Suicide and Social Media Suicide is the tenth leading cause of death in the United States while being the third among adolescence aged 15-24. (Suicide Statistics). Prevalence rates of suicide among teens continues to rise along with an increase in social media usage. With the increase in both suicide and social media usage, millions of people are using sites such as Facebook to further enhance their grieving process. Social media allows people to provide their condolences without impeding on the immediate family providing them additional support during the grieving process. In order to address these statistics, we must further explore the positive and negative effects social media has on the grieving process of death by suicide in adolescents
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The first step of a grieving individual is to acknowledge one’s emotions (Kuther, 2017, p.528). If one is still acknowledging their emotions it may be hard for them to further talk with people about the suicide, so Facebook allows the avoidance of this interaction promoting emotional development. Additionally, the new Facebook option allows individuals to react to a post; these kind of reactions allow empathy to be felt by the grieving person. Empathy is the ability to understand emotions (Kuther, 2017, p.199). When an individual goes through grief by suicide, they experience many changes in their socioemotional development. At an early age children are able to feel empathy for others, and that continues throughout emotional development until grief occurs. A comment on this post states “I just wish he would have talked to someone,” implying death by suicide. Death by suicide often leaves grieving individuals without closure, this is called ambiguous loss. Furthermore, Facebook has become a place where memories are posted allowing individuals to grieve positively looking back on the good memories they had with the deceased. Social media can also be a support for social development because “people are wanting to talk about it, but feel it is awkward face to …show more content…
Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological model shows the interaction of biological, cognitive and psychological changes in an environment (Kuther, 2017, p.19). When suicide grief occurs in a family, your microsystem is affected; this includes ones direct environment. Secondly, when your microsystems interact, a mesosystem is created. For example, when your family life is affected by suicide and people are constantly bringing up the death via social media, it can affect your school work. When your school work is affected negatively, it may harm an adolescences ability to further their cognitive development. Secondly, the third stage of Frued’s psychosocial stage is initiative versus guilt. During this stage, children develop a sense of self which is when an individual understands who they are (Kuther, 2017, p. 199). A person who is grieving must come to terms with the loss and begin to live life without the deceased individual. During the suicide grieving process, an individual must create a new sense of self without the person which can be a very difficult process. When adolescents grieve they may become more isolated and less likely to interact with peers affecting their social development. After a death this may be altered which affects their psychosocial development. In order to promote a faster grieving process, an individual must talk about their
The first step of a grieving individual is to acknowledge one’s emotions (Kuther, 2017, p.528). If one is still acknowledging their emotions it may be hard for them to further talk with people about the suicide, so Facebook allows the avoidance of this interaction promoting emotional development. Additionally, the new Facebook option allows individuals to react to a post; these kind of reactions allow empathy to be felt by the grieving person. Empathy is the ability to understand emotions (Kuther, 2017, p.199). When an individual goes through grief by suicide, they experience many changes in their socioemotional development. At an early age children are able to feel empathy for others, and that continues throughout emotional development until grief occurs. A comment on this post states “I just wish he would have talked to someone,” implying death by suicide. Death by suicide often leaves grieving individuals without closure, this is called ambiguous loss. Furthermore, Facebook has become a place where memories are posted allowing individuals to grieve positively looking back on the good memories they had with the deceased. Social media can also be a support for social development because “people are wanting to talk about it, but feel it is awkward face to …show more content…
Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological model shows the interaction of biological, cognitive and psychological changes in an environment (Kuther, 2017, p.19). When suicide grief occurs in a family, your microsystem is affected; this includes ones direct environment. Secondly, when your microsystems interact, a mesosystem is created. For example, when your family life is affected by suicide and people are constantly bringing up the death via social media, it can affect your school work. When your school work is affected negatively, it may harm an adolescences ability to further their cognitive development. Secondly, the third stage of Frued’s psychosocial stage is initiative versus guilt. During this stage, children develop a sense of self which is when an individual understands who they are (Kuther, 2017, p. 199). A person who is grieving must come to terms with the loss and begin to live life without the deceased individual. During the suicide grieving process, an individual must create a new sense of self without the person which can be a very difficult process. When adolescents grieve they may become more isolated and less likely to interact with peers affecting their social development. After a death this may be altered which affects their psychosocial development. In order to promote a faster grieving process, an individual must talk about their