Trying to save the game(r): Understanding the self-disclosure of YouTube subscribers surrounding mental health in video-game vlog comments

Abstract

This study analyzed the self-disclosure of YouTube subscribers surrounding mental health and their relationship with YouTube gamer co-hosts Dan Avidan and Arin Hanson of the channel Game Grumps. Via 10 subscriber interviews, this study sheds light on viewers’ motivations to subscribe to Game Grumps and to self-disclose mental-health struggles and what the implications for disclosing on YouTube are. Results revealed two overarching motivations and implications that embody mental-health disclosure on social media: (a) subscribers disclose a variety of mental-health experiences and provide the language to “own” them in a public space online and (b) disclosures make visible some subscribers’ coping processes and aim to mobilize others to create their own.