The view of #schizophrenia on Twitter (a splitting of the mind in 280 characters)

Yıl 2021, Cilt: 4 Sayı: 1, 91 - 95, 21.01.2021

Şükrü Alperen Korkmaz , Yasin Duman Semra Ulusoy Kaymak Mustafa Uğurlu , Serdar Can , Murat İlhan Atagün , Görkem Uğurlu , Ali Çayköylü

https://doi.org/10.32322/jhsm.816310

Cited By: 1

Öz

Aim: The sharing about an important public health problem, schizophrenia is increasing on Twitter, whiches user number multiplies day by day. Stigmatization can be usually met in the disorder of complex etiology. In this study, we aimed to investigate perspectives and attitudes of community toward schizophrenia, schizopherene, schizophrenic, and paranoiac on social media -Twitter- in Turkey.

Material and Method: During about a month, totally 1200 Tweets that contain one of these -“schizophrenia, schizopherene, schizophrenic, paranoiac”- are analyzed and evaluated according to these words’ usage in a pilot sample. After establishing inter-rater reliability, they are evaluated in 5 main dimensions; a) mocking/humorous b) negative c) inappropriate d) anti-psychiatric e) medically appropriate. In addition, those who shared their age and gender were also recorded.

Results: It was seen that these four words were usually used “mocking/ humorous” (39.2% and “negative” (26%). The usage of the words in non-medical was predominant. Most medically appropriate usage belonged to “schizophrenia” (26.7%). The most “negative” and “mocking/ humorous” usage belonged to “schizophrenic” (33.2% and 45.8%, respectively). In terms of gender, the four words were used mocking/ humorous mostly in both gender (39.5% and 38.8%). Medically appropriate use of women was greater (14.8% vs 7.5%).

Conclusion: Our findings show that the presence of a great deal of misuse of schizophrenia and related words on Twitter. This misuse is quite a few pronounced by the adjective use of the disorder. At the time of the easiness of reaching information and social media usage the lack of knowledge, stigma and attitude problems toward schizophrenia is at an important level.

Anahtar Kelimeler

schizophrenia, social media, Twitter, stigma, stigmatization, paranoia

Teşekkür

Thanks to Büsra Yürümez Korkmaz, MD for her assistance in proofreading this manuscript.

Kaynakça

• Sontag S. Ilness as Metaphor and AIDS and its Metaphors. UK, Blackstone Publishing; 2008.
• Hamilton DL, Sherman JW. Stereotypes. In: Wyer RS Jr, Srull TK, editors. Handbook of social cognition, 2nd ed. Hillsdale, Lawrence Erlbaum; 1994.
• Devine PG. Stereotypes and prejudice: their automatic and controlled components. J Pers Soc Psychol 1989; 56: 5–18.
• Eagly AH, Chaiken S. The social psychology of attitudes. Fort Worth, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich; 1993, p: 794.
• Crocker J, Major B, Steele C. Social stigma. In: Gilbert D, editor; Fiske ST, editor; Lindzey G, editor. The handbook of social psychology, 4th ed. Vol. 2. New York, McGraw- Hill; 1998.
• Ford TE, Ferguson MA. Social consequences of disparagement humor: a prejudiced norm theory. Personal Soc Psychol Rev 2004; 8: 79–94.
• Rüsch N, Angermeyer MC, Corrigan PW. Mental illness stigma: concepts, consequences, and initiatives to reduce stigma. Eur Psychiatry 2005; 20: 529–39.
• Jorm AF, Oh E. Desire for social distance from people with mental disorders. Aust NZ J Psychiatry 2009; 43:183–200.
• Taylor SM, Dear MJ. Scaling community attitudes toward the mentally ill. Schizophr Bull 1980; 7: 225–40.
• Brockington I. Hall P. Levings J, Murphy C. The community's tolerance of the mentally ill. Br J Psychiatry 1993; 162: 93–9.
• Arkar H. Akıl hastasının sosyal reddedilimi. Düşünen Adam Derg 1991; 4: 6-9.
• Corrigan PW, Watson AC, Gracia G, Slopen N, Rasinski K, Hall LL. Newspaper stories as measures of structural stigma. Psychiatr Serv 2005; 56: 551-6.
• Crisp AH, Gelder MG, Rix S, Meltzer HI. Stigmatisation of people with mental illnesses. Br J Psychiatry 2000; 177: 4-7.
• Link, BG, Yang LH, Phelan JC, Collins PY. Measuring mental illness stigma. Schizophr Bull 2004; 30: 511–41.
• Joseph AJ, Tandon N, Yang LH, et al. #Schizophrenia: use and misuse on Twitter. Scizophr Res 2015; 165: 111-5.
• Reavley NJ, Pilkington PD. Use of Twitter to monitor attitudes toward depression and schizophrenia: an exploratory study. Peer J 2014; 2: e647
• Link BG, Phelan JC. Conceptualizing stigma. Annu Rev Sociol 2001; 27: 363–85.
• Reavley NJ, Jorm AF. Stigmatizing attitudes towards people with mental disorders: findings from an Austrialian National Survey of Mental Health Literacy and Stigma. Aust N Z J Psychiatry 2001; 48: 1086-93.
• Passerello GL, Hazelwood JE, Lawrie S. Using Twitter to assess attitudes to schizophrenia and psychosis. BJPsych Bull 2019; 43: 158-66. doi:10.1192/bjb.2018.115