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by cm2012 1722 days ago
Facebook is global, the fact the suicide rate only grew in the US and not worldwide is a point in its favor. Not to mention the increase in suicide rate is higher for older generations who use social media less, according to the data.
2 comments
tablespoon 1722 days ago
> Facebook is global, the fact the suicide rate only grew in the US and not worldwide is a point in its favor.

Not necessarily. To oversimplify things to make a point, suicide may have two ingredients: Facebook and something else. The US has an increased rate because has both (Facebook and the other ingredient), while the other places don't because they only have one ingredient (Facebook) and are missing the other. It's not a point in Facebook's favor if it is one of many ingredients in a recipe for suicide, and Facebook may be the easiest ingredient to eliminate.

And that's totally plausable. The US has many unique cultural factors (e.g. highest rating of individualism of any country).

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GhettoComputers 1722 days ago
That is assuming that facebook usage is globally homogenous.

Social climates, sex and age play a huge factor. Young insecure girls that are bombarded with how they should look, and what their friends are doing without them will not be affected as the boomer who only goes onto facebook marketplace to sell, talk with family, or the kind that posts trump memes. Heres some interesting data. https://www.smartinsights.com/social-media-marketing/social-...

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vadfa 1722 days ago
I don't think usage of instagram is much different here in western europe and the results regarding teen suicide are not the same seemingly. So I'm not sure of what to think.

Open to being proven wrong about instagram usage in the us vs europe. I haven't really looked into it. But it seems all teens and preteens here are hooked on it.

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GhettoComputers 1722 days ago
It is multidimensional, it does not mean that social media is going to have the same effect even among the same country with the same usage. Widespread anti-semitism for instance in the US did not cause the holocaust as it did in Germany. The culture in parts different parts of western Europe is different than it is from southern US and northern US.

You will find no shortage of people quitting social media and reporting benefits around the world, the algorithms on instagram will also vary with what is shown. Without enough data I cannot quantify it but other factor such as wealth are also associated with suicides, low income and high income communities have lower suicide rates. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_suicide_r...

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