Medical Express: Facebook updates could help to understand mental health disorders

Our Facebook status updates, “likes” and even photos could help researchers better understand mental health disorders with the right ethical safeguards, says a new study from the University of Cambridge. The data collected from social media could help improve researchers’ knowledge of mental health disorders such as depression or schizophrenia. “People are uneasy at the idea of having their social media monitored and their privacy infringed upon, so this is something that will need to be handled carefully,” says study co-author Dr David Stillwell, University Lecturer in Big Data Analytics & Quantitative Social Science at Cambridge Judge Business School.

Read the full article [scienmag.com]