Our interactions on social media platforms, particularly with ill-informed mental health-related posts, are direct endorsements of the content of those posts. Every ‘like’, ‘follow’, ‘reblog’, and ‘repost’ by a user on Instagram or Tumblr is a contribution to the social media sphere. Social media platforms have made it easier for individuals to create, view, and share oft-romanticized mental health content.
Given the flexibility and speed with which hashtags are utilized in the context of mental illness, particularly depression, self-harm, anxiety, and bipolarity, social media platforms have taken it upon themselves to address the seriousness of these issues.
On Tumblr, a variety of prompts come up when a user searches for mental health-related tags. A search for the “self harm” tag brings up the following message:
Everything okay?
If you or someone you know is engaging in self-harm, SAFE Alternatives is here to help: call 1–800–366–8288
If you are experiencing any other type of crisis, consider chatting confidentially with a volunteer trained in crisis intervention at www.imalive.org, or anonymously with a trained active listener from 7 Cups of Tea.
A search for the “anxiety” and “depression” brings up this message:
Everything okay?
If you or someone you know are experiencing any type of crisis, please know there are people who care about you and are here to help. Consider chatting confidentially with a volunteer trained in crisis intervention at www.imalive.org, or anonymously with a trained active listener from 7 Cups of Tea.
It might also be nice to fill your dash with inspirational and supportive posts from TWLOHA, Half of Us, the Lifeline, and Love Is Respect.
Searching for the “suicide” tag brings up this message:
Everything okay?
If you or someone you know is struggling with thoughts of suicide, the Lifeline is here to help: call 1–800–273–8255
If you are experiencing any other type of crisis, consider chatting confidentially with a volunteer trained in crisis intervention at www.imalive.org, or anonymously with a trained active listener from 7 Cups of Tea.
And, if you could use some inspiration and comfort in your dashboard, you should consider following the Lifeline on Tumblr.
On Instagram, a search for “suicide”, “self-harm”, and “depression” brings up the following message:
Content Advisory
Please be advised: These posts may contain graphic content. For information and support with suicide or self-harm please tap to learn more.
While Tumblr and Instagram have disclaimers in place to help users who may be struggling with mental illnesses, other social media platforms have no similar prompts in place and anyone can search for mental illness tags. While a benefit of this is that individuals can find a supportive community where other people have similar struggles and share their feelings, the downside is that much of the blogs geared towards mental illnesses present an extremely distorted and romanticized version of mental illness.
This distortion merges those who are clinically depressed, diagnosed with anxiety, present with self-harm, or are suicidal, with those who are simply feeling negative emotions but have adopted the romanticized version of mental illnesses. This is harmful for individuals who have a mental illness and those who don’t but are feeling powerful, negative emotions.
Social media users, particularly teenagers, are increasingly attributing their sadness to having depression because of the romanticized idea of being “beautifully broken”. In a way this has made depression more accessible for those who are “wannabe depressed”. However, individuals do not benefit from this behavior in any way as their real problems are masked by an ill-informed self-diagnosis which many times is the result of feeling misunderstood, troubled, or needing attention. While falsely identifying with depression is wrong, and may provide a sense of justification or gratification for negative emotions, it doesn’t negate that there may be bigger issues that the individual is facing.
