Suicide, Stigma, and Utilizing Social Media Platforms to Gauge Public Perceptions

Abstract

Introduction: Suicide, a multifaceted complex outcome that arises from numerous biopsychosocial factors, is a public health concern which is growing in numbers despite valiant prevention efforts. There is still a lot of stigma surrounding suicide that needs to be addressed. Social media is growing exponentially and there are many forums where suicidality is being discussed. As a result, we conducted a brief survey on the perception of suicide on social media platforms of Facebook and Reddit in order to gather more information.Results: Of the 152 respondents, 86% believed that suicide is preventable, and 72.85% believed that it is a person's right to die by suicide. About a third (31.79%) had lost someone close to them to suicide. Respondents who did not think suicide was preventable also viewed suicide as either a sign of strength (42.86%) or a revenge act (33.3%). Those who responded that someone close to them died by suicide believed that the media glorified suicide (56.25%) while those who did not lose someone, did not believe that (66.99%). Women (61%) found social media to be a good platform for people to ask for help while men did not (60.61%). Conclusions:We utilized the social media platforms to gauge the perception of suicide and found among the sample of mostly young white respondents, suicide is not stigmatized, most believed it is preventable and it is a person's right to die by suicide. While women found social media to be a good platform to ask for support, men did not, which is in keeping with the trend that women tend to be more willing to seek help. A third of the group had lost someone close to them to suicide which was the national average, who tended to believe that media glorified suicide. Limitations of this study include the fact that those who respond voluntarily to a survey likely have an interest in the topic, and this might not accurately reflect the public opinion and attitude.

Factor Structure and Measurement Invariance of the Stigma of Suicide Scale–Short Form Among Adolescents and Early Adults in Hong Kong

“…Fourth, the present study did not gather information about exposure to suicidality (Chan et al, 2014). Exposure to suicidality via social media platforms could contribute to various public perceptions of suicide (Nathan & Nathan, 2020). Future research should explore the potential role of exposure to suicidality and other risk behaviors such as alcohol intake, substance abuse, and internet addiction in shaping suicide stigma among adolescents and early adults.…”

Change in suicidal ideation and associated factors among young adults in Hong Kong from 2018 to 2019: a latent transition analysis

“…Cautions should be warranted in interpreting the overall estimates of the between-group movements before replication. Second, the current study did not control for various relevant factors, such as unemployment [ 5 ], substance abuse [ 25 ], political uncertainty [ 69 , 70 ], social transmission via the internet [ 71 , 72 ], and the use of social media [ 73 ]. Other factors, such as suicide stigma [ 74 ], could result in perceived barriers to seek help [ 34 ] and stressful life events [ 23 ] could lead to isolation and loneliness [ 24 ].…”

COVID-19 Pandemic Impact on Substance Misuse: A Social Media Listening, Mixed Method Analysis

“…Although the Reddit platform does not necessarily represent either the general, or the whole drug enthusiasts’ population, it still appears as a large open web information source in terms of the number of posts and active users; variety of topics being discussed; and real-time discussion of trends. Hence, Reddit has been used for a range of research purposes, including both general psychiatry [ 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 ] and addiction/drug abuse [ 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 ]. Indeed, the social networks’ web monitoring approach has been suggested to be helpful to better understand some clinical and psychopharmacological issues related to a range of novel psychoactive substances (NPS) [ 35 ].…”