… writes in the New York Times about “the horror of multiple suicides.”
In a time of unrelenting connectivity, through Facebook, Twitter and our smartphones, paradoxically it is too easy to stop connecting directly with those most able to help our young people.
I’m not sure what this means. In the Huffington Post, the mother of an NYU student who recently killed himself writes in response to David Skorton’s NYT letter:
I am also encouraged to see that I am not the only who believes that connectivity disconnects people. I think that we need to [go] back in order to go forward.
I think both writers need to clarify what they mean. It seems intuitively right to me that part of what’s weird about being in your twenties today is that you’re always online in a variety of pseudo-social ways… That you’re maybe addicted to these bizarre tethers that aren’t really tethers… But I’d like to know more about why people think there’s a link between this and self-destruction.
March 24th, 2010 at 1:25PM
Sherry Turkle has done some actual thinking about how computers interact with an individual’s sense of self. I haven’t read her recent books, but ‘The Second Self’ is a classic, IMO. It got somewhat mixed reviews when it first came out because it was sent to computer people for review…
March 24th, 2010 at 2:29PM
Huh.
Doesn’t NYU have a history of suicides? Why?
“But I’d like to know more about why people think there’s a link between this and self-destruction.”
Me too. What do the numbers look like? Are there more suicides now then there were pre-internet?
Are more people who are mentally ill being accepted into universities? Does this change the stats?
March 24th, 2010 at 3:20PM
There’s been no change in the prevalence of suicide attempts among American high school students since the 1990s (CDC Healthy Youth trends).
From the 1990-2004, the suicide rate has dropped 21% among 20-24 year olds and 33% among 15-19 year olds (Cathy Barber, Harvard Injury Control Research Center).
March 24th, 2010 at 3:28PM
My last comment got cut, somehow. Anyway, in 2005 and 2006, there was an increase in suicide rates (Jama) time for my flight 🙂