Table 2.

Qualitative content analysis—students’ perspective on benefits and limitations of study-related Facebook groups. Through a qualitative content analysis, benefits and limitations of Facebook groups were extracted from conducted interviews and focus groups.

Categories and subcategories			Anchoring example
Limitations
	Study-related
		Mutual dependence	[...] You can’t rely on that. Simultaneously, one always has to look for answers elsewhere [...].
		Information overload or disorganization	When I am looking for a certain post—and I know it has to be somewhere, but I don’t know when it was posted—[...]. For me, that’s annoying.
		Factual knowledge	[...] once you take social media and Facebook [...] as your only source for medical education [...] a lot gets lost.
		Peer pressure	From my perspective, there is a lot of hysteria going on. Sometimes, not being confronted with that is not a bad thing.
		Reliability	Anyone can write something. In the end, you have to find a [reliable] source by your own.
	General
		Rudeness	It escalated! People were rude and abusive to individuals that actually committed themselves to the group.
		Commercialization	In my eyes, it [marketing] has no place in groups like that.
		Permanent availability	[...] the aspect of permanent availability [...] are of high relevance why people say to prefer real social interactions instead of the Internet.
		Distraction	I have recognized that my concentration is severely compromised.
		Anonymity	It [Facebook group] is too big [...]. There is no feeling of togetherness.
		Misleading presentations	Everyone is presenting himself as one wishes to be, and not how one is in reality.
		Mismatch with introverted personalities	I am not the type of guy that uses social networks as they are designed.
		Limited protection of privacy	I do have some concerns about the privacy policy.
		Dependence and irrational involvement	The benefit of not being a user on Facebook is that I [...] don’t get lost and waste my time.
Benefits
	Study-related
		Limited control by faculty or dark net	Technically, one would not even be allowed to publish lecture notes online due to copyright reasons.
		Collective knowledge	Just think of it. One group has about a thousand members. Given that, there will always be one who knows the answer.
		Established platform	The vast majority of students are using Facebook. Thus there is no need to establish a new network.
		Free of charge	[...] information on Facebook is free of charge.
		Effectiveness	I save time since I get to information more quickly.
		Connecting individuals with mutual interests	One can easily organize groups when there are problems [...] since one can directly and quickly contact a lot of people [...].
		Exclusive information	I can tell from a friend, who is not using Facebook, that she has disadvantages because some resources can only be found there [Facebook] [...].
	General
		Mass media	It is a good thing that everyone is on Facebook.
		Intuitive handling	I think it is a cool platform [...] to have an easily exchange with others.
		Mobility	[...] and it is a big advantage with smartphones these days.
		Innovation	There have been a lot of modifications since I last visited Facebook.
		Live blog	All results [of exams| are online instantly, on Facebook.
		Online databank	[...] anything that was posted is saved. One can have access to that anytime.
		Diversity	That’s the advantage of the Internet. One can read a lot of opinions and then decide which one might be the most plausible.
		Social network	Social interactions in a society are extremely important. That’s why everyone loves this [Facebook].