Smartphones and teen suicide risk

Pulkit Sharma

Teenagers spending five or more hours online are 71% more likely to be depressed or suicidal compared to those adolescents who are not glued to smartphones. This is really worrisome and we need to understand how smartphone usage increases suicide risk in adolescents and what we can do to prevent it.   Hi! This is Pulkit Sharma. I'm a clinical psychologist, psychoanalytic therapist, spiritual counselor and author based in Pondicherry, India. In this video, I highlight three ways in which social media addiction contributes to incidence and prevalence of depression, hopelessness and suicidal tendencies in teens.   #suicideboys #suicidegirls #smartphoneaddiction #pulkitsharmaclinicalpsychologist #authorpulkit

Transcript

00:00Many research and case studies have found a very strong correlation between

00:07heavy smartphone usage and suicide attempts in teenagers. Let's understand

00:14why. Reason number one is cyberbullying. A lot of teenagers are exposed to

00:22threats, harassment and online abuse and this makes them severely anxious, severely

00:32depressed and suicidal. Reason number two is online suicide challenges. These are a

00:40series of self-destructive and self-harm tasks which are given to the teens by

00:48some antisocial minds. The purpose of these tasks is to control the

00:56impressionable mind of a teen and slowly push them to suicide. Reason number three

01:04is social media algorithms. If a depressed teen goes online and searches for self

01:14harm and suicide related information even once, then the social media algorithms

01:22keep on recommending such feeds to them. Now when the depressed teen consumes these

01:31self-harm and suicide related feeds repetitively, their pre-existing sense of

01:38hopelessness, helplessness and meaninglessness worsens and they actually feel that

01:46there's no point in living. This could be a very crucial factor which drives them to

01:53suicide. That's why I always say that you should communicate with your teen really

02:01well. Understand what is happening deep inside their heart, in their life and monitor their smartphone usage.

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