TY - GEN
T1 - Supporting constructive mental health discourse in social media
AU - Blair, Johnna
AU - Abdullah, Saeed
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 Association for Computing Machinery.
PY - 2018
Y1 - 2018
N2 - Social media platforms can be used to provide effective support for users with mental health issues. Self-disclosure about mental health on these platforms can lead to social support and community building. However, there are also inherent risks of stigmatization and misuse of platform features for maladaptive purposes, such as to promote eating disorders. To address these issues, it is essential to understand the reasoning and mechanisms of self-disclosure regarding mental health issues. However, this can be quite challenging, given the flexibility and complexity of user interactions on these platforms. For example, users can now share content not only privately or publicly, but also permanently or temporarily. Our initial inquiry with Instagram showed a tendency to co-opt mental health hashtags to increase post popularity. Based on our initial findings, we propose a participatory design study to better understand the motivations and challenges faced by users who disclose mental health issues on Instagram. Findings from this work can guide future designs to improve user experience and provide effective social support.
AB - Social media platforms can be used to provide effective support for users with mental health issues. Self-disclosure about mental health on these platforms can lead to social support and community building. However, there are also inherent risks of stigmatization and misuse of platform features for maladaptive purposes, such as to promote eating disorders. To address these issues, it is essential to understand the reasoning and mechanisms of self-disclosure regarding mental health issues. However, this can be quite challenging, given the flexibility and complexity of user interactions on these platforms. For example, users can now share content not only privately or publicly, but also permanently or temporarily. Our initial inquiry with Instagram showed a tendency to co-opt mental health hashtags to increase post popularity. Based on our initial findings, we propose a participatory design study to better understand the motivations and challenges faced by users who disclose mental health issues on Instagram. Findings from this work can guide future designs to improve user experience and provide effective social support.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85116372643&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85116372643&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1145/3240925.3240930
DO - 10.1145/3240925.3240930
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:85116372643
SN - 9781450364508
T3 - PervasiveHealth: Pervasive Computing Technologies for Healthcare
BT - Proceedings of the 12th EAI International Conference on Pervasive Computing Technologies for Healthcare, 2018
A2 - Minsky, Noga
A2 - Osmani, Venet
PB - Association for Computing Machinery
T2 - 12th EAI International Conference on Pervasive Computing Technologies for Healthcare, PervasiveHealth 2018
Y2 - 21 May 2018 through 24 May 2018
ER -