Twitter can be an ugly place. But could it also save lives?

WARNING: This post deals with suicide. Some readers may find the article triggering. 

Most parents are wary of their teenager’s use of social media. And, in many cases, adults’ fears are not without foundation. It seems like every day we hear a new, shocking story about cyber bulling, the dangers of sexy selfies, teen sexting scandals – or even suicide.

Earlier this year Mamamia reported on the case of 14-year-old Hannah Smith who committed suicide after being cyber-bullied (although the case was far more complicated than that – you can read the rest of the details here). More recently, we wrote about 12-year-old Rebecca Sedwick who also committed suicide after being bullied online by at least 15 girls.

Many people read this stories and think ‘why don’t their parents just ban them?’ or ‘why didn’t the kids just delete their Facebook accounts?’ But the reality is that social media and online technologies are as much a part of teenagers’ lives as oxygen. And that’s not going to change any time soon.

So do you want to know the good news?

Some researchers believe that social media could actually be used as a tool to help prevent suicide and teenage depression. Researchers from Brigham Young University in the US state of Utah found that Twitter reflects trends in suicide fairly accurately – in the sense that ‘suicidal tweets’ coming from specific areas, correlated strongly with the real suicide rate in the area.

Due to the fact that Twitter reflects suicide trends so accurately, the researchers believe that Twitter could be used as a preventative tool.

From the UK press:

They examined millions of tweets in America over a three-month period and found the rate of worrying tweets in each state strongly correlated with that states actual suicide rate.

The researchers found 37,717 troubling tweets, which mentioned suicide or key words associated with bullying which is known to be a risk factor, from 28,088 users over the three months.

In the state of Alaska alone the team identified 61 at risk individuals form their tweets.

Alaska also has the highest suicide rate in the USA.

In August, a Canadian teenager tweeted about planning to commit suicide. They were saying goodbye – but at the same time reaching out and making a cry for help. And as soon as they did, other users from all around the world reached right back – and helped the teenager talk through their problems.

Screenshots of the teen’s tweets can be seen below:

Ultimately, the teenager did not attempt suicide – because of the people who reached out to talk to her.

Christophe Giraud-Carrier, one of the researchers on the study, thinks that one of the powers of social media is that kids sometimes say things online, that they wouldn’t feel comfortable saying out loud to their friends or family.

He said, “Somebody ought to do something. How about using social media as a complement to what is already done for suicide prevention?”

Michael Barnes, another co-author of the study, told the Courier-Post Online that, “The value of Twitter is that it is real time, and because it’s real time, we have an opportunity to be taking action instead of looking at suicide data, suicide rates and saying, ‘What are we going to do?’ If we can identify at-risk groups or populations, we’re in a much better position to provide an intervention.”

Jeff Hancock, a media analyst and professor of communication at Cornell University thinks that the study legitimatises Twitter as a data source – and proves that the social network is somewhere researchers can look for information on what makes people tick.

He says that Twitter can be useful for analysing information to do with people’s feelings, because it’s “not a unique, different new world, but it’s a reflection of the real world.”

If you or a loved one need to talk to someone, please consider calling Lifeline on 13 11 14, or Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636.

Do you think the power of social media could be used for good in situations like this?  Or do you have other concerns about teens sharing suicidal thoughts on social media?