Deaths caused by Social Media use (Outline)

Deaths caused by Social Media use (Outline)

Introduction

Increased social media use has been linked to an increased risk of committing suicide. Technological advances have improved the internet. The internet is often used as social, educational, and entertainment reasons. Social media platforms have transformed the traditional methods of communication (Luxton, 2012). The world has been reduced into a global village, where information is shared rapidly across media platforms. Despite the positive use of social media, it had also been associated with negative effects like increased suicides. People easily communicate with each other anonymously, and this increases the risk of easily hurting or influencing someone to hurt themselves or kill themselves. The sites are used to promote negative messages, teach self-injurious behavior and mental illnesses (Memon et al., 2018). Social media use is responsible for increasing the number of deaths worldwide.

Unlimited Information on Suicide Methods

Social media has unlimited information on suicide methods and procedures (Luxton et al., 2012). Social media users can easily access this information and put it to practice. Uncontrolled and unrestricted information on social media causes a behavioral change in teenagers who are vulnerable and distressed (Memon et al., 2018). Therefore, accessing this information from the ‘dark web’ puts many ideas in the mind s of the teenagers, pushing them to try them out. According to 2014, suicide was the leading cause of death in America (Memon et al., 2018). There are chat rooms and websites that guide people on how to commit suicide easily or harm themselves. With this information, deaths by social media have increased due to positivity and help towards suicidal thoughts by the online platforms. Social media plays an unsupportive role in controlling suicidal thoughts by availing information on self-harm means (Rosemary et al., 2019). In times of distress, social media supports the users in effectively executing their self-harm intentions by availing information on suicide methods. People tend to seek solace from social media during hard and desperate times. They chat with their friends and, at times, search for ways on how to solve their problems form the internet. Instead of getting help to reduce the distress, the internet avails possible ways to alleviate the pain, including killing yourself. The online chat-mates, too, could advise the distressed person to kill himself or herself and avails methods to do so. This increases the number of deaths caused by social media.

Cyberbullying

Cyberbullying has been directly and indirectly associated with suicide (Luxton, 2012). Research shows that people who have been exposed to cyberbullying are two times at risk of suicide compared to those not cyberbullied (Luxton et al., 2012). A person can be cyberbullied for various reasons. People share their life experiences and challenges on social media to get attention or to update friends on social developments. However, the receptions of the posts can be harmful to some of the people. This influences how the affected persons deal with the situation. Research shows that cyberbullying is one of the causes of increased deaths due to social media use (Arendt et al., 2019). In most cases, after being cyberbullied, the bullied persons post self-harm intention of social media sites, either threatening to harm themselves or asking for help (Arendt et al., 2019). Social media users perceive that they are only worthy if they are appreciated and positively recognized in the sites. They highly regard what the online community thinks about them, and cyberbullying is the ultimate destruction of their self-value. Social media platforms unite people from different cultures and values, and increases interactions or stalking by anonymous people. Cyberbullying is commonly done by anonymous people who troll others online. Given the different cultures and values, not everyone using the internet will relate to our struggles of views. This increases the chances of being cyberbullied, affecting our online front, and, ultimately, how we view ourselves. If the affected individuals do not get appropriate psychological help, they develop feelings of depression and self-worthlessness and, ultimately, suicide (Memon et al., 2018).

Exposure to harmful substances

Social media use exposes the user to harmful substances like marijuana, alcohol, and tobacco (Memon et al., 2018). New brands of alcohol are advertised on social media platforms. Information on drugs and alcoholic beverages is availed in Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube platforms and this makes the users, especially the youths, curious to use these substances (Memon et al., 2018). The use of these substances is associated with a high risk of suicide and mental illness that are comorbidities of suicidal thoughts. Further, social media platforms promote the use of these substances, and this promotes their abuse, especially in young people. Social pressure and curiosity in young people push them to buy the substances and use them. Most of the time, these substances are associated with celebrities or high-class lives to appeal to the consumers. Without comprehending the ultimate consequences these substances have on their health, people abuse them because they idolize the associated celebrities or believe the using the substance would improve their social class. Abusing these substances increases the risk of committing suicide in young people, increasing deaths caused by social media.

