Social Media And Suicide

New generation is obsessed with social media. Social media addiction is very common among people. It is totally fine to communicated with loved once via social media but as there are pro’s here comes the con’s. It is studied that, social media influence suicidal behavior and thoughts among people who are extremely affected.

Specially, teenagers are victims of this kind of influences. Suicide related hospital admissions are doubled as it was nearly 0.67 % in 2008 and it was 1.79% in 2015. And half of the patients were late teens. It means the suicide among teenager’s increased when social media enter their world.It is unclear how much role social media play in teenager’s suicides but it is clear that it makes young adults anxious and panic about normal things.

There are teenagers speaking how they feel of scrolling through social sites. “After hours of scrolling through Instagram feeds, I just feel worse about myself because I feel left out,” said Caitlin Hearty, a 17-year-old in one survey. “No one posts the bad things they’re going through,” said Chloe Schilling, also 17, who helped with the same survey. These factors can harm mentally weak teenagers and they can be victimizing by cyberbully.

One study has stated some basic informative facts about social media and teenager’s suicidal behavior. Data highlighted in the study include:

1.Teens’ use of electronic devices including smartphones for at least five hours daily more than doubled, from 8 percent in 2009 to 19 percent in 2015. These teens were 70 percent more likely to have suicidal thoughts or actions than those who reported one hour of daily use.

2.In 2015, 36 percent of all teens reported feeling desperately sad or hopeless, or thinking about, planning or attempting suicide, up from 32 percent in 2009. For girls, the rates were higher — 45 percent in 2015 versus 40 percent in 2009.

3.In 2009, 58 percent of 12th-grade girls used social media every day or nearly every day; by 2015, 87 percent used social media every day or nearly every day. They were 14 percent more likely to be depressed than those who used social media less frequently.

These can be major reasons behind suicides.

There are few examples of suicide notes on social media. These examples are stated below.
1.Kevin WhitrickandAbraham K. Biggswebcastboth of their suicides. "I am going to leave this for whoever stumbles across my bookmarks later on."

2.Paul Zolezziindicated via aFacebookupdate his intent to commit suicide.
3.In 2010,John Patrick Bedellleft aWikipediauser page andYouTubevideos interpreted by some as a suicide note; the former was deleted by Wikipedia administrators.

4.Joe Stackalso posted a suicide note online.
5.Chris McKinstry, an AI researcher, committed suicide after posting a note to both his blog and theJoel on Softwareoff-topic forum explaining the reasons for his demise, which was discontinued shortly afterwards.

6.A girl who attended a Louisville High School posted a video suicide note and then killed herself back in 2014.

Our next generation is already aging by social media. There must be rules and regulations draw by parents or guardians.