2021/06/18 by Noble Saji Mathews, Mathews, Noble Saji, Sridhar Chimalakonda +1
Computer Science · Psychology · Social Sciences · #Computers and Society (cs.CY) #FOS: Computer and information sciences #Human-Computer Interaction (cs.HC) #Mental Health via Writing #Misinformation and Its Impacts #Sentiment Analysis and Opinion Mining #Social and Information Networks (cs.SI)
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2106.09937
openalex publication_date 2021/06/18 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
The annual consumption of web-based resources is increasing at a very fast rate, mainly due to an increase in affordability and accessibility of the internet. Many are relying on the web to get diverse perspectives, but at the same time, it can expose them to content that is harmful to their mental well-being. Catchy headlines and emotionally charged articles increase the number of readers which in turn increases ad revenue for websites. When a user consumes a large quantity of negative content, it adversely impacts the user's happiness and has a significant impact on his/her mood and state of mind. Many studies carried out during the COVID-19 pandemic has shown that people across the globe irrespective of their country of origin have experienced higher levels of anxiety and depression. Web filters can help in constructing a digital environment that is more suitable for people prone to depression, anxiety and stress. A significant amount of work has been done in the field of web filtering, but there has been limited focus on helping Highly Sensitive Persons (HSP's) or those with stress disorders induced by trauma. Through this paper, we propose detox Browser, a simple tool that enables end-users to tune out of or control their exposure to topics that can affect their mental well being. The extension makes use of sentiment analysis and keywords to filter out flagged content from google search results and warns users if any blacklisted topics are detected when navigating across websites