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Post by Admin on Aug 22, 2017 13:09:03 GMT -4
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Post by Shawn Kwok on Aug 22, 2017 19:01:18 GMT -4
This article states that a computer program can provide a marker of depression by just analyzing your instagram photos.
Depression is a serious issue. Many people around the world have had or have dealt with depression sometime in their life. The program may be a useful tool in diagnosing this problem. Many users on instagram use this platform to promote themselves. Others use it as for form of self evaluation or valuation. It produces the humble braggers of today.
An instagram depression evaluation tool can be effective especially since people who are enslaved to this form of social media tend to respond the program telling them what to do.
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Post by Thashi Moksha on Aug 22, 2017 21:00:37 GMT -4
Hmmm...Interesting article. Although I can't help but wonder, does blue, gray or darker images in instagram always show sadness or depression. Or could it be a creative picture or a photography skill or simply that the user likes the darker color? How Accurate was the study and how much importance should we give in observing that as a sign or screening tool for depression. Just because a computer algorithm was able to recognize people with depression accurately in high percent, does that mean we make broad assumption? Statistics may be infallible but how far should we go to accept that as a way to assess or generalize a human's mind and emotion. Are instagram photos really a blueprint for effective mental screening in future? An algorithm can't truly diagnose someone with depression or rule it out the way a psychologist or psychiatrist would. Article does talk about prospect of finding people who could use physician's help which is an interesting approach. But doesn't it rise different concerns like safety and privacy? How realistic is it to think that this type of approach will be normalized in our clinical care? Should clinicians check patient's social media and observe every move of the patient? Not to mention, this set of predictors worked for the particular individuals that were studied, But can they really translate to average person's instagram photos?
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Post by Amanda Bailey on Aug 22, 2017 21:37:51 GMT -4
Depression can affect anyone and can present differently in each affected individual. In this digital age, social media has become an outlet for those who are experiencing depression or other mental health conditions. Based on the article, I found it interesting that technology has advanced so much, such that a computer program can scan Instagram users’ photos and identify who was depressed. With additional research, this may bring about more awareness regarding depression, as well as the signs and symptoms to look out for. Also, as the writer mentioned, this may help in promoting communication about depression, whether it is in a clinical setting, between friends and/or family. Encouraging discussions are helpful, since depression is still somewhat stigmatized and thus, not everyone is open to talking about his or her mental health state. Moreover, with further adjustments, this screening tool could also be expanded for use in other social media outlets such as Facebook or Twitter. This in turn would recognize even more individuals who may be depressed, so they can get the help they need.
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Post by Sarah Mohtadi on Aug 23, 2017 15:46:56 GMT -4
This is a very interesting article and I would have to agree on some level. Instagram can reveal telling information about a person just based on how their pictures are taken. Instagram can also be a great screening tool to see what the individual is going through in their life. From personal experience, it is not only pictures with darker filters that may be a sign of depression, but also pictures of "life quotes" that can give a hint on what is going with that individual. For example, I have many friends who post quotes such as "Great things take time", which is a "Don't give up!" message they would post while studying for their STEP 1 exam. These quote images are common and they can also be an indication of depression or any stressor they are dating with. I would have to agree with Thashi M. regarding the filter. It could be that the darker filters are due to a skill in photography or the style that is trending, but it is interesting to see this pattern in depressed individuals. The fact that less faces are seen in depressed individuals could be because of different factors, such as self-image or confidence. Many individuals do not like posting selfie's or pictures of themselves, if it does not look perfect.
I want to also add that Instagram can trigger depression in many users, especially women. Instagram has lately become the app to post all the great things that has been happening in a person's life. Whether someone bought a Prada bag, took a romantic trip to Paris, or ate an exotic meal, these events can trigger many emotions among the followers of that individual. Users begin to compare their life as "boring" to the "lucky and lavish" life of their friends. This can cause depression in many people.
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Post by Saurav Randhawa on Aug 24, 2017 11:11:54 GMT -4
By using technology to be able to spot out early signs of depression in individuals that post pictures online is an astonishing idea. The article describes how a computer program is able to comb through massive amounts of photos that fit a certain parameter and give the user a warning about signs of depression the photos. The program looks for things such as pictures that consist mainly of blue, black, and gray colors and the use of certain filters and picture styles. it has been able to correctly identify depression in 70% of individuals where as doctors were only able to get 42% of people. Having a tool such as this gives us a a great advantage in spotting depression early and will make us be able to get to more people who are not able to get help for themselves. Obviously there are some drawbacks such as not all people who post photos with dark colors are depressed, so it must be understood that this is only a useful screening tool and a doctor should still be the one to make a definitive diagnosis.
