Social Media On Bullying And Suicide Behavior

Rachel Ehmke addresses the negative effects of social media in a strident, yet true, way. The use of social media among teens in America is 75 percent and out of that percentage 68 percent use Facebook more than any other site or app (Common Sense Media, as cited by Ramasubbu, 2016, p.1). According to Suren Ramasubbu in his article “Influence of Social Media on Teenagers”, Facebook is an outlet for depression, sexting, and cyberbullying (2016, p.1). Ehmke points these effects as well to support her opinion along with other effects like indirect communication, loss of experiences, the imposter syndrome, and stalking. It can be concluded that the reasons provided by Ehmke are valid reasons to prove why social media can affect a person negatively.

Social media itself is a huge danger to society. It causes many suicides within the world because of the cyberbullying and spreading of rumors. “Recent studies have shown that one out of four teens have been the victims of cyberbullying and one out of six have admitted to having cyberbullied someone” (Trautner 1). The internet and social media is supposed to be used to communicate with friends and for searching information, “Kids use technology different than their parents do. Sometimes it is hard for adults to understand that this can even be a possibility” (Trautner 1). It is not supposed to be used to bully someone, especially not to the point where the victim would think about suicide. “One of the statistics that has been highlighted within this news coverage is the threefold increase in the suicide rate for girls ages 10 to 14. The rates for girls in this age group increased from 0.5 to 1.5 per 100,000 during this time period. The increases for boys in this age group were not as high, climbing from 1.9 per 100,000 during 1999 to 2.6 per 100,000 in 2014” (Olsen

Clarissa Silva article in the Huffington Post delves into social media’s impact on self-esteem. As a behavioral scientist, her interest in the matter relates to her field. She also gets the help of other experts Dr. Jennifer Rhodes, Natalia Lusinski, and Dr. Suzana Flores to help with her research. Silva states that “social media is linked to higher levels of loneliness, envy, anxiety, depression, narcissism and decreased social skills" (1). Then outlines her research findings using rhetorical appeals.

Rebecca Sedwick, a 12-year-old girl, committed suicide after being repeatedly cyberbullied by 15 girls for many months. Once again, cyberbullying through social media has led to the suicide of a child. (“Phillips, Suzanne”) Social media allows hundreds of ways to communicate with others with electronic devices. Sometimes communicating with strangers, and sometimes unanimous. This idea of constant messages, notifications, and texts can be very dangerous when it comes to cyberbullying because the victim feels like they have no way out, or nowhere to hide. Social media for kids and teens ultimately has only negative effects because it leads to cyberbullying, a decrease in education, and suicide.

At 6 p.m., October 10, 2012, fifteen year old Amanda Todd hung herself after she posted a gripping video called, “My Story:Struggling,bullying, suicide,and self harm” after being harassed and bullied online for many years. While she was in the 7th grade, Amanda Todd had an online video conversation with someone who asked her to flash her breasts, which she eventually did. After one year, she was contacted by the same person who threatened to post her pictures on the Internet if she didn’t provide more provocative pictures. Even though she refused to send pictures to him, her pictures were sent to her family and friends. Despite switching schools, the cyber bullying continued and a Facebook page of her with the picture of her breasts as the profile picture was created. Even though Amanda tried to kill herself by drinking bleach, the abuse was too much, so she hung herself (Pendergrass and Wright,in press). Some questions to address with cyberbullying related suicides are: how do we define and recognize cyberbullying, how do we protect those who are cyberbullied, and how do we educate parents and other adults to protect children and adolescents from cyberbullying? With electronic communication becoming so prevalent, we cannot afford to ignore the increasing dangers of the societal shift from a traditional schoolyard bully to to the anonymous cyberbully. Children and adolescents deserve to be protected, parents and teachers need to understand the risks that cyber bullying

Firstly, there have been significant links between our online presence and other aspects of our mental health, which has inspired the subject matter of many recent research studies around the world. There are many psychological and physical factors that affect our mental well-being due to the impact of social media. Depression and Body Dysmorphia being the leading causes, due to the content the individuals are exposed to while online. Even though researchers coined the correlation between social media use and depression as complex. Data was collected from a sample of 340 first year college students, and the findings were that the increase use of Facebook have been associated with higher levels of loneliness. Also the extensive use of Facebook has been associated with higher rates of disordered eating and body image insecurity.

Initially, social media is commonly used as a weapon to attack others on their opinions or simply because they despite other people. For instance, cyber bullying has caused huge problems ever since social networks have started becoming popular. “Nearly 43% of kids have been bullied online. 1 in 4 has had it happen more than once,” (“11 Facts about Cyber Bullying” www.dosomething.org). This is more targeted at teenagers and children because they are unaware of the harmful things they might say over the internet. To illustrate, cyber bullying can become a very serious issue when a minor commits suicide. “Bully-related suicide can be connected to any type of bullying, including . . . cyberbullying, and sexting, or circulating suggestive . . . about a person” (“Cyber Bullying & Social Bullying” http://www.bullyingstatistics.org). It’s the parent’s duty to filter the internet. Based on this information, social media is not necessarily safe, anyone can become a victim

(Attention Getter) Look around at your peers. Would you ever think about how many of them wish they were dead? When 17.7% of high school student in the U.S. say that they have seriously consider committing suicide (CDC, 2015), we need to seriously address why this is happening. The pressures of life at our age are very apparent. However, they are not so difficult that 4,135 teenagers a year should be committing suicide. The rate of teenage suicide has tripled since 1950, but why? Well, to answer that question, there is a large amount of evidence that the Internet and social media can influence suicide-related behavior.

