Digital Ecologies of Youth Mental Health: Apps, Therapeutic Publics and Pedagogy as Affective Arrangements

Simone Fullagar,Emma Rich,Jessica Francombe-Webb,Antonio Maturo

doi:10.3390/socsci6040135

Simone Fullagar, Emma Rich + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci6040135

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Abstract

In this paper, we offer a new conceptual approach to analyzing the interrelations between formal and informal pedagogical sites for learning about youth mental (ill) health with a specific focus on digital health technologies. Our approach builds on an understanding of public pedagogy to examine the pedagogical modes of address (Ellsworth 1997) that are (i) produced through ‘expert’ discourses of mental health literacy for young people; and (ii) include digital practices created by young people as they seek to publicly address mental ill health through social media platforms. We trace the pedagogic modes of address that are evident in examples of digital mental health practices and the creation of what we call therapeutic publics. Through an analysis of mental health apps, we examine how these modes of address are implicated in the affective process of learning about mental (ill) health, and the affective arrangements through which embodied distress is rendered culturally intelligible. In doing so, we situate the use of individual mental health apps within a broader digital ecology that is mediated by therapeutic expertise and offer original contributions to the theorization of public pedagogy.

Highlights

Mental ill health is widely recognised, from a variety of perspectives, as a global public issue that affects many young people
Within this paper we examine the pedagogical modes of address (Ellsworth 1997; Giroux 2004) that are produced through ‘expert’ discourses of mental health literacy for young people, including an initial exploration of examples of digital practices that are created by young people as they seek to publicly address mental ill health through social media platforms
Within the emerging literature on mental health and social media, McCosker (2017) has begun to map the “possibilities and limitations embedded in social platforms and social imaging apps for rendering common forms of mental illness, such as depression and anxiety disorders, visible”

Summary

Introduction

Mental ill health is widely recognised, from a variety of perspectives, as a global public issue that affects many young people. In February 2017, Public Health England published its digital strategy ‘digital-first public health’ aiming to “take a digital first approach to protecting and improving the nation’s health and wellbeing, and reducing health inequalities” We see this play out in mental health through the seminal Future in Mind report that states how “we could empower young people to self-care through increased availability of new quality assured apps and digital tools”. Within this paper we examine the pedagogical modes of address (Ellsworth 1997; Giroux 2004) that are produced through ‘expert’ discourses of mental health literacy for young people, including an initial exploration of examples of digital practices that are created by young people as they seek to publicly address mental ill health through social media platforms It is beyond the scope of this paper to look at the learner-consumers’ perspectives and experiences of digital mental health apps, our framework would, we hope, lead to future analyse of such experiences. They are deemed fix that which is lacking (within normalised psychology discourse) in a way that continues to feed the growth of therapeutic publics (something we will discuss later in the paper)

Digital Mental Health Practices

Self-Tracking Mood and Wellbeing

Pacifica App

Social Media and the Growth of “Therapeutic Publics”

Findings

Conclusions