What Are the Social Media Platforms Doing to Support Users' Mental Health?
How social media impacts its users’ mental health is a topic of huge debate, but one thing’s certain: the social media platforms themselves have a key role to play. In one 2021 study, two thirds of UK adults with a social media account believe social media companies have a duty to protect the mental health of users, while 53% of people felt social media platforms are not doing well enough at safeguarding users’ mental wellbeing.
In response to this demand for better mental health resources and protections, the social media platforms have begun implementing features and initiatives to protect their users. To mark Mental Health Awareness Week, we’ve put together a guide to how each major platform is playing its part.
Instagram is the “most depressing” of all social media apps, research has shown, and is often the focus of negative conversions around the mental health of young people. Like the other major platforms, Instagram has introduced features which increase its addictiveness (such as a never ending newsfeed) and has been criticised for perpetuating a culture of unachievable body images and aesthetics over reality. In an article for the Guardian in 2018, Alex Hern famously wrote that, “If Facebook demonstrates that everyone is boring and Twitter proves that everyone is awful, Instagram makes you worry that everyone is perfect - except you.”
Negative body image resources
Negative body image has been something Instagram stayed relatively quiet about until this year, when it announced in a blog post that it would be introducing new ways to support people affected by negative body image or an eating disorder. It launched a new set of expert-backed resources which include contacts for local eating disorders hotlines, such as Beat in the UK, as well as new advice on how to build body confidence in partnership with the National Eating Disorders Association in the US. These resources will be shown to users searching for terms related to disordered eating, as well as when users try to share this type of content, or if a friend is concerned about something they see posted and wants to offer support.
Tougher bullying regulations
Instagram has made clear its goal of leading the pack when it comes to tackling online abuse and bullying for a few years, and has continued to evolve and update its bullying regulations to make the site a safer and more positive place for users. In 2021, Instagram announced that it would be enforcing stricter penalties for people who send abusive messages by disabling their accounts, as well working with UK law enforcement authorities by providing information for legal action against hate speech. It also introduced a range of new tools for users to give them more control over their experience, including the ability to filter comments and messages and switch off DMs from people who don’t follow them.
Wellbeing guides
Instagram launched its Guides feature in May 2020, shortly after the Covid-19 pandemic. It initially focused the feature on allowing select creators to work with mental health and wellbeing organisations to produce Guides containing positive, supportive content for users, such as how to practice mindfulness and self-care.
Snapchat
Snapchat was ranked as the second most harmful to young people’s mental health in a 2017 study. To help support its users, particularly during the pandemic, Snapchat has introduced a range of initiatives and partnerships addressing mental health and wellbeing.
‘Here For You’
Last year, in honour of Safer Internet Day, Snapchat announced the launch of ‘Here For You’, a new set of tools aimed at providing “proactive in-app support to Snapchatters who may be experiencing a mental health or emotional crisis or who may be curious to learn more about these issues and how they can help friends dealing with them”. The feature shows safety resources from local experts when users search for certain topics, including those related to anxiety, depression, stress, grief and bullying.
Partnership with Headspace
In 2020, Snapchat announced it would be partnering with popular meditation and wellbeing app Headspace to offer content and resources directly on Snapchat via an in-app player (Headspace Mini). Headspace Mini is aimed at providing better support for users struggling with anxiety, depression and other mental health challenges by offering a “safe space where friends can practice meditations and mindfulness exercises and check in on each other” through the platform. In October 2020, for World Mental Health Day, Snapchat took its partnership with Headspace a step further by launching two new meditations for its users, available through Headspace Mini.
More accessible resources
Snapchat has also made it easier for users in crisis to access resources within its app, allowing them to use in-app reporting tools to alert the platform when they are worried about friends at risk of self-harm, to which Snapchat notifies that friend of the help available to them. The platform also used its short docu-series Mind Yourself to “demystify and de-stigmatise mental illness”, as well as launching a new Snap Original featuring Kevin Hart sharing positivity and wisdom with anyone aspiring to “live their best life”.
Last year, Facebook announced it would not only be partnering with experts to advance research into people’s mental health and how it intersects with technology, but also launching new initiatives to make it easier for its users to access mental health support on its platform.
Emotional Health Resource Centre
In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, Facebook continued to step up its game when it comes to mental health resources. In March 2021, it added new resources from mental health experts to its Emotional Health Resource Centre, including comprehensive global mental health guides, resources and actionable tips developed by the World Health Organisation and region-specific resources addressing topics including stress, anxiety, depression, grief and loss.
