The Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center is now testing a new app which is supposed to recognize whether someone is going to commit suicide. Chris Danforth of University of Vermont says that having a physical check upon you for 30 minutes a few times a year is less effective than a device which is constantly apart of our lives. The app uses algorithms and using the algorithm it can measure how likely someone going to take their life. This new app is called Spreading Activation Mobile or SAM for short. As of right now this app is claimed to be able to predict suicide within a week with about 90% accuracy.
This technology will certainly be useful to those who are facing issues with suicide, however, I question its application. This app is more useful for those who want to help suicidal teens then to the teens themselves, therefore, the best application would be the one that tests all depressed teens not just teens seeking help(probably a violation of privacy). I am not so sure how they are going to make the most of this app but it is one that could potentially save lives. What are your thoughts?
12 comments:
This app could bring some benefit and help people foresee a potential situation. However, I believe that to combat depression and suicide there needs to be efforts made at the root of the problem. It's an issue that is nearly impossible to detect in some people, so it may be more important for schools/parents to teach more about mental health. This could not only help those that need help, but those who want to help as well. I think that American culture in past years has been starting to stress mental health awareness more, but it hasn't really worked as numbers of teen suicides are rising. The subject is tough and if this app helps just a little I believe it's worth it.
I also believe that the app has hopeful potential. However, it is an app and that makes it a risky way to detect suicidal thoughts. I also agree with you that this could help people who want to help suicidal teens because they are more likely to use the application. I think that this app can help by actually supplementing other ways of detecting whether someone wants to commit suicide. It is helpful, but it should be combined with more methods to get a very accurate measurement.
Although I do believe that this app is taking steps in the right direction, I don't see this app being successful. As Kamal said, this could help people who want to be helped. But I would think that more suicide victims are the ones that do not actively seek this help. With the app being voluntary, it would be difficult to actually help most suicidal teens. Also, the app seems to be fairly intrusive analyzing social media and other forms of communication. Due to the intrusiveness of the app, I doubt many will install it or support the direction the app is taking. Also, seeing as the algorithm targets communication and word choice, I think the app is very limited as it will only be able to help those that are very communicative. Even though I do think the intent is there, I do not think this will be accepted as a valid or effective form of suicide prevention.
I think that this app could be effective in the future. It could help suicidal teens who seek help, however, those that do not ask for help are not a part of this app. I agree with Timmy in that I think most suicidal teens do not seek help, making this app ineffective (for the majority of people). While I think this is a great idea, it has many flaws at the moment. First, would be the issue that it only helps certain people who seem to be the minority. Second, this may be effective and help some kids, however, it will not completely solve depression or suicide; I agree with what Chris said in that people will not always be able to recognize those with depression. To address and prevent suicides, people need to be more educated.
I agree with Allie. This app has potential to be helpful, but currently, it is limited to those who seek help when they are depressed. Additionally, it is one more aspect of life that is being centered around technology. As of right now, it seems extremely robotic, but if the people who are creating this app created a more human aspect such as a way of putting the depressed/suicidal person in touch with another person who can help them, then the app would be a little more reasonable and effective.
I don't believe in using an application to predict the likelihood of someone committing suicide. First and foremost, technology is impersonal. It cannot accurately depict the case for everyone since everyone has a different situation. Secondly, being exposed to such an app may influence a person to think "oh, they must think I'm going to commit suicide.. maybe life isn't worth living". I believe it may indirectly influence a person that is expressing depression negatively. Thirdly, I believe that in order to help prevent suicide, the right way to approach it is not to stop the ones who have gone too far, but rather assist them before they get pushed over the edge. This can happen by making more positive experiences for that person, or helping them feel more comfortable or lending an ear to that person. Dedication of time into that aspect would be more time worthy than trying to perfect an app that can never reach true perfection because it is generalized more than personalized.
The app, in theory, is a great invention. However, I'm not really sure how accurate it would be. Knowing when someone is going to commit suicide is really hard. A lot of teens might think irrationally but will not act on it. Also, many teens who are suicidal avoid seeking help so the chances of them using the app might be very low.
The app does seem to be effective in some ways, but there seems to be a limited amount of users. I agree with Allie because teens who are suicidal usually don’t reach out for help, therefore this app wouldn’t be very successful for the majority of teens. Rather than relying on an app for assistance or help, I believe there should be more of a human interactiveness in helping teens who are suicidal.
I think that this app was created with the best intentions, and could potentially predict suicide in teens because there is a correlation between the use of social media and depression, which seems to be the premise on which this app was created. While Tommy and Timmy mentioned that this app is intrusive and impedes privacy, if voluntary downloaded, I do think that a computer program can, to a certain extent, predict the outcomes. However, the voluntary aspect of the app is another, for lack of a better word, issue, because if a person is downloading the app, I think it would be a valid assumption to guess that they have some symptoms of depression. However, like Yuki mentioned, this, in itself, can pose another problem because a person that does not have a mental health issue may begin to present symptoms if they start believing they have one. While there are countless flaws with this app, if the issues could be minimized or removed, I think it could be a useful tool to potentially getting a person help or preventing suicide.
I don't think this app is an effective tool for detecting teen suicide. Given that many teens these days joke about wanting to die, or teasingly tell their friends something as horrible as "kill yourself" (KYS), it seems that there is a lot of room for error, as a computer program can't detect such nuance. Ultimately, just as communicating with loved ones over social media can never replace face-to face interaction, I believe that using technology to address teenage depression is a (poorly made) crutch that cannot supplant the need for a responsive, supportive network of personal relationships.
I feel as if this app can offer some, although limited (as of now), help. This app must be voluntarily downloaded, so I feel as if many people with depression or contemplating suicide will not bother downloading it. Furthermore, I agree with Nora how this app can also misdiagnose some people because some may begin to believe that they have signs of depressions when they really don't. I also think this app should incorporate ways to support those people who are depressed and contemplating suicide instead of just predicting suicide. Although primitive, this app does hold a lot of promise and definitely should continue to develop and expand. Even if this app is limited, it still may help save lives, even if it is a low number, which is very important and definitely a step in the right direction.
Depression and suicide are really hazy topics, and there definitely isn't a perfect computer algorithm to detect if a teen is considering suicide. It can definitely help with a partial diagnosis, but, as previous comments have mentioned, it's hard to get into someone's brain simply by tracking the things they do on social media and elsewhere. Furthermore, how much can they track without being completely intrusive? I definitely believe that similar programs may sprout in the future as neural technology continues to improve.
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