Several factors, emotional and physical, can contribute to a teen’s decision to take his or her own life. Adolescent suicide rates have no doubt risen over the past 50 years, but the question is, why? As our world continues to advance decade by decade, modern-day teenagers experience problems that are quite different than those faced by teens from previous generations. One distinct, modern influence of teenage suicide is social media. Naturally, most teenagers today own or have access to a smart phone, computer, or other device that can be used to connect to the internet and view a countless number of social websites. Social media can be entertaining and a fun, fast way to connect with friends and family, but it also has its disadvantages.
Many teens today know someone or have been a victim themselves of a negative aspect of social media called cyber bullying. Cyber bullying is the act of harassing, tormenting, or embarrassing someone else over the internet, sometimes anonymously. Even though this type of bullying happens online, it can still have a huge impact on a teenager’s life. People known as cyber bullies tend to feel like they have more power when harassing someone online, and most importantly, that they will not get caught. The biggest issue with cyber bullying is that there is no easy way to avoid it. Unlike real-life bullying, cyber bullying does not just end when school does. Victims of online bullying are up to nine times more likely to commit suicide than teens who have never been cyber bullied (“11 Facts About Cyber Bullying” 1).
Although it is definitely a contributing factor of teen suicide, social media is not the only one to blame. Television shows that broadcast the news and provide coverage on other teen sui...
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... or occasionally just out of curiosity. The mental and physical side effects of drugs and alcohol in teenagers can be more harmful than in adults, due to age and underdevelopment. In addition to these distractions, certain teens may get involved in other dangerous activities, such as gang affiliation. Teens associated with gangs often do not realize the extremeness or seriousness of them and are never fully prepared for what lies on the road ahead.
Teenagers are often characterized by their impulsive nature. Due to the possession of this quality as well as the lack of realization of possible consequences of one’s actions, the adolescent suicide rate is much higher than that of any other age group. Teens are more prone to be victims of suicide than adults because they do not understand that an act of taking one’s own life is serious and cannot be undone (Portner 7).
Studies also found that 6.4% had intentionally cut bruised or harmed themselves and that 8.1% had though about suicide and 1.3% had actually attempted suicide. This evidence shows that social media is bad for teens and preteens. If social media got banned then there would not be any sort of problem like this.
The definition of bullying uses broad statements to define the actual meaning. Because of this, people may view the definition differently than others. Bullying can range from physical violence to verbal abuse to even cyberbullying. Most people do not realize how common cyberbullying actually is. Over half of teens and adolescents have been bullied online and almost the same number have engaged in the bullying (“Cyber Bullying Statistics”). Cyberbullying is becoming more and more prominent throughout this time period because of the technology continuing to expand around the world. Each year this statistic increasingly grows due to the technology
There are many causes which make a teenager contemplate suicide, such as bullying, depression, and substance abuse. The effects of someone committing suicide are tremendous; it can go from family, to friends, to other suicidal teens, causing devastation and even more suicides. The only hope for this epidemic is awareness and prevention. There are many prevention techniques such as, antidepressants and warning sign detection. Teen suicide is a serious problem and must be treated as such.
In 2011, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention established that 6.3% of high school students have attempted suicide in the preceding year. Given the lethal consequences of suicide attempts, determining risk factors among adolescents becomes especially important. Generally speaking, psychiatric disorders and substantial psychosocial impairments are known to be associated with suicide attempts. However, previous research attempting to identify specific risk factors in adolescents is somewhat ambiguous. Nonetheless, one thing is consistent. When measuring the risk of an adolescent committing suicide, information must come from a variety of sources and perspectives. These sources may include but are not limited to a clinical interview with the adolescent, information provided by the parent or guardian, standardized assessments and previous psychiatric documents from the individual.
The act of bullying has been present in children’s life throughout time. It has been seen in movies, books, and even real life situations. In recent years there has been in increase in the use of technology and the Internet. As a result a new type of bullying has been introduced to today’s generation of teenagers. This new type of bullying is known as cyberbullying. Cyberbullying has a negative impact on the lives of the teenagers that experience it.
Today, teenage suicide is considered a big issue in America. Many factors contribute to this action whether it is overdosing on alcohol and drugs, cutting ones wrist with a sharp object, or pulling the trigger of a gun to put an end to their existence. Suicide is on the rise due to many factors such as family issues, social issues, and psychological issues. Increased education and awareness for the victims and their families could drastically reduce the number of suicide attempts yearly.
Every year more than 4,000 teenagers between the ages of 15 and 24 commit suicide and another 400,000 attempt suicide; the number of suicides may be even higher because many suicides are hidden by families who report the suicides as accidents or murders (Klagsburn 16). “Suicide now ranks as the third leading cause of death among people ages 15 to 24, trailing only accidents and homicides”(Worsnop 371). Over the past four decades, teenage suicide rose a staggering 200 percent (Waters 49). “Of all the suicides studied among people under 25, nearly two-thirds of them were committed with guns, teenagers who committed suicide by hanging themselves ranked second, and poisoning ranked third” (Colburn 5.)
