I recently watched a BBC documentary detailing the rising suicide rate among Kenyan men. The report, which is ‘part of a series of reports on modern masculinity in Africa’ told of how in Nyandarua County, Kenya, ‘70 people – almost all of them men – killed themselves last year.’
The American Psychological Association reports a 30% increase in death by suicide between 2000 and 2016. According to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the US. The Pacific Standard insists that ‘America is facing a suicide crisis.
To curb the pandemic, the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) has a toll-free ‘National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.’
Last year, the UK appointed a minister for loneliness. It is said that lonesomeness is worse than smoking 15 cigars per day, for it is associated “with a greater risk of cardiovascular disease, dementia, depression, and anxiety.”
CNN reported that “Japan’s youth suicide rate (is) highest in 30 years.”
Depression disrespects social status. Loneliness climbs the loftiest beds and hurls the seemingly stable souls down to the ground of insanity, nay, even lower towards the abyss of suicide.
I am sure most of us either know of some who took their life, or of someone who knows someone who did. We also have people who suffer loneliness around us. It could be us.
But what causes this? How can we, who live in a world of over seven billion people, be perhaps the loneliest generation in the entire history of humanity?
The Crisis of Community
The CNN report concerning rising youth suicide rates in Japan gives us a window into the real dilemma we face. It is said that suicide rates increase considerably among the dot com generation. Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, far from connecting us to communities, tend to destroy our souls.
Suicide rates rise among the youth because they, of all people, are the most connected to social media and disconnected from reality.
Beyond all contradiction, virtual reality flatters. Facebook allows us to edit ourselves, to pretend to be men of a prodigious mind despite the poverty raging within. Instagram, through filters, instantly enhances our external image with dexterity, but often to the detriment of our real skin.
Before we know it, we send images of perfection to the public while demons of imperfection deeply haunt us.
With boundless technology, we have become more skilled at hiding our true selves from the public gaze. Reality is too plain and brutally honest to live with; therefore, we make friends with deception.
The problem is, that in deceiving others, we deceive ourselves. By making people think we are perfect when we are not, we cut them out of our real selves lest they discover the truth.
We know how to get ‘likes’ for our posts. Our craving for retweets has made us slaves of public opinion. But the people who retweet our tweets are distant when death or dearth knocks. We cannot drink from their cup in our thirst. And only three people of the 500 who ‘loved’ our engagement picture, nay, of our 5000 Facebook friends, show up for our wedding meetings.
In short, we have lived for the pleasure of the public that neither truly knows us nor cares. Part of this is because we successfully (or rather, unfortunately) edited our true selves from the pictures we post, only presenting our pretentious perfections.
Our communication cobwebs have entrapped us within, and we are at odds with escape. Look at us, all depressed and defeated!
The truth is that technological advancement, though helpful, has tended towards the destruction of humanity.
Thus, we manufacture sex robots for those tired of real relationships with stressing creatures called mankind. Amazon’s ensured prompt delivery of our ‘orders’ to the door ‘saves us the hassle’ of face-to-face humans interactions.
We do not like us; thus, we do all things in our power to avoid human ‘interruptions’. When we publicly ‘update our status’ we offer the world a raw deal, pretending to be better than we are. We seem to like to stay away from the truth about ourselves and our world.
But it is the truth which sets us free. Community is constructed around authentic relationships. It is built on vulnerability. But that word, ‘vulnerability’ is something we hate to communicate to others. We are too weak to admit our weakness and too fearful to face our fears.
We change the subject or shy away from the smell of our skeletons as we do not want people to tell us that we are sinners- at least not with our systemic perfectionist public propaganda on social media.
We have killed ourselves. And we know it. But we can’t stop because we are addicted to lies and virtual perfection. We like science fiction because it communicates our condition- a craving for a fictitious living that ignores reality.
Christ and the Craving for Community and Transcendence
This is not how life is meant to be. We are made to live life abundantly, in community, and in Him who made us.
And until we are found in Him, we will continually lose ourselves.
Suicide is a symptom that reveals an identity crisis and a craving for community. This craving and crisis are not limited to those addicted to social media.
Suicide happens when we cease to see ourselves in a grand story, one that transcends- while giving meaning- to the mundane. The question ‘do I matter’ must be answered affirmatively beyond self-deception and flattery.
The human heart craves for affirmation from God as a child does from his parents. The world cannot provide this assurance, and we know it, hence our fascination with fiction.
But Christ, being God-Man, through a community of faith, offers meaning beyond and to our seemingly insignificant lives.
Christ also offers forgiveness for our sins. While the world crucifies us for our failures, Christ was crucified for them. And because He was, He provides the forgiveness that social media does not.
The only way we kill suicide is to embrace the One who was killed for our sin, insecurities, and brokenness. Only when we do, will we will begin to live.
And then we will realize that even those that project perfection on Facebook-those that we used to compare ourselves to in that depressed dead of the night- are as broken and in need of God’s grace as we are.
We will discover that in Christ’s body, we are all truly known, and genuinely loved.
Thus, the community of faith, the church, is a place where forgiven sinners meet, in full admission and joyful awareness of their sinfulness and imperfections, choosing to relate with one another based not on their works but the finished work of Christ.
In this regard, the church, by the Spirit of God, better fulfils the responsibilities of the UK’s minister of loneliness. For He who formed human hearts now reforms them through the community of the cross.
Salvation from suicide comes from the Savior, who is ‘the Life.’ It is Him who cried out: “Because I live, you will live also” (John 14:19).
Only these words can give life to the dying. Only they can defeat depression. Only Christ offers hope that transcends our weakness founded on the imperishable promises of God.
In view of this, allow Transcendence to take over. Surrender the rights to save yourself, and rest in Him who is faithful.
Believe in Christ, read and meditate on His Word, thereby putting suicidal thoughts to the sword. Join a local church.
If you are a Christian, be a friend indeed that your neighbour needs. Visit their homes more often than their homepages, and try liking her pets more than her posts.
“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.” 2 Corinthians 13:14
Photo Credit: Pixabay, via Pexels.