Hannah Ruick Williams

Advanced University Writing

Vana Derohanessian
26 November 2014
Suicide Generation
It is completely normal to have days where you feel insecure or down
on yourself. We have them all the time; I have them every other day! It is
not, however, normal or fair to be feeling alone or worthless to the point of
depression, and eventually suicide. And yet suicide is the second leading
cause of death for ages ten to twenty-four years. (2010 CDC WISQARS) Every
time I turn on my computer or change the channel to see the news I behold
another tragic story about a person my age that took his or her own life
because of depression or cyber bullying. The reality that four percent of all
college students experience suicidal thoughts due to pressure and various
forms of induced isolation makes me cringe, and its noted dispassionately
by experts. Even as technology and social media advance, more and more
young people are prompted to commit this tragic act of desperation.
Nevertheless, there is still doubt in the minds of many that Social Media and
Pop Culture have anything to do with depression at all, let alone suicide. Just
take a look at the members of this generation; it isnt possible to deny the
Social Media Mania that preoccupies the young people in our society. The
Social Media and Pop Culture Pandemic is a plague on my generation,
responsible for creating a modern brand of depression through increasing
social isolation and constant distortion of self-perception, which is
consequently resulting in a suicidal generation. This has to end.
Psychologists have spent countless years studying the various

sources of modern depression such as trauma, grief, and financial trouble;

one very common and timeless cause of depressions is none other than the
feeling and or state of social isolation. Dr. Stephen Ilardi calls social isolation
a plague in and of itself, upon observing results of studies done by Duke
University researchers showing a sharp decline in a social connectedness
over the past 20 years. (Ilardi, Social Isolation: A Modern Plague) Dr. Ilardi
associates the average Americans rapid loss in meaningful social support
with the prevalence of the Internet and social media, and the ubiquity of
technological mediums of the media (such as smart phones.)
According to Sherry Turkle, the Abby Rockefeller Mauz Professor of the
Social Studies of Science and Technology at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, We are lonely, but fearful of intimacy. Connectivity offers, for
many of us, the illusion of companionship without the demands of
friendship. (McCook, Is Social Media Disconnecting Us?) However, while
social media and connectivity may give us the illusion that we are engaging
in social behavior we are actually cutting ourselves off further. When we
glance around the room and see everyone staring down at their iPhone,
trapped in their own little social media world, how do we avoid doing the
same? Moreover, we are so obsessed with idea of constantly sharing images,
locations, and experiences that we are creating an overlap in current
experiences and social media. We isolate ourselves from the people we are
actually physically with, while simultaneously detracting from the exclusivity
of each moment. The problem with all this is that humans actually require

interaction in the flesh; when the social delusion produced by media fades
and we realize we are alone the depression sets in because our social needs
are not truly being met.
Feeling alone can inspire a feeling of unease that may be triggered by
the self-perception of being unloved. Accordingly, a socially isolated person
feeling this way may be inclined towards thoughts of worthlessness, rejecting
himself since everyone else has seemingly rejected him. Now imagine the
effects of this phenomenon on someone with an elevated level of
vulnerability, such as a hormonal young girl constantly viewing Social Media
and Pop Cultures erroneous assessment of how young women are supposed
to look. Technology exposes this generation to a relentless distortion of selfperception, which needless to say, is another universal trigger for
depression. Unrealistic standards set by the media make young people,
particularly teenage girls and boys, so much more susceptible to intensified
negative body images. Furthermore, if an individual viewer is even remotely
biologically predisposed to developing one, these distortions of self-image
can be directly responsible for causing various eating disorders. And since
our culture has adopted a passion for vanity, dangerously unrealistic
depictions of beauty are incessantly reinforced to the world of Social Media
and Pop Culture, reminding us to contribute to the growth of each multimillion dollar beauty industry.
Our societys Media induced Vanity Phenomenon creates its own kind of
human, a media bred version of an insecure person. A person without the

emotional security to appreciate his or her own worth is not as capable of

being psychologically resilient. An insecure person is weak in his or her mind
and heart; he becomes an embodiment of his flaws because he does not
believe that he is as perfect as he could or should be. Insecure people can
be dangerous to themselves and everyone around them because when
extremely insecure person becomes depressed, he will devastate
relationships and obliterate chances at happiness and success in order to
validate and confirm his feelings about himself. If nothing ever goes right,
then feeling like shit about oneself is certainly legitimate. Many of us have
self-doubts, but a truly insecure person will always try to corroborate his
doubts using daily occurrences. (Ghazal, Emotional Insecurity) It seems like
generation after generation, people are becoming increasingly selfish and
self-centered. Well, thanks to the predominance of You should be like this
imagery in social media, this depressively insecure person is an emergent
breed.
Despite the apparent shift in the attitude of the generation, there are
some studies that argue against social media as causation for depression.
Some studies show that the development of depression is dependent on the
individual, relating, It is the quality rather than the quantity of online
interactions that may be associated with depression symptoms. (The
Healthline Editorial Team, Is Facebook Depressions Real) In addition, many
studies show a direct correlation between Internet addiction and depression
symptoms; however, in spite of this they have failed to resolutely identify the