Suicide is the third leading cause of death for 15 to 24 year olds, and the sixth leading cause for 5 to 14 year olds. Suicide accounts for twelve percent of the mortality in the adolescent and young adult group. Young males are more common than young woman suicides. These are only children who followed through with the suicide. For every successful suicide there are fifty to one hundred adolescent suicide attempts. In other words, more than five percent of all teenagers tried to commit suicide, and the number is still rising. It is scary to think that four percent of high school students have made a suicide attempt within the previous twelve months. In a small safe town like Avon, in the Avon High School where you and I practically live, you can see the faces of 22 students that have tried to commit suicide. That is enough to fill a classroom.
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.
Now the eighth-leading cause of death overall in the U.S. and the third-leading cause of death for young people between the ages of 15 and 24 years, suicide has become the subject of much recent focus. U.S. Surgeon General David Satcher, for instance, recently announced his Call to Action to Prevent Suicide, 1999, an initiative intended to increase public awareness, promote intervention strategies, and enhance research. The media, too, has been paying very close attention to the subject of suicide, writing articles and books and running news stories. Suicide among our nation’s youth, a population very vulnerable to self-destructive emotions, has perhaps received the most discussion of late. Maybe this is because teenage suicide seems the most tragic—lives lost before they’ve even started. Yet, while all of this recent focus is good, it’s only the beginning. We cannot continue to lose so many lives unnecessarily.
Children are often bullied in school, but they can also be bullied online. Cyber-bullying is bullying over devices and often using social media to conduct it. It has become common due to the rapidly increasing use of social media. The bullying is done by sharing embarrassing or demeaning content of one another or writing cruel messages. Some take it a step further and create fake accounts to anonymously harass a person, or even use the fake account to impersonate that person. Due to social media, cyber-bullying is a harsh reality that children are being born
Cyberbullying is a type of bullying that takes place with the use of any electronic technology. Cyberbullying is a major problem affecting young people today. There are different types of cyberbullying. This topic comes as an interest to many people these days because bullying is very common and it can ruin a person’s life. These days, cyberbullying is considered a new form of bullying. It can happen over the internet by computer, mobile phone or any other electronic devices. Cyberbullying could involve any form of unpleasant words or pictures being displayed on the internet for others to see. It could also involve the spreading of lies about the victim on the internet. Many people are stepping up efforts to prevent bullying in the first place. Approximately half of U.S. students are impacted by traditional bullying each school day (Ross). Bullying peaks in middle school, then reduces in high school. Other types of bullying may involve the passing of notes behind someone’s back, rumors being whispered about someone, or being threatened in the internet. The most common types of cyberbullying include passing of humiliating photos, cell phone pranks, cyber stalking, impersonation, online slam books, and text wars. Bullies appear scary but truthfully they are the unhappy ones. Majority of bullies have been bullied by parents, siblings, or other young people. This may trigger them to bully and pick on other kids.
What is Cyber bullying? Cyber bullying is just like regular bullying but instead of bullying face to face, it’s done on the internet. In America, cyber bullying has gotten out of hand during the past year. Unfortunately kids who are bullied through the internet have a difficult time getting away from the bullying. Children today walk the street while thinking or knowing they will get picked on. This has also caused teens to commit suicide. Usually teens that are the bullies have a lower self-esteem than the person they’re bulling. Teens today use the internet more than anything excluding sleep. In two thousand and eight young teens ages 12-17 had access to the internet. Cyber bullying needs to stop before more of our children hurt themselves. Studies show that most likely a female would be the most bullied. A high percent of teens have been angry, frustrated, sad, embarrassed, scared and shockingly a small percent weren't even bothered.
Almost every teenager has a social media account. Over the years, teenagers have become more and more addicted to these apps. Nowadays, teenagers are on their devices 24/7. Research has shown that social media does cause depression in young teens; however, people debate the true reason behind the connection of social media and depression. Some people argue that social media causes depression in young teens by taking their attention away from real life experiences, and losing face-to-face interactions (Theobald). Other people suggest that young teens get depressed by sitting at home looking at pictures of their friends together without them, and young teens start to feel irrelevant and lonely (Theobald). Their depression could
Nowadays bullying has gone much farther than just physical violence. Most teens today have either been cyber bullied or have been witnesses to it. Cyber bullying is a form of bullying that is done over electronic messaging or over social media. This is very new to many people of the older generation, but is very relevant to the new generation. Cyber bullying is becoming an increasingly big problem in the U.S. every year. Being a kid who has grown up with technology and social media I have witnessed cyber bullying many times in my life. I have had many friends that have fell victim to cyber bullying and this is why I chose to talk about this topic. Since this topic of bullying is overlooked in our society as not being an issue I decided to choose