A Netnography Analysis Of Indonesian Netizens: Digital Prints Of Mental Health On Instagram®

Objectives: This study aims to examine the message posting network about mental health looks like, what are the categorizations of emerging and final themes, and what are the forms of comments from Indonesian netizens regarding mental health-related discussions.The research object focuses on every content post in the form of reels, snapgrams or story updates, live posts, and comments from representative posts under other mental health themes on the Instagram® social media platform.
Methods: This research uses Netnographic Analysis method. In total of, mental health-related content posts on Instagram were 534,000 posts. Researchers were then selected based on engagement and certain criteria using the NoLimit tool from May to December 2021. In total of 2,235 posts were closely analyzed.
Results: As a result, researchers found a network that formed three (3) large clusters: bipolar, stress, and depression. In addition, four (4) big themes were found that represented every social entity of conversation on I Instagram social media in Indonesia; they are (1) Oversharing and Self-Claim Phenomena, (2) Community: Normalization of Conversation, (3) When Influencers Share Experiences, and (4) Expert Education.
Conclusions: Digital conversations about mental health on social media have become an important part of the emerging culture. Social media has helped reduce the stigma surrounding depression and other mental disorders by providing a platform that allows individuals to share their personal experiences openly.