We recently received the above image in our inbox. The sender informed us that the image was that of a friend who has been self harming herself for a long time and is now bearing these scars. Why this image was sent to us, we will never know. However, I personally found the image to be very powerful. The power of the image doesn’t necessarily lie in the scars themselves, but in the word that this young woman painfully carved into her own flesh. What type of abuse, bullying or emotionally scaring does it take to make a child scare themselves for life?
We all use social media differently that is evident, but for a person to share a picture such as this just seems like a cry for help and or attention. The thought that kids all over the world are resorting to this type of self harm, degrading their bodies and then sharing it with thousands of people is concerning. We decided to take a deeper look to find out just how normal it is to share pictures such as this, our results were quite shocking.
We found numerous images just like the one above being shared time and time again. Each image had the exact same type of response. Each image had many comments, mostly from teenage friends letting the person know they are loved and they shouldn’t be doing this and so on and so forth. Eventually someone would comment and say something rude in regards to the image and an online argument would break out.
I can’t help but ask this question as a parent myself, but “Where are the parents?”, why are these photo’s being shared by teenagers, growing massive responses from their peers and in many cases get filed away in their online album for all to see time and time again. As a parent I would never want my child to feel so low and hurt inside that they resort to cutting themselves and carving degrading saying’s into their skin that will scar and give them a lifetime of painful thoughts. I would also never want my child to post images of their pain for all to see. Odds are, everyone that ended up commenting on the featured picture never once thought to get this person help, but felt that their adolescent comments were supportive enough to let this person know they are okay and loved…and all will be okay.
It just seems like the countless images we found regarding self harm were all a subtle cry for help and attention. There seems to be an underground society of kids who relish in this type of behavior and thrive off of the attention it is getting them. Sadly the attention that they are yielding will have long lasting negative effects.
I simply felt this image should be shared as it is a powerful reminder of how our new age society is coping with old society problems.
We would be interested to hear your thoughts on this matter, leave a comment or send us message!