Social media and Suicide
SOCIAL MEDIA AND SUICIDE RISK An immense quantity of information on the topic of suicide is available on the Internet and via social media. Biddle et al. conducted a systematic Web search of 12 suicide-associated terms (e.g., suicide, suicide methods, how to kill yourself, and best suicide methods ) to simulate the results of a typical search conducted by a person seeking information on suicide methods. They analyzed the first 10 sites listed for each search, for a total of 240 different sites. Approximately half were prosuicide Web sites and sites that provided factual information about suicide. Prosuicide sites and chat rooms that discussed general issues associated with suicide most often occurred within the first few hits of a search. We should note that this study primarily focused on prosuicide search terms and thus likely excluded many suicide prevention and support resource sites. Recupero et al. also conducted a study that examined suicide-related si...