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Post by Shahzail qureshi on Aug 24, 2017 12:47:42 GMT -4
This article is very interesting and starts off talking about how there is a screening to help diagnose depression. The computer would scan one's profile based on there pictures that are uploaded and in this case, dark colours. Such as, grey, blue and black which indicates depression. Now, to an extent I agree with the article because you can tell a lot about a person's life based on their instragram pictures and how there feeling or what there going through. But for others it's just a form or creativity, exicentment, favourite colours and so on. Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and any other social media can all be a great screening tools to diagnose depression and anxiety. It is more convenient to find out about an individuals life because of the "dark" pictures or even the "quotes" that are posted online for people to see and comment.
I feel that we subconsciously involve our ourselves in situations where we are a target at all times by posting personal comments, pictures, quotes and letting the world decide what's wrong with you and now you are depressed and need professional help.
I also believe that social media triggers depression, anxiety, self-consciousness, etc. Socail media can be used for variety of different reasonings and can be viewed in different perspectives. In some cases people use it to get information about someone or a manger who is looking into hiring someone and wants to learn more about the individual. There are many different scenarios to why people even use instragram. It could be just an update you want people to know about or find out what's going on in someone's life or to buy and sell something. Social media plays a huge role in everyone's life whether they like it or not. I personally think it's all about ones perspective, you can look at all the instragram pictures online that are dark or sad but that doesn't necessarily indicate depression, but like I said it's about the perspective.
Finally, in some cases people do need actual help and shouldn't be afraid to get help. Family and friends should be supportive because it's not easy to say "I need therapy or medication for depression." A lot of old generation look down upon people who have depression and anxiety or any mental problem. It's socially looked down upon because it indicates that a person can't take care of themselves, its a sign of "weakness, insecurity and self-consciousness and that is why people are afraid to seek professional help. This is the reason why Psychology has rised so much in the last decade.
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Post by Jason Barton on Aug 24, 2017 15:07:30 GMT -4
At first glance i thought the idea of identifying depression from social media platforms like instagram seemed like a logical , exciting and brilliant idea . Instagram has over 700 million monthly active users , 400 million daily active users. I the US alone there are over 78 million users .When you take a look at the numbers for depression the NIHM calculates that over 350 million people are affected world wide. Thus social media being such a far reaching platform should be an excellent tool to help identify individuals suffering form depression. The number made sense to me to use it as a tool but the method is what i have some reservations with.
The choice of a instagram filter to me personally is an after thought , i even think its trivial on my personal instagram posts, but i do know for others that use filters religiously , that a lot of thought goes into this selection. Criteria for the selection can include mood, but also other things play an arguably bigger role like : lighting, skin tone, sharper / more dynamic images, etc .
I also stopped and though about what people actually portray on instagram , yes some people turn to instagram to express their true emotions, but also for a lot of people instagram is to hide who they really are and try to seem "better". For most its more of a highlight reel of your their "best self" not a true representation of who you are on a daily basis. Additionally people use instagram for a wide range of others interest , like : comedy , or to show off what they are eating everyday four time a day , some people actually may just use instagram to post pictures of their pets. These people would be missed by the application.
In conculsion i think that it is a promising idea with some tweaks ,i.e, to not only focus on shades of color and the amount of selfies , but to focus more so on content of the posts, as hypothetically if : Person A posted pictures being happy/smiling alone using inkwell as a filter only versus Person B who posted pictures where he/she looked and felt sad/depressed but didn't choose a filter at all or a non black and white filter , Person A would be flagged for depression and Person B would be by passed by this app. Finally as Catherine Steiner-Adair, cautioned in the article “What’s very tricky about all these things is that it’s so easy to connect dots in mistaken ways.”
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Post by batoolsheikh on Aug 24, 2017 22:50:25 GMT -4
The era of media and technology we are in, we really need to use these sources to make positive changes in our society. In this matter the article reflects a great opportunity we can avail to heal people mentally. I really liked the idea of how these pictures can be used which are been posted in every fraction of seconds to either impress others or to exhale out anxiety which is building inside. The article also gave ideas how to approach children and adults so that we cannot scare people or to judge them quickly. While seeing the pros of this idea, the question tickled my brains was will this effect healthy people by not expressing their favorite filters which they might be just using for fun. After reading this article people can bully their friends/families when they see those filters are being used which can cause a big problem in future. Using media and making a criteria out of it can be very tricky and one should be very cautious.
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Post by Jeremy Osborne on Aug 25, 2017 12:13:44 GMT -4
Social media has become a great way to connect people across the world and to express ones self through tweets, posts, videos and photos. Analyzing a person's posts can be a great diagnostic tool, as shown in the article, to help uncover someone's depression who may be too timid or afraid to seek help. However, knowledge of the correlation between depression and the way photos are edited and presented on Instagram opens up the possibility for even more cyber bullying than already exists. Imagine a teenager posting photos of blue/grey tint or lonely looking selfies that suggest he/she is depressed based on the program and that teenager actually is but finds their photos the perfect release to help. Then some bullies hear of this correlation and start giving the depressed teen a hard time because they match the description. This could precipitate something in the depressed teen that wouldn't have been there otherwise because they had a way to cope by posting their photos. It could make the depression worse or someone could even get hurt. Even though it's important to help people that need it, we need to be very careful how we use social media as a diagnostic tool.
