Social Media Suicide Essay

It had been said by Reed, Cooper, Nugent, and Russel (2016) that, “Evidence supports that cyberbullying can contribute in the development of adolescent depression” (40). Those who are diagnosed with depression can be given medication to help cope, and although it is good for the pharmacies, it is not good for his or her mental health. With cyberbullying and social media effecting one’s mental health with depression and possible suicide, it is important that people know the correlation of the two.

The average American teenager watches three hours of television a day. Scientist Rebecca Collins conducted a study to see if watching sexual behavior on TV influenced teenagers’ own behavior. In her results, she found that watching shows with sexual content has a considerable

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

In the 20th century the social psychologist Charles H. Cooley developed the idea of a “looking glass self”; this idea claims that people generally value themselves according to what others think about them. There are three fundamental points to this idea: one’s image according to others, one’s own standard of appearance, and how one develops the “self” through other’s judgments.

In the article The Antisocial Network Jack Dickey discusses social networking and explores the influence social media has teen suicide.

The authors found that self-esteem can be increased via classic conditioning. Consequently, they found that low self-esteem can be raised by applying basic learning principles (Baccus, Baldwin, & Packer, 2004). Their findings support the theory that self-acceptance is influenced by positive feedback from other people. These findings may initiate an effort to research possible methods to increase self-esteem as a means of ridding society of the various social ills that are thought to be caused by low self-esteem. Therefore, future research should also include the effect of the conditioning task on various aspects of social behavior. This in turn, will help determine the amount of influence, if any, that self-esteem has on behavior. The results also suggest that implicit low self-esteem is not permanent and can be modified (Baccus, Baldwin, & Packer, 2004). This provides hope that individuals suffering from implicit low self-esteem can find relief by receiving treatment to increase their self-esteem in an effort to experience a greater sense of well being. This potentially could lead to a method for treating depression.

Currently, social media is the most popular method of communicating and interacting with others. It is a methodology to new media as it changes and evolves with our needs and expectations. Social media has evolved and adapted to become a huge part of our personal and professional lives.

When there are positive outcomes the individual wants to enhance his or her self-esteem. However, when there are negative outcomes he or she wants to protect his or her self-esteem (Coleman, 2011).

Eyal and his colleagues examine the presence of sexual messages among teenagers in the United States. Comparing findings from two seasons, 2001—2002 & 2004-2005, the finding show that these programs contained a large number of sexual messages, though their frequency decreased as time progressed, and most of the messages were in dialogue form. Utilizing Social Cognitive Theory, Eyal emphasize socialization as the key process to forming sexual identities, placing value on the role that media plays in shaping adolescents’ sexual knowledge, expectations, and behaviors. The sexual suggestions in media glamorize and glorify sexuality, which can prompt dangerous sexual conduct. Instead of instructing youths about the hurtful impacts, this kind of media promotes promiscuity without regard to consequences. Strasburger (2010) states, "75 % of prime-time programs have sexual content and only 14% of those mention risks or responsibilities of sexual activity. 40% of these lyrics have sexual material and only 6% contain healthy sexual

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.

Research has greatly indicated and proven that media exposure has an impact on the normative perceptions of substance use and relationship behaviors among adolescents. Studies have shown that media content and patterns of usage are considerably related to adolescent perception of gender roles, romantic relationships, and sexual behavior. Repeated contact or subjection to sexualize subject matter on television or different forms of media has been related to individuals perceived normative gender roles (Herrett- Skjellum & Allen, 1996). Negative and socially impaired beliefs about relationships, for example such as ‘‘fate brings soul-mates together, disagreement is destructive to a relationship, partners should be able to sense each other’s thoughts and feelings’’ (Holmes, 2007). Also with persistent disclosure to sexually explicit content related with more positive attitudes or norms toward “uncommitted sexual exploration” as well (Brown and Bobkowski, 2011).

Sexuality in the media has been a topic of debate and discussion over recent years. It has become increasingly controversial as many people believe that there has been an increase in sexualized media over recent years. They believe this is to blame for the increased sexuality exhibited by adolescents. Some may argue that as society and adolescents begin to become more sexualized, the media responds to this by producing more sexualized media be relevant and popular. The media argues that they need to continue to be sexualized to effectively promote their ideas and sell products to a society that has become sexualized over time.

In today’s society violence and sexual content and the media have become an issue. Over time media has been polluted with sex and violence and continues to affect millions of teens. Media nowadays includes television, books, magazines, newspapers, the internet, movies, video games, and so much more. Adolescence is a time of self-identification and personal growth. During this time, adolescence experience decreases in family influences and increases in peer influences, yet socializing factors typical of adulthood such as college, employment and relationships. Teens today believe what they see and hear in the media that comes from their celebrity idols and think that it is socially acceptable and because of that it makes them

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.

“When an individual enters the presence of others, they commonly seek to acquire
information about him or to bring into play information about him already possessed. They
will be interested in his general socio-economic status, his conception of self, his attitude
towards them, his competence, his trustworthiness, etc. Although some of this information is
sought as an end in itself, there are usually quite practical reasons for acquiring it. Information
about the individual helps to define the situation, enabling others to know in advance what he
will expect of them and what they may expect of him. Informed in these ways, the others will
know