A town called Bridgend, in the south of Wales, is wondering why so many of its youth have committed suicide recently. In the past year, 13 have done so, a huge number for a town of under 40 000. Other towns in the same region — Merthyr Tydfill, and the Rhondda, Cynon and Taff valleys have seen similar numbers of young suicide cases.
As police continue to investigate, they remain mostly incapable of explaining why these individuals — mostly young men under 30 in Southern Wales — are taking their own lives. But a popular theory has emerged and it is one that points the blame at social networking websites such as Facebook, Bebo and MySpace.
The theory goes that as word of each suicide gets around, young, insecure and impressionable people are hearing about them via the Internet and seeing how much love, praise and attention the deceased are receiving, via the virtual memorials friends set up for them. “Death popularity” envy is provoked and copycat suicides follow. This is what is being called “the culture of suicide.” The idea is that once suicide is publicized as a possible solution to the problem of a painful existence, more people will try it.
There’s just one glitch in the theory in the case of Southern Wales: The towns there are small. Small enough that everybody already knows everybody else’s business. No need to log on to find out who’s done what and who’s feeling how. Maybe news of suicides does provoke already distressed and depressed people into copycat suicides. But is MySpace truly more powerful than small-town gossip?
Maybe not, but it can spread the gossip much further.
Two years ago, an American teenager used MySpace to post his suicide note. Minutes later, news of his departure was all over the website and the world. International eulogies followed.
Bad things happen. And people, whether well or badly intentioned, naturally influence each other. Human misery always finds a way. Take the case of the 13-year-old American girl who committed suicide after her virtual “friend” dumped her. Turns out the “friend” was actually a false identity created by an ex-friend and her family to taunt and torment her. Could these mean-spirited people’s actions have caused a suicide without the aid of the Internet?
Probably. But the point is the suicide, especially of someone young, is hard to handle. And looking for someone, something to blame is a natural part of human grief. New, unfamiliar forms of youth culture are always the first to be cross-examined by angry, grieving parents. Heavy metal, horror movies, hip hop, now Facebook. Maybe blaming youth culture is easier than understanding it, in all its gleeful exuberance and miserable hopelessness. But may the youthful and living never stop finding new means to communicate it.
This article was published Friday, February 8, 2008.
