(might trigger) Does the internet and TV encourage S/h?

[falling_x]

Firstly - sorry if this is in the wrong place, please move/edit/delete if need be!

Secondly - I myself am a s/her, so please don't flame.

OK, so the question here is does the internet and TV encourage s/h? I know that I was influenced (somewhat) by teen magazines when I was younger. I think that awareness on the subject is a good thing, however, I do think that some of the things that on the internet and TV/films/etc are just encouragement to younger and more vulnerable people.

I guess on the flip side of that; you know that you are not alone, so the feelings of isolation and shame aren't that big.

What about you? Do you feel like you were influenced in some way? Do you think that young people really are influenced?

[David]

Personally I don't think it encourages self harm. Some people might have different opinions, but the Internet and TV can help people that harm themselves find help. I have never harmed myself so I can't really answer this question.

[Gymnophoria]

I think it depends really.
I watched a movie online recently and the girl in it who was self harming had parents who weren't really that supportive and just went about it totally the wrong way whereas some other things I've seen people have successfully gotten help for these types of problems.
I don't think it encourages it. I can encourage/discourage people to talk to someone depending on what they watch. And it can discourage people from talking about it because it's so often joked about as well e.g. 'Oh look at me I'm emo I'm gonna go cut myself because I'm so emo!'

[MadPoet]

Did the internet encourage me to self harm? No. Did the internet put the idea of self harming into my head? Yes. If I hadn't found out that other people self harmed, and what self harm was all about, that it made some people feel better, then I probably would not have done it. And the internet is usually where you find these things out. I don't blame the internet for the times I self harmed, though, and I'm going to take accountability for it. But I do think that the internet is what gave me the idea of self harming, even though it discouraged me rather than encouraged.

[Thirteen]

Personally, I'm not "triggered" by cliche triggers. Like, if I see something about SH, doesn't make me want to do it. Pictures don't make me want to do it. Usually, I don't think about it before I do it, actually.

However, some things in media make me feel worse, which may LEAD to SH later that night, or even that week. Usually body image things, though. Sometimes I'll force myself to not eat for a day or so after certain self-image things on TV. Like, seeing a group of thin, pretty girls.

[DarkSeph]

Honestly, I learned all about it from the Internet. Though fortunately I've never tried it, so I can't blame the Internet for encouraging these things, if anything it showed me how negatively it affected a lot of peoples lives.

In the end SH is just a method of coping with depression and emotional pain, so the question to really be asking is "does the internet and TV encourage depression". And personally I think the media can be the cause of a lot of depression.

[LittleFish]

I don't think TV honestly encourages it. I almost never see anything about it on TV because it's such a difficult subject. The Internet is a different story. While it provides very useful resources for researching and gaining a better understanding of self harm, I can't tell you how many websites I've been to where people make fun of each other, call self-harmers "emo," and encourage others to kill/cut/hurt themselves. I also see a lot of websites where people treat self-harm like a trend and try to make it look cool. We live in a sick world. I definitely think that, with the right messages being conveyed, television could be a useful tool for promoting self-harm awareness. Keeping people in the dark only keeps them ignorant. Then again, some people are so dense that it might not even make a difference...

[redghoast]

i personly s/h and i never heard about it from the tv or the internet so i don't think it hass ever effected me

there was awhile ago a studdy done on wether the internet draws people who are depresed or wether the internet makes people depresed. they couldn't work out which way around it was so its hard to say wether it does or doesn't effect people. maybe it does if they see cetain images such as ArkAngel said. or maybe it doesn't it depends on the person really.

hope this helps

[Kitty.]

Different things trigger different people and for some images on TV or the Internet might cause people to feel negatively about themselves and make them feel like SHing.
So it's not really a yes or no thing. It's an individual thing.

[redghoast]

Originally Posted by LittleFish

I don't think TV honestly encourages it. I almost never see anything about it on TV because it's such a difficult subject. The Internet is a different story. While it provides very useful resources for researching and gaining a better understanding of self harm, I can't tell you how many websites I've been to where people make fun of each other, call self-harmers "emo," and encourage others to kill/cut/hurt themselves. We live in a sick world. I definitely think that, with the right messages being conveyed, television could be a useful tool for promoting self-harm awareness. Keeping people in the dark only keeps them ignorant. Then again, some people are so dense that it might not even make a difference...

i've seen many such like sites and everyone i've been on i've ether reported or talked to the person and tryed to get them to leave. its a very sick thing to tell people to go and kill them selves (coming from experance).
i think it would be a great idea if the govenment working with a charity started advets for self harming awernise as it would be a really good thing for people to understand and take notis.

[falling_x]

Interesting posts and thoughts coming up here.

redghoast; regarding that last post, adverts on the subject to raise awareness would be a great idea. However, I do think that there is a very fine line between raising awareness and advertising it.

I notice that quite a few of you are saying that the internet put the idea in your heads. This is just it. If s/h wasn't on the internet or TV, would people be starting it? Would you have started?

The internet does affect people in lots of different ways, granted, but I personally think that most of the stuff on the internet should be taken down. It is a great invention and yet, the cause of some terrible things.

[Eyes on Fire-Xx]

well, the media did have some affect, it just showed me that people did stuff like that, but if i hadent seen it anywere i still would have started because i learned on my own that SH made me more relaxed, but the media made me reilize it was bad (i was kinda young, 11-12, i didnt know much better) so the media just added the guilt of it that helped me control myself some. but at the same time, i found this site through the internet that saved me, so, good or bad i supose.

