Young People's Perspectives and Understanding of the Suicide Story in13 Reasons Why

Abstract

Abstract. Background: The Netflix drama 13 Reasons Why (13RW) focusing on the suicide of an adolescent girl became a global phenomenon. It was accompanied by intense public debate about the risks of exposing youth to fictional portrayals of adolescent suicide. Aims: To explore adolescents' subjective perspectives and understanding of 13RW focusing on the portrayal of adolescent suicide. Method: We applied a thematic analysis to qualitative data from interviews with 25 New Zealand adolescents eliciting views on the show's portrayal of adolescent suicide. Results: Four themes were developed from the analysis: entertaining but not realistic; the unexpected shock factor; jumbled messages; and superficial conversations. Conclusion: This study contributes a youth perspective which has been missing from the debate on 13RW. This research highlights the way that youth, when given the opportunity, articulated a nuanced understanding of the representation of adolescent suicide in 13RW, viewing it as entertainment rather than a realistic depiction that added little in terms of suicide awareness and generated minimal opportunities for in-depth discussion.

Emerging Adults’ Attitudes and Beliefs About Suicide and Technology/Social Media

“…There has been concern that frequent social media use 20 and exposure to suicidal content in media can glorify and normalize suicide. 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 In addition, studies have shown that glorified and repeated exposure to suicide from the media can lead to suicide contagion. 33 The score found on the Glorification/Normalization subscale in this study further increases alarm over the acceptance and normalization of suicide among emerging adults.…”