Every now and again we hear people talk about the negative impacts of technology and social media.
Well, for those who love to hate, here is something to appreciate.
Facebook is helping individuals through social media who may be going through a rough patch in hopes of the prevention of suicide.
Still interested?
Here’s how it works: any individual who posts suggested thoughts of suicide or just anything that appears to be a red flag for self-harm, friends and users can now anonymously alert Facebook to intervene.
Facebook updated its feature to report suicidal content and keep users safe.
Once Facebook is notified about the post, a team reviews it. If they believe it is necessary, they will send something to the troubled user with suicide prevention resources, like the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline hotline.
The individual who reported the posts may also be notified with options to reach out to the troubled person or even to seek advice from a trained professional for themselves.
The 2011 version of this form of intervening asked the individual who saw the troubled post to send screen shots or pictures in to Facebook of the post itself. Then the website would send the user to a suicidal prevention page.
Facebook now offers a tool to report any posts that are red flags for a suicide.
The social media website has worked with many prevention organizations, which include Now Matters Now, Innovations in Suicide Prevention, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline and Save.org.
Now, once all steps are taken and individuals are notified, a heart will pop up on the user’s page and let them know that someone is worried about them.
The pop-up will confirm that if they continue to move forward with post, everything is completely private and confidential.
If they decide to move along with the post, it will give options for which action they would like to take next, such as being able to reach out to a friend or helpline worker as well as getting tips on how to cope with depression or personal issues.
Although Facebook made the point that this new update is not a replacement for emergency services, it is still a step in the right direction.
