Social Media and Mental Health Activism

Activism has changed much in the last 20 years. When people 20 years ago heard the word "activism", they probably pictured in their mind, masses of picket sign holders chanting some kind of catchy phrase about what they are for or against. While that type of activism still happens to this day, the landscape of activism has changed dramatically. With the advent of the internet, social media, and Web 2.0, different types of activism have arisen.

Mental health has been a topic that has a lot of activism behind it for a while now. One of the main things that mental health activists want to end is the stigma around mental health disorders. A stigma is a "mark of disgrace" associated with some type of condition. People generally do not talk openly about mental health issues such as depression, anxiety, and OCD. This is especially true with males. When someone talks about these types of things, they are seen as weak. That, or that they are complaining too much. Both of these ideas are antiquated and incorrect. Although the stigma is less than what it used to be, social media activism has played a role in reducing the amount of stigma surrounding these things.

Hashtags are words or phrases that are preceded by a pound("#") sign that help people find posts with that same hashtag. Hashtag activism has become incredibly popular at raising awareness for all sorts of causes. #blacklivesmatter is probably the most famous example of this. It's presence is now ubiquitous, and the hashtag has turned into a full on movement. A hashtag relating to mental health is #endthestigma. People will put this hashtag after a post of them explaining their experience with mental health disorders, for example. Then, if someone wanted to see similar content to that, they can click the hashtag (if the website allows) and it will bring them to a page with that same hashtag. This allows for people to share their stories and for their stories to be read by an audience that is interested in them.

Another form of activism that has been proven to often be quite effective is the online petition. Online petitions are just like the paper petitions that you see at your school, in the park, on city sidewalks, etc, but they are all electronic. They can be petitioning for anything, including mental health things. So, for example, if a government stripped funding for a heroin addiction center, for example, a petition could be started to oppose that since addiction is a mental health problem. Online petitions are usually emailed to the appropriate person who they are petitioning. Sometimes, some online petition websites will have a custom text field where you can write your own message to the receiver of the petition.

Another interesting form of online activism that, at the time of reading this has passed but is still worth noting, is the ALS ice bucket challenge. For this, a person would intentionally spill a bucket of ice over their head and then say something about ALS and how you can help, and then they would challenge 3 people to do the same thing. This was an incredibly popular camping, with high profile celebrities, politicians, and public figures joining in.

Social media tools have given birth so many novel, and often very effective, forms of activism and activism campaigns. It will be interesting to see what news techniques people will use to do their activism online. One thing is for sure though, it is a constantly changing phenomenon.

Crowdfunding, Crowdsourcing, and Mental Health

Crowdfunding is a byproduct of Web 2.0. Crowdfunding is when people use the internet to contribute to causes they want.

GoFundMe is a website that was specifically designed for crowdfunding. Someone can set up a campaign for a cause that they want to help and people can donate as much or as little to the fund as they want.

When it comes to mental health, crowdfunding can be invaluable. Take a look at this project on GoFundMe. To date, Katie has raised around $3,500 toward her mental health treatment and Master's degree to help other people with mental illness.

This is related to the topics of previous weeks, such as social and financial capital. By using crowdfunding, Katie is increasing her social capital by putting her goals on the internet for all to see, colleagues, potential investors, or just friends who are in a similar situation as she is. She is increasing her financial capital by raising money.

Crowdsourcing is when people make media assets themselves, be it stock photos, stock videos, music, etc, and then post in on websites such as iStockPhoto for other people to either download for free or pay for a greatly reduced price as compared to something like Getty Images. Some websites, such as PublicDomainPictures, also has images that you can use for totally free and you don't even have to attribute their creator. There are other licenses, such as the Creative Commons license, where you don't have to pay for them, but there are varying degrees of attribution and other rules, such as distributing under the same license, and mandatory remixing of content.

For example, if a startup company, say one that focuses on helping anorexic people recover, had limited financial capital, they could make an (almost) free website by self-hosting Wordpress, and then using stock photos and videos as their featured images or videos.

Crowdfunding and crowdsourcing are invaluable for people who do not have a lot of money and ned help. They are one of the positive byproducts of Web 2.0.