At the end of October, I started an Instagram poetry account called zoepoetry_ to share my writing with a broader community than my grandma. (Shameless plug, I know. Just keep reading though. It’s important, I promise.) Despite falling victim to stereotyping, I think it is safe to say poetry occasionally attracts emotionally unstable people seeking some sort of comfort. Because that is what writing does, it helps people feel connected, it makes them feel less alone.
I began noticing my followers and started finding a trend that my personal account would never attract. Instagrams with the handle’s such as “fake.fxcking.smiles”, “ALL.BROKEN” and “lifehurtsbaby” were looking at my posts connecting with my writing and following my poetry account.
That is when I found the deep dark world of Instagram.
After two hours of being engulfed by posts promoting self-harm and suicide, I was nauseated. I imagined a struggling, misguided teenager, sitting alone on her bed, scrolling through her feed and seeing pictures of parties she wasn’t invited to, then stumbling upon this-
Black background, white writing. Easy, clean, simple, “I just want to die.” Followers reach out, showing compassion and giving strength, but to no avail. Another post says, “Everything is totally okay I just need to get hit by a car.” My heart aches.
In the last two years, I have been directly affected by four suicides by college age students. Three were D1 level athletes, one identified himself with the LGBT community; each struggling with their own sets of demons, as we all do in college while we search to find our identity. Considering 90% of Instagram is under the age of 30 and is mostly used by college students, this age group, the group that already faces so many obstacles and struggles, is this more likely to find these accounts and be influenced.
Lastly, here is one of the most disturbing accounts I’ve seen yet. What if someone who already had suicidal and depressive thoughts saw this? What if it pushed them over the edge?
If this bio is confusing, don’t worry; I was confusing to me too. “Days clean” is a reference to how many days since the person's last round of self harm, which most commonly can be done in the form of cutting. “Attempts” is showing that the owner of this account has attempted suicide four times. It's almost promoting these actions like a badge of honor.
One post says if it receives 1,000 likes, the person will flush their blades which they use to cut themselves with. It's a double edge sword because a viewer does not want to give attention to the post and continue this snowball of endorsing this behavior but also fears what will happen if it does not reach their goal of 1,000 likes.
What frightens me most is that it says, “don’t report please," which of course I did, and nothing was done. Although Instagram does not have a rule that an account must be taken down after a certain number of reports, if an account violates their Community Guidelines only then will it be deleted. Meanwhile this Instagram account is still active, reaching nearly 1,000 followers.
So I urge you, if you ever find yourself on one of these Instagram accounts, please report it, don’t let this be another tool to push people even farther into the hands of depression. The world is tough as it is, there’s no need to make it even easier to fall victim to depression, self harm, and even suicide.
If you have children on Instagram, educate them on the dangers of these accounts and create a clear path of communication for them to discuss their emotions. If you love anyone even, stop these accounts and report them. Share this article; let Instagram know about the nightmare that such a fantastic app, with the potential to do such positive things, is harvesting.
It could save a life.
