The popular social networking site is launching a program that offers users the opportunity to Facebook chat with a crisis counselor.
For the tech savvy generation, Facebook statuses have become an outlet for expression. Users frequently update their profiles to post song lyrics, their awesome weekend plans, rants about sports and witty observations while sometimes drunkenly embarrassing themselves and baring their soul to a few hundred of their closest friends. Most of us have experience with one, if not all, of these examples. It’s highly addictive to share your life with people you haven’t talked to since freshman orientation. We seek out the validation of a “like” in place of a laugh, pat on the back or simple “well done.”
It has become obnoxiously popular to complain about the onslaught of over-sharing on Facebook and Twitter, but the truth is this so-called fad is simply a part of life now. Sure, you might scoff when you read a tweet from your favorite blogger about what coffee does to his bowel movements, but some people use these platforms to express their frustrations and admit feelings of the heartbreaking variety. Sometimes it is easier to admit your most personal thoughts to complete strangers.
Over the past couple years Facebook statuses have been used to admit troubling thoughts of suicide, and in some cases these few sentences have served as suicide notes. These cases have been highly publicized in the mainstream media as Facebook “friends” failed to respond to cries from help.
Now, Facebook is starting a program aimed at reaching out those unanswered pleas.
A program launching Tuesday enables users to instantly connect with a crisis counselor through Facebook’s “chat” messaging system.
The service is the latest tool from Facebook aimed at improving safety on its site, which has more than 800 million users. Earlier this year, Facebook announced changes to how users report bullying, offensive content and fake profiles.
“One of the big goals here is to get the person in distress into the right help as soon as possible,” Fred Wolens, public policy manager at Facebook, told The Associated Press…
How the service works is if a friend spots a suicidal thought on someone’s page, he can report it to Facebook by clicking a link next to the comment. Facebook then sends an email to the person who posted the suicidal comment encouraging them to call the hotline or click on a link to begin a confidential chat.
Facebook on its own doesn’t troll the site for suicidal expressions, Wolens said. Logistically it would be far too difficult with so many users and so many comments that could be misinterpreted by a computer algorithm.
“The only people who will have a really good idea of what’s going on is your friends, so we’re encouraging them to speak up and giving them an easy and quick way to get help,” Wolens said.
This could be an incredibly effective method in talking people off the ledge. Sometimes people just need a voice of reason — even if just it’s just text in a Facebook chat. The only possible problem with the program is it depends on a concerned friend to report what they think is a sign of trouble. Relying on the kindness of strangers in today’s society is far from foolproof. However it is a major step in the right direction, and hopefully it becomes something people take advantage of.
[AP]
December 14, 2011 at 4:04 pm, TheDea†H said:
Just die and don’t talk about that !!
Seriously, if you want to die and that’s for sure then you didn’t talk about that with other people, but you didn’t killed yourself and talking about that like you want to.
so you have 2 options:
1st. You just kill yourself.
2nd. You gonna take your life from the balls and keep living with that.
That’s what my friends told me when I said them that I wanted to die, and that was 2 years ago.