Bipolar in a Digital World: How Social and Agentic Prognosis Shape Imagined Futures

• In Event: Open Refereed Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (90 minute): Table 10: Digital Life, Media, and Algorithms

Abstract

Introduction: A diagnosis of bipolar disorder disrupts individuals’ sense of self, requiring them to rethink their identities and reforge their imagined future. Increasingly, these processes occur online in social media platforms. I demonstrate how online ecosystems on Reddt function as meaning-making environments through which self-identified bipolar Redditors conceptualize imagined futures, with particular attention to the interplay between social and agentic prognosis. Methods: The research is based on a qualitative content analysis of 17 Reddit threads from bipolar-focused communities. Atlas.ti is used to assign codes to each post, resulting in a total of 85 codes and 2,571 quotations. A Reddit scraping technique, Python Reddit API Wrapper, is employed to transfer Reddit comments into Atlas.ti for coding and analysis. The analysis is guided by abductive analysis. Results: This study conceptualizes social prognosis through stigma, identity negotiation, and gendered norms that delimit bipolar Redditors’ imagined realities, while foregrounding the agentic capacities that enable them to resist constraint and actively reconstruct their future realities. The findings of this study highlight the pivotal role of digital environments in influencing how individuals with bipolar disorder understand their condition and rebuild their sense of self within a socially connected world. Conclusion: Social and agentic prognosis offer a novel lens through which to examine how people with bipolar disorder construct identities that balance agency with perceived constraints. This discourse advances a more complex account of mental health that reconceptualizes agentic prognosis as co-constitutive in the formation of imagined futures. Thus, it contributes to a deeper understanding of the politics of unequal imagined realities produced within digital spaces. Limitations: Reddit’s semi-anonymity poses challenges for data collection as it limits access to demographic information. The non-disclosure of identification markers creates interpretive gray areas in the analysis and broader implications of application outside digital contexts.

Author

• Kodiak Ly, University of New Mexico-Albuquerque