Svetlana Knizhnikova, a sociologist expert, reasons about the media ballyhoo impact on the suicidal statistics, the organizers of the ‘death groups’ and basic safety ruled in the Internet.
“A great many of studies have proved the influence of media products upon the suicidal activity. And these are not only TV reports or Internet news, but also feature films, songs, talk shows, computer games, and different communities in social networks. Science calls such outburst of simulative suicides as the Werther effect, after The Sorrows of Young Werther by Goethe. Although this novel had been written many years before the virtual nets appeared but is provoked an eruption of youth suicides.
“It has been counted that if information of some celebrity’s committing suicide is being actively spread, the number of suicides may soar by 14 times; [and even] if this is news about some plain person’s suicide, it may provoke commitment of suicides by four times.
“There are several psychological types of people who instigate teenagers to settle the score with their lives. The first group consists of people thinking that they have been called to ‘purify the society’ by removing the ‘unneeded ballast’. By doing this, such types are asserting themselves thinking they are purifiers or even saviours of the society. Another category are gamblers who may have a cynical competition on who would be the first to drive a teenager to suicide. As in any other game, it is a competitive spirit that rules here. If the first group considers kids as mere ‘biological rubbish’, the second one take them something like cards or dibs they can play with and boast of. As a rule, the administrators of such groups know manipulation techniques.
“To teach a teenager to think critically and to detect the manipulators working in the Internet is not the only way to fight suicides. It is nurture of viability that must become the primary prevention method – that is not merely to learn how to adapt to difficulties, but to oppose the negative impact of the environment, to successfully overcome the hard moments and transform them into the areas for development.”
За всеми важными новостями следите в MAX, Telegram, во «ВКонтакте», «Одноклассниках», YouTube и на Rutube
