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https://www.apa.org/monitor/2019/03/trends-suicide https://www.apa.org/monitor/2019/03/trends-suicide > The suicide rate increased 33 percent from 1999 through

https://www.apa.org/monitor/2019/03/trends-suicide https://www.apa.org/monitor/2019/03/trends-suicide > The suicide rate increased 33 percent from 1999 through 2017, from 10.5 to 14 suicides per 100,000 people (NCHS Data Brief No. 330, November 2018). Rates have increased more sharply since 2006. Suicide ranks as the fourth leading cause of death for people ages 35 to 54, and the second for 10- to 34-year-olds. It remains the 10th leading cause of death overall. >But it’s a different story in other parts of the world. Over roughly the same period, other countries have seen rates fall, including Japan, China, Russia and most of Western Europe. What is going wrong on our shores—and what lessons can we import from elsewhere? I’ve always seen social media as a very artificial environment, it depends on the online environment. But I never associated it with more benefits especially among teenagers.

cm2012 5y ago
Facebook is global, the fact the suicide rate only grew in the US and not worldwide is a point in its favor. Not to mention the increase in suicide rate is higher for older generations who use social media less, according to the data.
- GhettoComputers 5y ago
  That is assuming that facebook usage is globally homogenous. Social climates, sex and age play a huge factor. Young insecure girls that are bombarded with how they should look, and what their friends are doing without them will not be affected as the boomer who only goes onto facebook marketplace to sell, talk with family, or the kind that posts trump memes. Heres some interesting data. https://www.smartinsights.com/social-media-marketing/social-media-strategy/new-global-social-media-research/ https://www.smartinsights.com/social-media-marketing/social-...
  - vadfa 5y ago
    I don't think usage of instagram is much different here in western europe and the results regarding teen suicide are not the same seemingly. So I'm not sure of what to think. Open to being proven wrong about instagram usage in the us vs europe. I haven't really looked into it. But it seems all teens and preteens here are hooked on it.
    - GhettoComputers 5y ago
      It is multidimensional, it does not mean that social media is going to have the same effect even among the same country with the same usage. Widespread anti-semitism for instance in the US did not cause the holocaust as it did in Germany. The culture in parts different parts of western Europe is different than it is from southern US and northern US. You will find no shortage of people quitting social media and reporting benefits around the world, the algorithms on instagram will also vary with what is shown. Without enough data I cannot quantify it but other factor such as wealth are also associated with suicides, low income and high income communities have lower suicide rates. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_suicide_rate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_suicide_r...
- tablespoon 5y ago
  > Facebook is global, the fact the suicide rate only grew in the US and not worldwide is a point in its favor. Not necessarily. To oversimplify things to make a point, suicide may have two ingredients: Facebook and something else. The US has an increased rate because has both (Facebook and the other ingredient), while the other places don't because they only have one ingredient (Facebook) and are missing the other. It's not a point in Facebook's favor if it is one of many ingredients in a recipe for suicide, and Facebook may be the easiest ingredient to eliminate. And that's totally plausable. The US has many unique cultural factors (e.g. highest rating of individualism of any country).
jensensbutton 5y ago
Would be curious to see how the great recession played into those numbers.
closeparen 5y ago
The rising teen suicide proves everyone’s favorite social critique. Declining church attendance. Declining corporeal punishment. The academic rat race. Climate change. Whatever I don’t like about the world is why the kids are killing themselves. Having had friends struggle with this when I was a teenager, I find it incredibly disrespectful and in poor taste to leverage their suffering in this lazy and offhand way as an argument for your political opinions.
- GhettoComputers 5y ago
  What is my lazy, poor taste or political opinion? You are attacking my post with no evidence or counter points, a emotional response that isn't based on anything other than hearsay, the first section is a strawman, and the second is how your sample bias should dismiss any other experiences. Is it not hypocritical to dismiss the effect of social media on suicide, such as by cyber bullying? My experience with social media has been negative, and I have lost friend due to suicide and depression, which is why I am pointing it out. Are you suggesting that it has no effect on mental heath or is proven to be beneficial? I would love to be proven wrong if you have information on it. https://www.newswise.com/articles/10-year-study-shows-elevated-suicide-risk-from-excess-social-media-time-for-teen-girls https://www.newswise.com/articles/10-year-study-shows-elevat... >Through annual surveys from 2009 to 2019, researchers tracked the media use patterns and mental health of 500 teens as part of the Flourishing Families Project. They found that while social media use had little effect on boys' suicidality risk, for girls there was a tipping point. Girls who used social media for at least two to three hours per day at the beginning of the study--when they were about 13 years old--and then greatly increased their use over time were at a higher clinical risk for suicide as emerging adults. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3477910/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3477910/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_media_and_suicide https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_media_and_suicide
  - kapp_in_life 5y ago
    And plenty of people's experiences with social media have been positive. Think of the LGBT teen in a small town in the midwest who can find a social group to discuss their. Hobby groups, pick up sports groups, etc. Teens who were already finding 2-3 hours "and then greatly increased their use" a day for doomscrolling between school and homework probably would feel the same if they spent it watching TV.
juanani 5y ago
Interesting, I assume it is cultural values. There is something toxic about a culture that centers around greed. This is hard for teenagers to deal with. Thankfully, our propaganda is far reaching and maybe just seeing how poised one culture is to assign negative labels of other non-greedy cultures, it is likely a unifying mechanism. See, life finds a way around the rot. Rot on, it should make proper humanity stronger.
spunker540 5y ago
If social media is to blame for the rise in suicide, why has it only affected American teens when it is a global trend?
- theyx 5y ago
  I am not saying this is the cause, because I’m not American, but maybe Americans use it in a more “harmful” way. Where I live people mostly use Facebook to buy used stuff on the Marketplace and to post memes in their hometown groups.
908B64B197 5y ago
> Over roughly the same period, other countries have seen rates fall, including Japan, China, Russia and most of Western Europe. What is going wrong on our shores-and what lessons can we import from elsewhere? Keep in mind a 17 years old in 1999 was born in 1982. These were interesting years in Russia, Japan and China to say the least (total collapse of the Soviet Union, for a start, with all the insecurities that ensued) and a pretty nasty economic crisis in Japan [0]. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_Decades https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_Decades
dogorman 5y ago
Interesting that a "33 percent increase" is the same thing as 0.105% to 0.14%. Those latter two figures are both a lot lower than I would have guessed.
- GhettoComputers 5y ago
  Yeah it’s only high percentages because the numbers are already pretty low for suicide. It would be a 200% increase in shooting if there was only one shooting before.

