Social Networking and the Romanticisation of Depression

Note: I am not at all claiming to be an expert in this subject, this was an assignment for a class at university.

WARNING: May contain graphic/disturbing content for some viewers.

Regardless of what kind of depressive disorder is in question, it is always stigmatized. This has always been a serious issue in the world of mental health, as it merely exacerbates patient’s problems, resulting in individuals requiring social support. People (in particular, adolescents growing up in the Web 2.0 environment) use the Internet as a form of self-expression, “a venue to those with depression that feels safer for expressing emotion during periods of isolation” (Moreno, Kelleher, Pumper; 185). Their profiles and blogs represent their ‘true’ identities — upon the development of such social networking websites, the concept of what is ‘true identity’ and what isn’t is somewhat blurred.

Because I am somewhat addicted to social networking and the Internet myself, I have tried out almost every social networking site that exists online. I came to realize that Tumblr seems to be one of the largest ‘hubs’ for depressed adolescents and young adults. Indeed, Tumblr is perfect for self-expression. Users can “incorporate text, photos, graphics, audio and video to build a personal representation of their identity” (Moreno, Kelleher, Pumper; 185), and it is much easier for youth — suffering from depression or not — to express themselves on a web page than in person (Moreno, Kelleher, Pumper; 185). These blogs are available to anyone on the Internet; online media allow us to both produce and absorb the specific types of digital information we prefer through ‘posting’ and ‘following’ others. There is much controversy about this: the fact that we can view anything we please is both advantageous and detrimental to society.

Being able to express oneself and exercise freedom of speech is, of course, a good thing, but it is my opinion that this is only to a certain extent. Viewing whatever one pleases on a networking site such as Tumblr means that one can be exposed to both good and bad (or even harmful) content online. More specifically, I am referring to a new kind of ‘stigma’ about depression that has arisen online: a new kind of ‘Soft Grunge’ subculture. When you hear the words ‘Soft Grunge’ you might think of dyed hair, Doc Martens, smoking, eyeliner, etc (I am most certainly generalizing here, and do not claim to be an expert) and you wouldn’t be entirely wrong. ‘Soft Grunge’ is more of an aesthetic than anything else, which is perfectly fine. However, on Tumblr, ‘Soft Grunge’ is slowly evolving into a subculture that, rather than stigmatizes depression, does the exact opposite: it romanticizes depression.

By this I mean that depression is being portrayed as something ‘cool’ or even ‘hipster’, as the more recent generations of tweens and adolescents would say. Depression on Tumblr has become a trend, something quirky and different, rather than a serious disorder that has one of the highest death rates in the world. Aspects of ‘Soft Grunge’ idolize the idea of the #sad, #pale, #beautiful girls wishing they could kill themselves and instead indulge in maladaptive practices such as #smoking, #drinking, #drugs and #cutting. Pictures such as the one below even have hashtags that idealize such maladaptive behaviour, such as #skinny and #pale.

This emerging subculture does not encourage people to help themselves or try to get better. It instead makes it ‘okay’ to remain depressed and ignore the fact that helping yourself might actually make things better. Increasing amounts of ‘Soft Grunge’ images, videos and other content encourages overdosing on pills, drugging yourself at parties, cutting, bruising or harming yourself in other ways such as smoking “because you’re going to die anyway.” The hashtag search that once was full of girls with purple hair and dark makeup expressing their fashion tastes and lifestyles is now being infiltrated by pictures of bleeding cuts, large purple bruises on painfully skinny, pale legs, all made to seem beautiful and aesthetically (or even emotionally) pleasing. This is known as enablement. Such a subculture is enabling depression, or even encouraging it as a lifestyle.

Depression should neither be stigmatized nor romanticized, and the Internet makes the latter much more easily absorbed by the public. It is natural for young people who are suffering from depression to seek out a community that makes them feel as if they are a part of something. Social networking sites are now a key factor in finding a community and ‘being yourself’. As Bessenoff states in Can the Media Affect Us?, “social comparison theory states that we seek to compare ourselves to others we believe are similar to ourselves, particularly to determine our own levels of abilities and successes” (Bessenoff; 239).

Thus, if those seeking support go on Tumblr and see pictures of sad girls self harming and physically and emotionally destroying themselves, they will ultimately compare themselves to these new ‘idols’ and be influenced (subconsciously or otherwise). Young people may aspire to be so-called ‘Soft Grunge’ and consequently spiral deeper and deeper towards self-destruction.

Although many would disagree that ‘Soft Grunge’ is regarded as a following, I personally know that the harmful content that made its way to my own Tumblr dashboard started to affect my own mind. Coming from a family in which depression appears to be hereditary, coping with my own anxiety and depression was made that much harder; I was suddenly bombarded with images telling me to give up and do everything I could to destroy myself because life was pointless. In fact, during one of my depressive phases, I posted the image below on my own Tumblr blog, and not only did I receive an enormous amount of new followers, the post was reblogged thousands of times, even after I deleted it.

Tumblr itself has started to try and ban blogs promoting self harm and puts up warnings when tags such as #depression or #selfhate are searched. However, it is difficult to completely filter out harmful content, as there are hundreds (if not thousands) of such posts on Tumblr, and the reblogging feature (i.e. the ability to post someone else’s content on your own blog) means that some content has spread everywhere. Luckily with the help of external support from friends, family and psychiatrists I managed to get out of my self-pitying, self-hating phase and realized just how horrific and repulsive the entire concept is.

In my opinion, the very fact that this content is negatively affecting a community of people (however many people that may be) daily is proof that online freedom of expression has its flaws. Online freedom of expression and lack of privacy has increased the possible ways in which youth can be exposed to harmful media. In particular, freedom of expression within the anonymous messaging medium has the potential to be extremely detrimental to those who need some sort of mental support. One the one hand, anonymous messaging allows those who are shy to give encouraging advice, but on the other hand, it enables vindictive personas to inundate or ‘spam’ users with hatred and messages like “go kill urself”.

Online freedom of expression does allow people to say or confess things they may not be able to admit in person, but it also encourages hate and cyber-bullying, major causes of teenage depression, anorexia and suicide, which in turn may influence the creation of blogs that encourage such behaviour in one vicious cycle. In fact, online social networks such as Tumblr are constructed in such a way that some people purposefully post harmful content targeted at those who suffer from depression just to gain followers from such a large community of depressed adolescents.

Ultimately, the act of pouring out our emotions into machines and virtual environments has become natural in the 21st century, and it is somewhat conventional to post depression-related statuses or images on Tumblr. Self-loathing, cutting, and other unhealthy expressions are common and create a dangerous sense of community. Fundamentally, the debate regarding how advantageous or detrimental online expression is far too subjective to come to a definite conclusion. It all depends on chance: people can find a community that either helps them or becomes the death of them, and that is where the controversy about online freedom of speech begins.

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Sara Jane Richardson

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