How Does Social Media Cause Suicide

“A 14-year old girl was found hanged in her bedroom after receiving hate messages on her ask.fm page where strangers told her to cut herself, drink bleach, and kill herself. In this social media platform, the users are allowed to ask questions while remaining anonymous” (“Stories of Bullying”). The Internet has millions of suicide stories, similar to the one about this 14-year-old girl, all due to social media. Social media is the new trend and continues to grow. When out in public, it is almost impossible not to see people on their smart phones, checking email, facebook, ask fm, twitter, pinterest, myspace, tumblr, snapchat, or texts. The start up of this new era has introduced the “social media generation.” This generation consists of people finding a new way to spread hate. The social media generation has created a more effective way to bully due to the fact that many of the bullies hide behind their electronics and do not fully understand the consequences of their actions.
Even though social media is the “highest ranking cause of suicide amongst teenagers in the 21st century,” it still has the perks of keeping in touch with family and friends (Reno). Social …show more content…
Hiding behind an electronic device can give people the confidence level they want and it can also influence them to take advantage of this new confidence load and begin to “troll” (Newcomb). According to “10 Pros and Cons” of texting why people cyber bullying includes because they wish to show off to friends, be mean, embarrass someone, for entertainment, to get revenge. Some advice that can help prevent cyber bullying is to make sure one only follow/friends those who one knows, be aware of what one is posting, keep ones settings private, and immediately cut off those who bully (Noudelman). People have the control over what they are feeding social media, so take advantage of that and do not post behind an electronic device what one cannot say