SALON

Wednesday, Dec 14, 2011 7:15 PM UTC

Can Facebook save your life?

As suicide notes increasingly arrive in status updates, the social-networking site offers help to the despairing

By

Topics: Facebook, Suicide,

Can Facebook save your life? (Credit: Facebook/Salon)

In September 2010, Rutgers freshman Tyler Clementi posted on his Facebook page that he was “Jumping off the gw bridge sorry” – and then did. Last Christmas, Simone Back wrote that she “Took all my pills be dead soon so bye bye every one.” Several Facebook “friends” added disparaging comments, but no one stepped forward to check on her. Black’s body was found the next day. And last December, Clay Duke posted a Facebook “testament,” writing that “Some people (the government sponsored media) will say I was evil, a monster … no…” He then went on a shooting rampage and killed himself.

Could anything have stopped Tyler, Simone or Clay once they decided to end their lives? Perhaps not. But as the grim status update increasingly becomes the new suicide note, Facebook has taken on an active, interventionist role. Users can now anonymously flag “suicidal content” – and Facebook will directly contact the person who posted it with suicide-prevention assistance. The mechanism has quietly been in place since June, but Facebook announced Tuesday that it was expanding its efforts, offering potentially self-destructive users more resources via a partnership with the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.

While the information Facebook previously offered was limited to phone numbers, now users have the option of connecting with a crisis counselor through a private, anonymous chat room. Lifeline’s John Draper explained Tuesday that “there are many people in crisis who don’t feel comfortable picking up the phone. This new service provides a way for them to get the help they need in the way they want it.” It makes sense: Someone who prefers the relative safety of online communication, someone who is already online, would naturally gravitate toward chat rather than picking up the phone.

There are times when using a word on Facebook or in a Google search can make a person feel creepily observed. It’s easy to feel – quite accurately – that our every move online targets us for a sponsored message. That monitoring rarely feels in our best interest, but it’s nothing but terrific that since 2010, Google has made sure that the first thing that comes up when someone searches “suicide” is the image of a red phone, the message “Need help?” and the number of the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. Likewise, Facebook’s resources for users who may be suicidal – and concerned friends — are a strong step toward social responsibility. Facebook also offers specific help for LGBT members, with phone numbers and links for the Trevor Project.

Even the smallest gesture – like a suicide-prevention hotline number in the Google search of someone who may be looking for the best ways to die – affords someone with a seed of hope the chance to chart a different course. And if someone reads a friend’s despairing status update and makes help available, well, that’s a pretty noble use of social networking.

These innovations say a lot about our peculiar squeamishness about suicide, and how far removed we can be from our friends’ deepest pain. A potentially suicidal person’s first source of intervention might now be the automated results from a search engine. Or help might come from Facebook’s anonymous support team as a form message.

But as Surgeon General Regina Benjamin wrote on Facebook this week, we all need to learn “how to stand with and support someone who is in crisis.” That means creating online resources and safe means of reporting suicidal behavior. But if Google and Facebook can figure out how to help, surely the rest of us can come up with a few ideas as well. We can start by remembering that a voice on the phone, a supportive shoulder, or the offer to drive someone to a crisis center can be powerful as well. Sometimes, saving a human life still requires a human touch.

Mary Elizabeth Williams

Mary Elizabeth Williams is a staff writer for Salon and the author of "Gimme Shelter: My Three Years Searching for the American Dream." Follow her on Twitter: @embeedub. More Mary Elizabeth Williams.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 10 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: Chekhov's story mirrors Russia's own

Recommendations