2Deep2Tweet

Earlier this week I was listening to Oprah Winfrey's Soul Sunday as she interviewed author and poet Mark Nepo and she used the phrase 'too deep to tweet' and it really resonated with me as a phrase which sums up some of the challenges of today digital age and mental health.

We live in an age where more and more of the population are digital naturals, viewing the internet and digital breakthrough as part of normal life, much in the way we view electricity - few of us think about how and why it is there, and although we may admire a particular light fitting design, for the most part our relationship with it is now unconscious and it is a part of our 'natural' life.

In 2017 Twitter doubled the maximum length of a tweet from 140 characters to 280. The rationale at the time was that people hit the 140 limit and abandoned the tweet they were writing, hence giving them more space should encourage them to finish the point and post it. However in 2018 the CEO of Twitter, Jack Dorsey, has said that the expansion of the character limit hasn't changed the average length of a tweet, and most remain around 50 characters.

Twitter is a significant social media platform, falling just outside the top ten global platforms, with 335 million users around the globe (this compares with 2,234 million users of Facebook). Katie Perry and Justin Bieber still top the Twitter follower rankings, with a 106 and 104 million follows respectively. Interestingly Barack Obama's account now pips Rhianna, Taylor Swift and Lady Gaga to claim third place with 103 million followers - putting my personal following of 3,400 into perspective when it comes to being an influencer!

Every second, on average, around 6,000 tweets are tweeted on Twitter which corresponds to over 350,000 tweets sent per minute, 500 million tweets per day and around 200 billion tweets per year. 

It is interesting to reflect that over the last five years there has been a sustained increase in the proportion of twitter users who use the platform to get their news and information - perhaps driven by a US president who is very fond on the platform. In 2017 almost 74% of twitter users are getting news from the platform, this contrasts with only 45% Facebook users using that platform as a news source. Twitter is a fundamental part of many people's daily lives and interactions.

Tweeting has become an integrated part of many people's lives and an important source of information exchange and information flow. But are there some things that are too deep to tweet?

Yesterday I was chairing the morning part of St.John Ambulance's conference on mental health best practice the workplace. It was a fantastic morning of sharing and insight and I was pleased to be a part of it.

One of the key take homes for me was the need for more safe spaces for active listening and empathy. Several of the presenters talked about the need for safe spaces to share and have open and supportive conversations about mental health issues across the spectrum of mental wellness and illness.

For several years there has been an increasing understanding of the opportunity to identify suicidal risk on twitter, including peer reviewed research. There is innovation underway to be able to scan people's posts and identify potentially 'at risk individuals' and although there are some promising signs of the potential of AI bots to respond to identified need, there is a risk that people can be identified but their needs will not be able to be met by a straining NHS mental health illness service.

Twitter itself has recognised that the platform can be used by individuals reaching out for help or simply sharing their experience and published guidelines including signposting in the UK to the Samaritans.

Sometimes tweeting can feel like it is casting an intention into the universe, sometimes it can feel like putting up a billboard sign. Individuals have very different relationships with their use of social media and the emotional context of it's use. There are some suggestions from content analysis of twitter that for some it has replaced the personal diary, and like diaries perhaps the reality of digital archiving means what is written down remains forever.

Each of us will engage with platforms like Twitter in a different way, and for some there are aspects of our lives, and views, that are 2deep2tweet, but for others it is a perfectly normal and natural space to share inner thoughts, fears and concerns as well as personal celebrations and successes.

Organisations seeking to support individuals will undoubtedly have to shift more into this space and start to think about how to use platforms like Twitter for two directional conversations rather than one way information dissemination, and this carries a new level of risk assessment as well as a need for staff training and development.

However at an individual level it is also an important reminder to reflect on how we, and those in our peer and professional circle use the platform, and to not ignore the emotional context of people's tweets.

We know from so much of the mental health work that asking someone if they are is okay can be a pivotal question to enabling a person who is struggling to reach out for help. Using the private message function on twitter (I'd suggest this rather than public tweet!) is a simple and easy step to just touch base with someone who's content is sparking concern. Even better text them, pick up the phone or pop in to see them.

So I guess on reflection whether something is '2deep2tweet' is a very personal decision. But many of us do share our mood and personal challenges on twitter, and it's up to all of us to be conscious of these interactions and aware that we can and should respond when we see someone post something that concerns us.