Is there a ‘trend’ of people having suicide ideation?

[Tyra]

I see on social media a lot of posts/memes about not wanting to be alive.

But could this just be because of the algorithm or does everyone see that?

 

[emuotori]

Imo there's two types of being suicidal:
- Emotionally suicidal - people who have suicidal thoughts but acknowledge them as something wrong. They're likely in emotional distress during episodes of suicidality. They're likely to either seek help and thus end up getting hospitalized or end up doing a meme method like paracetamol OD.
- Rationally suicidal - people who have decided and accepted that they want to die. They are making plans with the intention of actually dying, and often hide the fact that they're suicidal from people who can intervene.

I feel like the people on mainstream social media fall into the former category while people on this forum fall into the latter.

 

[Widow39]

I don't think it's a trend but maybe it gets too much covered by medias

 

[whorror]

dark humor/self deprecating posts are highly shareable, so they can be disproportionately visible compared with ordinary posts like "I'm having a pretty normal wednesday.."

it doesn't mean the underlying sentiment is imaginary or rare. These memes can reflect genuine distress, but they can also be jokes, expressions of exhaustion or a way of talking about difficult feelings without literally expressing suicidal intent.

 

[h4ppyhypoxia]

Imo there's two types of being suicidal:
- Emotionally suicidal - people who have suicidal thoughts but acknowledge them as something wrong. They're likely in emotional distress during episodes of suicidality. They're likely to either seek help and thus end up getting hospitalized or end up doing a meme method like paracetamol OD.
- Rationally suicidal - people who have decided and accepted that they want to die. They are making plans with the intention of actually dying, and often hide the fact that they're suicidal from people who can intervene.

I feel like the people on mainstream social media fall into the former category while people on this forum fall into the latter.

sorry so off topic but the term "meme method" has me giggling

 

[Pluto]

 

[Lost_Dawns]

it's becoming more frequent due to societal pressures, but i would not label it as a trend in the normal sense.

the world is just get it worse

 

[limenlux]

I see on social media a lot of posts/memes about not wanting to be alive.

But could this just be because of the algorithm or does everyone see that?

I can't comment on what, if anything, may be triggering this specifically right now, but suicide as a form of social pathogen that spreads memetically is a well-established phenomenon referred to as the Werther effect, or suicide contagion. One person CTBs, or discusses the desire to do so, and this greenlights others to do the same until the idea reaches social proof within the community, at which point a localized cluster of suicides occur.

 

[Forever Sleep]

I suppose algorithms could be affecting what media is suggested to you. I like to read through the comments on videos relating to suicide to guage how pro- choice vs. militant pro- life they are. I have been (pleasantly) surprised by how many people do seem to be more realistic/ fair about it now. (To my mind.) I suspect the comment section reveals a slightly more comprehensive view of overall trends. Although again- perhaps not if it's mainly pro- choice people who watch and comment.

 

[Passenger4224]

I think it is getting more frequent and somewhat normalized

 

[Argent]

I see on social media a lot of posts/memes about not wanting to be alive.

But could this just be because of the algorithm or does everyone see that?

This is what we call a structural problem with society (imo)

 

[trellium-q]

Suicidal ideation is a reasonable reaction to the world we live in. Given that, I don't think there is a trend, so much as there is a greater willingness and ability to talk about suicide than there once was.