February 23, 2017
Depression has a way of silencing its sufferers. Even in today’s technology-connected society, people are hesitant to talk about their painful experiences and suffering for fear of being stigmatized. Though this has been the unfortunate norm for quite some time, new research from Drexel University is steadily uncovering the areas of social network sites where the sufferers are finding solace. In their latest finding Andrea Forte, PhD, an associate professor, and Nazanin Andalibi, a doctoral candidate in Drexel’s College of Computing & Informatics who study how people interact on social media, have observed that one way people in pain are overcoming silence is by using Instagram — and recruiting pictures to help them explain the feelings and experiences that are often too painful or complicated to put into words.
