Prove me wrong, what are some examples you have seen of technology being useful to help in the mental health space?
But... my probably controversial opinion is that on the whole tech is absolutely destructive and net negative for mental health. Tech has incrementally destroyed social systems, degraded human connection, perverted people's perceptions of self and reality, and enabled the expansion of many addictive or destructive behaviors (porn, gambling, etc).
I made about 4,000 entries over 4 years, it helped me so much and helped others as well in being more emotionally aware and honestc and resolve many conflicts in our lives.
You can see the demo at https://www.iFeelio.com, it still works, tho the app is obsolete now.
Unfortunately, this has gotten more difficult as social interaction on the internet consolidates into either major social media sites or private Discord servers. If the community for something is on Twitter, everyone is thrown together into the same unmoderated space when they would really be served better by niches that can be moderated to exclude people who get unhinged about disagreements, and allow people to opt in and out of different types of content (i.e. the people who want to see deep dive lore analysis may not be interested in adult-oriented fanart and vice versa.) Discord servers can work for this, but unlike forum history, they're not Googleable and you might not even know a specific Discord exists.
That version of Facebook added to my social life and happiness so much! Unfortunately it didn't make enough money or something, and got turned into political ragebait and ads.
"AI Companions Reduce Loneliness" (Harvard Business School, 2024)
Definitely don’t trust any of those apps with your very personal data.
Tech is probably net negative for mental health. Best thing to do for mental health is walk and talk and healthy lifestyle.
Get off social media is probably a major boost people can take
It definitely works, we have the data because users submit it. But there's not much else to it. The goal of mental health apps should be to get people to not need them, similar to how dating apps are meant to not be used.
We haven't really found a business model for it yet. Pay what you like worked very well. Pay $25 for unlimited use was okay, but the cash barrier discouraged people from using it which went against the goal.
So it's not financially scalable yet, and because of that it's not VC backable and we can't focus on it full time. It's been up since 2018, and now costs $7/month in heroku fees, but hey, some people paid that $25 a few years back, so I'll have to keep it up for as long as possible.
The problem with VC backed is that it has to become unicorn and ends up using CBD or whatever BS VCs are into even where it's not necessary.
The best advice I have for people is to minimize computer use and get a dumb phone.