Oxford researchers highlighted the pros and cons of Internet usage among distressed individuals suggesting it can both help and harm such people.
The Internet, its various forums and social networking sites have been the focus of many heated debates. While some argue that it can prove to be beneficial for people across the globe, others have highlighted the negative impact it has on individuals, especially teenagers. In a new research paper, Oxford university researchers highlighted both the pros and cons of Internet usage among distressed individuals.
The researchers analyzed the conclusions of 14 previous studies conducted on similar topics and noted that they all had contradicting findings about Internet's influence. The researchers found that while internet forums provide a support network for socially isolated young people, they also increase the risk of suicide and self-harm among vulnerable adolescents. Sometimes, such forums help a distressed young individual to cope with his or her anxiety. However, there are some instances where distressed individuals turn to the Internet for more information on self-harm. Unfortunately, they are exposed to horrific imagery, compelling them to act out what they see online.
Moderate or severe addiction to the internet is also connected to an increased risk for self-harm, and increased levels of depression or thoughts about suicide, revealed the Oxford report. Moreover, young people at risk of self-harm or suicide were often online for longer periods than other teenagers. Suicide risks were higher among individuals using internet forums than those using social networking sites. The Oxford review revealed 59 percent of people interviewed in a previous study admitted to researching suicide online. Of the 15 individuals who had carried out violent acts of self-harm, 80 percent admitted to having checked out ways to harm oneself beforehand. Another 34 people who self-harmed by cutting, almost 73 percent admitted to having researched this method of self-harm online.
Other findings revealed:
- Individuals who used such forums stressed on the importance of anonymity
- Such people also tended to normalize self-harm
- Most of them visited such forums for empathy or to discuss safety methods rather than how to reduce their self-harming behavior.
One study that Oxford researchers reviewed suggested that internet forums didn't make a stressed individual feel any better. In fact, after using the site, the individual was more stressed. Another study contradicted this finding, stating an analysis of the posts created by forum users revealed that by the third month they were less distressed than they had been in the first couple of months.
"We are not saying that all young people who go on the internet increase their risk of suicide or self-harm," senior co-author Professor Paul Montgomery, from the Centre for Evidence-Based Intervention at the University of Oxford concluded. "We are talking about vulnerable young people who are going online specifically to find out more about harming themselves or because they are considering suicide already. The question is whether the online content triggers a response so that they self-harm or take their own lives and we have found that there is a link."
