Depression Goes Social Media

Abstract

Looking at the hashtag #depression on Instagram, this article examines how the topic is presented and which effects this may have. As a sample shows, the hashtag is often used by people from the field of counselling/therapy, but also by micro-influencers. Posts offer information, advice and self-disclosure, aiming at affected individuals and their social surroundings. It can be assumed that the phenomenon has positive effects both for people posting through the chance of communication and networking and for affected recipients, especially as most other posts on Instagram present people very positively and provoke social comparison. Of course, the hashtag can also be misused for attention-seeking, and misinformation is also conceivable. Despite the potential of art for mental well-being, artistic works are hardly used, which may be due to the difficulty of creating such posts—but could represent interesting options in the future, especially through image generation using artificial intelligence.