cm2012 5y ago

Facebook is global, the fact the suicide rate only grew in the US and not worldwide is a point in its favor. Not to mention the increase in suicide rate is higher for older generations who use social media less, according to the data.

GhettoComputers 5y ago
That is assuming that facebook usage is globally homogenous. Social climates, sex and age play a huge factor. Young insecure girls that are bombarded with how they should look, and what their friends are doing without them will not be affected as the boomer who only goes onto facebook marketplace to sell, talk with family, or the kind that posts trump memes. Heres some interesting data. https://www.smartinsights.com/social-media-marketing/social-media-strategy/new-global-social-media-research/ https://www.smartinsights.com/social-media-marketing/social-...
- vadfa 5y ago
  I don't think usage of instagram is much different here in western europe and the results regarding teen suicide are not the same seemingly. So I'm not sure of what to think. Open to being proven wrong about instagram usage in the us vs europe. I haven't really looked into it. But it seems all teens and preteens here are hooked on it.
  - GhettoComputers 5y ago
    It is multidimensional, it does not mean that social media is going to have the same effect even among the same country with the same usage. Widespread anti-semitism for instance in the US did not cause the holocaust as it did in Germany. The culture in parts different parts of western Europe is different than it is from southern US and northern US. You will find no shortage of people quitting social media and reporting benefits around the world, the algorithms on instagram will also vary with what is shown. Without enough data I cannot quantify it but other factor such as wealth are also associated with suicides, low income and high income communities have lower suicide rates. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_suicide_rate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_suicide_r...
tablespoon 5y ago
> Facebook is global, the fact the suicide rate only grew in the US and not worldwide is a point in its favor. Not necessarily. To oversimplify things to make a point, suicide may have two ingredients: Facebook and something else. The US has an increased rate because has both (Facebook and the other ingredient), while the other places don't because they only have one ingredient (Facebook) and are missing the other. It's not a point in Facebook's favor if it is one of many ingredients in a recipe for suicide, and Facebook may be the easiest ingredient to eliminate. And that's totally plausable. The US has many unique cultural factors (e.g. highest rating of individualism of any country).

