Non-Suicidal Self-Injury in the Media

Entering "self-injury" as a search term in Google yields over 15 million results. Using the same term to search YouTube brings up 2,140 videos. Self-injury appears in popular movies, music lyrics, and music videos. It is described in books, the news, and on the Internet. Ask any adolescent today what self-injury is, and not only will he or she likely be able to define it, nearly half asked will personally know someone who has engaged in the behavior. Self-injury has become such a part of the social landscape today there are even jokes about it: "I wish my grass were Emo so it would cut itself." How are these two phenomena, presence of self-injury in the media and widespread knowledge of it in adolescent populations, related? This article discusses these issues.