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Tuesday
Mar152011

News 8 Austin: SXSW panel targets suicide and prevention

News 8 Austin covered Emotion Technology's SXSW Interactive panel, highlighting the scope of the problem and the importance of bringing help to young users online.

Saturday
Mar052011

Austin Chronicle: Future Perfect - Contemplating the Digital Afterlife

Wells Dunbar spotlighted Emotion Technology's SXSW panel "RT: I'm Going to Kill Myself" in his March 5th trend piece for the Austin Chronicle on some SXSW 2010 panels about technology, death, and saving lives.

Right now, Gandin Le concedes, ways to help are pretty limited. "That's what we're working on, is to make sure that on Facebook or on Twitter those policies are in place, so if users report there's a problem, we are able to save lives." This could take the form of alerting local authorities, or "online crisis counseling, where users will be able to click on a link and get help immediately." If there's one thing people like Gandin Le and digital afterlife planners have in common, it's working on a standardization of responses from social network companies so the response process will be streamlined when threats are made –potentially saving lives in the process. "One thing I hear a lot," Gandin Le says of suicidal posts, "is, 'Oh, this person's just making a cry for help.' Well yeah, exactly, so let's get them help!"

Tuesday
Feb022010

MSN.ca: Can a Tweet Save a Life?

Canadian journalist Matthieu Burgard interviewed CEO Christopher Gandin Le for an MSN.ca article exploring the possibilities for suicide prevention through social networks like Twitter. (Article in French; click here to translate to English via Google Translate.)

Monday
Nov302009

The Daily Beast: Does Twitter Prevent Suicide?

Daily Beast LogoJournalist Benjamin Popper interviewed Christopher Gandin Le for a smart and well-researched article about suicide and social media, specifically the phenomenon of Twitter suicide threats and the community response to those.

This kind of behavior is the key to understanding the power of social media, said Christopher Gandin Le, one of the country’s top thinkers on the intersection of suicide and social media. “There is a culture of sharing your feelings on sites like Facebook and Twitter that I think plays an important role in suicide prevention,” he said. “Kids today are experts on their friends, what they’re doing and how they're feeling at every moment.”

Monday
Nov162009

YPulse Interview: Christopher Gandin Le, Emotion Technology

YPulse, the leading authority on youth and marketing to teens, tweens, and Generation Y, published an interview today with Christopher Gandin Le, CEO of Emotion Technology, discussing social media and suicide prevention.

"Any death by suicide is tragic, let alone multiple deaths in one community. Situations like what happened in Palo Alto highlight the potential contagion effect that suicide can have when not addressed correctly. There are very specific guidelines for postvention (the steps taken after a suicide death) that can help communities move on in a healthy and safe way.

I do a lot of work with online postvention, and as of right now that just means telling parents, teens, and educators how to look out for warning signs online. All too often, I’ve seen a profile of a person that died by suicide that posted obvious (in retrospect) warning signs. Often, students will create an ‘in memory of…’ group or profile for the friend or loved one they lost to suicide. Having this online space can be a healthy way to process feelings in the community, but it also has the danger of brewing more suicidal ideation. Back to the media guidelines that I mentioned, we want to make sure not to romanticize the person’s death too much. These memorial spaces, if monitored, can give you insight on other people at risk. Look out for, and check up on, anyone who posts anything like “I miss you, I’ll see you soon.”