A recent study published by the Journal of American Medical Informatics Association identified two specific spikes in discussions about mental health on Twitter.
According to EurekAlert Science News, the study found “expected increases in response to planned behavioral health events,” such as Bell Let’s Talk campaigns and Suicide Prevention Day. But there was “unexpected increases in response to unanticipated events,” such as Robin Williams’s suicide in the summer of 2014 and Justin Bieber’s arrest earlier that year.
The method of research involved collecting and analyzing 176 million tweets from 2011 to 2014. In addition, they used Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average data analysis, which identified hashtags and terms relating to suicide and depression.
The essential purpose of the study was to show how social media could become an avenue for identifying people with mental health problems.
The analysis of social media and mental health, especially among young people, has been regularly studied. Marshall McLuhan describes the global village as cultures and societies becoming more unified due to the advancement of technology. This description resonates with studies of popular social media platforms like Twitter that have similar results from all over the world when it comes to mental health and social media.
According to a 2015 study by the University of Glasgow, people between the ages of 11 and 17 have suffered from sleep deprivation and lower self-esteem due to constant activity on Facebook and Twitter.
One of the researchers from the university, Holly Scott, told The Independent: “This means we have to think about how our kids use social media, in relation to time for switching off.”
Another study done by the National Citizen Services (NCS) showed that 80 per cent of people between the ages of 12 and 18 have experienced stress over the past 12 months. The main reasons causing this stress were looking good on social media, being popular in school and finding a boyfriend or girlfriend.
These factors have led to stress-related illnesses, including insomnia, eating disorders, and depression, especially among girls around the age of 15.
One of the researchers from the study, Chandler McClellan, told EurekAlert, “This work represents an exciting new way to study public behavioral health issues. Leveraging the power of Twitter and other ‘big data’ allows us to formulate new responses to mental health issues that concern the public.”
“With time, we hope that this new tool will help in reducing suicide and improve awareness of and access to depression treatment resources.”
Photo courtesy of Jason-Howie (cc-by-2-0).