(Dis)assembling mental health through apps: The sociomaterialities of young adults’ experiences

Abstract

Typically free, accessible on-demand and easy to use, smartphone-based applications (apps) targeting mental health have expanded in recent years. This article discusses a qualitative research study with 14 young adults aged 18 to 25 years old who use apps to understand, track, and monitor their mental health. I present four vignettes drawn from a screenshot elicitation and a qualitative interview that sought to explore what is significant, socially and materially, for young adults in their usage of apps for their mental health. In this article, I examine how apps transform, interrupt, and mediate young adults’ understandings and experiences of mental (ill) health. The analysis draws on sociomaterialism to demonstrate how, at a time when digital mental health is expanding, mental (ill) health is assembled and disassembled with and through apps, and users’ experiences are enmeshed in affective intensities and entangled with technology.