jensensbutton 5y ago

Would be curious to see how the great recession played into those numbers.

closeparen 5y ago

The rising teen suicide proves everyone’s favorite social critique. Declining church attendance. Declining corporeal punishment. The academic rat race. Climate change. Whatever I don’t like about the world is why the kids are killing themselves. Having had friends struggle with this when I was a teenager, I find it incredibly disrespectful and in poor taste to leverage their suffering in this lazy and offhand way as an argument for your political opinions.

GhettoComputers 5y ago
What is my lazy, poor taste or political opinion? You are attacking my post with no evidence or counter points, a emotional response that isn't based on anything other than hearsay, the first section is a strawman, and the second is how your sample bias should dismiss any other experiences. Is it not hypocritical to dismiss the effect of social media on suicide, such as by cyber bullying? My experience with social media has been negative, and I have lost friend due to suicide and depression, which is why I am pointing it out. Are you suggesting that it has no effect on mental heath or is proven to be beneficial? I would love to be proven wrong if you have information on it. https://www.newswise.com/articles/10-year-study-shows-elevated-suicide-risk-from-excess-social-media-time-for-teen-girls https://www.newswise.com/articles/10-year-study-shows-elevat... >Through annual surveys from 2009 to 2019, researchers tracked the media use patterns and mental health of 500 teens as part of the Flourishing Families Project. They found that while social media use had little effect on boys' suicidality risk, for girls there was a tipping point. Girls who used social media for at least two to three hours per day at the beginning of the study--when they were about 13 years old--and then greatly increased their use over time were at a higher clinical risk for suicide as emerging adults. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3477910/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3477910/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_media_and_suicide https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_media_and_suicide
- kapp_in_life 5y ago
  And plenty of people's experiences with social media have been positive. Think of the LGBT teen in a small town in the midwest who can find a social group to discuss their. Hobby groups, pick up sports groups, etc. Teens who were already finding 2-3 hours "and then greatly increased their use" a day for doomscrolling between school and homework probably would feel the same if they spent it watching TV.

juanani 5y ago

Interesting, I assume it is cultural values. There is something toxic about a culture that centers around greed. This is hard for teenagers to deal with. Thankfully, our propaganda is far reaching and maybe just seeing how poised one culture is to assign negative labels of other non-greedy cultures, it is likely a unifying mechanism. See, life finds a way around the rot. Rot on, it should make proper humanity stronger.

spunker540 5y ago

If social media is to blame for the rise in suicide, why has it only affected American teens when it is a global trend?

theyx 5y ago
I am not saying this is the cause, because I’m not American, but maybe Americans use it in a more “harmful” way. Where I live people mostly use Facebook to buy used stuff on the Marketplace and to post memes in their hometown groups.

908B64B197 5y ago

> Over roughly the same period, other countries have seen rates fall, including Japan, China, Russia and most of Western Europe. What is going wrong on our shores-and what lessons can we import from elsewhere? Keep in mind a 17 years old in 1999 was born in 1982. These were interesting years in Russia, Japan and China to say the least (total collapse of the Soviet Union, for a start, with all the insecurities that ensued) and a pretty nasty economic crisis in Japan [0]. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_Decades https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_Decades

dogorman 5y ago

Interesting that a "33 percent increase" is the same thing as 0.105% to 0.14%. Those latter two figures are both a lot lower than I would have guessed.

GhettoComputers 5y ago
Yeah it’s only high percentages because the numbers are already pretty low for suicide. It would be a 200% increase in shooting if there was only one shooting before.