Psychiatric Illness: Social Media Analysis

Carrying on, Health Expectations journal published an article about the use of social media as a communication technique between adolescents with psychiatric illnesses and their healthcare providers (van Rensburg, Klingensmith & McLauhlin, 2016). This article explored the idea of patients and healthcare providers becoming connected via social media in attempts to prevent stigma attending a mental health facility and to help adolescence seek help in a more timely fashion. The participants were 20 attendees of the Yale Psychiatric Hospital Intensive Outpatient Program, age ranging from 14 to 18 years old. The participants were then interviewed and the questions were styled to be open ended. The findings were analyzed using inductive thematic

Researchers observed the social media profiles of a group of adolescents aging from 11 to 16 years old and developed the Media Practice Model. This model assumes three key factors in understanding the effects of social media on adolescents: that most media use is active or interactive, that media use and its effects are in an active reciprocal relationship with the user and that the adolescent’s current and evolving sense of identity is the basis for how media is chosen and applied in daily life (Best, Manktelow & Taylor, 2015). The model suggested that in the very influential stage of adolescents social media does in fact have a significant impact on social and sexual well being (Best, Manktelow & Taylor,

The analysis included a mapping of legal provisions and the review of the terms and agreements of a large social media site-Facebook. The studies showed that as of May of 2013, 73% of teenagers 12 to 17 years old were active on Facebook. When reviewing literature, it was found that in regards to social networking, there is “a great potential to promote the exercise and enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms, in particular the freedom to express, to create and to exchange content and ideas, and the freedom of assembly” (Lievens, 2016). The article’s findings concluded that with the regard to cyber bullying the existing legislative laws in place are adequate to address any issues. However when it comes to sexting, there are disputes whether underage sexting should be criminalized as child pornography (Lievens, 2016). Effective strategies that were developed by researchers to prevent occurrences of both cyber bullying and sexting are: increasing awareness that certain behavior may result in serious consequences, provide young users with functional and effective tools that enable them to report harmful behavior, educate parents and teachers, and to evaluate circumstances based off of the up to date sociological, technical and legal research (Lievens,