scholarly journals Studying Unemployment Effects on Mental Health: Social Media versus Traditional Approach

Author(s):  
Samara Ahmed ◽  
Adil E. Rajput ◽  
Akil Sarirete ◽  
Asmaa Aljaberi ◽  
Ohoud Alghanem ◽  
...  

Social media, traditionally reserved for social exchanges on the net, has been increasingly used by researchers to gain insight into different facets of human life. Unemployment is an area that has gained attention by researchers in various fields. Medical practitioners especially in the area of mental health have traditionally monitored the effects of involuntary unemployment with great interest. In this work, we compare the feedback gathered from social media using crowdsourcing techniques to results obtained prior to the advent of Big Data. We find that the results are consistent in terms of 1) financial strain is the biggest stressor and concern, 2) onslaught of depression is typical and 3) possible interventions including reemployment and support from friends and family is crucial in minimizing the effects of involuntary unemployment. Lastly, we could not find enough evidence to study effects on physical health and somatization in this work.

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (19) ◽  
pp. 8130
Author(s):  
Samara Ahmed ◽  
Adil E. Rajput ◽  
Akila Sarirete ◽  
Asma Aljaberi ◽  
Ohoud Alghanem ◽  
...  

Social media, traditionally reserved for social exchanges on the Internet, has been increasingly used by researchers to gain insight into different facets of human life. Unemployment is an area that has gained attention by researchers in various fields. Medical practitioners especially in the area of mental health have traditionally monitored the effects of involuntary unemployment with great interest. The question we want to address is as follows: while many researchers have been using data from social media and microblogging sites in the past few years, do they provide results consistent with traditional research? Furthermore, if the data are indeed consistent, are they detailed enough to deduce possible reasons and remedies? We believe that having a concise answer to these questions is imperative for a sustainable mechanism for medical practitioners and researchers to gather and analyze data. The stigma of mental health prevents a good portion of society from seeking help, but the anonymity provided by the Internet could shatter such barriers, thus allowing people affected by conditions such as mental health and unemployment to express themselves freely. In this work, we compare the feedback gathered from social media using crowdsourcing techniques to results obtained prior to the advent of social media and microblogging. We find that the results are consistent in terms of (1) financial strain being the biggest stressor and concern, (2) the onslaught of depression being typical and (3) possible interventions, including reemployment and support from friends and family, playing a crucial role in minimizing the effects of involuntary unemployment. Lastly, we could not find enough evidence to study effects on physical health and somatization in this work.


2016 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 549-563 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian Tucker ◽  
Lewis Goodings

Social media are increasingly being recruited into care practices in mental health. This article analyses how a major new mental health social media site ( www.elefriends.org.uk ) is used when trying to manage the impact of psychiatric medication on the body. Drawing on Henri Bergson’s concept of affection, analysis shows that Elefriends is used at particular moments of reconfiguration (e.g. change in dosage and/or medication), periods of self-experimentation (when people tailor their regimen by altering prescriptions or ceasing medication) and when dealing with a present bodily concern (showing how members have a direct, immediate relationship with the site). In addition, the analysis illustrates how users have to structure their communication to try to avoid ‘triggering’ distress in others. The article concludes by pointing to the need to focus on the multiple emerging relationships between bodies and social media in mental health, due to the ways the latter are becoming increasingly prominent technologies through which to experience the body when distressed.


Author(s):  
Adeola Adetokunbo Ayandeyi ◽  
Baidya Nath Saha

Coronavirus pandemic has caused major change in peoples’ personal and social lives. The psychological effects have been substantial because it has affected the ways people live, work, and even socialize. It has also become major discussions on social media platforms as people showcase their opinions and the effect of the virus on their mental health particularly. This pandemic is the first of its kind as humans has never encountered anything like this virus. Handling it was very difficult at first as its characteristics are peculiar. Eventually, it was detected that it is airborne and so there is need to social distance. Before the virus surfaced, some countries of the world were dealing with mental health cases, with over 40 percent of adults in the USA reported experiencing mental health challenges, including anxiety and depression. Social media has become one of the major sources of information due to information sharing on a very large scale. People perception and emotions are also portrayed through their conversations. In this research work, the interaction and conversation of people on social media, particularly Twitter, will be analyzed using machine learning tools and algorithm to determine the effect of the virus on the mental health of people and help suggest the area of concentration to medical practitioners in order to speed up the recovery process and reduce the mental health issues which has escalated due to the virus.


