Is the Internet Spreading a Suicide Virus

All over the small group of Pacific Islands called Micronesia, adolescent boys pen their final goodbyes to friends and family, replaying again and again what Donald J. Rubenstein calls "a scenario that...has become culturally patterned and recurring". In the past decades, suicide has been rampant among Micronesian youth, especially teenaged boys with suicide rates equaling to those in Japan, who has one of the highest in the world. Rubenstein has done extensive research on this epidemic of suicide among youth and accredits the happenings to social and cultural change.

After surveying and examining several trends, Rubenstein discovered from the early 1960's to the 1980's the suicide rates in the collection of Micronesian islands doubled every decade. Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell meticulously dissects the coming and going of social, biographical, and economical epidemics. Gladwell includes the terrible stories of the Micronesian suicide epidemic, characterizing it as a "suicide bug" that one teen transmits to the others as easily as the flu. Gladwell theorized that a few teens committed suicide, those who were popular and respected, one Gladwell described was a prominent prince, who killed himself because he couldn't chose between his two lovers, and these stories were circulated among social groups, towns, cities, and schools, glamorizing the actual act of suicide as some skewed right of passage.

How does this affect American society today? Well, Gladwell says the explanation is similar for the explanation for the outbreak of teen smoking, a couple of cool kids do it and everyone wants to do it. Kind of like how Abraham Biggs, who according to NY Daily News, broadcasted his suicide online. People actually watched the webcast while Biggs, who had taken a lethal mix of drugs, overdosed up to the second police and paramedics came bursting in the room.

Biggs' death was like a sneeze in the faces of many other troubled teens. His story broadcast on all the top media sites, news networks, and radio shows, exposed those depressed as he was to a solution. A 12-year-old girl that also resided in Florida seemed to have caught the "suicide bug" that Gladwell spoke of in his book. Naples News reports that the girl threatened to kill herself while chatting on a webcam in the wee hours of the morning just weeks after Biggs' webcast. Luckily sheriff deputies were able to intervene before she could harm herself, posing as another teen girl so that she would reveal her whereabouts. Ryan Mills of Naples News reports that experts say "cyber suicide is a growing problem".

In Micronesia, Rubenstein found out that suicide was rampant among young men especially those who were a part of a close family. Usually the suicide was "triggered" by a fight with an older relative. "The suicide epidemic appears to have begun as a very culturally patterned response of youths to conflicts arising with a changing family structure" and the more that happened the more the phenomenon continued acquiring a "contagion" like quality. Suicide began familiar, as if they were seeing it online or something and became an accepted part of everyday life. One person committing suicide could result in successive suicides among friends and relatives of the first victim. And the suicide bug has even infected young children. The "apparent increase" in children aged 10-14 was also a topic that Gladwell chose to write about, he described interviews he had with boys as young as six and seven. Gladwell found that even boys that young were familiar with suicide and some had even attempted suicide after seeing other young boys in their community do the same thing.

Epidemics act in an "unusual and counterintuitive way", according to Gladwell, who says that the tiniest change in anything or the "tipping point" could start an epidemic. In the United States, Out of 100,000 young people from 15-24 about 20 of them die of suicide, according to AFSP. But the trend in America like most countries is that the increase in age correlates with the increased risk for suicide attempts.

Risk factors for suicide include depression, mental disorders, substance abuse, family history of suicide, and especially a prior suicide attempts. A sudden life changes and stress like loss of a loved one, a breakup, family disruptions, and other traumatic events are also risk factors that could push someone to take their own lives.

The internet has become a key factor to public suicides and the access to suicide could very well be the tipping point to an American suicide epidemic. Choe Shang-Hun of The New York Times says "the Internet has become lethally efficient" in bringing together people with "suicide on their minds". Across the world, detectives, investigators, and social workers are trying to figure out how to stop the growing trend of suicide pacts that are created among online friends on social networking sites. Shang-Hun, whose article was first published in May 2007 tells the story of the increased amount of suicide deaths, doubling from 2000-2005 and how a lot of the suicide deaths can be accredited to suicide pacts. The Internet is now used to help "people get together to die" and for people to share their suicidal thoughts says Sang-Hun.

Suzy Gonzales' family blames the web group she joined for her death. According to San Francisco Chronicle's reporter Julia Scheeres, Suzy, a "vibrant" teen with a full scholarship to Florida State University logged into a website to confide in strangers, who in turn told her "suicide was an acceptable way to end her despair" and even suggested she drink potassium cyanide to do it. The online discussion group actually has confirmed 14 other suicide deaths, including Gonzales.

This is what the internet provides to people feeling hopeless and depressed already, a vast amount of resources, "pro-choice suicide" groups, advertisements to join suicide pacts, and feedback for "self-murder plans". Just as in Micronesia, changing times, changing cultural views, budding social problems are creating depressed teens, who have tons of internet friends telling them suicide is acceptable.

There are laws that prevent people from deliberately aiding others to end their lives by suggesting to them a method or physically helping them, but these laws didn't stop the discussion group that Suzy confided in to help her, even reviewing her suicide notes. Nor did stop the dozens of idiots who watched googly eyed as Abraham Biggs lost consciousness right before their eyes, some are even said to have encouraged him. With every one person that dies from committing suicide there are a dozen or so of their loved ones, family, friends, co-workers, who have to deal with their loss. If suicide is continually glorified and accepted as a way of life those dealing with the loss can be susceptible to catching the suicide bug and in turn take their own lives and the cycle goes on.

Rubenstein Donald J. "Youth Suicide and Social Change in Micronesia". http://cpi.kagoshima-u.ac.jp/occasional/vol-36/33-42.pdf

Lucas, Lisa. "Florida teen Abraham Biggs commits suicide broadcast online via webcam" http://www.nydailynews.com/news/us_world/2008/11/21/2008-11-21_florida_teen_abraham_biggs_commits_suici.html

Mills, Ryan. "Collier Sheriff's Office find girl who threatened suicide on webcam". http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2008/dec/01/collier-sheriffs-office-finds-girl-who-threatened-/?partner=yahoo_headlines

http://www.gladwell.com/tippingpoint/index.html

Sang-Hun, Choe. "Tracking an Online Trend, and a Route to Suicide". http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/23/world/asia/23korea.html?_r=1

Scheeres, Julia. "A Virtual Path". http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2003/06/08/MN114902.DTL