Effects Of Pop Culture On Teen Suicide

Social media has become an issue as it has given a platform for cyber self-harm. The online world has given teens an expressive outlet for their pain, and due to social media, they now have an audience. Having an audience may then cause adolescents to not only continue to self-harm if they have already started but to also start self-harming. Social media has become a large part of teen’s lives; it has caused some adolescents to feel like they must ‘be seen’. With the need to be seen and keeping up with friends due to the 24/7 nature of technology means that young people are unable to escape and switch off. This can cause teens to feel trapped and may add to the daily misery they are feeling.

It had been said by Reed, Cooper, Nugent, and Russel (2016) that, “Evidence supports that cyberbullying can contribute in the development of adolescent depression” (40). Those who are diagnosed with depression can be given medication to help cope, and although it is good for the pharmacies, it is not good for his or her mental health. With cyberbullying and social media effecting one’s mental health with depression and possible suicide, it is important that people know the correlation of the two.

Many research projects have suggested that smartphone activity among teens is linked to depression symptoms, “Kids who spend more time online are lonelier than the kids who spend less time online” (Twenge). I disagree with this as being online or on social media gives some kids the feeling of being wanted as they are able to make friends through these platforms. The internet is a popular form of entertainment and in most instances provides teens with something to do. It is a proven fact that suicide rates among teens have spiked throughout generation iGen; however, speaking from experience, my friends and I are often on our smartphones and have never shown any signs of depression or thoughts about self-harm. Twenge states, “Instead of killing each other, teens are beginning to kill themselves.” I somewhat agree with this statement,

 Detail 2: How the Internet/Social Media Has Had an Impact on Suicide in Young Adults

In the article The Antisocial Network Jack Dickey discusses social networking and explores the influence social media has teen suicide.

The advent of social technology may bear some responsibility for anxiety and depression in adolescents, teenagers, and young adults. Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat and Instagram -- they are all fun -- until things get out of hand. The 2014 National College Health Assessment, a survey of nearly 80,000 college students throughout the United States, found that 54% of students reported experiencing overwhelming anxiety in the past 12 months and that 32.6% "felt so depressed that it was difficult to function" during the same period. The study also found that 6.4% had "intentionally, cut, burned, bruised or otherwise injured" themselves, that 8.1% had seriously considered suicide and that 1.3% had attempted suicide (Potarazu). Sreedhar uses logos to support how social media have some part in the causes of anxiety and depression in adolescents, teenagers, and young adults. He uses the survey data conducted by The National College Health Assessment to prove his point.

Suicide and accidental death from self-harm were the third leading cause of mortality in adolescents aged 10- 19 years of age in 2015, resulting in 67,000 deaths (world health organization). Many cases have have been reported in the local news, online, and through use of social media websites such as: Facebook and snap chat. There have also been multiple cases of youths that have posted their suicide live online. This is clearly a cry for help, if only someone was there to provide some form of assistance, could these cases have been prevented? This is a very important crisis that affect families, communities, and health care professionals worldwide and therefore deserves to be further discussed.

The lack of exposing young people to this information has caused teens to not seek help.“Suicide is the second main reason for 13-19-year-old deaths.”

Teen suicide is something that is endless, it will never stop but if everyone was educated on it, it could help prevent deaths. I think with people provided with statistics and further information can help avoid adolescent suicide attempts. I think most teen suicide cases could be prevent if we knew the signs to look for and the ways to stop it. I believe parents would feel safer if they knew knowledge on the issue and how to handle it. The intended audiences for this essay is parents or friends of suicidal teens. This essay is important because, as mentioned earlier, we need to be educated on suicide to end tons of tragedies. It is also important to be aware of the warning signs to help prevent. This essay is relevant because teen suicide is a war that happens daily, and will continue to happen, until we take control of the situation and do something to stop it. If family members were informed of the cause and symptoms leading up to the attempt of suicide, then there is less likely that teenagers would try and commit

Teen suicide is a major problem in our society today. The adolescent suicide rate has tripled since 1960, while being the largest cause of death between the ages of 15 and 24. This is the one single age group that has seen an increase in suicides over the past thirty years. There are about 10,000 reported suicides reported annually. It is estimated however, that the true number of teen suicides is actually three to four times that number when unreported deaths are factored in.

Peers play a major role in social media and in our everyday lives. People believe that peer pressure leads to teen suicide because teens feel as if they are not accepted into any groups, and this makes any teen feel like no one likes them. This leads to depression and causes teen to self-harm or even worse take their life. “Teens turn to friends for support when they are feeling depressed and suicidal, and this is because they are their peers, so they might be able to help them through their problems” (National Suicide Prevention Lifeline). Peer pressure makes a teen a whole different person by making them do or act in ways they normally would not do if they were not pressured. Teens see on social media pictures of their

While social media can help spread awareness and be a positive thing, it also can account for a large number of teen suicides. About four years ago a new “game” made the news; it was called the Blue Whale Challenge. The game has a “mastermind” behind all the challenges that a player faces. The challenge goes on for fifty days, ranging from watching scary videos the mastermind sends the player to self-mutilation on the players arms or legs, but the game always ends in suicide (hindustantimes.com). Many who were or still are involved in the challenge have posted a picture of a whale on their social media before they committed suicide or they changed their “bios” on their social medias to “i_am_whale” to show their commitment (kshb.com). Last year, a movie came out called Nerve, which gives those who watch it a better idea as to what the Blue Whale Challenge was about and what the players faced while involved. There is no way to know for sure how many people have been affected by this challenge, but the way the mastermind or curator can manipulate individuals who are depressed or very impressionable and get them to end the challenge by committing suicide should be enough for people to realize not all interactions on social media are positive.

From "thintastic" blogs to suicide stories, social media has become not only a source of conversation but a gateway to harmful suggestions that many teenagers see and believe to be allowable, when in fact the situations proposed are dangerous to those who attempt them. Statistics show that 20% of anorexic teenagers will die prematurely, and 80% of teenagers who commit suicide are depressed (South). Social media has glorified and brought to attention eating disorders, depression, and suicide among teens that might otherwise not become a statistic in these critical categories.

There are numerous causes for suicide among teens based on emotional tendencies and environmental influence. Teenagers are still vulnerable and impressionable to how the mass media portrays different methods of suicide and reports collected reveal that suicide attempts have increased dramatically (Gould, 2003). This infiltrates the amount of suicide and suicide attempts using the same methods displayed on television. The content in films and news media draws in attention from younger viewers, which can encourage their suicidal ideas or dissuade them from imitating the scheme. When teenagers are exposed to suicidal acts it can ease their anxiety of following through with it. This is a

Suicide is a serious problem threatening the youth in the United States (Committee on Adolescences, 2000). According to the report of American Academy of Pediatrics in 2015, suicide is the second leading cause of death for youth ages 10 and 24, and results in approximately 4,600 lives lost each year. Suicidal ideation is part of a generalized risk profile for some adolescents and represents a unique risk behavior for others (Flannery et al., 2003). Suicide are closely related with past suicide attempts (Joiner et al., 2005), alcohol and drug use (Borges et al., 2000), psychiatric disorders: mood disorders, substance-related disorders, psychotic disorders, anxiety disorders, and personality disorders. Specifying the risk of suicide or suicide attempt is one of the biggest clinical challenges for mental health providers (Tiet et al., 2006), but only by understanding the reasons of youth suicide, the mental health practitioners and educational and public health prevention programs could provide sufficient armamentaria to combat this major public health and clinical problem (Gould et al., 2003). Social Penetration Theory and Communication Privacy Management Theory may help reveal the deep reasons behind the scene of high risk behaviors of the youth suicide.