Abstract
Mental health problems among the global population are worsened during the
coronavirus disease (COVID-19). How individuals engage with online platforms
such as Google Search and YouTube undergoes drastic shifts due to pandemic and
subsequent lockdowns. Such ubiquitous daily behaviors on online platforms have
the potential to capture and correlate with clinically alarming deteriorations
in mental health profiles in a non-invasive manner. The goal of this study is
to examine, among college students, the relationship between deteriorating
mental health conditions and changes in user behaviors when engaging with
Google Search and YouTube during COVID-19. This study recruited a cohort of 49
students from a U.S. college campus during January 2020 (prior to the pandemic)
and measured the anxiety and depression levels of each participant. This study
followed up with the same cohort during May 2020 (during the pandemic), and the
anxiety and depression levels were assessed again. The longitudinal Google
Search and YouTube history data were anonymized and collected. From
individual-level Google Search and YouTube histories, we developed 5 signals
that can quantify shifts in online behaviors during the pandemic. We then
assessed the differences between groups with and without deteriorating mental
health profiles in terms of these features. Significant features included
late-night online activities, continuous usages, and time away from the
internet, porn consumptions, and keywords associated with negative emotions,
social activities, and personal affairs. Though further studies are required,
our results demonstrated the feasibility of utilizing pervasive online data to
establish non-invasive surveillance systems for mental health conditions that
bypasses many disadvantages of existing screening methods.