Citation

Soron TR. Asian J. Psychiatry 2019; 44: 55-57.

Affiliation

Founder Cyberpsychology Research Organization Telepsychiatry Research and Innovation Network Ltd, Dhaka, Bangladesh. Electronic address: tanjirsoron@yahoo.com.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.ajp.2019.07.002

PMID

31323535

Abstract

Social media has connected the world and transformed the concept of social interaction and traditional communication. However, the concern is rising as people started using the platform for sharing fake news, violent intentions and activities including suicide and homicide. In this paper, I report the case of a media worker in Bangladesh who committed suicide after sharing series of Facebook posts mentioning her intensions to commit suicide. Thousands of her Facebook friends and followers noticed the posts; few of them shared the posts and made critical comments. This case documented the use of Facebook to disclose the intention of committing suicide in Bangladesh. Though Facebook is gaining attention as a potential source to predict and provide timely intervention to prevent suicide, this case raised the question about the effective participation of Facebook users in such programs. We need to emphasis and focus on ensuring active participation of most of Facebook users in any social media based suicide prevention program. This report may inspire future researchers to find out more user friendly and participatory social media focused suicide prevention programs.

Copyright © 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Language: en

Keywords

Bangladesh; Facebook; Schadenfreude; Suicide