Author,
Cody Harper
Online communities, such as those on Reddit, Discord, Facebook, online forums, gaming platforms, and group chats, are groups of people who regularly connect through digital spaces around shared interests. They can become meaningful sources of information, but also connection, identity, and belonging.
As online communities have become a larger part of everyday life, many of the “third places” where people once gathered and socialized in person are being used less often. This can leave people more vulnerable to social isolation and insularity, particularly in spaces where the same beliefs are repeatedly reinforced without being questioned. With this in mind, it’s worth asking whether the communities we participate in, and the content we consume, are gradually leaving us feeling more angry, isolated, distrustful, or hopeless.
This resource list is for anyone beginning to wonder whether an online community, worldview, or stream of content is making their life worse. It brings together Canadian organizations, mental-health resources, research, and practical tools for understanding harmful online influence, questioning what you consume, and finding support if you want to step away.
Understanding Harmful Online Influence
If you’ve noticed changes in how you think about other people, how much you trust people outside an online community, or how angry or hopeless you feel after spending time online, these resources can help explain some of what may be happening.
Centre for the Prevention of Radicalization Leading to Violence
(CPRLV, Canada)
The CPRLV provides research, guides, and educational resources about radicalization and the ways people can become increasingly committed to rigid or harmful worldviews. Its work looks across different ideologies and emphasizes prevention without stigmatizing the people affected by them.
Its resources can be helpful for understanding how personal experiences, relationships, social environments, and exposure to certain ideas can contribute to radicalization.
(University of Waterloo)
SIGNAL researches online radicalization and other harms that can develop or spread through digital spaces.
Their work can be useful for understanding the larger online environments in which harmful beliefs and communities develop, including the role technology can play in reinforcing them.
Canada Centre for Community Engagement and Prevention of Violence
(Public Safety Canada)
The Canada Centre leads federal efforts to prevent radicalization to violence and supports community programs, research, and prevention efforts across Canada.
Taking a Closer Look at What You Are Consuming
Questioning an online community doesn’t mean you have to immediately reject everything you have learned from it. A good place to start is becoming more deliberate about where your information comes from, why certain content keeps appearing in front of you, and whether the claims you encounter hold up outside the spaces where you first heard them.
MediaSmarts: Digital Media Literacy
(MediaSmarts, Canada)
MediaSmarts provides practical resources for evaluating information online, recognizing misinformation, understanding digital media, and developing stronger critical-thinking skills. Their resources and workshops are available to the general public as well as schools, families, and other groups.
This is a good starting point if you want to become more critical of what appears in your feed and better understand how online information can influence what you believe.
(Mental Health Commission of Canada)
This resource looks at how our relationship with technology can affect mental health and offers practical ways to become more deliberate about when and how we use it.
It may be particularly useful if you’ve noticed that certain websites, videos, forums, or social-media feeds consistently leave you feeling drained, resentful, or discouraged.
One question worth asking yourself is:
Since becoming involved in this community or consuming this content, am I becoming more connected to other people and better able to manage my life, or am I becoming more isolated, angry, distrustful, or hopeless?
Stepping Away From a Harmful Community or Worldview
Leaving an online community can be much more complicated than simply deciding that some of its ideas are wrong.
A community might have become an important source of friendship, identity, routine, or belonging. It may also have given you explanations for difficult experiences in your life. Questioning those beliefs can therefore mean reconsidering part of how you understand yourself and potentially changing important relationships at the same time.
Research into how people disengage from highly ideological communities is still developing, but there is useful work examining what can make lasting change possible.
What Does Sustained Desistance from Violent Extremism Entail?
(Adrian Cherney and Daniel Koehler, 2024)
This research examines what helps people maintain their decision to leave an unhealthy community over time. The authors discuss the importance of identity change, new opportunities, new relationships, and outside influences that support a person’s movement away from extremism.
Although the study focuses specifically on violent extremism, it can also help explain why leaving a deeply important ideological community may involve rebuilding parts of someone’s life outside of it.
Public Mental Health Approaches to Online Radicalisation
(Rabya Mughal and colleagues, 2023)
This systematic review examined the research on public mental-health approaches to online radicalization. One of its most important findings was how little strong intervention research currently exists in this area.
This is useful to keep in mind when discussing “deprogramming” or claims that there is a simple formula for changing deeply held beliefs. Research into how best to support people leaving harmful online worldviews is still developing.
Finding Support
You don’t have to wait until your situation feels extreme before asking someone for help.
If an online community or worldview is affecting your relationships, increasing your anger or distrust, making you feel hopeless, or pulling you away from people in your life, talking with someone outside that environment can give you room to sort through what is happening.
(Organization for the Prevention of Violence, Edmonton)
Evolve is a confidential, voluntary, and free program for people who want to move away from extremist or hate-motivated groups. It provides counselling, mentorship, and other individualized social supports, and can also support family members affected by someone’s involvement.
Therapy
Therapy can provide a private place to examine how an online community or worldview has affected your relationships, identity, anger, loneliness, or sense of hope for the future.
You don’t need to arrive already knowing which of your beliefs you want to keep or change. Therapy can be a place to look more closely at where those beliefs came from, how they are affecting your life now, and whether they are helping you build the life and relationships that you actually want.
A Final Thought
People can become deeply involved in online communities while looking for very understandable things: connection, answers, support, identity, or a way to make sense of experiences that have been painful or confusing.
If the community you found while looking for those things is now leaving you more isolated, angry, distrustful, or hopeless, it may be worth taking a closer look at what it is doing to you.
Questioning a community or worldview does not require having all the answers about what should replace it. Finding people you trust, spending time outside that online environment, checking the information you are consuming, or speaking with a therapist can all give you more room to figure out what you actually believe and what you want your life to look like.
Learn More About Unhealthy Online Communities and How We Can Help
If any of this feels familiar, our Calgary-based therapists offer a warm, judgment-free space to talk it through. Book a free consultation with Assured Psychology.
References
- Cherney, A., & Koehler, D. (2024). What does sustained desistance from violent extremism entail: A proposed theory of change and policy implications. Terrorism and Political Violence, 36(7), 871–886. doi: 10.1080/09546553.2023.2215348
- Mughal, R., DeMarinis, V., Nordendahl, M., Lone, H., Phillips, V., & Boyd-MacMillan, E. (2023). Public mental health approaches to online radicalisation: An empty systematic review. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 20(16), 6586. doi: 10.3390/ijerph20166586
Cody Harper is a Master of Social Work, a Registered Social Worker, and Therapist in Calgary, Alberta, practicing with Assured Psychology. He is trained in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Compassionate Inquiry, Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT), Existential Therapy, and works with individuals on life satisfaction, mindfulness and meditation, anxiety/depression, men’s issues, grief, addiction, and trauma. Learn more about Cody Harper at assuredpsychology.com