Publisher’s note: If you, or someone you know is thinking about suicide, please know that you are not alone, and free, confidential, help is available 24/7. Call 800-273-8255 to talk to a counselor now. If you know of a teen that’s struggling with thoughts of suicide, you can also get them help by submitting an anonymous report through Safe2Tell Colorado.
In 2015, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg stated, “Our mission at Facebook is to connect the world. We often think about this as connecting you with your friends and family — those who matter to you most.”
Sounds great, right? Unfortunately, social media doesn’t “connect” people. Instead, it disconnects people by destabilizing interpersonal relationships and often leads to cyberbullying. This, in turn, is having a profound impact on today’s youth. For Colorado, that means an increase in teen suicide.
The Rise of Social Media
Social Media has been around since the early 2000s, but it did not explode until 2006 and 2007. This was when Facebook permitted everyone at least 13 years or older to join, and Apple released the first iPhone, facilitating mobile social media use.
Today, almost all Internet users use social media. As of its full-year 2020 report, Facebook had 2.8 billion monthly active users and 1.84 billion daily active users. Considering there are approximately 3.01 billion Internet users globally, almost three-fourths of online people use Facebook, alone. So, how does this use impact people?
The above question has prompted numerous studies, and the results are concerning:
- In 2018, Brigham Young University released a study that found, “the more time an individual spent on social media the more likely they were to experience a negative impact on their overall emotional well-being and decreased quality in their relationships.”
- In 2020, CMAJ analyzed numerous studies and found that “studies implicate smartphone and social media use in the increase in mental distress, self-injurious behavior, and suicidality among youth.”
Other studies have found that people are starting to avoid person-to-person communication, and Internet use results in a “significant decline” in social involvement. In other words, those who regularly use the Internet often find themselves isolated from in-person relationships.
And that is not all. According to the Pew Research Center, 59 percent of U.S. teens reported being bullied or harassed online. And, as cyberbullying and harassment have become more “normalized,” harassment, itself, has become more severe – 48 percent of Internet users under 30 reported experiencing more severe forms of harassment like stalking, sexual harassment, physical threats, and sustained harassment.
But how does this figure in with teen suicide?
The Pressures of Youth
According to the CDC’s latest data, in 2019, there were 1,312 total suicide deaths in Colorado. That is a rate of 21.7 suicide deaths per 100,000 residents. In comparison, the national suicide rate is 14.5 deaths per 100,000.
The rate of youth suicides in Colorado is even more concerning — it’s almost steadily increased since 2009, and is currently the leading cause of death for people ages 10 to 17, according to Colorado Children’s Hospital. Sadly, in 2020 17 youth (people between the ages of 10 to 18) died by suicide in El Paso County. That is up from 11 for the year prior and represents a 54% increase.
Because of the above, the Colorado Attorney General’s office conducted a first-of-its-kind investigation into what’s driving teen suicide. The study, titled “Conversations to Inform Youth Suicide Prevention,” was a multipronged study, which included gathering experts from public and behavioral health agencies and school districts, and then sitting down with youth and parents, to form 34 focus groups.
Further, these groups were comprised of people from counties with high suicide rates, like El Paso and La Plata, and from counties with low suicide rates like Douglas and Larimer. The purpose behind having groups from both low and high suicide counties was to compare them and find the root cause of “recent suicide clusters.”
To that end, three Health Management Associates (HMA) staff, along with behavioral health experts, joined the focus groups to discuss what they saw in their communities. Additionally, HMA analyzed all the data collected from both fatal and nonfatal teen suicides.
From this, the Attorney General’s report concluded that four of the leading risk factors for teen suicide include:
- Pressure and anxiety about failing.
- Social media and cyberbullying.
- Lack of connection to a caring adult.
- Substance use, mental health disorders, and trauma history.
Indeed, one parent in the focus group stated, “Kids in this community are not allowed to appear to have any problems. They are not allowed to fail, and not taught that failure is okay or how to get through it. They are not allowed to appear weak. These kids think, ‘I don’t want to disappoint my parents anymore. Failure is not an option, but suicide is.”
Plus, the Attorney General’s report stated, “youth who are experiencing bullying at school cannot escape the harassment, as it continues after school hours on social media or via text messages.”
Simply put, many of today’s youth feel pressured to appear perfect and perform well in school and sports, feel disconnected from their parents and adults so they do not have someone to confide in, and at the same time are experiencing amplified bullying. This can lead to substance abuse and mental health disorders, which finally increase teen suicide.
How it Adds Up
In addition to the above, some studies have examined altitude as a risk factor when it comes to suicide – the brain needs oxygen, and a reduction in that can impact people’s mental health, according to NPR. And indeed, several studies found altitude may be a “novel risk factor,” but not the only risk factor.
In other words, Colorado’s elevation is likely a risk factor, but by itself, does not lead to suicide. However, when you combine elevation with the risk factors of feeling isolated from parents and peers, feeling intense pressure to perform, and relentless cyberbullying, it is easy to see why Colorado, specifically, has a teen suicide problem. So, what can we do to combat this issue?
What to Do
“When it comes to youth suicides, it’s the parents that are our biggest challenge. To get them to understand the landscape of the crisis that their kid is in.” – Key Informant in the AG’s study.
Social media does not connect us, and in fact directly and negatively impacts in-person relationships — parents are not connecting with their children, and children aren’t connecting with their parents and peers.
Adults, and parents especially, can help prevent youth suicide, but it takes hard work and dedication. Today’s teens feel lost and alone and are looking for a way out. To combat this problem, the Attorney General’s report found that it’s essential for adults and parents to “prioritize relationship building,” which means putting down the phones, talking fact-to-face and focusing on activities that build trust and connections.
Additionally, adults need to teach youth how to better handle and navigate social media, and create a supportive environment where youth feel safe to be themselves. If someone is struggling with feelings of anxiety, isolation, bullying, or suicidal ideation, it is important for kids to know that no one is perfect, getting help is normal and healthy, and they won’t be stigmatized.
If you, or someone you know is thinking about suicide, please know that you are not alone, and free, confidential, help is available 27/7. Call 800-273-8255 to talk to a counselor now. Finally, if you know of a teen that is struggling with thoughts of suicide, you can get them help by submitting an anonymous report through Safe2Tell Colorado.
[…] before COVID, Colorado had severe issues with mental health problems, especially in our teen population. These mental health issues often went undiagnosed and untreated due to cost […]