2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 205630512096383
Author(s):  
Natalie Ann Hendry

What “counts” as a mental illness–related image matters. Most research attention has focused on distressing or recognizable mental illness–related visual practices, yet this offers partial insight into youth mental health. Using visibility and practice theories, I share an in-depth case study exploring the social media practices of four young women, aged 14–17 years, engaged with an Australian adolescent psychiatric service. They describe how being visible to others on social media potentially produces anxiety and burdens them to respond to others’ questions or unhelpful support. In response, they engage in practices of control to manage the vulnerability of mental illness and burdensome sociality. Their mental illness–related media practices are often invisible; they rework mental illness through ambiguous, supportive or humorous practices or, through imagined intimacy, engage with images that feel relatable to them even if the images do not depict recognizable mental illness content or employ recognizable hashtags or titles. These insights complicate “what counts” as mental illness–related content or practices on social media and challenge researchers and practitioners to consider the sociotechnical contexts that shape young people’s mental health.


BJPsych Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (S1) ◽  
pp. S241-S242
Author(s):  
Preetisha Chadee ◽  
Sacha Evans

AimsThe video-based free social media app, TikTok, has grown in popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic, with half of British children using Tik Tok regularly. With more than 2 billion downloads, it was the most downloaded app of 2020. Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) is currently found on TikTok via the hashtag #CAMHS. The aim of this study was to explore how CAMHS is represented on TikTok through reviewing the hashtags associated with CAMHS and exploring the themes of videos with the #CAMHS hashtag.MethodThe Tik Tok app was downloaded and a search for the hashtags which featured the word #CAMHS was undertaken. A thematic analysis of the top 100 most popular uploaded videos featuring the #CAMHS was conducted. The number of likes, views and shares of the videos featuring each theme was recorded.ResultVideos with the hashtag #CAMHS had 203.9 million views, followed by: #camhsmeme(s) totalling 43.1 million views, #camhsjokes with 21.4 million views and #camhskids, 12.5 million views. The top 100 most popular videos represented 24% of total viewed videos with the hashtag #CAMHS.The most popular recurrent themes associated with the hashtag #CAMHS in our sample were: raising awareness of mental health symptoms and management (40% of videos), reference to self-harm (27% of videos) and negative perception of CAMHS (27% of videos).Raising awareness of mental health symptoms and management had the most likes (3,694,700) and views (17,435,900). This was followed by videos with themes of reference to self-harm (3,006,300 likes and 14,382,700 views). The most shared themes were: reference to suicide (shared 56,763 times) and videos which portrayed a theme of negative perception of CAMHS (40,628 shares). Videos with themes of a negative perception of CAMHS also garnered 1,762,500 likes and 8,666,900 views.ConclusionCAMHS is actively represented on TikTok through freely accessible unregulated videos. Videos with themes of raising awareness of mental health symptoms and management can potentially allow young people to share their experiences. Nonetheless, popular hashtags such as #CAMHSmemes and #CAMHSjokes, as well as videos featuring themes of negative perception of CAMHS, could potentially undermine the reputation of CAMHS to existing and future service users. The content of these videos should be taken seriously by CAMHS clinicians as it can potentially provide an insight into service users’ experiences of CAMHS on a scale that has not been observed before. Presently these videos are not screened or modulated by the NHS CAMHS service.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Neil Vaughan ◽  
Maurice Mulvenna ◽  
Raymond B Bond

2015 ◽  
Vol 39 (6) ◽  
pp. 283-284 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chantal Cox-George

SummaryIndividuals with mental health issues may post information on social networking sites that can provide an insight into their mental health status. It could be argued that doctors (and specifically psychiatrists) should understand the way in which social media is used by their patients to gain a better insight into their illnesses. However, choosing to actively monitor a patient's social media activity raises important questions about the way in which medical students, qualified clinicians and other healthcare professionals obtain information about patients. While this may be framed as a mere form of ‘collateral history-taking’, there are obvious practical and ethical problems with doing so. Here, a case is made against monitoring the social media activity of patients involved with psychiatric services.


2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (5) ◽  
pp. 309-316
Author(s):  
D. Sridhar ◽  
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V. Kathiresan
Keyword(s):  

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 190-212
Author(s):  
Avelinus Moat Simon

In the age of Industrial Revolution 4.0, human life is influenced by various of sophisticated technologies. One of them is social media that increasingly develop, and take some impacts in human life. The fact is there are some priests ignore their pastoral duty and this takes the result that the church is separated. Many of priests don’t live up to their calling as good shepherds. They cannot recognize the church members who entrusted to them by a bishop. This study focus on the influence of social media for a priest’s duty. The research method used in the issue is a qualitative method by using literature approach. I found out that a priest is a shepherd for members of catholic community. A priest ordained by a bishop to continue Christ duty. Social media can become a tool and an equipment for a priest to develop the spiritual life and ministry. The attendance of a priest is the presence Christ as a good shepherd for His sheeps.


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