Online (In)civility and Mental Health

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https://hdl.handle.net/10125/109895

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    Political Affiliation and Mental Health During Crises: Insights from Online Communication
    (2025-01-07) Eftekhari, Saeede; Tacheva, Zhasmina; Senot , Claire
    The COVID-19 pandemic and its policies universally impacted the US population in 2020, leading to notable physical and psychological effects. This study investigates how political orientation influenced depressive symptoms before and after COVID-19 using a sample of Twitter users. We trained a machine learning model to classify tweets for depressive language and applied econometric modeling to examine depressive symptoms among Democrats and Republicans in blue and red states from January 2019 to March 2023. Our findings show that political views and partisan policies did not moderate COVID-19's impact on depressive symptoms. Instead, the differences in discussed topics and personal expectations increased depressive symptoms. This research has significant implications for policymakers, mental health professionals, and social media platforms.
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    Introduction to the Minitrack on Online (In)civility and Mental Health
    (2025-01-07) Tahmasbi, Nargess; Hall, Margeret; Rastegari, Elham
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    Understanding the Role of Social Media Content in Inducing Anxiety: A Qualitative Study
    (2025-01-07) Meythaler, Antonia
    Anxiety is associated with adverse effects on social media users’ well-being. While previous research focused on understanding whether social media usage behavior, such as time spent on social media, elicits feelings of anxiety, scant attention has been paid to exploring the role of social media content in inducing feelings of anxiety. To address this research gap, a qualitative study with 249 social media users was conducted. Our results reveal six content categories that are likely to elicit anxiety: negative news, incivility, social comparison content, political content, misinformation, and content depicting dangerous behavior. By shedding light on these content categories, this study contributes to our understanding of the negative implications of social media on users. In addition, the results are relevant for platform providers and mental health practitioners seeking to mitigate negative online experiences and promote well-being.