User:Dingers99/Social media and suicide

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Social media and suicide is a phenomenon concerning social media's influence on suicide-related behavior. Suicide is one of the top leading causes of death worldwide. Suicide accounts for 21.5% of deaths among adolescents and it the second leading cause of death among this same age group. Suicide is a leading cause of death in the United States, accounting for 45,979 deaths in 2020. Suicide rates increased by thirty percent from 2000-2018 and declined in 2019 and 2020. Suicide has been identified not only as an individual phenomenon, but also as being influenced by social and environmental factors. Additionally, there is increasing evidence that the Internet and social media can influence suicide-related behavior. As the Internet has become more ingrained in people's everyday lives, the mental and emotional damages of an individual increases as individuals are seeing an edited version of how life is supposed to look. Social media has become a commonly used part of the Internet that has expanded exponentially throughout the years. There are a variety of sources that are accessible to the public in various forms. Sites include Facebook, Instagram, MySpace, Twitter, YouTube, Google+, Snapchat, TikTok, VSCO, and more. These platforms were intended to allow people to connect in a virtual way, but can lead to cyberbullying, insecurity, emotional distress, and ultimately suicide.

Bullying, whether on social media or elsewhere, physical or not, significantly increases victims' risk of suicidal behavior. Since social media was introduced some people have taken their lives as a result of cyberbullying, including people who have live-streamed their suicide through the various social platforms. Suicide rates among teenagers has seen a drastic increase from 2007 to 2017 as social media has become a prevalent way of life.

Another risk factor may be media accounts of suicide that romanticize or dramatize the description of suicidal deaths, possibly leading to an increased number of suicides. The media tends to popularize videos and social media posts to inform the country of the rising trouble, which may create a popular appeal to the young and immature minds of teenagers. Social media could provide higher risks with the promotion of different kinds of pro-suicidal sites, message boards, chat rooms, and forums. Also, the Internet not only reports suicide incidents but documents suicide methods (for example, suicide pacts, an agreement between two or more people to kill themselves at a particular time and often by the same lethal means). The role the Internet plays, particularly social media, in suicide-related behavior is a topic of growing interest.

Social media risks[edit]

There is substantial evidence that the Internet and social media can influence suicide-related behavior. Such evidence includes an increase of exposure to graphic content. There is also a correlation between cyberbullying and suicide. Over the past ten years, cyberbullying has increasingly led to self-harm and suicide.^{[citation needed]} An April 2020 study done by The National Center for Health Statistics (NPHC) revealed that suicide is the second leading cause of death of US citizens ages 10–34. Although this study does not directly state the cause of these suicides, it can be alluded that cyberbullying was a potential cause.^{[weasel words]} NPHC had previously done a study in 2018 that showed that adolescents under the age of 25 that were victims of cyberbullying became twice as likely to commit suicide or cause various forms of self harm.^{[citation needed]} The severity of bullying and cyberbullying also plays a role in reporting of suicidal thoughts and suicide attempts. Overall, teen suicide rates have increased within the past decade. This is a highly considerable public health problem, having over 40,000 suicide deaths in the United States and nearly one million suicide deaths worldwide occur yearly. People who die by suicide often communicate their intent on social media more than once.

References

1. "Top 10 causes of death among teens aged 15 to 19 years U.S. 2019". Statista. Retrieved 2022-10-08.
2. Sedgwick, Rosemary; Epstein, Sophie; Dutta, Rina; Ougrin, Dennis (2019-11). "Social media, internet use and suicide attempts in adolescents". Current Opinion in Psychiatry. 32 (6): 534–541. doi:10.1097/YCO.0000000000000547
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5. login.collegeofidaho.idm.oclc.org. doi:10.1080/26408066.2020.1788478 https://login.collegeofidaho.idm.oclc.org/login?qurl=https://www.tandfonline.com%2fdoi%2ffull%2f10.1080%2f26408066.2020.1788478. Retrieved 2022-10-09.