{"id":170278,"date":"2017-08-06T19:23:53","date_gmt":"2017-08-06T23:23:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=170278"},"modified":"2017-08-07T19:52:43","modified_gmt":"2017-08-07T23:52:43","slug":"13-reasons-why-internet-searches-suicide-todays-culture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/13-reasons-why-internet-searches-suicide-todays-culture\/","title":{"rendered":"Internet searches on suicide spike after Netflix releases teen drama ’13 Reasons Why’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Netflix series “13 Reasons Why” was a huge success, at first glance. Based on the 2007 novel, the series follows teenager Clay Jensen as he investigates the suicide of his friend and unrequited love interest, Hannah Baker. Hannah left Clay a box of tapes, each one explaining why she killed herself — thus making up the basis of the show.<\/p>\n

While the show was widely watched and praised by critics, it also was roundly criticized for glamorizing suicide. Washington Post TV critic Hank Stuever wrote<\/a>, “It\u2019s an unbelievable and selfish conceit, a protracted example of the teenager who fantasizes how everyone will react when she\u2019s gone,” adding that the story was “remarkably, even dangerously, naive in its understanding of suicide, up to and including a gruesome, penultimate scene of Hannah opening her wrists in a bathtub.” Writing for The New Yorker<\/a>, Jia Tolentino said the show “presents Hannah\u2019s suicide as both an addictive scavenger hunt and an act that gives her the glory, respect, and adoration that she was denied in real life.” Despite the deep criticisms leveled against it, however, the show has already been renewed for a second season.<\/p>\n

Schools across the country warned parents about “13 Reasons Why,” cautioning that it could encourage teenagers to commit suicide. The National Association of School Psychologists also discouraged teenagers from watching the show — especially those already struggling with suicidal thoughts. And it appears that the warnings were merited: a new study found that internet searches on suicide skyrocketed<\/a> after the release of “13 Reasons Why.” Published in JAMA Internal Medicine, the study’s authors wrote:<\/p>\n

Our analyses suggest 13 Reasons Why, in its present form, has both increased suicidal awareness while unintentionally increasing suicidal ideation… [t]he most rising queries focused on suicidal ideation. For instance, “how to commit suicide,” “commit suicide” and “how to kill yourself” were all significantly higher.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

How much higher, exactly?<\/p>\n

Less than three weeks after the series was released, the searches for information on suicide had jumped by 19 percent. And that’s no small number — it meant “900,000 to 1.5 million more searches than expected” according to the study’s authors. Some psychiatrists revealed to The Washington Post<\/a> that their patients have already begun to mention the show during therapy. After speaking to a 12-year-old patient, Dan Nelson, who serves as the medical director of the child psychiatry inpatient unit at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, became deeply concerned:<\/p>\n

\u201cShe said to me, \u2018I saw that show and it really convinced me that suicide was a normal thing to do,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ve never heard that. In 30 years, I\u2019ve never heard a child say this thing made me think suicide is normal. That really got my attention.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kimberly O\u2019Brien, a researcher at Boston Children\u2019s Hospital and an instructor in psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, agreed. \u201cI personally have seen multiple psychiatric admissions where the admission note details the fact that the teen said that they wanted to \u2018kill myself the way the girl in 13 Reasons Why did,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cThis is extremely concerning because it is showing us, just like it has in research studies, that pictures or detailed descriptions of how or where a person died by suicide can be a factor in vulnerable individuals imitating the attempt.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But while “13 Reasons Why” has been rightly criticized for glamorizing suicide, it’s sadly indicative of a much larger issue — and that is the growing culture of death. Today, death is, in many ways, encouraged, romanticized, and even celebrated. From suicide to abortion to euthanasia, it’s troubling to see how actively choosing death has become accepted by so many.<\/p>\n

Take abortion<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Activists have begun trying in earnest to insert it into our popular culture, to make it more appealing to the masses, to turn it into something light-hearted and funny. The television show “Scandal” controversially featured an abortion committed while the song “Silent Night” played in the background<\/a>; Netflix cartoon “Bojack Horseman” mocked pro-lifers and encouraged abortion with a cartoon that sang “get dat fetus, kill dat fetus,”<\/a>\u00a0which television critics widely praised. Other television producers have vowed to put abortion on the air<\/a>. There are now “abortion romantic comedies”<\/a>\u00a0and abortion musicals<\/a>. Abortion is featured in wedding announcements<\/a>\u00a0and turned into a game<\/a> to be played at birthday parties.<\/p>\n

Below, Dr. Anthony Levatino — a former abortionist himself — describes the reality of one of the most common abortions committed in the U.S. every day. (He details other abortion procedures here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n