Social Media Usage Reflects Depression among Adolescent Users

Abstract

        The research Social Media Usage Reflects Depression among Adolescent Users aims to study behaviours and attitudes of how social media can be used to reflect the depression of adolescents. The research focuses on the relationship between social class and depression reflected on social media. The research collects qualitative data through in-depth interviews from a total of 18 participants, categorised into Lower Class: 5, Middle Class: 6, and Upper Class: 7. Then, the research collects social media data from the same groups of participants through artificial intelligence tools and analyses the data using natural language process and computer vision from the number of messages on Twitter, the use of language on social media, and the tone or colour images used in profile.

          The research findings show that social media is used as a calling for help tool for people who has a transient to moderate depression (Level 1-3), not a severe depression (Level 4). Also, the results reveal that the LC group has the most severe level of depression (Level 4), and they strongly reflect these intense depressive symptoms online. In the meantime, the MC group has a moderate (Level 3) to severe (Level 4) depression. This group reflects the diversity and ambiguity in the depression expressions on social media. The UC group has the lowest level of depression (Level 1-2) and rarely expresses sadness or negative feeling in online spaces since they consider the online expression as a form of accumulating social capital. To sum up, depression is not just an individual problem; rather, it is a social problem due to social pressure and capitalist oppression embedded in social structural problems.