INSTAGRAM CLOSE FRIEND STORIES FOR MENTAL HEALTH SUPPORT AMONG LGBTQ+ YOUNG PEOPLE

Resumen

When surveyed and interviewed about digital peer support for mental health, LGBTQ+ young people in Australia, aged 16-25 years, most commonly named Instagram as the most supportive social media platform. Most of the 36 interview participants described how Instagram affords mental health support in varied ways, from regular engagement with supportive friends, to following and engaging with accounts that promote LGBTQ+ mental health. The feature of Close Friend Stories was particularly highlighted as affording easy access to friendship support when needed, and allowed a signaling of support without having to ask for it. Many discussed how Close Friend Stories afforded ‘mental health posting’ – for themselves and/or friends – that allayed concerns about burdening friends with mental health struggles, and offered assurance that only friends with the capacity to offer support could do so. This paper argues that the Close Friends feature operates through friendship’s ‘ambient co-presence’ on Instagram, among young LGBTQ+ users, offering space for vulnerable posting. This paper engages with theories of digital co-presence and intimacy, to consider the intimate logic of vulnerable posting and subsequent support among LGBTQ+ young people who use Instagram.