I'm sad you're sad

Hancock, Jeffrey T.; Gee, Kailyn; Ciaccio, Kevin; Lin, Jennifer Mae-Hwah

doi:10.1145/1460563.1460611

Cited by 128 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 12 publications

(17 reference statements)

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“…For others, the presence of social anxiety may hinder the use of posting functions for emotional disclosure on SNSs [59], which may decrease access to potential social interaction [98]. As emotional content can be effectively communicated on the Web [133], SNSs represent another space in which positive and negative interactions can be enacted and may provide key behavioral insights into the mental health and well-being of a SNS user. Alternatively, increases in self-expression on SNSs may be more beneficial to well-being domains (such as connectedness, social support, and life satisfaction) but may not have an impact on depression or anxiety.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social Networking Sites, Depression, and Anxiety: A Systematic Review

Seabrook¹,

Kern²,

Rickard³

2016

JMIR Ment Health

517

394

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BackgroundSocial networking sites (SNSs) have become a pervasive part of modern culture, which may also affect mental health.ObjectiveThe aim of this systematic review was to identify and summarize research examining depression and anxiety in the context of SNSs. It also aimed to identify studies that complement the assessment of mental illness with measures of well-being and examine moderators and mediators that add to the complexity of this environment.MethodsA multidatabase search was performed. Papers published between January 2005 and June 2016 relevant to mental illness (depression and anxiety only) were extracted and reviewed.ResultsPositive interactions, social support, and social connectedness on SNSs were consistently related to lower levels of depression and anxiety, whereas negative interaction and social comparisons on SNSs were related to higher levels of depression and anxiety. SNS use related to less loneliness and greater self-esteem and life satisfaction. Findings were mixed for frequency of SNS use and number of SNS friends. Different patterns in the way individuals with depression and individuals with social anxiety engage with SNSs are beginning to emerge.ConclusionsThe systematic review revealed many mixed findings between depression, anxiety, and SNS use. Methodology has predominantly focused on self-report cross-sectional approaches; future research will benefit from leveraging real-time SNS data over time. The evidence suggests that SNS use correlates with mental illness and well-being; however, whether this effect is beneficial or detrimental depends at least partly on the quality of social factors in the SNS environment. Understanding these relationships will lead to better utilization of SNSs in their potential to positively influence mental health.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social Networking Sites, Depression, and Anxiety: A Systematic Review

Seabrook¹,

Kern²,

Rickard³

2016

JMIR Ment Health

517

394

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…LIWC analyzes text on a word-by-word basis, counts the predefined linguistic dimension words and then returns each linguistic dimension score as a proportion of the total number of words under analysis. The validity of LIWC’s performance has been established in a large number of studies, including studies measuring perceived positive and negative emotions in online mental health communities [18], online health communities [30], text-based online communication [15,16], and social media [17,38]. …”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…First, individuals’ inner emotions have been shown to manifest in their choice of words in writing [13], including textual conversation within online health communities [14]. Second, both negative [15] and positive emotions [16] have been shown to spread even through text-based computer-mediated communication (eg, email, chat) as well as through a textual alert system in social media [17]. …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Longitudinal Changes in Psychological States in Online Health Community Members: Understanding the Long-Term Effects of Participating in an Online Depression Community

Park

Conway

2017

J Med Internet Res

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BackgroundMajor depression is a serious challenge at both the individual and population levels. Although online health communities have shown the potential to reduce the symptoms of depression, emotional contagion theory suggests that negative emotion can spread within a community, and prolonged interactions with other depressed individuals has potential to worsen the symptoms of depression.ObjectiveThe goals of our study were to investigate longitudinal changes in psychological states that are manifested through linguistic changes in depression community members who are interacting with other depressed individuals.MethodsWe examined emotion-related language usages using the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) program for each member of a depression community from Reddit. To measure the changes, we applied linear least-squares regression to the LIWC scores against the interaction sequence for each member. We measured the differences in linguistic changes against three online health communities focusing on positive emotion, diabetes, and irritable bowel syndrome.ResultsOn average, members of an online depression community showed improvement in 9 of 10 prespecified linguistic dimensions: “positive emotion,” “negative emotion,” “anxiety,” “anger,” “sadness,” “first person singular,” “negation,” “swear words,” and “death.” Moreover, these members improved either significantly or at least as much as members of other online health communities.ConclusionsWe provide new insights into the impact of prolonged participation in an online depression community and highlight the positive emotion change in members. The findings of this study should be interpreted with caution, because participating in an online depression community is not the sole factor for improvement or worsening of depressive symptoms. Still, the consistent statistical results including comparative analyses with different communities could indicate that the emotion-related language usage of depression community members are improving either significantly or at least as much as members of other online communities. On the basis of these findings, we contribute practical suggestions for designing online depression communities to enhance psychosocial benefit gains for members. We consider these results to be an important step toward a better understanding of the impact of prolonged participation in an online depression community, in addition to providing insights into the long-term psychosocial well-being of members.

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“…In one study among 88 students, participants were able to detect experimentally induced negative affect in interaction partners with whom they engaged in computer-mediated chat (Hancock et al, 2008). Moreover, engaging in computer-mediated chat with partners who were assigned to experience negative affect led participants to experience more negative affect themselves (Hancock et al, 2008).…”

Section: Emotional Contagionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A growing body of research studying social media from a social comparison perspective suggests that browsing others' positive posts has negative effects on mood through envy and the feeling that others have a better life (Chou & Edge, 2012;Haferkamp & Krämer, 2011;Sagioglou & Greitemeyer, 2014;Tandoc, Ferrucci, & Duffy, 2015). In contrast, emerging research focusing on this topic from an emotional contagion perspective suggests that positive posts from others evoke positive emotional responses among viewers, as individuals adopt the positive emotions expressed by others in their posts (Ferrara & Yang, 2015;Hancock, Gee, Ciaccio, & Lin, 2008;Kramer, Guillory & Hancock, 2014). Social comparison and emotional contagion perspectives, thus, predict opposing ways in which viewing positive social media posts affects mood.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%