[Eyes on Fire-Xx]

and, i do agree some stuff on the internet is bad, realy bad, but you cant regulate the internet. it is what it is. if its not the internet saying stuff anymore, new ways would come about that people would hear these things. you cant stop it, but you can counter it with sites like this to help people.

[Nenya]

Well I first read about self harm in a magazine and I don't think I would have started if I hadn't read about it so to a certain extent I think it can encourage self harm.

However, I don't think it's just the media and stuff that encourage it.

[Nostalgia]

the first time i came across self harm was in school, my friend used to slef harm in classes at school i didnt know it was called this and did not really understnad it, so i didnt think much of it to begin with (i was about 14 ). and then when i got to 16 and was going to college i had by then lost most contact with this friend made new firends, and i just started to self harm then like cutting myself, i will admit that youtube has alot of videos on self harm, but most of the videos on youtube are either raising awareness of it, giving information about selfharm or are videos that ex selfharmers have made advising people to start selfharming, if anything i think the internet discourages it. i cant really remember how i got the idea to cut myself may have been to do with my friend, who used self harm back in school but i dont know, she may well have been my influence, i dont know. but i would say the internet discorages it more then encourages it, yes it can give people ideas to cut, but i would mostly say it discouarages it advices against it ect.

[actingpassion123]

i don't think it encourages it at all, but i did first learn about the concept of self-harm in an article in "American Girl" magazine. it was about a girl who struggled and recovered, and i thought maybe cutting would work for me. then the downhill spiral.

so, it put the concept in my head, but it wasn't encouraging it at all. it was just raising awareness.

[Thirteen]

See, I started Self-Harming, for the most part, on my own. I had been doing it without really knowing such. But not cutting. I started cutting well, I forget how it started. Just... needed something more potent, for lack of a better way to put it. Though I may have subconsciously picked up the idea from somewhere else, it's not like I saw it online or anything and said "Thats a good idea".

[Commiseration]

Personally, I started self-harm without any influence from any kind of media or anyone else. I honestly had never heard of it before and never knew it was a "real thing" until a year or so after I started. Thinking back, I remember watching an episode of "Seventh Heaven" and something about one of their friends hurt themselves. At the time I had no idea whatsoever what they were talking about and didn't understand the show at all. So even that didn't influence me any.

In my opinion, the media advocates more things on the lines of drug and alcohol abuse than anything. And body image issues. I'm constantly hearing about these "famous" people in rehab and they're people who kids think are cool. So naturally some will look up to them and try to be like them.

As for the internet, there are some bad sites out there that encourage self harm. They're made by ignorant people and unfortunately some people listen to them. But overall there are some people (like me) who get the idea out of thin air. And there are some who hear about things and want to try them who wouldn't have tried them if they had never heard of them! Either way with or without media there will be self-harm.

-Commiseration-

[Kate*]

I think people could say that media influences a lot of different things, but I still say people are responsible for their own choices and what they do with the influences. I hate when people try to blame things on the media like they have no control over something.

[SonicFan]

No, I don't think the media is to blame. On old media it is always portrayed in a negative light.

On the internet there are sites that promote it but then you are not likely stumble across these sites while randomly searching the internet. Plus there are resources to aid in ceasing it.

Above all it is the person's choice

[Pelios]

Originally Posted by Kate*

I think people could say that media influences a lot of different things, but I still say people are responsible for their own choices and what they do with the influences. I hate when people try to blame things on the media like they have no control over something.

I agree, you are responsible for your own actions stop blaming the media for things you do.

[savealife723]

I started watching a show when I was about nine. It was about high schoolers who were obviously going through all the highschool problems and situations that were brought upon them. Well, I saw a girl cut herself on that show, and that was the first time I had heard of or seen what it was. It surprised me, but later on, the girl's friend found out, and the girl who had cut herself explained that it was the only way she knew how to solve her problems and that it made the rest of the world disappear for awhile. The next two years, I had never forgotten that episode out of the million more that they had. And at eleven years old, I started to cut myself.

Had the tv encouraged me to do it? Of course not.
Did the show teach me what it was? Yes, but I'm sure I would have learned sooner or later what it was anyways.

[Rainbow Dash]

If someone already self-harmed or was towards the break of self-harming I think things can trigger it. I don't think it encourages it so much though.

[Apollo]

I don't believe it encourages people to hurt themselves, but I think certain things may lead people into it. Like, for example, triggering movies and pictures maybe? It doesn't say "you should hurt yourself", but when people, like in movies, hurt themselves because it makes them feel better, people pick up on those types of things. Like if a fifteen year old girl saw a video about a boy who said he hurt himself because it's the only way to relieve his pain, the girl may try it because of the message she got out of that. However, the media, sometimes, does some good awareness things, which in my opinion, actually discourages self harm instead of encouraging it.

I hope that made sense.

[Total Light Storm]

I don't think the internet or TV encouraged me, they just helped me realize the dangers of what I do to myself and that I'm not alone and should probably get help.

[justlikeme0]

Originally Posted by Hurricane

Did the internet encourage me to self harm? No. Did the internet put the idea of self harming into my head? Yes. If I hadn't found out that other people self harmed, and what self harm was all about, that it made some people feel better, then I probably would not have done it. And the internet is usually where you find these things out. I don't blame the internet for the times I self harmed, though, and I'm going to take accountability for it. But I do think that the internet is what gave me the idea of self harming, even though it discouraged me rather than encouraged.

this post is exactly what i wanted to say myself. but this person probably said it better. this is how i feel about the subject. the media puts the thought in peoples minds.
without the media i think i probably would have still started S/Hing but i dont think cutting would have been my method. it influenced me in that way.

[MichWolverineFreak]

yep. For kids, they'll think, "hey they're doing it, I can too!"