My Story of Depression: A Content Analysis of Autobiographic Videos on Douyin

ABSTRACT

Autobiographical accounts on social media could play an essential role in shaping the public’s understanding of illnesses and dispelling illness-related stigma. This study examined how people living with depression describe their illness experiences on Douyin, China’s leading video-sharing platform, through content analysis. It finds that most videos were created by young women who have lived with the illness for over three years. The top three topics were patient psychology, experience sharing, and knowledge and medical advice. These videos provided an overall non-stigmatizing portrayal of depression, with more than 80% of the influencers using challenge cues. However, stigma cues contributed to the virality of the videos. The theoretical and practical implications of the study were discussed.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. However, the Chinese government recently started to regulate teenagers’ use of Douyin. As a result, Douyin upgraded its anti-addiction system (such as limiting children under 14 years old to 40 minutes usage of use per day) and started to send excessive usage reminders to hundreds of millions of users (Bytedance, 2021).

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.