The four articles that are under discussion in this essay deal with mental health and the role that technology can play in enhancing the wellness of people who are affected. Technology in this respect comprises both the mass media and social media. First, I begin the discussion by mentioning what each of the four articles discusses after each I present a critical examination of their content. The critical examination mainly describes the validity of the articles and any other emerging discussion that is of significance.
First, the article dubbed “Using social media to monitor mental health discussions-evidence from Twitter” analyzes the role that Twitter can play in fostering mental health issues. McClellan et al. (2017) use a model known as Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) to analyze and sample Twitter messages from 2011 to 2014 related to mental health issues. The researchers were mainly concerned with questions such as, were people using Twitter to spread mental health awareness? If so, how often were they doing so? From such results, mental health professionals would come up with the most effective way of addressing mental health using Twitter.
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The second article, “Facebook for Supporting a Lifestyle for People with Major Depressive Disorder, Bipolar Disorder, and Schizophrenia: an Exploratory Study” describes how Facebook can be used to foster healthy habits among people with mental disorders (2018). The concern is mainly about dealing with the issue of excess weight among people suffering from mental conditions. A Facebook group was formed where members contributed positive health habits and it was found that members of the group had positive results.
“Selling Mental Health” by Morris (2006) looks at the positive ways the media, mainly mass media can be used to address mental health. The excerpt seemingly is written after the realization that some people in the media produce content that stigmatizes people living with mental disorders. Instead, mass media is supposed to package its content in such a way that promotes the wellbeing of people suffering from mental health problems.
Lastly, the article, “Increasing Help-Seeking and Referrals for Individuals at Risk for Suicide by Decreasing Stigma” investigates the role of mass media in campaigning and advocating for mental health issues. The difference between this article and that of Morris (2006) is that Morris is mainly concerned about the specific content of the messages coming from mass media outlets while Niederkrotenthaler et al. (2014) wants mass media to partner with the public health sector to address mental health issues.
The first critical point from the articles is that there is an urgent need for mental health providers to embrace technology to address mental health issues. Presently, people in the United States have to meet with mental health professionals physically to have their issues addressed. Looking at the busy lifestyle in the United States, most people cannot find adequate time to seek professional help. Since a lot of people are on the internet and have access to social media sites, it is crucial for mental health professionals to use social media as a channel for reaching out to those who are affected.
Secondly, although the articles discuss mainly the positive aspects of using social and mass media, they ignore that there are costs, which have to be involved. The prominent ones are time and money. Mass media requires payment of airtime to spread awareness. It is not certain how the mental health professionals will compensate for the awareness. Evidently, there needs to be partnerships and collaboration from different sectors to address the issue. Social media sites have many people, and in case many of them want their issues to be addressed, it may not be possible due to logistics.
Lastly, there is a problem of monitoring social media content, especially that which is related to health issues. People who are not mental health professionals may provide misleading information on social media and cause undesirable effects. Due to logistics, it may be difficult for professionals to verify the content. Other people may use the sites to create humor and stigmatize the victims. Evidently, there needs to be a comprehensive plan and caution when using both social and mass media to foster mental health.
References
McClellan, C., et al. (2017). "Using social media to monitor mental health discussions − evidence from Twitter." Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association 24(3): 496-502.
Morris, Gary. (2006). "Selling Mental Health", chapter 4 from Mental health issues and the media: An introduction for health professionals, Routledge.
Naslund, J. A., et al. (2018). "Facebook for Supporting a Lifestyle Intervention for People with Major Depressive Disorder, Bipolar Disorder, and Schizophrenia: an Exploratory Study." Psychiatric Quarterly 89(1): 81-94.
Niederkrotenthaler, T., et al. (2014). "Increasing Help-Seeking and Referrals for Individuals at Risk for Suicide by Decreasing Stigma: The Role of Mass Media." American Journal of Preventive Medicine 47(3, Supplement 2): S235-S243.
