Understanding Suicidal Ideation on Twitter/X in Indonesia: A Qualitative Exploration

This research investigated how Indonesian Twitter/X users express suicidal ideation and their intentions behind such posts. It consisted of two parts. The first part involved content analysis of 512 tweets collected through Twitter data harvesting and coded using MAXQDA. The analysis revealed that suicidal ideation was often expressed alongside themes such as relationship, financial, and academic problems, loneliness and tiredness, negative emotions, hesitation, and experiences of pain. The second part of the study explored users’ intentions more deeply by analyzing 34 responses to five open-ended questions and the Suicide Ideation Scale. Thematic analysis identified five key themes: reasons and purposes for tweeting about suicide, emotional states after tweeting, expectations regarding others’ responses, and intentions related to seeking help. Quantitative results showed a relatively high level of suicidal intention, with an average score of 32.8 out of 50. Desire to commit suicide (mean 14.1/20) appeared higher than planning or preparation (mean 15/25), indicating significant emotional distress despite lower readiness to act. Overall, suicidal tweets function not only as expressions of ideation but also as outlets for negative emotions, attention-seeking, support-seeking, and help-seeking. The findings highlight the need for social media–based interventions, including chatbots and psychoeducation, to prevent escalation from ideation to suicidal behavior.