I’m going to trust that you know not to send your life savings to a mystery phone number, and that photoshop is everywhere, but how good are you at recognising biases?
There is so much information online about mental health that it can be overwhelming, so when we see creators sharing explanations and examples that are significantly easier to follow than a 30-page peer-reviewed journal article, it makes sense that we find ourselves gravitating to the content that’s the most engaging.
I do genuinely believe this is incredibly innovative and fantastic for destigmatising mental health and improving awareness, but unfortunately social media doesn’t foster mental health literacy.
Stick with me here because I promise I’m not shutting down all mental health content as having a negative impact (would be a bit of a hot self-sabotaging take), but rather my goal is to help you figure out how to safely get the information you’re actually after.
Algorithms don’t have a conscience
Social media’s algorithm is specifically driven to show you content it thinks you want to see, and the more you engage with that content the more it will continue to show similar things.
Let’s say you had been interested in a specific mental health topic or therapy style, and you looked up a couple of things relating to it. You’d probably notice you start to get shown more posts and videos about or similar to this topic, and because you are genuinely interested in it you’ll probably continue to engage with this content.
Unfortunately though, your algorithm isn’t smart enough to differentiate “good” vs “bad” information so it’s up to you to draw the appropriate conclusions and fact check.
…here is where it starts to get even trickier.
Everything is biased
Everything we take in contributes to different kinds of biases – literally me writing these words has its own biases, and will be contributing to yours too. Sadly we can’t just ‘get rid of’ bias, but we can learn about what they are and how they influence our understanding of things.
Confirmation bias
Confirmation Bias is “the tendency to interpret new evidence as a confirmation of one’s existing beliefs or theories”. If we are interested in something and are then repeatedly shown content relating to it, specifically content that aligns with what we have stronger feelings towards (either positive or negative), it makes sense that this repetitive reinforcement is going to affirm our existing or developing understanding and beliefs.
You can absolutely argue that going down any research rabbit hole will have the same effect, but the biggest problem with social media is we are accessing this information almost constantly; and unfortunately you are less likely to be shown content with differing perspectives because your algorithm deems this “less interesting” for you.
Immediacy Bias
Immediacy Bias is *technically* “a cognitive bias that leads people, when presented with two similar goods, products, services or options, to have a greater desire for the one that will arrive or take place soonest”, BUT I invite you to consider this – rather than as a physical product or service – instead as the idea that we are more likely to resonate with the answer more immediately available to us.
If we are in the process of searching for answers about ourselves or those around us from a mental health or therapeutic perspective, we inherently understand that the “answers” are always going to be subjective and there could be multiple avenues to consider before finding the “right” path for us. Let’s be honest though, we are SUPER impatient. If we are being repeatedly presented with the same ideas through our social media, it’s far more likely that we are going to accept this as the “answer” over independently trying to investigate other ideas.
Negativity Bias
I’m sure you’re aware of the concept of seeing things through rose coloured glasses (Optimism Bias) in situations where you should maybe be more on the cautious side. But you also know when you stop being friends or break up with someone and suddenly you can recall every single time they annoyed you or did something bad and that’s ALL you can think about? This is a Negativity Bias, or Blue Retrospection, and unfortunately our brains are far more inclined to ride the negativity train.
Similarly to confirmation bias, this also feeds into how we take in and attribute information. For example, let’s say you have been getting over a break up and your social media has been showing you videos on ‘gaslighting’ and ‘avoidant attachment’. It is absolutely possible you were being gaslit by your ex, and maybe they did have an avoidant attachment style, but as you continue to be shown these posts it only confirms these ideas and prompts you to recall and ruminate on a lot of negative memories and feelings.
Sure, this might feel cathartic for a little and it feels so good to have “answers”, but this becomes a negative, potentially harmful cycle if we aren’t then actually doing anything to address these feelings.
What do I trust then?
I promise it’s not all doom and gloom and you don’t need to be suspicious of everything you come across now! Social media has its place in improving mental health awareness and ease of understanding, and having access to this type of content is actually an incredible tool for self-reflection and helps us to feel less isolated and more validated in our experiences.
Having such easy access to information is just as likely to highlight new things to you that you’ve never previously considered or heard of, and it can be really reassuring to learn that your feelings are relatable.
Awareness is the key
In order to maintain a healthy understanding of the mental health information we come across it pays to be conscious of biases and understand that a short post or video is never going to be the full picture. I would strongly encourage you to pursue more “legitimate research” to challenge and corroborate your ideas, but as someone that has definitely cried over journal articles in the University library at 2am I completely relate to this being an overwhelming and often confusing prospect.
Take Tik Tok into Therapy (Seriously)
If you are in the process of self-reflecting, researching, and questioning a lot about yourself/others/mental health more globally, this is a fantastic time to look at booking in with a therapist. It might feel strange to approach for the first time, but finding a therapist you trust to not judge you for saying “I saw this video on Tik Tok about XYZ and I was hoping you could explain it to me a bit more because I related to it” is incredibly important!
Your practitioner will be well-equipped to provide psycho-education and help to fill any gaps or remedy misconceptions and will be able to guide you through wherever your therapeutic journey may take you from there.
TL;DR – everything is biased, ask questions, fact check with a professional – and we’ve got plenty of them here at Indigo.
