Hale study: Depression-related Imgur posts receive mostly supportive comments
A study by doctoral candidate Brent Hale finds that posts about depression on the social network Imgur frequently generate supportive comments.
“Responding to depression-related Imgur posts: A content analysis of social support and non-bona fide features in user-generated comments” appears in Digital Health. In addition to categorizing types of support offered, Hale observed the use of non-bona fide linguistic features such as humor, sarcasm and irony.
Nearly 60% of the 1,530 comments on 20 popular Imgur posts Hale analyzed contained at least one form of social support. Nearly 30% of the comments employed non-bona fide features.
Doctoral student Ryan Collins assisted with the study.