![Kev](/data/avatars/l/1/1844.jpg?1535956948)
Kev
Student
- Aug 18, 2018
- 124
So in a recent thread, "Any guesses for why the suicide rate is going up?", I spent like a decent chunk of time contemplating, analyzing, and writing a relatively elaborate theory to answer this question. In that time, the thread got locked a few minutes before I finished my reply because of some serious off topic tangents and arguments, so it did not let me post the reply. I spent too much time and effort to get cockblocked like that, so I'm posting it as a new thread.
This was the post:
I'm the only person I know who is openly suicidal, so I only have my thoughts and experiences to base my answer off of, but personally for me, it just comes down to disillusionment about life.
Like others have said, the widespread use of social media, television, and just escapist entertainment in general have implanted unrealistically high expectations of what life should be in peoples' heads, especially to impressionable young minds. Combine that with commonplace access to all of humanity's knowledge, the increasing difficulty of economic improvement, the competitive and cutthroat reality of human nature, the increasing difficulty of finding love with the prevalence of hooking up and shit like Instagram models and apps like Tinder giving people unrealistic expectations.
My theory, based off my own experience, is that people grow up with expectations that their life is going to be like the movies or their favorite show, and when they are hit by reality, they feel a disappointment so deep that it oftentimes throws them into depression. They just can't handle it. People are lonelier than ever, struggling to advance their status (being stagnant and static in life is not how a human being was meant to live), more stressed than ever, etc. Then, they are able to go on the internet and easily able to see how fucked up society is, how insignificant humanity's existence is on the cosmic scale, and how insignificant their own individual existence is. Many philosophers, statisticians, and scientists have said that we are most likely in a simulation. This very thought and concept is something that would invoke an existential crisis in many people, yet it is available for all to see. People no longer have religion to bring meaning to their lives, and people are now part of a global population rather than a more intimate, emotionally satisfying community. Back when people lived in villages in communities of say, 100 people, they felt important. Those 100 people were their whole world, and as an individual, they felt as if they actually had an impact on the world.
To sum it up, I think the general trend is: unrealistic expectations of life propagated by media -> reality sets in as they are continually disappointed over and over again -> knowledge of the meaninglessness of their existence -> depression and loss of will to live -> rationalization that nothing fucking matters, and so if they don't enjoy their existence then the only sensible thing to do is to to end it.
This was the post:
I'm the only person I know who is openly suicidal, so I only have my thoughts and experiences to base my answer off of, but personally for me, it just comes down to disillusionment about life.
Like others have said, the widespread use of social media, television, and just escapist entertainment in general have implanted unrealistically high expectations of what life should be in peoples' heads, especially to impressionable young minds. Combine that with commonplace access to all of humanity's knowledge, the increasing difficulty of economic improvement, the competitive and cutthroat reality of human nature, the increasing difficulty of finding love with the prevalence of hooking up and shit like Instagram models and apps like Tinder giving people unrealistic expectations.
My theory, based off my own experience, is that people grow up with expectations that their life is going to be like the movies or their favorite show, and when they are hit by reality, they feel a disappointment so deep that it oftentimes throws them into depression. They just can't handle it. People are lonelier than ever, struggling to advance their status (being stagnant and static in life is not how a human being was meant to live), more stressed than ever, etc. Then, they are able to go on the internet and easily able to see how fucked up society is, how insignificant humanity's existence is on the cosmic scale, and how insignificant their own individual existence is. Many philosophers, statisticians, and scientists have said that we are most likely in a simulation. This very thought and concept is something that would invoke an existential crisis in many people, yet it is available for all to see. People no longer have religion to bring meaning to their lives, and people are now part of a global population rather than a more intimate, emotionally satisfying community. Back when people lived in villages in communities of say, 100 people, they felt important. Those 100 people were their whole world, and as an individual, they felt as if they actually had an impact on the world.
To sum it up, I think the general trend is: unrealistic expectations of life propagated by media -> reality sets in as they are continually disappointed over and over again -> knowledge of the meaninglessness of their existence -> depression and loss of will to live -> rationalization that nothing fucking matters, and so if they don't enjoy their existence then the only sensible thing to do is to to end it.