Page 50 - Desi Express Magazine Sept 2019

Hi-Tech Grip

#Depression ...

Instagram to your rescue

W hile the fear of being stig- sensitive disclosures, but they are exists on the site, Instagram recently

matised prevents many of
also getting mostly positive support rolled out a suicide prevention tool
that allows users to alert operators
us from making sensitive
from the people who respond to
self-disclosures, one way
negative or aggressive comments.
serious trouble.
way people in pain are overcoming the posts, and little in the way of when they think someone might be in

silence is by using the photo-sharing S T
The operators are able to provide help he operators are able to provide help
Some users view Instagram as a ome users view Instagram as a
app Instagram, a study says. safe medium for sharing sensitive or connect users with the information
information about themselves and they need to find it. While this is a step
Some Instagram users are using reaching out for help, the study said. in the right direction, according to An-
Some Instagram users are using
pictures to help explain the feelings and dalibi, it is only the first of many that
experiences that are often too painful or T
The findings are scheduled to be pre-he findings are scheduled to be pre- need to be taken to truly reach these
complicated to put into words, the sented at the Association for Com- communities of users.
researchers said. "We wanted to see how puting Machinery's International

people might behave differently on a more Conference on Computer-Supported "Social media platforms like Instagram, "Social media platforms like Instagram,
image centric platform, rather than one Cooperative Work and Social Com- that people have adopted to connect
that is driven solely by textual posts and puting to be held from February 25 with 'similar others' to share their
comments," said one of the researchers to March 1, in Portland, Oregon, US. difficult experiences, and seek and
Nazanin Andalibi from Drexel University provide support, should explore ways
in Philadelphia, US. Perhaps a nod of acknowledgement to facilitate safe and supportive
to the fact that this community connections," Andalibi said.
"
"Physical or mental health and body Physical or mental health and body
image concerns are stigmatised, rarely mage concerns are stigmatised, rarely
i
disclosed and frequently elicit negative
responses when shared with others," the
study authors said.

"We found that these disclosures, in
"We found that these disclosures, in
addition to deep and detailed stories of
one's difficult experiences, attract positive
social support on Instagram," the study
said. The researchers examined the
responses to a sample of 800 Instagram
posts pulled from more than 95,000
photos tagged with "#depression" that
were posted by 24,920 unique users
over the course of a month.

The findings showed that not only are
people using Instagram to make

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