Science Slam: Kathrin Karsay presents AWARE
Kathrin Karsay participated in the Science Slam at the University of Vienna’s Department of Journalism and Communication Studies alumni event, where she presented the core hypothesis of the AWARE-Project. Read the Slam Text here.
ADHD Zodiac Sign: Mental Health on Social Media.
Trigger. Trauma. ADHD.
If this sounds familiar to you, that does not necessarily mean you are ill, but probably often online. Together with my team I research social media and mental health. According to the WHO, mental health is a state of well-being that gives people the ability to cope with demanding tasks and stress daily. Teenagers have, let’s just say, some room for improvement in that area. I don’t know about you, but when I think back on my youth, the first thing that comes to mind isn’t exactly well-being. More like pimples, puberty and physics tests.
Today however, the climate crisis as well as an unstable political state worldwide have been added to the mix. And then there’s also TikTok. After all, half of all teenagers spend more than three hours a day on social media. Three hours. Within public discourse, people often say, “social media is making teens and kids sick”. Science’s verdict on this: yes and no.
Young people are growing up in a world today where mental health issues are openly discussed, especially on social media. This helps many of them find the words to describe what they’re feeling. And sometimes, it also gives them the courage to seek help. Breaking this taboo is incredibly important.
In the mental health feed, truth is usually not verified—it is felt.
But – and now comes the “but” that often comes up in my research: Clarification, Information, and the raising of awareness often don’t come from experts. Instead, they usually come from laypeople = people with a great deal of experience – and are based on subjective evidence instead of solid facts. Influencers also like to get involved who try to sell you their latest coaching program.From this, feelings quickly turn into disorders and stress turns into diagnoses: You have issues with concentration? → It must be ADHD.Exhausted? → It’s definitely burnout.
Like a horoscope in the Kronen Zeitung
But why is it like this? A lot of social media content follows a simple formula. It’s basically like a horoscope in the Kronen Zeitung which says for example: “Those born under the sign of Virgo are practical, logical, detail-oriented, and often highly intelligent.”And then I think to myself: Wow, that’s true.
And now let’s replace stargazing with social-media-feed-gazing. There, you’ll read something like: "3 Signs of an anxiety disorder:1. You overthink things.2. You compare yourself with others.3. You tend to put off important tasks.”
And I’m like, Wow. That’s true. This phenomenon is known as the Barnum-Effect. Statements are made that are virtually impossible to verify or refute. The trick is that they apply to almost everyone.
And now here is a second key point. In research, there is what’s known as the prevalence inflation hypothesis. The hypothesis states that more attention to mental health results in people noticing more symptoms and interpreting them more intensely. This can help people take their struggles seriously and seek help when necessary. However, it can also lead to the overinterpretation of very common experiences, sometimes even to the point of self-diagnosis.
The result: higher reported prevalence rates. This is not only because there are more cases, but also because more people recognize themselves in these descriptions.Greater awareness → more self-identification → higher numbers → even greater awareness. It is a cycle.
And social media is the perfect catalyst for this very cycle. That’s because it’s where attention, personal stories, and clinical terms meet algorithms that are particularly good at one thing: amplification.The algorithm doesn’t ask, “Is this nuanced?” It asks, “Will this be shared?”
And this is exactly what our research focuses on. We want to test this hypothesis and above all, the role of social media. We are not interested in asking “Do young people see mental health content?” Because the answer is yes, one in two people sees mental health content pop up in their feed at least on occasion. We are still in the middle of data collection, which means we are right in the middle of the very chaos we are trying to understand. What we can say is this: The more often teens see this kind of content, the more likely they are to self-diagnose. But what about the opposite direction? And what helps us make sense of it all? Media literacy? Conversations with parents? Friends?
In summary, we can say this: In the mental health feed, truth is usually not verified, it is felt. We don’t yet know what effect this has on adolescents in the long term. And that’s exactly why we are researching it.
