Letter:

East Vision Staff,

I am writing to address a particular article posted in the latest edition of the paper: “A guide to ‘spam’ accounts: the DOs and DON’Ts.’” I am particularly focusing on the part of the article describing so called “criers,” or those who express themselves emotionally through a spam account on Instagram. First I’d like to make it known that I hold no animosity toward the writer of the article, nor do I hold any toward those that commented, as the connection between emotional posting and psychology isn’t very well known. Despite this, the connection is extremely relevant, and the way the article spoke so negatively about “criers” was disheartening to me.

You might have actually experienced this connection before without even knowing it. There are two coping methods in psychology that are relevant to this: Sublimation and Compartmentalisation. Sublimation occurs when one takes built up, negative emotions and, rather than doing something destructive, instead channels those emotions into something that doesn’t hurt anyone, such as posting on Instagram. The other coping mechanism, compartmentalisation, occurs when a person takes the jumbled emotions in their brain and sorts them. Writing posts for social media can actually help a lot with that, as putting confusing things into writing has been shown to help with understanding. There are also other coping mechanisms this can tie into, such as emotionality and symbolisation, but I won’t go into those now.

Other than being a coping mechanism, having a social media account where one constantly posts how they’re feeling is actually very helpful to those with mental illnesses and their therapists. They can use an account such as that to track day by day the patient’s progression and regression in the context of their mental illness. A “crier”’s spam account can go as far as to help a bipolar patient know when they require certain medications. For people with depression, a psychologist can figure out which times of the day, week, month, or year a patient struggles the most and why. Accounts like these can also be a cry for help from those who aren’t yet diagnosed or treated. They can be extremely important in the lives of many people.

Overall, the general negativity shown in the article toward these “criers” is demonising a coping mechanism, which is the last thing a mentally ill person needs. Again, this is not meant to incite confrontation, but simply to inform.

Thank you,

Mica Walter Rooks ‘19

Response:

Mica,

I’d like to thank you for the feedback on the article and your comments are appreciated. My article is simply my opinion and was not intended to be offensive. I agree with some of your points that spams can be an emotional outlet for people to express themselves.

However, the term “criers” is not used to target individuals with mental health issues. My article  was not patronizing spam users with mental health issues, I just did a general consensus of spam culture.

I just simply broke the spams into categories on how I viewed them on the surface of their profiles. I understand the seriousness of mental health issues and would never make light of that situation.

— Erin Rogers ’19, Staff Writer

Read the article this letter is addressing here.