Skip to main content
. 2019 Oct 31;21(10):e12514. doi: 10.2196/12514

Table 3.

Difficulties with sensitive and inappropriate content experienced by participants in both sample groups by subtheme.

Subtheme—number of participants from DAa (n=21) and comparison (n=7) groups Difficulty reported by the DA group participants Difficulty reported by the comparison group participants
Unexpected, irrelevant, and inappropriate content is upsetting (DA group: 17/21 and comparison group: 6/7)

  • Exposure to upsetting offensive content from social connections (eg, violence, trifle, overshare, exaggeration, and constant help seeking), news websites (eg, violence, headline marquee, articles, and political bias), and advertising (eg, prominently positioned, excessive amounts on page, disguised, misleading, obstructive, persistent, distracting, and intrusive)

  • Notifications highlighting insignificant information on social media platforms

  • Unexpected and inappropriate search results

  • Exposure to offensive content and personally critical comments from social connections, online dating counterparts (eg, sexual content and inappropriate contact), news websites (eg, untrustworthy articles, political bias, and violent acts), and advertising

  • Notifications from social media platforms
Reminders of upsetting experiences and negative affect triggers (DA group: 14/21 and comparison group: 0/7)

  • Inappropriate help-seeking behavior on social media by those with similar negative experiences

  • Social media features—highlighting content such as status updates, images, and posts from social connections from current date in the past—that trigger memories of upsetting experiences

  • Personally relevant content (eg, status updates, images, posts from friends, adverts, and news articles) that triggers negative affect

 —b
Social comparison cues on social media that result in increased negative affect (DA group: 7/21 and comparison group: 0/7)

  • Social media content (eg, images, information on healthy lifestyle practices, and past positive life experiences) highlighting perceived personal faults

  • Social media content (eg, images) highlighting opportunities that are no longer available to one’s self but to others who are similar

  • Instructive content, especially user-generated, that is related to sensitive topics (eg, child-rearing) and that is contrary to personal practices

 —
Abusive content limits Web usage by those who avoid it (DA group: 5/21 and comparison group: 0/7)

  • Avoidance of unfamiliar and news-related websites because of the fear of unintentionally accessing personally upsetting and inappropriate content

  • Avoidance of social media participation because of the fear of receiving abuse

 —

aDA: depression and anxiety.

bNot applicable.