boyst Posted April 5, 2011 Posted April 5, 2011 (edited) I am of the Columbine generation and cannot say I know what drama there was before all of this but this story is so sad. 15 yr old Meagan Allen (her facebook tribute) shot herself in the head with a .22; so sad (story here) Why is it that suicide is so publicized? Why is it that this girl who is pretty cute and looks so ...normal?... I just do not get it, what is so different now versus 30 years ago? Edited April 5, 2011 by jboyst62
DC Tom Posted April 5, 2011 Posted April 5, 2011 I just do not get it, what is so different now versus 30 years ago? 24-hour news cycle.
KD in CA Posted April 5, 2011 Posted April 5, 2011 Of course it happened 30 years ago; only then it was reported in the local paper and no one outside the community ever heard about it. The only difference now is that everyone has access to instant, global communication networks.
Just Jack Posted April 5, 2011 Posted April 5, 2011 Why is it that suicide is so publicized? Why is it that this girl who is pretty cute and looks so ...normal?... I just do not get it, what is so different now versus 30 years ago? The Internet. In the old days, we'd probably never hear of this unless we lived in that town or one of the neighboring ones. EDIT: I was debating what to write while KD posted his.
DC Tom Posted April 5, 2011 Posted April 5, 2011 Of course it happened 30 years ago; only then it was reported in the local paper and no one outside the community ever heard about it. The only difference now is that everyone has access to instant, global communication networks. And pervasive paranoia, and increasingly over-reactive parenting, and an absolutely insane cultural mentality that beatifies victimhood...
boyst Posted April 5, 2011 Author Posted April 5, 2011 Did anyone here, say over age 35, know anyone to committ suicide in school (a classmate)? I knew someone who did, but he was out of HS.
DC Tom Posted April 5, 2011 Posted April 5, 2011 Did anyone here, say over age 35, know anyone to committ suicide in school (a classmate)? I knew someone who did, but he was out of HS. No. Suicide was only invented around 1990...
boyst Posted April 5, 2011 Author Posted April 5, 2011 No. Suicide was only invented around 1990... I am actually being serious? I do not want to seem like I am stereotyping but in the 60's and 70's with the hippy generation and that free love and such it did not seem the same as the culture for kids in the 90's and now. In the 90's the whole dark side of life became prevelant. In the 2000's the imagery of how you are supposed to look with the perversion of life took over...It must be hard to be a youth today.
KD in CA Posted April 5, 2011 Posted April 5, 2011 No. Suicide was only invented around 1990... Coincidentally, that was the same year the Bills started playing football.
DC Tom Posted April 5, 2011 Posted April 5, 2011 I am actually being serious? I do not want to seem like I am stereotyping but in the 60's and 70's with the hippy generation and that free love and such it did not seem the same as the culture for kids in the 90's and now. In the 90's the whole dark side of life became prevelant. In the 2000's the imagery of how you are supposed to look with the perversion of life took over...It must be hard to be a youth today. It's hard to be a youth any day in most western cultures. Society tends to give mixed signals as to whether you're a kid or adult. Serious answer: I had one serious attempt myself, and had two classmates succeed (one girl shot herself in the head with a .22). Knew a HELL of a lot more in college. Also remember three or four bomb threats in high school...the usual response was "Ha ha ha, someone must have not studied for a test today." Times really aren't so different as you'd think. Biggest difference is pervasive media - and I mean less in reporting such things, but far more in how it's affecting social interaction amongst adolescents. Coincidentally, that was the same year the Bills everyone started playing football. Judging by ESPN's occasional Top Ten lists... Coincidentally, that was the same year the Bills everyone started playing football. Judging by ESPN's occasional Top Ten lists...
Pete Posted April 5, 2011 Posted April 5, 2011 Did anyone here, say over age 35, know anyone to committ suicide in school (a classmate)? I knew someone who did, but he was out of HS. I graduated in 87 and no one I knew committed suicide during school. Two kids I knew committed suicide after HS. One was a sports star with a dickhead overbearing father and the other was sexually abused by and FBI agent when he was younger
Just Jack Posted April 5, 2011 Posted April 5, 2011 Did anyone here, say over age 35, know anyone to committ suicide in school (a classmate)? I knew someone who did, but he was out of HS. Not personally, but there was a guy who the summer after he graduated shot himself. I was two years behind him in school. I remember there was a lot of debate about whether to give him a memorial page in the next yearbook. In the end they did not.
