Opinion | Social Media & Suicide: Is There Any Link?

There has been a global increase in the suicide rates among teenagers, with a US report in 2020 showing a 57.4% rise from 2007 to 2018. In India, the NCRB data has been showing a consistent increase in annual suicide rates among the youth, such that 10,159 students died by suicide in 2018. Roughly every hour one student commits suicide in India.
These numbers coincide closely with the increasing availability and access to digital media and internet use among teenagers and youth. More than half the teenagers above 15 years now own a smartphone device.
Kashmir is not immune to this menace of suicide  Young teens falling in love through the internet and breaking up later. This ultimately increases depression levels and leads many youth to take the extreme step. The Jhelum river, which flows through the city of Srinagar has seven bridges spanning it, has become a common site of suicides for the youth of Kashmir.
With the advent of COVID and unprecedented lockdown, most children have transitioned online for classes as well as recreation in the ‘new normal’. This has led to a surge in sanctioned access to gadgets among children as young as 3 years. Hence, an indirect correlation does exist between excessive technology use, ‘digitalization of lives’ and suicide rates.
Research indicates that there are two sides of the coin and we need to have a balanced view about the impact of the internet and social media on the mental health of adolescents. Pew Research explored the opinions of teens on their use of social media and found that 31% adolescents find social media a great tool for communication, expressing sexuality and identity, accessing information, and exploring interests. It is an important source of fostering a sense of community among teenagers, which is particularly relevant in the current times.
It Is important to note that these effects change when you examine how a child is using social media, and how often.
The most common causes for emotional distress and mental health issues arise as a result of disruption of routine life, sleep disturbances, cyberbullying and victimisation. Adolescents are more vulnerable to an impact on their self-esteem due to a constant pressure to tailor content for popularity, boost physical appearances, and project parts of their life which are socially acceptable or superior to others. These influences can create unrealistic expectations of their looks, body image, comparing social status and life position, which in turn leads to indulgence in high risk and impulsive behaviors including self-harm and suicide.
Individual personality traits which can increase the risk include poor ability to handle rejection and failure, need for instant gratification, and craving for a sense of achieving or exceeding at an activity.
Digital exposure provides freedom of expression and anonymity but has the risk of a never-ending vicious cycle of “need to please” and “need to be informed”. What can be the best example but COVID to teach us that misinformation snowballed through social media is as dangerous as the virus itself!
This is one of the reasons we often hear about a cluster of suicides in children and adolescents, secondary to seemingly trivial triggers such as an online game challenge or a negative comment on a social media post. It directly hurts the self-esteem and sense of belonging, which are easily hijacked by the virtual world in absence of a real time social circle.
Let us count on the lives of the youth by advocating ‘digital balance’ as a public health measure besides social distancing.
Every life is worth saving!