If you ask most people these days, they will tell you that all of social media is depressing. Of course, no one thinks of themselves as contributing to the negativity of the experience, it’s always someone else who is the problem. Now, a new computer program can check a user’s Instagram account to see if said user is suffering from depression. New research backs that up, with scholars at Harvard University and the University of Vermont able to teach a computer to spot depressed people with surprising accuracy — just by scanning their Instagram photos. For the study, researchers first

analyzed thousands of pictures from 166 Instagram users, 71 of whom had a history of depression. They found the depressed individuals posted photos that were bluer, darker and grayer than images posted by others. Depressed people also favored Inkwell, an Instagram filter that turns photos black and white. Their photos were sadder and they tended to post pictures that had fewer faces in them per photo — perhaps because they were around fewer people or preferred to take selfies, the study authors theorize. READ MORE


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