Social media often portrays an unattainable life for teenagers, no matter their circumstances, while the television shows that are targeted at this age group are behaviour detached from mainstream entertainment. From the fantastical plots to the unrealistic amount of time the characters spend in their high school years, these stories bring about an idea that these young characters are in ‘perfect’. This stance is even more damaging when it comes to dealing with issues of relationships and mental health, with shows like ‘13 Reasons Why’ and ‘Insatiable’ using revenge as a key plot device in dealing with mental disorders and websites like Tumbler and Youtube portraying the issue as lacking seriousness.
What initially started as a bid to remove the stigma around mental illnesses, later transcribed into a way for media to profit off the visual imagery presented by these problems. Anorexia became a way to reach thinspiration goals; depression afforded a sense of mystery to characters; anxiety translated to a cute quirk. Whether its young girls skipping meals for that ideal body type or students who stay up late working on an assignment calling themselves insomniacs, this attempt to join an exclusive club is doing a great deal of harm. In fact, in April 2017 suicide rates amongst adolescents hiked by 30%, this coincidently was the same month ‘13 Reasons Why’ premiered (The New York Times). While this was a correlational study, these results can offer a certain indication to the impact of this show as the trend was limited to 10-17-year-old children, which was the target age group for the show. With this we can further conclude that there is some correlation of negative portrayal of mental illnesses in media with actual life-threatening consequences.
Similarly, Netflix’s ‘Insatiable’, which premiered August 2018, promotes the idea that the lead character ‘Patty’ was right to be ashamed of herself and was worth nothing until she magically became skinny. Her transformation was credited to her jaw being wired shut in the aftermath of an injury, and she is unable to eat anything all summer. The plot not only encourages body shaming but also informs viewers that the best way to lose weight is by not eating, a dangerous idea which can lead to disorders like anorexia. The outrage about this show was evident with 228,000 people signing a petition to stop the show’s release based on only its trailer. This fact, of course, did little more than providing the show with a little free publicity which would lead to a wider spread of their detrimental message.
In 2012, Tumbler, a popular blog platform banned all content related to self-harm and eating disorders. This action was taken after the website was accused of facilitating a platform where such behaviour can be seen as ‘normal [or] even healthy’ (The Washington Post). The idea was that individuals prone to such behaviour would use the affirmations provided to them by fellow bloggers to excuse their behaviour and even be triggered to continue it. Shannon Barnett, a child psychiatrist at Johns Hopkins Children’s centre has informed that she does not allow patients to mention their scars in group therapy sessions for fear that they may trigger other patients, yet Tumbler facilitated the same actions, with multiple blogs lined with images and quotes dedicated to mental illnesses. They showed mental illnesses as being beautiful and even going so far as suggesting that the act of suicide is a reasonable escape from one’s problems. While this ban was implemented in 2012, many bloggers were able to continue this dangerous trend by using vocabulary that the website providers did not know to sensor for.
Furthermore, all this noise about mental illnesses has given rise to a YouTube trend of bloggers sharing stories of their battles with major psychological disorders, i.e. anxiety, depression etc. While there is no way for the public to decipher whether or not these individuals are authentic, it is relatively simple to assess when mental illnesses are used as a shield for unacceptable behaviour. For example, Logan Paul publishing a video of a suicide victim post mortem and stating that it was for the sake of raising awareness when instead it was for shock value. Actions like these remove credibility from actual well-meaning activists who want to bring about awareness of the topic at hand. Actions that have been taken by Paul and other Youtubers work to undo all that has been done to destigmatise mental health problems.
Additionally, YouTubers have been profiting from their subscribers’ mental disorders, as often those who confess about having these problems sponsor online counselling services, aimed at helping troubled subscribers get the help they need. These advertisements have resulted in a great deal of backlash as one of the sites repeatedly sponsored, Better Help has been identified as being exploitative and overcharging patients without giving them the details of their subscription plan. They have further claimed to take no responsibility for the quality of therapy provided, often resulting in the patients being matched with unresponsive counsellors.
Looking at the current direction in which media is moving, with psychological illnesses being the new trend or exclusive club that people need to join, it is no wonder that there has been a global rise in suicide rates. There are simply no regulations placed on the type of content that is available to young impressionable minds, and it is thus very important to ensure that one is informed about the misinformation that is spread with regards to psychological wellbeing.
