Suicide on Campus and the Pressure of Perfection
1–10 of 29 posts
Re: Suicide on Campus and the Pressure of Perfection
#2From the article: "Several times in high school she had found herself attracted to other girls, but believing her parents and church did not fully accept homosexuality, she had pushed aside those feelings."
This reads more like a gay issue than a school pressure issue. The author of the article may have an agenda - by the same author, "A University Recognizes a Third Gender: Neutral", "A Gender-Neutral Glossary", and "Writing Around Gender".[1]
The Huffington Post has an article about suicides at MIT: "It's not good enough to be "very good" or God forbid, just "good." Excellence has become the new average. What a burden for kids, especially those whose boats don't rise with the tide of increased expectations and higher and higher standards."[2]
Here in Silicon Valley, there are now suicide-watch guards at the three railroad crossings near Palo Alto's Paly and Gunn high schools. Infrared cameras are being installed.[3]
[1] http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/s...
[2] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jerome-schultz/lowering-the-pr...
[3] http://www.paloaltoonline.com/news/2015/09/02/caltrain-begin...
Re: Suicide on Campus and the Pressure of Perfection
#3From the article: "Several times in high school she had found herself attracted to other girls, but believing her parents and church did not fully accept homosexuality, she had pushed aside those feelings." This reads more like a gay issue than a school pressure issue. The author of the article may have an agenda - by the same author, "A University Recognizes a Third Gender: Neutral", "A Gender-Neutral Glossary", and…
The author of the article may have an agenda
Or maybe they are a journalist with a beat. Not saying that's definitely the case here, but someone writing on the same topic repeatedly is hardly rare - it's usually because it's something they've researched deeply and are knowledgeable in.
Re: Suicide on Campus and the Pressure of Perfection
#4[deleted]
Re: Suicide on Campus and the Pressure of Perfection
#5I wonder how much of this stress is caused by technological advances. I bet Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, etc. is making these poor kids neurotic.
Re: Suicide on Campus and the Pressure of Perfection
#6> Nationally, the suicide rate among 15- to 24-year-olds has increased modestly but steadily since 2007: from 9.6 deaths per 100,000 to 11.1, in 2013 (the latest year available from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention).
I possibly missed it but how does that compare to on campus? the supposed point of the article.
Re: Suicide on Campus and the Pressure of Perfection
#7I wonder how much of this stress is caused by technological advances. I bet Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, etc. is making these poor kids neurotic.
The article calls this out pretty explicitly:
In the era of social media, such comparisons take place on a screen with carefully curated depictions that don’t provide the full picture. Mobile devices escalate the comparisons from occasional to nearly constant...Madison Holleran’s suicide provided what might be the ultimate contrast between a shiny Instagram feed and interior darkness. Ms. Holleran posted images that show her smiling, dappled in sunshine or kicking back at a party. But according to her older sister, Ashley, Madison judged her social life as inferior to what she saw in the online posts of her high school friends. An hour before she killed herself, she posted a dreamy final photo of white holiday lights twinkling in the trees of Rittenhouse Square.
I'm 22 (just graduated) and I got rid of my Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat about a year ago. It feels fantastic. I do miss messenger sometimes, but the benefit of not having my time/energy sucked out by Facebook far outweighs messenger's convenience.
Re: Suicide on Campus and the Pressure of Perfection
#8ESPN did an amazing longform article about the track star mentioned in the OP, Madison Holleran:
http://espn.go.com/espn/feature/story/_/id/12833146/instagra...
One of the themes of that story, as in the OP, is how social media distorts the reality of experience, making people think that everything is exciting and upbeat in others' lives...I think for better or worse, this effect is stronger in Instagram, and not just because of the literal "filters"...what makes Instagram more appealing in general than Facebook is that, being so focused on images and impulse sharing, it's much harder to get into political spats/debates...but it's much more difficult to convey "meh" or other negative emotions. If you focus on someone's Instagram, you can come away with a very distorted assessment of that person's life and emotions.
Re: Suicide on Campus and the Pressure of Perfection
#9From the article: "Several times in high school she had found herself attracted to other girls, but believing her parents and church did not fully accept homosexuality, she had pushed aside those feelings." This reads more like a gay issue than a school pressure issue. The author of the article may have an agenda - by the same author, "A University Recognizes a Third Gender: Neutral", "A Gender-Neutral Glossary", and…
The author of the article may have an agenda Or maybe they are a journalist with a beat. Not saying that's definitely the case here, but someone writing on the same topic repeatedly is hardly rare - it's usually because it's something they've researched deeply and are knowledgeable in.
Programmers have passion but journalists have agendas!
Re: Suicide on Campus and the Pressure of Perfection
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
The author of the article may have an agenda Or maybe they are a journalist with a beat. Not saying that's definitely the case here, but someone writing on the same topic repeatedly is hardly rare - it's usually because it's something they've researched deeply and are knowledgeable in.
Programmers have passion but journalists have agendas!
Programmers don't have the same ability to influence many people with their work.