatively consistent across countries; slight variations emerged in the specific co-creation elements predicted psychological well-being. Our study advances the co-creation literature by elucidating how co-creation among users can be shaped by social media cues that support psychological well-being during times of heightened uncertainty and by unpacking the interdependence co-creation mechanisms within the DART model.