Facebook Watch show
In 2020, the platform announced a new Facebook Watch talk show featuring actress Taraji P. Henson called Peace of Mind with Taraji. The original series was aimed at removing the stigma attached to the mental health challenges facing people today, particularly those in the Black community, and featured interviews with a range of celebrities, experts and everyday people. Each episode focuses on a different mental health topic and showed how to provide support for people going through the issues raised.
TikTok
TikTok is perhaps the most active social media platform when it comes to implementing and communicating mental health initiatives and resources for its users. In 2021 alone, the platform has announced resources to support Eating Disorder Awareness Week and Mental Health Awareness Week, as well as new tools to promote kindness among its users.
Screen time prompt
In 2020, in one of the first moves of its kind, TikTok announced it would be introducing screen time management into its users’ feeds. The feature, which comes in the form of screen time prompts integrated into users’ news feeds, shows up when users have spent a lot of time scrolling on its app, reminding them to take a break from their screens.
It’s very unusual for a social media platform to take steps to encourage users off of their sites - more typically platforms have been known to introduce features to increase their addictivity. However, with its large demographic of users under 25 more aware of issues like social media addiction than ever before, TikTok proved that protecting its users was top of its priority list.
Eating Disorder Awareness resources
For Eating Disorder Awareness Week, TikTok launched new features to “encourage body inclusivity and support users who may be struggling with an eating disorder”. Its in-app resources included automatically providing access to the BEAT Helpline when users search for phrases related to eating disorders, as well as tips developed with experts on how to identify negative self-talk and support a friend who may be struggling.
‘Wellbeing Hub’
In April 2021, TikTok launched its new Wellness Hub to connect its US users with tips and resources on physical and mental health content on its app. For Mental Health Awareness Week, TikTok announced it would be launching a ‘Wellbeing Hub’ in the UK to offer users these resources too, covering topics including ‘Lockdown & Beyond’, ‘Life Advice’, ‘Mindfulness’ and more. Some of its other features include:
Live daily wellbeing sessions with creators, featuring content such as a medical Mental Health Q&A session and a guided meditation with Russell Brand
A network of creators promoting positive mental health and wellbeing content, known as its TikTok Wellness Collective
Links to mental health partners, including Mind and British Red Cross
Resources such as the Samaritans helpline and TikTok’s own Safety Centre
Related hashtags including #MentalHealthMatters, #Wellness and #MentalHealthAwareness.
Twitter is seemingly less active than some of the other major platforms when it comes to mental health initiatives. However, since October 2020 the site has been taking action around racism and hate speech. In collaboration with the Cross Government Working Group on Anti-Muslim Hatred, Twitter conducted research into online hatred and has contributed to roundtable discussions to try and combat its prevalence on the platform. In a blog post this year, Twitter also stood with its “partners in football” to condemn and try to tackle racism. It said it had made it easier for partners to rapidly report abuse if it had not already been detected by Twitter’s technology, and introduced new controls to allow users to choose who can reply to conversations they start, as well as prompts encouraging users to rethink harmful language in their tweets and replies.
Though not strictly a social media platform, Pinterest has been proactive in protecting its users’ mental health. In its recent blog post, Pinterest referenced a recent survey by the CDC which found that “42% of respondents reported anxiety or depression symptoms” and explained that its users were “20% more likely than the rest of the population to have mental and emotional well-being top of mind during Covid-19,” with those numbers expected to increase beyond the pandemic.
Funding for mental health organisations
For Mental Health Awareness Month in 2021, Pinterest addressed mental health concerns surrounding social media use during the pandemic by announcing new funding and assistance initiatives. The platform committed to $10 million in funding over the next year to mental health organisations in order to advance innovation and boost available services, saying it would be specifically focusing on funding organisations tackling racial and other disparities in access.
‘Compassionate Search’
Pinterest first introduced ‘Compassionate Search’, a feature that automatically displays and provides access to well-being resources to users searching for select keywords and phrases, to the US in 2019. In 2020, the platform rolled this feature out to other countries, including the UK and Ireland, to help support users in these countries who were feeling “stressed, anxious, sad or trying to manage difficult emotions”. ‘Compassionate Search’ was developed in consultation with emotional health experts and mental health organisations including Samaritans and the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.
Partnership with #HalfTheStory
This year, Pinterest partnered with non-profit group #HalfTheStory to raise awareness of digital impacts and concerns related to mental health. In its blog post, Pinterest said it will “donate ad credits to #HalfTheStory to encourage others to learn more about the organisation, raise funds for its teen-focused curriculum Social Media U, and drive Pinners to useful resources, including how to manage screen time and how to empower safe advocacy online.”
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