Social media and suicide: empirical evidence from the quasi-exogenous geographical adoption of Twitter
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arXiv
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| Autori principali: | , |
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| Natura: | Preprint |
| Pubblicazione: |
2024
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| _version_ | 1866912143742337024 |
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| author | Du, Alexis Renault, Thomas |
| author_facet | Du, Alexis Renault, Thomas |
| contents | Social media usage is often cited as a potential driver behind the rising suicide rates. However, distinguishing the causal effect - whether social media increases the risk of suicide - from reverse causality, where individuals already at higher risk of suicide are more likely to use social media, remains a significant challenge. In this paper, we use an instrumental variable approach to study the quasi-exogenous geographical adoption of Twitter and its causal relationship with suicide rates. Our analysis first demonstrates that Twitter's geographical adoption was driven by the presence of certain users at the 2007 SXSW festival, which led to long-term disparities in adoption rates across counties in the United States. Then, using a two-stage least squares (2SLS) regression and controlling for a wide range of geographic, socioeconomic and demographic factors, we find no significant relationship between Twitter adoption and suicide rates. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2412_03217 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2024 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Social media and suicide: empirical evidence from the quasi-exogenous geographical adoption of Twitter Du, Alexis Renault, Thomas General Economics Economics Social media usage is often cited as a potential driver behind the rising suicide rates. However, distinguishing the causal effect - whether social media increases the risk of suicide - from reverse causality, where individuals already at higher risk of suicide are more likely to use social media, remains a significant challenge. In this paper, we use an instrumental variable approach to study the quasi-exogenous geographical adoption of Twitter and its causal relationship with suicide rates. Our analysis first demonstrates that Twitter's geographical adoption was driven by the presence of certain users at the 2007 SXSW festival, which led to long-term disparities in adoption rates across counties in the United States. Then, using a two-stage least squares (2SLS) regression and controlling for a wide range of geographic, socioeconomic and demographic factors, we find no significant relationship between Twitter adoption and suicide rates. |
| title | Social media and suicide: empirical evidence from the quasi-exogenous geographical adoption of Twitter |
| topic | General Economics Economics |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2412.03217 |