Why Is Teenage Suicide A Social Problem?

Gaining widespread attention, teen suicide has gradually progressed into the public front and is being recognized as a serious social problem in today’s society. Compared to previous statistics, “the rate at which young people kill themselves has risen unabated, from 3.3 per 100,000 population in 1959 to 10.9 in 1993—increasing over 200 percent. Especially over the past two decades, suicide rates for ages 10-14 and 15-19 have risen 240 and 59 percent, respectively” (Freeman 1998). As the number of teen suicide exponentially increase, it creates a strong validation for the recognition of teen suicide as a social problem in our society as “suicide has become the third leading cause of death amongst youths in the United States” (Cutler 2000; Glaeser …show more content…
These type of chatrooms and forums “may foster peer pressure to die by suicide, encourage users to idolize those who have completed suicide, or facilitate suicide pacts” (Luxton 2012; June 2012; Fairall 2012). Most teenagers are people who are still trying to discover themselves and are most often times feeling isolated, misunderstood, and devalued—therefore making them easy targets of suicidal thoughts. Compared to the past, when it was difficult to communicate due to no Internet or any form of social media, the accessibility of other suicidal teenagers to connect and influence other suicidal teenagers is greater than ever in today’s society. Chatrooms are not the only form of media that can pose as a gateway for teen suicide. From a conducted study of YouTube, a popular video-sharing website, the key words “self-injury” and “self-harm” searched up “top videos [that] had more than 2 million viewers and more than half (58%) had no viewer restrictions, such as requiring viewers to validate that they are aged 18 years or older” (Luxton 2012; June 2012; Fairall 2012). Because there are no restrictions, volatile teenagers who are feeling lonely and depressed can search whatever they want; this kind of freedom can lead to an increase in teen suicide. In today’s society, there exists many forms of social media that influence and affect the minds of young, suicidal teenagers and as more teenagers are guided by the beguiling nature of the words and thoughts on the Internet, the number of teen deaths from suicide continues to surmount. The alarming number of deaths—from these technological advancements in communication—has helped the issue of teen suicide become a topic of discussion, and in some cases, outrage, as these stories of teen suicide