Online posting effects: Unveiling the non-linear journeys of users in depression communities on Reddit

Fuente: arXiv
Enregistré dans:
Détails bibliographiques
Auteurs principaux: Morini, Virginia, Citraro, Salvatore, Sajno, Elena, Sansoni, Maria, Riva, Giuseppe, Stella, Massimo, Rossetti, Giulio
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2023
Sujets:
Accès en ligne:
Tags: Ajouter un tag
Pas de tags, Soyez le premier à ajouter un tag!
_version_ 1866910917442142208
author Morini, Virginia
Citraro, Salvatore
Sajno, Elena
Sansoni, Maria
Riva, Giuseppe
Stella, Massimo
Rossetti, Giulio
author_facet Morini, Virginia
Citraro, Salvatore
Sajno, Elena
Sansoni, Maria
Riva, Giuseppe
Stella, Massimo
Rossetti, Giulio
contents Social media platforms have become pivotal as self-help forums, enabling individuals to share personal experiences and seek support. However, on topics as sensitive as depression, what are the consequences of online self-disclosure? Here, we delve into the dynamics of mental health discourse on various Reddit boards focused on depression. To this aim, we introduce a data-informed framework reconstructing online dynamics from 303k users interacting over two years. Through user-generated content, we identify 4 distinct clusters representing different psychological states. Our analysis unveils online posting effects: a user can transition to another psychological state after online exposure to peers' emotional/semantic content. As described by conditional Markov chains and different levels of social exposure, users' transitions reveal navigation through both positive and negative phases in a spiral rather than a linear progression. Interpreted in light of psychological literature, related particularly to the Patient Health Engagement (PHE) model, our findings can provide evidence that the type and layout of online social interactions have an impact on users' "journeys" when posting about depression.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2311_17684
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Online posting effects: Unveiling the non-linear journeys of users in depression communities on Reddit
Morini, Virginia
Citraro, Salvatore
Sajno, Elena
Sansoni, Maria
Riva, Giuseppe
Stella, Massimo
Rossetti, Giulio
Social and Information Networks
Computers and Society
Social media platforms have become pivotal as self-help forums, enabling individuals to share personal experiences and seek support. However, on topics as sensitive as depression, what are the consequences of online self-disclosure? Here, we delve into the dynamics of mental health discourse on various Reddit boards focused on depression. To this aim, we introduce a data-informed framework reconstructing online dynamics from 303k users interacting over two years. Through user-generated content, we identify 4 distinct clusters representing different psychological states. Our analysis unveils online posting effects: a user can transition to another psychological state after online exposure to peers' emotional/semantic content. As described by conditional Markov chains and different levels of social exposure, users' transitions reveal navigation through both positive and negative phases in a spiral rather than a linear progression. Interpreted in light of psychological literature, related particularly to the Patient Health Engagement (PHE) model, our findings can provide evidence that the type and layout of online social interactions have an impact on users' "journeys" when posting about depression.
title Online posting effects: Unveiling the non-linear journeys of users in depression communities on Reddit
topic Social and Information Networks
Computers and Society
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2311.17684