BuffaloBill Posted April 5, 2011 Posted April 5, 2011 Of course it happened 30 years ago; only then it was reported in the local paper and no one outside the community ever heard about it. The only difference now is that everyone has access to instant, global communication networks. I agree sadly a couple of kids in my hometown committed suIcide over the years. The local paper, family and community saw the situation as being private. I think there is also a copycat mentality nowadays. This is a very sad situation for the family.
Jim in Anchorage Posted April 5, 2011 Posted April 5, 2011 Of course it happened 30 years ago; only then it was reported in the local paper and no one outside the community ever heard about it. The only difference now is that everyone has access to instant, global communication networks. Suicide was never mentioned. The code word was "suddenly".
UConn James Posted April 5, 2011 Posted April 5, 2011 (edited) I am of the Columbine generation and cannot say I know what drama there was before all of this but this story is so sad. 15 yr old Meagan Allen (her facebook tribute) shot herself in the head with a .22; so sad (story here) Why is it that suicide is so publicized? Why is it that this girl who is pretty cute and looks so ...normal?... I just do not get it, what is so different now versus 30 years ago? In many cases, it does remain fairly private. Something like this can't be hidden. It sounds condescending to have to write this, but even classically "pretty/handsome" people can suffer from depression, bullying, hopelessness, etc. What does that have to do with anything? Sometimes that's what causes others to bully and they know if they take it far enough, their mark will crack. In the case of bullying, I've gotta say that the idea that they can't fight back or they'll get suspended too has to weigh in. And oftentimes, for all the efforts of governors' blue-ribbon panels (breasts on a bull), telling an adult just means more and worse bullying. We live in a very sick society, that has gotten much more crass even in the last 10 years. In the '80s-period "No Country for Old Men," the Tommy Lee Jones character says he thinks it started when people stopped using "Sir" and "ma'am" --- I think that was true then, and it's only gotten worse in this society since with the breakdown of authority, the end of respect, the breakdown of the family unit, a culture of sex and violence in the media/teevee/movies, the rise of hard drug use, etc. Anyone who says it's roughly the same as the '60s-'90s has obviously not spent much time in the public school system since they attended. I'm sorry, but in any number of high schools, this is an exponentially growing problem. Look on the Facebook memorial. It's sick. (Edit: it had to be taken down.) People today feel they have the right to make whatever comment they want to get their "lulz." It's my own opinion that comments sections under news stories, while begun with intentions of discussing the news productively, are doing a lot of damage and adding to the epidemic of verbal diarrhea. I can't read those comments anymore; it's such an angry world out there. This is all in addition to whatever internal stuff was going on, but make no mistake that social interaction provides a big part of this kind of thing. The meteoric rise in depression rates can't just be physical. It just can't. As for Meagan, it's a horrible set of circumstances. You just think... what if one person had just said, 'You know... She needs some help.' Instead, the weight of her world crushed this girl. If there is something after this, I hope God shows her the compassion she never got here. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uhsh66Daipk Edited April 5, 2011 by UConn James
Wacka Posted April 5, 2011 Posted April 5, 2011 Suicides are publicized a lot more know. I knew a volunteer fireman in the early 80s. He said that a lot of the attempted and successful suicide calls he went on never made the media.
Peace Posted April 5, 2011 Posted April 5, 2011 Did anyone here, say over age 35, know anyone to committ suicide in school (a classmate)? I knew someone who did, but he was out of HS. Kid in my class killed himself my sophomore year at McQuaid in the late 80s. I was in a bunch of classes with him. So sad.
Fezmid Posted April 5, 2011 Posted April 5, 2011 This is all in addition to whatever internal stuff was going on, but make no mistake that social interaction provides a big part of this kind of thing. The meteoric rise in depression rates can't just be physical. It just can't. Why not? There's a meteoric rise in allergies. There's a meteoric rise in obesity. Why can't a chemical imbalance in the brain be growing at an alarming rate too?
DC Tom Posted April 5, 2011 Posted April 5, 2011 Why not? There's a meteoric rise in allergies. There's a meteoric rise in obesity. Why can't a chemical imbalance in the brain be growing at an alarming rate too? Or diagnosis simply increasing. One has to wonder how many teens labelled as "moody" thirty years ago would be diagnosed with depression today. Diagnostic criteria and clinical definitions change with time, too - the DSM-IV doesn't have "four" in its name just because someone liked the number.
Ramius Posted April 5, 2011 Posted April 5, 2011 Had a classmate in HS commit suicide during our sophomore year. He was on year long suspension for putting a pipe bomb in one of the bathrooms. His family had it rough, as the kid's younger brother had cancer. I actually went to college with his partner-in-crime who was also suspended. He said they wanted to blow up the toilet as a prank and there was no human target.
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