I blame commercials and PSAs. I stopped watching TV in the mid-2000s and have ad blocker. Watching TV today is like stepping back into Plato’s Cave. You don’t realize how psychologically damaging commercials are.
As an example, a few years ago I watched a live stream of the local news during a weather event. Four hours later, I had seen the same commercial for an HIV drug at least 8 times. I had the thing memorized and I was very, very aware of HIV all day as it replayed in my brain. I don’t ever think about HIV. But I was forced to. I’m usually happy go lucky but after that ad, and other ads for a myriad of other drugs for diseases, plus PSAs reminding me how my life is a vicious jungle with death just a step away, I felt pretty bummed. Some of those PSAs are down right mean spirited.
Without ads, I can control my exposure to the horrors of the world. With ads, you’re at the mercy of the station or website drowning you in human misery. There probably needs to be a law to limit those kind of commercials. Like one PSA a week and one pharmaceutical commercial a day.
Do they take into account the ads that are run on those sites?
I mean, everybody talks about how YT is killing everyone but I don’t get it. Unless… There was one day I sat down for breakfast, feeling great and started to play a light hearted review of a movie from Red Letter Media, about to eat a spoon full of Cheerios when an ad snuck past my ad blocker. It started off with “Cancer is different when it happens to a child.” I immediately closed my browser and sat there in stunned silence for five minutes with my chin on my lap. That ad just shat all over my day before it even began. When I got back to watching RLM, I was still thinking about kids with cancer for five minutes while Mike and Jay made jokes.
If people are bombarded by that kind of bipolar stream of videos while watching YT, I can see how it can ruin your life.
No, this specifically is about how seeing content in which teens explain how to kill yourself has an impact on the probability that you try to kill yourself.
I blame commercials and PSAs. I stopped watching TV in the mid-2000s and have ad blocker. Watching TV today is like stepping back into Plato’s Cave. You don’t realize how psychologically damaging commercials are.
As an example, a few years ago I watched a live stream of the local news during a weather event. Four hours later, I had seen the same commercial for an HIV drug at least 8 times. I had the thing memorized and I was very, very aware of HIV all day as it replayed in my brain. I don’t ever think about HIV. But I was forced to. I’m usually happy go lucky but after that ad, and other ads for a myriad of other drugs for diseases, plus PSAs reminding me how my life is a vicious jungle with death just a step away, I felt pretty bummed. Some of those PSAs are down right mean spirited.
Without ads, I can control my exposure to the horrors of the world. With ads, you’re at the mercy of the station or website drowning you in human misery. There probably needs to be a law to limit those kind of commercials. Like one PSA a week and one pharmaceutical commercial a day.
Frankly, I’m just glad that there may be a tax on advertisin (and other things) to try and shore up health care costs in Michigan.
Source: https://www.mlive.com/politics/2026/02/whitmer-wants-new-taxes-on-tobacco-sports-betting-to-keep-health-spending-stable.html
Blame social media. We have studies that show direct correlation between suicide rate and instagram, for example. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1461444819850106
Do they take into account the ads that are run on those sites?
I mean, everybody talks about how YT is killing everyone but I don’t get it. Unless… There was one day I sat down for breakfast, feeling great and started to play a light hearted review of a movie from Red Letter Media, about to eat a spoon full of Cheerios when an ad snuck past my ad blocker. It started off with “Cancer is different when it happens to a child.” I immediately closed my browser and sat there in stunned silence for five minutes with my chin on my lap. That ad just shat all over my day before it even began. When I got back to watching RLM, I was still thinking about kids with cancer for five minutes while Mike and Jay made jokes.
If people are bombarded by that kind of bipolar stream of videos while watching YT, I can see how it can ruin your life.
In the past when you were bullied it usually was contained to school. Now with social media, it continues in the safety of your home as well.
No, this specifically is about how seeing content in which teens explain how to kill yourself has an impact on the probability that you try to kill yourself.