Addiction and poor mental Health

Addiction to social media use leads to poor mental health. People who use social media frequently are associated with increased psychological distress and other mental illnesses due to addiction-related problems (Rosemary et al., 2019). Research revealed that addiction to social media meets the requirements for the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) (Rosemary et al., 2019). It is associated with withdrawal effects, depression, loneliness, and self-loathing. Depression is a risk factor to several mental illnesses; hence, this exposes the user to behavioral change that could be harmful to the user. Further, social media users tend to compare their lives to others and fail to seek mental health help to deal with their insecurities. For instance, they compare their social life with their friends who are probably posting pictures of their fancy clothes, shoes, food, or travels. At times, these posts could even be lies, but their impact is real. Because they cannot match up to the Instagram and Facebook posts from their ‘fancy’ friends, they become depressed, lonely, and desperate (Rosemary et al., 20191). Consequently, depression drives them into suicidal thoughts and possible suicide using the already available information online on how to commit suicide from the ‘dark web.’

“Copycat” deaths

“Copycat” deaths occur when an internet user copies the suicide methods or process used by their favorite celebrity who committed a successful suicide. This is called the Werther effect (Fahey et al., 2018). “Copycat” deaths are associated with the heavy use of social media (Fahey et al., 2018). Social media users tend to associate themselves with certain celebrities. They idolize these celebrities and copy their lifestyles. Research shows that when celebrity suicides are posted on social media platforms, for instance, Twitter, online users tend to copy the suicide methods, in solidarity with their fallen celebrities. In a study conducted by Fahey et al. (2018) that aimed at establishing the relationship between celebrity suicidal posting and the effects it had on their Twitter followers, it was established that followers who had angry and emotional reactions to celebrity suicides, developed suicidal thoughts and copying the suicidal methods used by their celebrities (Fahey et al., 2018). The study also revealed that the Werther effect was mostly associated with female celebrities and their female followers. “Copycat” deaths increase the deaths caused by social media.

Social Support from Social media

Social support received from social media platforms helps in fighting depression. Most young people use the platforms to seek important advice and solace that help them in times of distress. Frost et al. established that a third of young people with suicidal and self-harming thoughts found positive help from social media (Rosemary et al., 2019). Online users confess that they receive substantial help from online platforms as compared to offline platforms in their lives. Help groups and forums have been formed online to assist those in distress and unite people with similar problems. They share their experiences and encourage each other on these sites. This helps to drive away suicidal and self-harm thoughts, saving lives. People easily detect distressed individuals from their posting style of lack of posting if they were frequent posters (Rosemary et al., 2019). Therefore, friends and caring strangers reach out to the affected individual and help them through their psychological pain and stressful moments. This shows that social media does not cause deaths; rather, it promotes life. Sharing experiences with others in similar situations helps to comfort the users that they are not alone in their problems.

Despite the benefits of social media in offering social support to the users, only a few people open up or appreciate the support given. For instance, the effects of bullying can be very detrimental that social support would not repair the damage committed. Also, social support cannot help in reducing addictions since support is still offered online. Therefore, social media is a great cause of death across the world.

Conclusion

Social media use is responsible for increasing the number of deaths worldwide. Social media affects the mental health of the users due to addiction and depression associate with its use. Cyberbullying and self-comparison affect the self-worthiness of the users, driving them to self-harming behaviors due to distress. The availability of harmful information on the ‘dark web’ makes it easy for vulnerable users to use the information to harm themselves. The celebrity deaths and advertisements of substances use using celebrities influence online users who idolize celebrities. Consequently, they copy the suicide deaths of their celebrities, while others abuse substances putting their health at risk. Despite the positive communication benefits brought by social media platforms, social media users are exposed to higher risks of suicidal, causing social media-related deaths.

The deaths caused by social media use shows serious public health concern and the damaging effects of online socialization. Therefore, further research should be done to identify control approached to limit the number of suicides and self-harm, especially in adolescents and young adults.

References

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Evidence from a two-wave panel study among young adults. New Media & Society https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1461444819850106

Fahey A R, Matsubayashi T, Ueda M. (2018). Tracking the Werther Effect on social media:

Emotional responses to prominent suicide deaths on twitter and subsequent increases in suicide. Social Science & Medicine, p 19-29 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953618305707

Luxton, D. D., June, J. D., &Fairall, J. M. (2012). Social media and suicide: a public health

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Memon, A. M., Sharma, S. G., Mohite, S. S., & Jain, S. (2018). The role of online social

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