The Effect on Mood of Social Media Posting Among People with Mental Illnesses

There are studies that have examined how the use of social media affects people who have been diagnosed with a mental illness. However, studies that focus specifically on changes in mood after posting on social media among people with mental illnesses is absent from the literature. The present study sought to fill that gap in research by surveying 250 participants who have been diagnosed with a mental illness and testing whether there was a change in mood after posting on social media. The results concluded that there was a significant improvement in overall negative mood. There was no significant effect on overall positive mood. These findings suggest that social media posting has the potential to be used as an intervention for mental illness and might be utilized for counseling sessions, to aid in diagnosis, and to predict future behavior. This study also examined the reasons why people with mental illnesses post on social media and the type of content they post. Results indicate that the highest rated reason participants posted on social media was to express themselves and the type of post most frequently reported was an original photo taken by the participant