I'm going to continue on with the self-harm theme....
My general research idea was around the theme of self-harm and social media. Therefore, a research question could be along the lines of "How do self harm sufferers use social media?" – This is quite a broad statement as I could then choose to focus in on one specific area of social media i.e. youtube, Facebook or message boards.
It seems that social media is used by those who are self harming to share experiences, offer tips (be them positive or negative) as well as social support1. These can be used to help those in difficult situations but have been known to entice people into the habit of self harming as well as harbour criminals who might get a kick out of others self harming – people can lie about their ages/actions. Espeically interesting was the use of YouTube and this article2 states that YouYube can be “normalising” self harm despite many popular self harm videos being preventative, educational ones. They can be reinforcing bad behaviour with a “melanocholic” message if viewed by certain individuals but those that aim to help people and encourage them to seek help can provide information.
An informative, confidential questionnaire could be given to those who attend A+E or a GP following a self-harm incident. If given at a support group, you would expect biased
Questions to be investigated:
- History of self harm.
- Use of Social media – days, hours, weeks etc.
- Has your use of social media changed since you start self harming?
- Do you use any websites to discuss/find out about self harming?
- Which? And Why?
- How often do you use social media?
- Have they helped to prevent relapses?
- Have you ever mentioned this to anyone?
- Do you have regular chats with people online?
- Do they influence your decisions/actions at all?
References:
