Research shows ’13 Reasons Why’ influenced suicide-related searches online

A popular and controversial Netflix drama ’13 Reasons Why’ became all the rage after its release. The show is about a teenage girl who killed herself but before dying, she documented the reasons of killing herself in 13 different audio tapes which were discovered after her death.

After the show was aired, researchers worked on deciphering whether any change was witnessed in the online searches regarding suicide. They found out that the searches about suicide and suicidal methods soared in the weeks following the release of the show.

The report was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) and it shows some alarming results. The report only researched the online search trends in relation to the show but did not examine whether the number of actual suicides rose following the popular show’s release.

According to the report, the overall suicide-related queries were 19 per cent higher than expected following the show, which is a cause for concern.

“There were between 900,000 and 1,500,000 more suicide-related searches than expected during the 19 days following the series’ release,” said study co-author Mark Dredze, a professor of computer science at Johns Hopkins University.

Phrases like “how to commit suicide” rose 26pc, “commit suicide” was up 18pc and “how to kill yourself” increased nine pc.

On the flip side, searches for phrases like “suicide hotline” were up 12pc, and “suicide prevention” rose 23pc.

“While it’s heartening that the series’ release concurred with increased awareness of suicide and suicide prevention, like those searching for “suicide prevention,” our results back up the worst fears of the show’s critics,” said lead author John Ayers, research professor at San Diego State University Graduate School of Public Health.

“The show may have inspired many to act on their suicidal thoughts by seeking out information on how to commit suicide.”

The researches have cautioned that such shows may inspire suicide and certain measures should be taken to prevent that from happening. They have advised that suicide prevention numbers should be provided at the end of every episode and the scenes showing the act should be deleted from the show.

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Posted by fatimaarshad on Aug 1 2017. Filed under Latest News, World. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.