Internet as an immediate source of depression. One author of the 2011

edition of Pediatrics contemplatively wrote that it may be the pure
intensity of the online world that is responsible for eliciting so much
depression in the technologically addicted generation. However, the experts
of these Pediatric studies continue to refute the idea that the frequency of
social network use should be a concern for depression. Still, social media and
social networking websites remain a powerful tool for sharing both negative
and positive thoughts and images. (The Healthline Editorial Team, Is
Facebook Depressions Real) Thus I would continue to insist that social
media directly instigates depression through the habits, behaviors, and ideas
it frequently implants in the minds of the young users.
Depression has become such a commonly used word by society that
young people use it to nonchalantly describe the feelings they have towards
the disappointing ending to a movie that they went to see. Regardless of this
cavalier disassociation of definition, the reality is that depression is a serious
disease; research has consistently shown an irrefutable link between suicide
and depression. (Suicide and Depression) Furthermore, it is also
incontrovertibly true that depression brought on by the media has resulted in
scores of suicides over the past two decades.
When the media uses glamorized accounts and details to represent the
nature of suicide, it certainly gets viewers attention, but not in the way it is
intended. Using media to give copious and inappropriate particulars about
celebrity and teen suicides, such as the method of suicide and other

electrifying information, has been known to cause spikes in teen suicide on

local and national levels. This is because depressed teenagers and young
adults under the societal and generational narcissistic mindset romanticize
the precariously decadent lifestyle that they observe being lived by popular
celebrities in the media. They watch carefully as an idealized icon receives
bountiful adoration subsequent to committing suicide and they crave that
kind of notoriety since they believe that no one will love them while they are
alive. Copycat and cluster suicides are played out on a national level when a
famous person commits suicide. Then more tragedy still occurs when the
media highly publicizes it and portrays profuse coverage of the pursuant
events. (Suicide and the Media) In many cases the additional victims
simply identified strongly with some aspect of the victims story that was
reported by the media. Our attitudes towards this can and must be changed.
The intimate details of someones suicide, or even common passing for that
matter, should always remain private. Such things are not appropriately the
publics business, despite what our generation believes; we are no owed a
detailed explanation and coroners report of our favorite celebritys death.
According to Pamela Cantor, president of the National Committee for the
Prevention of Youth Suicide, Kids see that this is a glamorous way to die, a
way to get a lot of attention that they couldnt get in life. In an interview,
Loren Coleman, author of the Copycat Effect, said, When the media comes
in and does a graphic depiction of it it doesnt work to scare kids away.
(Suicide and the Media) Depressed teens will formulate elaborate fantasies

based on the widespread media coverage of suicides, visualizing their own

funerals post suicide and how much they are missed as a result. In a sense,
suicide is in style because of the media. Upon its newfound pedestal, suicide
has become a death that soothes the young depressed, isolated, and
insecure soul. This is unacceptable. Social Media and Pop culture are
responsible for the disheartened state of my generation. Human beings have
to interact face to face and learn to love themselves for who they are. Its
time for people to look up from their smart-phones and experience things
without a Facebook audience. The only way to cure this plague is to cut down
media consumption and social media use. No one needs to know where you
are at all times; you dont have to take pictures of what you are doing to
enjoy it or to validate it. The actualization you receive from social media is
fake and it will fade in time. Without the social skills and true self-actualizing
attitude that come from living life naturally and socially, the future leaders of
the world will not survive.

Works Cited
"Body Image Of Women." RSS 20. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Nov. 2014.
Ghazal. "Emotional Insecurity Cause, Aftermath and How to Get Rid of It Sparkonit." Sparkonit. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Nov. 2014.
The Healthline Editorial. "Is Facebook Depression Real?" Is Facebook
Depression Real? George Krucik, MD, MBA, 13 Dec. 2013. Web. 25 Nov. 2014
McCook, Megan. "Is Social Media Disconnecting Us Socially? |." N.p., 22 May
2013. Web. 25 Nov. 2014.
"Save. Suicide Awareness Voices of Education." SAVE. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Nov.
2014.
Ilardi, Stephen. "Social Isolation: A Modern Plague." Psychology Today:
Health, Help, Happiness + Find a Therapist. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Nov. 2014.
"Suicide and the Media." Teen Ink. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Nov. 2014.