‘Maybe our young people resort to social media for support or information because it simply isn’t available elsewhere’
...maybe our young people resort to social media for support or information because it simply isn’t available elsewhere
INSTAGRAM is banning graphic self-harm images from its platform. This is not necessarily a good thing.
In our rush to blame social media companies like Instagram for society’s ills, including the mental health crisis affecting young people, we risk shutting down debate about what might actually be causing it.
Is social media the cause or the refuge for those with mental health and other problems?
There is surely a trigger that makes people share or explore on social media platforms.
At the moment it feels as if we are shining the spotlight on social media alone instead of allowing wider discussion about what other factors may be contributing to young people self-harming.
Graphic content about self-harm “has the effect of grooming people to take their own lives”, according to Jackie Doyle-Price, the Westminster government’s under-secretary for mental health, inequalities and suicide prevention.
And now Instagram says it will remove all graphic self-harm images after the father of 14-year-old Molly Russell, who took her own life in 2017, said Instagram had “helped kill” his daughter.
Molly’s family found she had been viewing graphic images of self-harm on the site prior to her death.
It is hard to begin to imagine their pain and Molly’s father Ian is right in saying social media firms have a responsibility to their users.
But they are not solely to blame and we scapegoat them at our peril.
It may be hard to admit but maybe our young people resort to social media for support or information because it simply isn’t available elsewhere?
Waiting lists for NHS mental health services are notoriously and scandalously lengthy and people affected, young and old, often have to travel far from home to get help, even if it comes in time.
If waiting times were as long for other life threatening diseases, such as cancer, there would be a national outcry.
But mental health problems still come with stigma even in the 21st century. It’s just not something many people feel free to talk about at home, work or among friends.
Social media fills the vacuum left by long waiting lists and this failure to be able to speak freely and openly about issues that may shock and repulse family and friends.
There is a lot of talk now about “safe spaces”. Social media platforms where people feel they can speak honestly about their mental problems may be those “safe spaces”.
But no space is truly safe and so, into these platforms come images and descriptions of self-harm which may, or may not, lure people into worse problems than those which brought them there in the first place.
But rather than blaming Instagram and other social media platforms we should ask what in our society is bringing our young people to self harm.
It is well documented that our younger generation is paying more for education and housing and find it harder to get well-paid and secure jobs. Fewer will have jobs for life, they will have to wait longer for smaller pensions and are predicted to be the first generation since World War Two to be worse off than their parents.
Add to that worries over global warming, uncertainty about the economic and social effects of Brexit and an ever more brutally competitive education system obsessed with results then surely it is small wonder that young people suffer mental health problems and some resort to self-harm.
Of course endless 24-hour streams of consciousness from social media might add to that tension – from being taunted by images of impossible perfection to the freedom to explore how to take action if you can’t bear it.
But it’s a cop-out to blame social media for everything. Platforms like Instagram have become convenient whipping boys for all society’s problems.
While we concentrate in that direction other flashpoints get ignored. What is going wrong elsewhere?
Parents, politicians, educators and health experts would do well to look beyond the social media companies, which they frequently understand less well than the young people using them.
Maybe some of those in power are glad no-one is looking elsewhere to find answers.
Surely some tipping point leads young people to research self-harm images on social media?
Most importantly we must all act to ensure young people and others don’t feel compelled to look for support on social media because there is none elsewhere.
We all need to learn to talk more about mental health and the stigma around it.
If we don’t, this mental health crisis will never be addressed.
Instagram and other online platforms may play a part in mental health problems and even self-harming. But they are not the sole contributors, convenient though that would be.
We turn all our attention to social media at our peril. The issue is more complex.
Banning, after all, tends to shut down, rather than encourage, healthy debate.
We need to ban less and listen more.