Communication barriers are not the only issue that has been brought on by social media. Extensive social media use has also been known to affect a person’s self-esteem. Some individuals suffer from a low self-esteem and limit themselves to social media in hopes to create a different image of them. According to Charles Cooley, “The thing that moves us to pride or shame is not the mere mechanical reflection of ourselves, but an imputed sentiment, the imagined effect of this reflection upon another's mind" (Morine, 2009). For some teens and young adults, social media may help them open up and achieve a higher self-esteem. On the other hand, social media on other teens and young adults may have a completely opposite effect. In an article titled, Is Facebook Making Your Child Depressed, it is stated that social media websites such as Facebook “can create a skewed reality that makes teens feel alienated” (PR, 2012). When a person, that is not completely happy with their life, goes onto social media and reads all about other people enjoying a multitude of activities and enjoying their lives this could

Older generations seem to believe they have made an impact on bullying, because the forms of bullying they knew have been changed. Bullying is no longer only causing another person physical pain or calling them names, it exist through interactions behind a screen. People can pretend to be other people through the screen where no one can see who they are, this is in empowering. There is an extent of trust between a person and the name they are communicating with, and trusting that the person responding to you is who they say they are. However, a sort of game has been created since social media became as active in the daily lives of our generation, not so affectionately called "catfishing." This term dates back to the times of primitive trade

According to a study conducted by Yale University, victims of bullying are between two and nine times more likely to consider suicide than non-victims. Suicide is the third leading cause of deaths among adolescence and young adults (“Bullying and Suicide," 2015). Suicide is not uncommon to hear about in society and in everyday life; furthermore, neither is bullying. These two events play hand in hand with each other. Bullying isn't just hitting someone or calling names, it is much more than that and can result in horrible outcomes such as suicide.

Many cyber chats, although good for online communication however also has the potentials to cause emotional distress. Insults, profanity, humiliation and much more are some of the causes of which resulted many people to depression, suicide to ‘get out of this misery’. Through social networking, online reputations are being humiliated through verbal communications or offensive images that are being posted up onto social networking sites, such as Facebook. Chanelle Rae, a 14-year-old former student at Geelong’s Western Heights College, took her life on Friday the 17th of July 2009 in another cyber bullying incident, of which Chanelle’s mother, Karen reported to 3AW radio on the 21st of July 2009. Her mother reported, ‘she wanted to die because of the message that was given to her that night.,’ This highlights the fact that lives can also be lost while having the benefits of social networking on Facebook, Bebo, Twitter and much more. Thus shows that social networking can have a severe impact on many of our lives through what we say or post online.

From "thintastic" blogs to suicide stories, social media has become not only a source of conversation but a gateway to harmful suggestions that many teenagers see and believe to be allowable, when in fact the situations proposed are dangerous to those who attempt them. Statistics show that 20% of anorexic teenagers will die prematurely, and 80% of teenagers who commit suicide are depressed (South). Social media has glorified and brought to attention eating disorders, depression, and suicide among teens that might otherwise not become a statistic in these critical categories.

Some say people who use social networking sites are prone to social isolation. Despite opposition, I am convinced that social networking helps people who are shy and socially isolated to connect with other people. This concludes that social networking can help people who have low self esteem other than lowering their self-esteem any more.Although many argue that social networking can exacerbate feelings of disconnect and put children at higher risk for depression, low self-esteem and eating disorders,I believe otherwise. According to my research, I have found that more than 25% of teens report that social makes them feel less shy, 28% feel more outgoing, 20% report feeling more confident,in which 53% of teens were identified as being shy (5 Boroughs). This means that social networking brings out a better person in most, and makes them feel better about themselves other than feeling bad inside.

Despite the positives, there are many negatives associated with social media. Using social media can make a person more vulnerable to predators and cyber bullying. In this age, “Cyber bulling is quite common, can occur to any young person online, and can cause profound psychosocial outcomes including depression, anxiety, severe isolation, and tragically suicide” (“American Academy of Pediatrics”). Cyber bullying impacts society in a negative way because it is harming young teenagers’ minds. Bullies, torment, threat, harass, and even embarrass their victims by using different forms of social media. Using social media can also decrease privacy for an individual. People often give out their personal information not knowing who can see it. To average internet users, “A false sense of security may leave social networking site users vulnerable to security attacks such as hacking, leaking sensitive information, and sending viruses” (“ProCon”). Furthermore, Social media can also lead to brain disorders and can cause people to have a hard time interacting with people face to face. “Social networking entices people to spend more time online and less time talking to a person face to face.” (“ProCon”)