Social Media

Causes of suicide vary but as technology advances new causes are apparent. Social media plays a major role in causes of suicide. Technology allows cyber bullying to happen frequently and recur until something or someone stops it. Victims of bullying often think they have no way out of their situation or feel like there is no help. People with suicidal thoughts struggle either mentally, physically, or emotionally. “Three million children are absent from school each month due to bullying. Twenty percent of those bullied kids have suicidal thoughts” (Bullying and Suicide, 2016, p.1). Media’s such as snapchat, instagram, twitter, or facebook all provide factual information about previous cases of suicide. Cyberbullying is a serious problem especially among adolescent girls. Girls are more likely than boys to attempt suicide due to cyberbullying, because girls are struggling to find themselves as a person (Bichell, 2013, p. 3). Any form of negativity or put down affects them, and who they are trying to become.

African Americans have been victims of racist and discriminatory practices since they were forcibly shipped to America in the 1600s (Chaney & Robertson, 2013). Racism is defined as a belief system that justifies the racial and ethnic inequality of minority members. Discrimination is a specific behavior aimed at denying persons of a particular race equal access to societal rewards. These two heinous attitudes and behaviors have been forcibly brought to the attention of the public by the media in scenarios of police brutality and unequal practices toward minority individuals; specifically African American men. Rodney King, Malice Green, Tamir Rice, Michael Brown, Freddie Gray, Eric Garner, and Walter Scott are all African American men that

Social media creates an ideal body image in an adolescent’s mind that affects them in various ways. Having an ideal body image can lower self-esteem in some adolescents’ creating eating disorders, and this idea of getting plastic surgery as they get older. Social media is steadily increasing and has heavily influenced adolescent’s to be more aware of their body figure. As a result, many adolescent’s have developed low self-esteem due to the fact that social media continues promoting fit women and creating the idea that women need to be thin to be loved or accepted by society; this can cause harm to adolescent’s because they feel the need to fit in to society.

In the article “Net Girls: The Internet, Facebook, and Body Image Concern in Adolescent Girls” Marika Tiggemann, Ph.D. and Amy Slater, Ph.D. (Clin Psych) questioned whether there is a connection between internet use and adolescent body image concern. These researchers also focused their study on one specific social networking site, Facebook.

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.

The rising frequency of teen Internet and social media use, in particular Facebook, has cause parents to lose sight of these websites harmful attributes that lead to eating disorders and extreme dieting. Michele Foster, author of “Internet Marketing Through Facebook: Influencing Body Image in Teens and Young Adults”, published October 2008 in Self Help Magazine, argues Facebook has become the leading social network for teens and young adults aging 17 to 25 years of age, and is also the age range that has significant increases in Anorexia and Bulimia Nervosa in women. Foster accomplishes her purpose, which is to draw the parents of teen’s attention to the loosely regulated advertisements on Facebook and Facebook’s reluctance to ban

Media is everywhere, and what the sources contain effect people from all walks of life but the issue of body image is one thing that seems to stay in constant attention. Psychologists found there was a strong association linking social media use to body image concerns, dieting, body surveillance, a drive for thinness, and self-objectication in adolescents. One study found that female college students who spend their time posting, commenting on, and comparing themselves to photos on Facebook were more likely to link their self-worth to their looks (How Social Media Is a Toxic Mirror by Rachel Simmons). Even though girls report more body image disturbance then boys, it has been shown that both genders are equally

(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.

Depression is another problem that those who use social networks often may experience when they worry too much about themselves and the ways they present themselves. Time Magazine once said that “girl have more body image and [eating disorder] than boy have.” For example, my sister is younger than me and she is so thin, because she not eating much in an effort to grow stronger. Through what I see with my sister, the body image of girls is the important to them especially during their adolescent years. A Researcher of the Brown University School of Public Health said that “the more user of the social network the more increase in depression.” Teenage girls who are often on the social networks and have experiences that include bullying and

Suicide and accidental death from self-harm were the third leading cause of mortality in adolescents aged 10- 19 years of age in 2015, resulting in 67,000 deaths (world health organization). Many cases have have been reported in the local news, online, and through use of social media websites such as: Facebook and snap chat. There have also been multiple cases of youths that have posted their suicide live online. This is clearly a cry for help, if only someone was there to provide some form of assistance, could these cases have been prevented? This is a very important crisis that affect families, communities, and health care professionals worldwide and therefore deserves to be further discussed.

The effects of social media impact everyone differently. Some teens are not impacted at all, some are diagnosed with mental health disorders, and worse case scenario, some take their own lives. According to the Huffington Post, suicide rates for girls ages 15 to 19 have doubled since 2007 and has increased 30 percent for boys. An article written by David Luxton posted by Am J Public Health

With the rise of technology and opportunity, social media has become the epicenter for teenagers and college students to express and connect with others through pictures, videos, and personal content. According to a new study from Pew Research Center (2015), 92% of teens report going online daily – including 24% who say they go “online constantly.” As more teens “go online,” teenagers’ self-esteem and social comparison are impacted with the rising use of social media platforms, like Facebook, in both negative and positive ways. In the same study, Pew Research Center (2015) found that Facebook remains the most used social media site among American teens with 71% of all teens using the site. However, a study done by Amy L. Gonzales and Jeffrey T. Hancock found that in many cases Facebook can actually have a positive effect on self-esteem and social comparison.

Social media can also lead to an unrealistic idea of life. Many people like to show off on social media, for example, showing off money or a new expensive car. When it comes to unrealistic ideas of living it could make people feel envious and jealous. Some people can become obsessed with taking selfies or overly “perfect” pictures, whether it be editing out imperfections or spending an hour trying to get the perfect picture. People can get anxiety from the fear of missing out. When people post about going put every weekend or about how perfect” their lives are, it can make people feel depressed. It can also show unrealistic body standards and lead to eating disorders. A website called National Eating Disorders (2016) has said, “Numerous correlational and experimental studies have linked exposure to the thin ideal in mass media to body dissatisfaction, internalization of the thin ideal, and disordered eating among women”. For example, the social media website

 Detail 2: How the Internet/Social Media Has Had an Impact on Suicide in Young Adults

Half of all young adults have been a victim of cyber bullying; that means that half of young adults are at risk of committing suicide as a result of using social media. Is the use of social media worth a life? By reducing the usage of social media by young adults bullying will decrease and the suicide rate will be reduced.