Jonathan Wilhoite Blog: Depression On Social Media Becomes More Predictable

Thursday, August 25, 2016

Depression On Social Media Becomes More Predictable

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Depression on social media like Instagram gave researchers the idea to study the ongoing mental activity in the brain that impacts behaviour and social media conduct.

Depression on social media affects a lot of people

A mobile app developed to analyze photos and images posted in social media sites like Instagram was able to accurately predict users who may be experiencing depression.

The study, undertaken by researchers from Harvard University, who sought for permission from 166 Instagram users to analyze their posted photos and were asked if they were diagnosed for any mental condition or sought treatment for clinical depression from a mental health practitioner.

Using a computer algorithm to analyze to sort out the data, the researchers were able to predict users who are experiencing depression, finding a distinct similarity on the images posted by those with depression and for those who did not.

Study lead author Andrew Reece points out that they studied four different categories of colour and brightness, number of faces in the photos, use of filters in Instagram and the existing metadata.

“In general, each one of these things has some relationship to what people have already found in studying depression,” says Reece.

Colours tell the difference

The software was able to distinguish information that suggest those with depression tend to choose deeper colours like darker shades of blue and grey. They tend to use less filters and if so, were commonly using Inkwell that makes everything black and white.

They also post fewer faces in each of the posted photos, however, are inclined to post more photos with faces.

“We were right about people being healthy 84 percent of the time. About a third of the people who were truly depressed, the machine found,” Reece says.

Although they have noted a fairly accurate level of prediction among the test participants, but Reece points out that are not encouraging this to replace the primary medical practitioners from expertly diagnosing depression.

Their goal is simply to develop this technique to assist doctors in their diagnosis of patients.

Depression affects millions

Depression is a common mental illness in the United States, according to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America.

It affects 40 million adults aged 18 and older, which makes up 18 % of the entire population.

One upside on social media, fortunately, is that people become more expressive with their ideas and even their moods and temper by being active in social media sites like Instagram and allow people to detect danger signs of an emerging mental illness for possible intervention.

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