The dark side of live streaming
A disturbing trend of social media deaths signs a growing crisis By Chaiyot Yongcharoenchai
As an only child, Phop, a 21-yearold Bangkok native, was used to getting what he wanted. After divorcing Phop’s father when her son was five, his mother raised him on her own. Scared that being a single mother would inhibit her from being the best parent, she did everything in her power to ensure her son never felt like his life lacked. She bought him the best mobile phone she could find, the best toys, trips, education and all-around life quality.
She worked relentlessly to be a successful business owner, leaving her little quality time to spend with Phop. But she would always buy him what he wanted to make up for it.
“If I wanted a brand new smartphone or laptop, I would get it no matter how much it cost,” said Phop of his upbringing. “I used to think all these gadgets made me happy but for some reason, I never felt fully satisfied with any of it.”
When Phop was a teenager, he grew more isolated from his peers. He started wanted something his mother had never been able to fully give him — her time and attention.
“I had been trying to get her attention but couldn’t seem to,” he said. “I felt like the whole world was against me and I wasn’t happy with my life. I started to join social media groups to find new friends who thought like me.
“Then one of them told me to make a fake video of me trying to kill myself and upload it online to get a lot of likes and shares online. And I did.”
Phop’s move was no isolated incident, but part of a broader social media trend spreading at a viral pace. Thailand’s suicide rate is on the rise, ranking in the top three countries with the highest suicide rates last year.
As social media continues to exert strong influence over users — especially young people — this trend shows no sign of dying out.
CAUGHT ON CAMERA
At the start of the New Year, when people feel restored and happy from the holidays, Clear, an 18-year-old girl from Ranong, was in far from festive spirits. After ending a relationship with a man from a good background, she struggled to find any reason to go on in life.
On the evening of Jan 2, she called up a motorcycle taxi from her dormitory in Lat Phrao. She told him to go to Rama VIII Bridge. The motorcycle driver noticed she was distraught, apparently drunk and crying.
Once they arrived at the bridge, she asked the driver to stay with her for a while. She played some sad music from her phone and cried there on the bridge as the driver watched her. She then asked if he would take a video of her for broadcast on Facebook, offering to pay him 500 baht. The driver accepted and took her phone in hand.
As the camera recorded, Clear started to climb on to the railing of the bridge, still crying and now shouting about the man who had broken her heart. Before the driver realised what was happening, Clear plunged into the Chao Phraya river, disappearing before her viewers’ eyes.
The driver immediately went to the nearest police station in hopes someone could rescue her. Two days after the incident, her body was found 500 metres from the bridge.
Nearly two weeks later, a distressed wife living on the outskirts of Bangkok confronted her husband, a lawyer, over suspicions he was cheating. After failing to offer any answers, she decided to turn to the Facebook Live feature on Jan 13 in a last attempt to get his attention.
In the video, she wept and demanded to know why her husband hadn’t responded to her, and why he didn’t love her. She decided to end her misery by drinking laundry detergent on camera. Luckily, someone reported what she had done and she was rushed to hospital. She would get another shot at life.
TRIAL AND ERROR
Phop’s first suicide attempt was with paracetamol tablets. He took around 30 pills in an attempt to overdose. When his mother found out, she rushed him to the hospital in time.
Later on, she took him to see a psychiatrist. She found out her son suffered from depression. He begun telling her about his desire to spend more time with her.
“I felt like this [time in care] was the only time I would get to spend more than one hour with my mum,” Phop explained. “That’s why I thought it was the right thing to do.”
Phop proceeded to try other ways to get attention from his mother. He took photos of a rope and posted them online. In the caption, he wrote he would use the rope to end his life. He also took videos of himself appearing to show him slashing his wrists, although he was only pretending.
These were more ploys to get her attention but one day, it went wrong for Phop.
“I put the camera on and climbed on top of a chair in to place my head inside this rope I had hung from the ceiling,” said Phop. “I put my neck through the hole I made but the rope didn’t come undone when I put my weight in it. I thought I was going to die since I almost suffocated, but luckily the maid that my mum hired found me and rescued me.
