Social ConnectednessKeep Social Randomized Controlled Trial for Young Adults With Cancer

See intervention description.

To rule out placebo and nonspecific effects, the Keep Social RCT engenders positive expectations in all participants by promoting the use of Invibe to build and maintain social ties, a framing that mirrors information-as-usual for well-being through social media connections. Those in the placebo control condition receive no further social connectedness education (view no psychoeducational video, no if/then plan) and encounter all background content on Invibe (all intervention messages excluded) with control posts that feature unrelated content.

Participants view a brief psychoeducational video about the value of connecting in-person with others and receive guided instructions for creating if-then behavioral plans for increasing moments of high-quality social connection. Over the next four weeks, they view messages to encourage in-person connections with strangers and acquaintances on our simulated social media platform called Invibe. During the 4-week intervention phase with Invibe (weeks 3-6), participants will view the Invibe simulated social media feed in each survey. Participant exposure to each intervention message will be both passive, via that day's feed, and forced, via inclusion on the following pages of that survey. Participants will see 12 intervention messages during this 4-week phase, each shown within the first five posts of the Invibe feed.