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Imagine that you’re on your phone. Pretty easy, right?
Now, imagine that your phone goes off, signaling you that someone has texted you. You open the text message only to find the words:
Why do you even try? You are nothing and always will be. No one cares about you and no one ever will. You might as well kill yourself. No one loves you enough to care if you did commit suicide.
In the article “Teen Depression, Suicide Linked to Time Spent On Cell Phones” by Lulu Garcia-Navarro she says:
“Twenge's research found that teens who spend five or more hours per day on their devices are 71 percent more likely to have one risk factor for suicide.”
She describes that whether we are scrolling on Instagram or watching videos on YouTube, what really factors into teen suicide and depression is the amount of time you are spending on your electronic device, not what you are looking at.
In the article “Increased Hours Online Correlate With An Uptick In Teen Depression, Suicidal Thoughts” by Patti Neighmond she talks about a survey that asked many students at the ages of 13 to 18, to respond to the following statements as well as others:
“Life often feels meaningless.” “I feel I can’t do anything right.” or “I feel my life isn't very useful.”
The 2010 results compared to the 2015 results were that the numbers of students who had answered “Yes.” to three or more of these questions had increased from 16 percent in 2010, to 22 percent in 2015.
They also noticed that the majority of these significances were among girls, which are six times more likely to report of signs of depression or suicidal thoughts than boys.
They conducted this same survey, but this time they asked if the student had, at any time, felt major depression that would cause them to think suicidal or even tried to commit suicide in the past.
The results were the same. But this time they found statistics from the “Centers of Disease Control and Prevention” that stated a heightened suicide rate over the 2010-2015 time period.
Although one option to solve this problem is to throw our phones and other devices out the window, a more rational option is not that far away.
In the article “Increased Hours Online Correlate with an Uptick in Teen Depression, Suicidal Thoughts” by Patti Neighmond she quotes Twenage saying,
“One hour maybe two hours a day doesn’t increase risk that much, but once you get to three hours-and especially four hours and then, really, five hours and beyond-that's where there's much more significant risk of suicide attempts, thinking about suicide and major depression.”
If you limit your own cell phone use, you’ll have a much smaller risk in being drawn to suicidal thoughts or extensive depression.
Try limiting your cell phone use, and you will see results. Help us fight depression and suicide rates!
Have you ever had suicidal thoughts?
Has anyone close to you committed suicide in the past?
Have you ever suffered from long term depression?
If so, what made it better?
https://www.npr.org/2017/12/17/571443683/the-call-in-teens-and-depression
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2017/11/14/563767149/increased-hours-online-correlate-with-an-uptick-in-teen-depression-suicidal-thou