Gandhi Reesha, Cook Christine L, LaMastra Nina, Uttarapong Jirassaya, Wohn Donghee Yvette
Social Interaction Lab, Department of Informatics, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, NJ, United States.
Front Psychol. 2021 Mar 16;12:575653. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.575653. eCollection 2021.
Live streaming is a unique form of media that creates a direct line of interaction between streamers and viewers. While previous research has explored the social motivations of those who stream and watch streams in the gaming community, there is a lack of research that investigates intimate self-disclosure in this context, such as discussing sensitive topics like mental health on platforms such as Twitch.tv. This study aims to explore discussions about mental health in gaming live streams to better understand how people perceive discussions of mental health in this new media context. The context of live streaming is particularly interesting as it facilitates social interactions that are masspersonal in nature: the streamer broadcasts to a larger, mostly unknown audience, but can also interact in a personal way with viewers. In this study, we interviewed Twitch viewers about the streamers they view, how and to what extent they discuss mental health on their channels in relation to gaming, how other viewers reacted to these discussions, and what they think about live streams, gaming-focused or otherwise, as a medium for mental health discussions. Through these interviews, our team was able to establish a baseline of user perception of mental health in gaming communities on Twitch that extends our understanding of how social media and live streaming can be used for mental health conversations. Our first research question unraveled that mental health discussions happen in a variety of ways on Twitch, including during gaming streams, Just Chatting talks, and through the stream chat. Our second research question showed that streamers handle mental health conversations on their channels in a variety of ways. These depend on how they have built their channel, which subsequently impacts how viewers perceive mental health. Lastly, we learned that viewers' reactions to mental health discussions depend on their motivations for watching the stream such as learning about the game, being entertained, and more. We found that more discussions about mental health on Twitch led to some viewers being more cautious when talking about mental health to show understanding.
直播是一种独特的媒体形式，它在主播和观众之间建立了直接的互动渠道。虽然之前的研究探讨了游戏社区中直播者和观看直播者的社会动机，但缺乏在这种背景下对亲密自我披露的研究，比如在Twitch.tv等平台上讨论心理健康等敏感话题。本研究旨在探索游戏直播中关于心理健康的讨论，以更好地理解人们在这种新媒体背景下如何看待心理健康讨论。直播的背景特别有趣，因为它促进了本质上是大规模个人化的社交互动：主播向大量大多不认识的观众进行广播，但也能以个人方式与观众互动。在本研究中，我们采访了Twitch的观众，了解他们观看的主播、他们在主播频道上如何以及在多大程度上讨论与游戏相关的心理健康、其他观众对这些讨论的反应，以及他们如何看待以游戏为重点或其他类型的直播作为心理健康讨论的媒介。通过这些访谈，我们的团队能够建立起Twitch游戏社区用户对心理健康认知的基线，这扩展了我们对社交媒体和直播如何用于心理健康对话的理解。我们的第一个研究问题揭示，在Twitch上，心理健康讨论以多种方式发生，包括在游戏直播期间、“闲聊”环节以及通过直播聊天。我们的第二个研究问题表明，主播在他们的频道上以多种方式处理心理健康对话。这些方式取决于他们如何构建自己的频道，这随后会影响观众对心理健康的认知。最后，我们了解到观众对心理健康讨论的反应取决于他们观看直播的动机，比如了解游戏、娱乐等等。我们发现，Twitch上更多关于心理健康的讨论导致一些观众在谈论心理健康时更加谨慎，以表示理解。
