PROJECT SUMMARY
Now that this subject and semester are coming to an end it’s time to reflect on and discuss the project that I have done. This semester I decided to continue the project that I started during my very first year of uni which was my TikTok page discussing mental health. Now looking back at my TikTok page it has definitely changed over the 2 years that I have had it. This semester I did more research into the specific media niche of mental health TikTok, more specifically some creators that focus on mental health and are advocates and videos that are popular within the niche.
Taking part in research into my niche has allowed me to understand it from more of an autoethnographic point of view and my audience better. My Tiktok page is to show my life as a 21-year-old living with mental health issues, the whole point of my page was to destigmatise mental health and show especially young women that yes it is hard but we can get through it. TikTok especially is such a growing app with over one billion users on the app monthly it gives creators the opportunity to build a community within their own niches. The wave clinic has described mental health TikTok to great lengths which has helped me understand more about the niche and the advantages and disadvantages of this niche.
LINK TO TIKTOK PAGE
https://www.tiktok.com/@mia.watton?_t=8WsXsJvqYza&_r=1
PERSONA
Looking back on the start of the semester when trying to decide what my public persona would be, I wasn’t quite sure what I wanted it to be. When looking at some inspirational accounts on TikTok and Instagram all of these creators were very open, honest and vulnerable about their everyday lives and their battles with various mental health issues. Some of the creators that I decided to take inspiration from: @mary_skinner, @darcyomalley and @alidaballestro, these creators are not fully into the mental health niche but they mostly do days in the life and are very honest about mental health issues. TikTok is the most popular app to use within this niche. I have found with looking at bigger influencers they are more fake and create a perfect life that doesn’t truly exist. Compared to Tiktok, Instagram is more about photos and stories but now is leaning into the video options in the apps with the recently new reel feature available to use, most TikTok creators are utilizing the new reel feature on Instagram.
Now more people are interested in more open and honest individuals showing their true lives and true selves. In the videos that have been posted, I have received comments that have thanked me for sharing something so personal to me and showing the true colours of living a life with mental illness. I wanted my persona to be true and comforting, feeling like I was your friend and we were just facetiming. Moore, Barbour and Lee (2017) explain that online activities and contributing to online behaviour would reshape how we understand and form personal identities, you can say a ‘networked self. As an audience member for mental health TikTok and mental health on other platforms, I have seen multiple types of personas when it comes to mental health, as mental health is a very personal and vulnerable topic, the content that I wanted to create was to be positive and honest.
SUPPORTING RESEARCH
Within this semester I have used autoethnographic research to help me understand and look deeper into the mental health TikTok niche. I have not only used secondary research sources but also looked at the platforms themselves. For this project I have decided to look more into the social media platforms Instagram and TikTok, my DA page is currently on TikTok but I decided to research Instagram as well as TikTok and Instagram have underlying similarities. Through researching throughout the semester I have found that the majority of users are not usually all just about mental health, a lot of mental health creators usually slip into other niches as well, mostly the lifestyle and day-in-the-life creators. The creators that I mentioned above fall into that category as they discuss their mental health but also fall into other niche categories like beauty and lifestyle.
An article in the Washington post discusses how mental health creators are creating their own ethics and using a real-life example of a young teenager Issey Moloney, she was on a waiting list for therapy for years but decided to turn to social media to help her feel less alone. Now Issey is 17 and now she has 5.9 million TikTok followers, with 85 per cent of them being young women between 14-18. Her account focuses on mental health, friends and relationships. She has no official training like most people that discuss mental health including me but everybody is different when it comes to mental health and experiences. Especially since the pandemic social media creators of mental health videos are somewhat filling the health care gap as it makes users feel less alone and it can be a safe community through the apps, this example has shown the evident need for creators like this on social media. Even though it is positive outcomes for these creators and this niche there can be downsides as well as the information being spread can not be accurate or correct or it could trigger some individuals especially if it is sensitive information.
ANALYSIS OF AUDIENCE EXPERIENCE
Being an audience member of this niche even before this project gave me a perfect insight into the audience and their characteristics of them. So I understood what I personally enjoyed watching and the trends that became viral for that specific week. When making my DA and coming up with ideas for my project I wanted to make my videos the type of videos that I enjoyed watching. When posting my content on my page I was surprised with the number of positive comments and feedback received on TikTok which is attached in images in this report. In my previous blog ‘The autoethnographic analysis of mental health tiktok’, I described my audience experiences in more in-depth and epiphanies that I have experienced throughout this semester, discussing my follower behaviour and the comments I received on my posts. I was very surprised to see how people were so friendly and understanding with my own personal experiences and how they started to talk about their own experiences, as I questioned them about how they deal with certain things and to let me know in the comments which they did, this shows that my audience is connecting with me on a personal level which is what I wanted as I wanted it to feel like a facetime with your friends. Even though I didn’t post as regularly as I would have liked I still got a look into the media niche.
PICTURES OF COMMENTS
CONCLUSION
Completing this project has allowed me to understand more about the mental health of TikTok nice by immersing myself in it. It has shown me both the negatives and the positives of this niche as it is something very personal to the individual. TikTok has given many people out there the opportunity to create a platform and be advocates for something like mental health, it has given everyday people the chance to express their feelings and their experiences throughout their life. It has also given mental health professionals the opportunity to help people that may be going through the struggles of mental health as well due to the big healthcare gap in mental health resources. Researching both TikTok and Instagram has allowed me to get a good grasp on the niche and the audience. I hope that my goals for this project came across positively and potentially helped some individuals.
REFERENCES:
Hunter, T 2022, ‘Online creators are de facto therapists for millions. It’s complicated.’, The Washington Post, Avaliable at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/08/29/mental-health-tiktok-instagram/.
Mileva, G 2022, ‘Instagram Reels vs. TikTok: Which Is the Better Platform for Brand Marketing?’, Influencer marketing hub, Available at: https://influencermarketinghub.com/reels-vs-tiktok/#:~:text=Similar%20to%20TikTok%2C%20Instagram%20Reels,to%20repurpose%20in%20their%20reels.
Moore, C, Barbour, K & Lee, K, 2017, ‘FIVE DIMENSIONS OF ONLINE PERSONA’, Persona Studies, Vol. 3, No. 1, pp.1-11.
Premuzic, T.C 2015, ‘How different are your online and offline personalities?’, The Guardian, Avaliable at: https://www.theguardian.com/media-network/2015/sep/24/online-offline-personality-digital-identity
Yassin, F 2022, TikTok and Mental Health, The Wave Clinic. Available at: https://thewaveclinic.com/blog/tiktok-and-mental-health/.
Mia’s life 