The Cause of Suicide Is Smaller Than We Think
There has been a lot of conversation about how Gen Z is not doing well emotionally. The most popular theory, right now, as to why blames social media. When I was a kid it was fashion mags. (I have a whole comparison on the way technology and the beauty industry have led both Gen X and Gen Z sinisterly down self-harm vortexes.) Regardless the issue is familiar. This morning the radio reminded me of how bad off we were when my generation was kids. Offspring’s The Kids Aren’t Alright was playing when I turned it on. We had a lot of songs about how kids weren’t alright in the 90s. Soul Asylum’s Runaway Train called out the issue of runaway kids and is forever stuck in my head. (In the 90s, about a third of kids ran away and 71% of them did so due to endangerment at home, today around 7% of kids runaway.) And an unacceptably high number of our heroes died young from drug abuse, murder, or suicide: River Phoenix, Curt Cobain, Tupac, Selena, Notorious BIG, ODB, Chris Farley… And it turns out we’re still at it at it at higher rates than other generations. Suicide was among the 10 leading causes of death until 1998, and is a marker of Gen X.
I see a lot of similarities between Gen Z and Gen X. The question is why are we so depressed. Social media? Fashion mags with heroine chic models? Divorce? Once again, I think it’s more simple. Parental attention. Gen X kids were notoriously neglected. While most of us loved our free time and independent adventuring, which can be attributed to our lower anxiety rates, we were not taught social or emotional skills, we were not cared for, and we were left to find our own self-worth when few at home valued us. The lucky ones figured it out. The unlucky ones became dependent on drugs and alcohol, and/or turned to suicide. Gen Z grew up an era of political upheaval that has been compared to the lead up to WWII and the Civil War.
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