Researchers from Brigham Young University have found that people who mention suicide in their Twitter posts are likely to attempt the act in real life.

What seems like an obvious conclusion is being interpreted as evidence that teens use the social media platform for more than just posturing. Rather, in many cases, teens take to Twitter to voice real concerns, and those messages should not be written off as kids merely looking for "social media sympathy."

CNet reports that the researchers sifted through millions of tweets gathered from all 50 states over three months, hunting for both direct discussions of suicide and keywords associated with a range of suicide risk factors.They found that in each state, the proportion of tweets discussing suicide is related to that state's actual suicide rate.