“Since then, I told myself I wouldn’t play any stupid games like this again.”
According to a statement issued by the Public Health Ministry of Thailand in 2016, around 4,000 Thai people commit suicide every year, with a monthly average of 300 per month, or 4,000 cases every year. Family and relationship problems were the top reasons for suicide.
That figure makes Thailand the country with the third-most suicides in the world, according to Dr Yongyuth Wongpiromsan, former Public Health Ministry spokesman and psychiatrist.
Dr Yongyuth, who is also the chief adviser to the Mental Health Department, said the most common suicide methods were hanging — which accounts for 70% of deaths — poisoning (20%) and shooting (10%).
Most suicides in Thailand are committed by men.
The most common factors leading to suicide were health issues such as depression or chronic illness — especially elders who are ashamed of being family burdens — family problems such as domestic violence and a loss of self-control experienced after bouts of excessive drinking.
“In Thailand, most suicide cases involved working-age people — late 20s to 50s — who suffered from conflicts in love, family issues, were overwhelmed by debt, as well as stress from work,” said Dr Youngyuth.
NET WORTH
Sqn Ldr Boonruang Triruangworawat, directorgeneral of the Department of Mental Health, issued a statement last year telling the public to stop sharing content featuring people committing or attempting suicide.
Research from the Khon Kaen Rajanagarindra Psychiatric Hospital has found that the number of male suicides is four times higher than female. There are around 350 Thai people who kill themselves every month, meaning one person will kill themselves every two hours.
Dr Boonruang said that there is usually at least one or two incidents every month of Thai people broadcasting suicide videos online. He says the trend is dangerous as there is no means of censoring the content. Anyone can watch online, including children without adult supervision. The violence on display can affect the viewers’ mental health.
He says that those who commit suicide, or attempt to, usually show signs beforehand by writing farewell letters or texts, or posting depressing content on social media. Loved ones are encouraged to reach out when they notice any signs like this, says Dr Boonruang.
Assoc Prof Dr Suriyadeo Tripathi, the pediatrician expert in adolescent medicine and the Director of National Institute for Child and Family Development, Mahidol University, says that those who seek attention in the online world are generally unhappy in their real lives.
“Teenagers all want somewhere they feel like they belong to,” Dr Suriyadeo said. “They want to be able to express themselves and feel like they are important to someone. Since social media is a borderless tool and everyone has access to it, they feel like they can do anything or be anything on social media.”
ANTI-SOCIAL
While mental health experts have expressed concern about the rise of social media usage among young people, the problem cannot only be explained by the technology itself.
Dr Suriyadeo told Spectrum that the strong reliance on social media among youth is a reflection of the broader failure of social support systems.
“People in the younger generation express more individualism,” said Dr Suriyadeo. “They value a lot more privacy and tend to keep everything to themselves. They can live their lives without interacting with other human beings since they have social media. Therefore, they are living in this visual reality world.”
He added: “Social media may look like a convenient tool to keep people connected with each other easily but don’t forget — you can’t see the expression of the person you are interacting with. That’s why people nowadays are lacking life skills.
“By nature, humans are social animals. We need to interact with other people in person to keep the social network in the real world expanding.”
Dr Suriyadeo says that the root of the problem is a lack of social support for young people. In the past, Thai society had strong supporting systems at home, as well as at school. Although parents still went to work, children would stay with their grandparents or relatives.
“That kind of support system from family and friends is absent in the modern-day family dynamics. This is why we start seeing people nowadays become more depressed,” Dr Suriyadeo explained. “They often feel alone since social media can’t really replace real interactions with other human being.”
He adds that a sustainable solution to this would be focusing on online literacy. Teachers can use several case studies to show young people what to do and not to do on the internet.
“Younger generations should be able to learn living skills and life skills along with literacy skills, so that they will be immune to any tragic circumstances,” said Dr Suriyadeo.
“One day, if they see, for example, suicide videos on social media, they will know enough not to copy that act and learn not to watch or share the content.”
We need to interact with other people in person to keep the social network in the real world expanding
SURIYADEO TRIPATHI, DOCTOR