Media can affect suicide in a lot of ways, these being through television, literature, music, videogames and almost of all social media. These can usually be divided into two categories, traditional and new. Traditional as in newspapers, television, and music, and new being social media and video games. Today I’ll be covering the ways these types of media affect suicide.
The first way that media affects suicide is through television. This is one of the many traditional media I was referring to earlier. Ways that television can affect suicide is through reports of actual suicides, TV shows that portray suicide, or films that portray suicide. News reports about suicides could influence some people to commit suicide because they want to be remembered like the person they saw in the news, that the public will know their struggle, but what they don't realize is that people knowing about your struggle won't help you any after you're dead. The way it can influence suicide is by sometimes displaying it as a way of escape. For example in the TV show Mission Impossible, a captured spy would take a suicide pill to avoid being interrogated. This portrays suicide as a way of escape from the interrogation, and could send a message to an individual struggling with suicidal thoughts that suicide can be a way of escape for their troubles.
The second way that media affects suicide is through literature. This is also a traditional type of media. The type of books you read can really affect suicide depending on the book. Some books also show suicide as a solution. For example in Romeo and Juliet it's portrayed as a solution for Juliet when she thought Romeo killed himself, and a solution for Romeo when he finds out that Juliet killed herself.
The third way that media affects suicide is through music. There are a lot of different types of music but the type of music that usually influences suicidal behavior is this emotional or rock music. This type of music incorporates connotations of suicide, depression, and nihilism. An example of this type of music can be seen in the song “Fade to Black” by Metallica which states “Life it seems will fade away, Drifting further everyday, Getting lost within myself, Nothing matters no one else, I have lost the will to live, Simply nothing more to give, There is nothing more for me, Need the end to set me free.” As you can see this song displays signs of depression and suicidal thoughts the listening of the song could push someone to the brink of suicide.
The fourth way media affects suicide through video games. Video games are one of the new medias I was talking about before and can affect suicide in a lot of ways. The first way that video games can affect suicide is by encouraging violence in young children. The encouraged violence may influence depressed people let violence is a good answer and that killing yourself may be a good response to their pain and suffering. Another way that video games can affect suicide is by normalizing suicide. They’re are actually many games that incorporate suicide as a main factor in the game Such as Happy Wheels, Kill Yourself, and 5 Minutes to Kill Yourself.
In the video game Happy Wheels, the objective of the game is to pass an extreme course where one wrong move could end your life. The developers, however make the deaths of the player more enjoyable, to the point where you kill yourself in the game on purpose therefore normalizing suicide. The second game in this category is literally called “Kill Yourself”, where the goal of the game is to find 38 different ways to kill yourself. This not only normalizes suicide but provides more methods of suicide to them. The last game in this category I mentioned is named “5 Minutes to Kill Yourself”. The objective of the game is to kill yourself the fastest you can the limit being 5 minutes. This video game could encourage someone with depression to commit suicide because it rewards you for killing yourself in the game. They might actually perceive suicide as a good thing and actually go through with it. Overall, they’re a lot of video games that can affect suicide but games like these should be kept away from people with suicidal thoughts.
The last and the of the media, which affects suicide in a colossal way is the (((social media))). Besides physical bullying, the use of social media to bully people and push them to the brink of suicide is one the greatest ways that media affects suicide. There are multiple ways that social media can do this though and these ways are through jealousy and by cyberbullying. The first reason I will be covering is jealousy. Even though it’s not seen it happens in a lot of social media.
Some people may feel like they aren’t worth anything or that nobody likes them because they see other people who look so much better on social media. An extensive period of this jealousy can really depress some people and make them feel worthless and unnoticed, which increases their risk of suicide. Self-consciousness plays a major role in this because they’re always thinking about what others think about them and if nobody payed attention to them they would think no one would care about them. Then there's cyberbullying probably one of the most effective ways that media affects suicide. If you don’t know what cyberbullying it is the use of electronic communication to bully a person, typically by sending messages of an intimidating or threatening nature. Anyway, people doing this to others can exponentially increase their risk of suicide. The way it does this is put down the victim of it until he/she is feels so worthless and hated that they decide to end their own life. This is a serious problem nowadays and it needs to be attended to.
In conclusion, the media can affect suicide in a plethora of ways. These ways being through television, literature, news etc. But it’s important to remember to be careful what you entertain yourself with because it could be brewing thoughts of depression or nihilism, that could lead to suicidal thoughts, and eventually suicide.