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Post by alanw246 on Aug 26, 2017 12:09:38 GMT -4
The post and associated research article were quite thought provoking. Previous studies on screening for depression mostly focused on text analysis, but this novel research presents a new association between mood, color and mental health through a qualitative and quantitative examination of Instagram pictures. The research is still early, but should it become more mainstream and clinically applicable, I think useful aspects of images for part of patient history would include but are not limited to the following:
1. Nature of likes/comments. Who has commenting/liking - is it close family members and friends? In mental health especially using all resources to construct an accurate patient history is key- especially as someone with MDD is often less vocal. How do the most relevant comments correlate with the person in the picture and guide our DDx?
2. Visual cues apart from filters. Is the person alone in the picture? Is alcohol present in the images. Noticeable weight changes? How long have pictures indicative of depression been posted for?
3. Absence of images. Depression has a strong link with reduced social activity and while that typically means interacting less with friends - there may be a subset of those who also reduce their social media activity as well - which should be important not to miss.
4. Privacy/Public health. Do relevant Instagram images become part of the patient record and in what way do we as future clinicians partner with social media companies to ensure robust mental health for the public?
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Post by Chiamaka E. on Aug 27, 2017 2:16:25 GMT -4
A real interesting piece I must say! Who would have thought that after such a long time, something 'positive' could come from the internet. I beg to differ though, I mean using pictures on Instagram to detect depression? I completely understand it was via a computer algorithm but I mean, come on! Some people love being so monochrome but that does not imply they are depressed. I personally think that black/grey pictures are insightful and beautiful, so what does that make me? This article could leave a lot of people 'falsely diagnosing' their peers which only fuels the fire called cyber bullying. I recently met someone and we got talking about the article. She fully stated that she loves such pictures but that she is also the "happiest person" she has ever met. If I did not know any better, I would have read the article, seen her pictures on any social media platform, would have thought otherwise and unfortunately see her in a totally different light. In as much as this was a great read, it is really thought provoking and kind of misleading.
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Post by Noura Eleid on Aug 27, 2017 9:50:46 GMT -4
The notion that instagram photos might be used to screen for depression in the future is an interesting one, but I am inclined to go with the experts quoted in the article and say that a lot more data is needed. And, even if larger studies do show a correlation between photos with darker hues and clinical depression, I imagine specificity would be rather low and the screen would only be used in combination with other screening tests. I agree with clinical psychologist, Steiner-Adair, that the content of the photos, rather than the color scheme is more of a clue. It might be interesting to see if there are any patterns in color choices when comparing extroverts and introverts.
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Post by Aminah Phelps on Aug 28, 2017 7:03:37 GMT -4
Wow, I really enjoyed this article about depression and the images on social media. I never knew that more depressed people use pictures in black and white, grey, and dark blue. I think it is wonderful to be able to spot these types of things out. Some people go on social media as an outlet and now being able to spot depressed images can help treat people as well. Now it might be possible that when we see an image that be a call for help, we can identify the depressions nd treat.
I do not think enough people are treated for expression because many do not even know that they are depressed and what it may look like. Being able to spot out pictures can definitely help th treatment of Depression.
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Post by Radz C on Aug 28, 2017 22:31:26 GMT -4
This is an interesting and very informative article. The idea of having a computer programme detect depression in patients is brilliant, but can be flawed in so many ways since there are many fixed factors that will Be used in the computer source codes to achieve a diagnosis. Would it be beneficial? Yes. According to the National Institute of Mental Health depression affects 6.7% of US adults (aged 18 years and older) and 5% of the population worldwide and there is a subgroup of patients who hide their diagnosis from their families and friends so I strongly believe it would be useful in these patients. Is it accurate? Now, that is the big question. Depression is not a black and white condition, patients experience both physical and psychological symptoms which cannot be spotted from a picture using binary 0's and 1's. Let's flip the coin. How many people with depression who smile and pretend to be happy in pictures will this computer program detect?
Now, the use of black, grey and blue picture scales; and displaying fewer faces does not necessarily mean that a patient is depressed. I somewhat agree that depressed patients might be drawn to darker colours in terms of clothing, filters, etc., but it is it enough to say that everyone who does this is depressed. A person might just not be in a good, or has a preference for dark colours and dark filters or even a specific filter. In today's society, social media platforms promote popularity/getting the most "likes" causing some users to be overly conscious about details of their body hence forcing them to use these different effects/filters to hide their flaws and keep the likes coming. For some it's about self image and how confident they are about themselves.
A computer program analyzing a 2 second expression in a picture and the use of filter colours is not enough for medical professionals to use a diagnostic tool.
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