Social Media and Pandemic-Era Mental Health Discussions w/ Shohil Kishore: 25 September, 2024

95bFM: The Wire

Discussions on mental health and wellbeing became a focal point during the COVID-19 pandemic, with millions of people around the world being confined to their homes during lockdown and having both their social lives and self-autonomy restricted and changed.

However, for many, the period of time in lockdown was an important period of introspection, and so the time spent at home allowed for key discussions about mental health to be held on social media platforms such as X, formerly twitter.

Forwarding to the present day, a team of researchers from the University of Auckland conducted a study evaluating how social media platforms were used during and how they played a key role in facilitating discussions on mental health.

In line with mental health awareness week, Oto spoke to Shohil Kishore, a researcher in the Business School of the University of Auckland who conducted the study, who I also spoke with about the role social media platforms played in facilitating mental health discussions.