digital

  NATIONWIDE — A new study is showing that a number of adolescents and teens are participating in a new form of self-harm. According to the recent study, published in the Journal of Adolescent Health, “digital self-harm” is the “anonymous online posting, sending or otherwise sharing of hurtful content about oneself.” The teens who participate bully themselves in order to manage their feelings of “sadness and self-hatred” and to get attention. The study found that about 6 percent of students have “anonymously posted something online about themselves that was mean.” This isn’t necessarily a new phenomenon, as in 2012, 9 percent of teens said they’d bullied themselves. Involvement in digital-self harm was correlated with sexual orientation, experience with school bullying and cyberbullying, drug use participation in various forms of “adolescent deviance” and depressive symptoms. “I think it would be a launching pad for more of a personality disorder that they’re…