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“Help Me:” Examining Youth’s Private Pleas for Support and the Responses Received from Peers via Instagram Direct Messages
Conference proceeding   Open access

“Help Me:” Examining Youth’s Private Pleas for Support and the Responses Received from Peers via Instagram Direct Messages

Jina Huh-Yoo, Afsaneh Razi, Diep N. Nguyen, Sampada Regmi, Pamela J. Wisniewski and ACM
Proceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, pp 1-14
19 Apr 2023
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3544548.3581233
Featured in Collection :   UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
url
https://doi.org/10.1145/3544548.3581233View
Published, Version of Record (VoR) Restricted

Abstract

Computing methodologies -- Artificial intelligence -- Distributed artificial intelligence -- Intelligent agents General and reference -- Document types -- General literature General and reference -- Document types -- Reference works General and reference -- Document types -- Surveys and overviews Human-centered computing -- Collaborative and social computing Human-centered computing -- Collaborative and social computing -- Collaborative and social computing theory, concepts and paradigms -- Computer supported cooperative work Human-centered computing -- Collaborative and social computing -- Collaborative and social computing theory, concepts and paradigms -- Social media Human-centered computing -- Collaborative and social computing -- Collaborative and social computing theory, concepts and paradigms -- Social networks Human-centered computing -- Human computer interaction (HCI) Human-centered computing -- Human computer interaction (HCI) -- Interaction paradigms -- Natural language interfaces Social and professional topics -- Professional topics -- History of computing -- History of software
Although youth increasingly communicate with peers online, we know little about how private online channels play a role in providing a supportive environment for youth. To fill this gap, we asked youth to donate their Instagram Direct Messages and filtered them by the phrase “help me.” From this query, we analyzed 82 conversations comprised of 336,760 messages that 42 participants donated. These threads often began as casual conversations among friends or lovers they met offline or online. The conversations evolved into sharing negative experiences about everyday stress (e.g., school, dating) to severe mental health disclosures (e.g., suicide). Disclosures were usually reciprocated with relatable experiences and positive peer support. We also discovered unsupport as a theme, where conversation members denied giving support, a unique finding in the online social support literature. We discuss the role of social media-based private channels and their implications for design in supporting youth’s mental health. Content Warning: This paper includes sensitive topics, including self-harm and suicide ideation. Reader discretion is advised.

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16 Record Views
16 citations in Web of Science
18 citations in Scopus

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UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

This publication has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:

#3 Good Health and Well-Being

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Collaboration types
Domestic collaboration
Web of Science research areas
Computer Science, Information Systems
Computer Science, Theory & Methods
Robotics
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