I know mental health is an issue and I’m glad there is a devoted help line. But jesus fucking christ. I have controversial hobbies and like learning about pharmacology, it seems like almost every search I do on these subjects results in a pop up telling me to call 988.
Do some people need that option? Yes. Do I? No. Do I need it 50 times a fucking week? No I do not.
It would be like if anytime you researched anything vaguely related to criminology, google gave you a pop up demanding you call 911.
Search what % of gun deaths are suicides vs homicides?
Call 911
Search the % of gun deaths which are due to bolt action rifles vs semi automatic rifles?
Call 911
Search what % of child abuse is neglect vs physical abuse?
Call 911
Search what the average age of someone in prison is?
Call 911
Search the racial and gender demographics of people who commit armed robbery?
Call 911
Search the history of Alcatraz prison?
Call 911
Search for studies on rehabilitation vs punishment in reducing recidivism?
Call 911
Search for studies discussing the rates of Cluster B personality disorders among violent offenders?
Call 911
It fucking gets so fucking tiring. I always report it when Google does this and say this is not relavant to my search, but it won’t shut the fuck up.
I use Google constantly, I use it for personal convenience and I also use it professionally in my career. I’m on it constantly,
I have literally never seen what’s described in the OP.
And I have a brother who is in and out of prison, a drug addict, and severe mental illness, and I’ve looked up topics related to all of those things often lately since he just got released from prison. Still never seen it.
I just Googled “suicide” and got the same screen the OP references. I have no add-ons. Other psych terms I used, including “depression” and “I’m depressed” don’t bring up that screen.
FWIW the only automatically inserted references to suicide prevention hotlines that I get are on some news sites (German language, in my case), where any news article that mentions someone (some well known person, mostly) killing themselves gets an information box added on where to get help (which is as it it should be IMO). That is done by the news sites themselves though, not by Google.
Even baldly asking Google how to kill myself, in English and German, only gets me search results on suicide, with reputable statistical and medical sites as the top results.
Here’s what I get when I google (sorry for the lack of subtlety, I just wanted a quick example) “suicide methods”
The actual results start below that. Though the first result is about suicide prevention, the second one is goes to a wiki article called ‘suicide methods’.
If those messages give even one troubled person pause when they’re searching for these things, then your extremely mild inconvenience is worth it.
And yeah, I know. You’re fine! Your behavior happens to mirror somebody at risk of harming themselves or others, but that’s only because of your “controversial hobbies,” whatever that means. “We’re going to provide resources to people with certain patterns of behavior unless they check a box that they’re an outlier and then we’ll take them at their word” isn’t exactly helpful policy, though.
I’d rather see a link to a mental health resource than yet another Google-generated AI response to my query.
I see it all the time. I’m not Googling axes, bleach, trash bags, and body disposal, but I might be looking for alcohol interactions, medicine toxicology, etc. When I don’t get the 988 suggestion, I get some crappy AI message that’s really only half a message, meaning I’d have to interact with it to make it at all useful and see the whole result.
I was just going to ask whether the difference between the “this happens all the time” people and the “I never see this” people might be that one group is googling on their phones and the other is googling on their computers. Especially after I saw the “Call 988” button in the screenshot that @Joey_P posted, which I wouldn’t expect to appear on a computer screen.
Why does it have to be one or the other? How about a simple ‘dismiss’ (or even ‘snooze for X days’) button.
You say that sarcastically, but a lot, maybe even most, of the people looking for this stuff actually are fine. I can be curious how long it’ll take to kill yourself with exhaust in your garage without actually having any interest in doing it.
Why not? Unrelated, but I wish google would take me at my word for everything I search for instead of assuming it knows better and providing me with results based on what it thinks I meant to search for.
I do. I have a PiHole, UBlock Origin and whatever Firefox does on it’s own. I’m not sure if they can be blocked, but the default settings on those blockers don’t do it.
I get those even on my desktop. Clicking on the call or text button prompts me to pick a program to do that with (not that I have one on a desktop with no camera). The chat button takes you to their website.
In the words of Nick Miller on New Girl, because I can only find a link to the video on tiktok:
And I’m pretty sure I’m having a heart attack and I haven’t arranged for anybody to clear my internet history! I WASN’T BUILDING A BOMB…I was just curious.
I didn’t mean that sarcastically, though I see why it came off that way. I do believe you’re fine.
The problem is that Google has no way of knowing whether you’re having suicidal ideation or expressing morbid curiosity, and it shouldn’t (and can’t) make an active judgement call based on your search history.
That’s exactly the kind of call Google isn’t equipped to make.
Which, of course, everybody would click on. Even people in crisis.
It’s annoying for you, I get it, but the matter they’re addressing is deadly serious.
