BuzzFeed is an online news and entertainment website with editions worldwide. The website publishes daily content including breaking news, current topical affairs as well as trending discussions and specific category and community stories. In 2013, the website gave users the ability to submit their own content. This happens to have been very popular for individuals to openly share content relatable to mental health.

By BuzzFeed [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

BuzzFeed is a prominent news site shared across many social media platforms, particularly Facebook. With the ability for users to submit to the community section of the site many personal insights can be shared about mental health. It also establishes a platform for important content to be shared virally. BuzzFeed also reports on some of the more challenging subjects of mental health that mainstream media might not be so quick to publish.

From a question I asked on Twitter it appears that Facebook, primarily where Buzzfeeed links are circulated, is a popular social media platform to use to open up about and discuss mental health.

A Screenshot form my twitter feed @BreakThe_Mould

Whilst mental health has been a prominent topic of 2015 the news is also continuously reporting on other events and important stories happening locally and globally. It can therefore, be easy for mental health stories to be pushed aside and quickly forgotten about. However, with the internet as a tremendous part of our daily lives, allowing individuals to self-publish material either via microblogging or submitting content through websites such as BuzzFeed; topics such as mental health can be kept prominent by the public with the help of these online aids.

BuzzFeed can help to keep subjects the public find important within the news sphere due to the ability to share content across their social media platforms. Our increased user-time on sites such as BuzzFeed, Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr only increase the positive exposure to important topics, particularly mental health.

Take a look at this Storify highlighting more of the benefits of BuzzFees and The Huffington Post.