Suicide Analysis In The Modern Era
Suicide: A Study in Sociology (1897) by Emile Durkheim is a study that was conducted to see what kind of social forces motivate a person to commit an act such as suicide. In our modern society, we have factors that did not exist when the original study was created such as social media, higher rates of attendance to schools, less emphasis on religion, and so on. How do these factors play into the studies of egoistic and anomic suicide done by Durkheim?
In the late 19th century, sociologist, Emile Durkheim, conducted a study to see what kind of social forces are able to move a person to commit suicide. Suicide, as defined by Durkheim, is “applied to all cases of death resulting directly or indirectly from a positive or a negative act of the victim himself, which he knows will produce this result.” (Durkheim, 1897, p. 44) Two types of suicide that he found were egoistic suicide and anomic suicide. Egoistic suicide occurs when someone is not properly integrated into a social group. They do not have a sense of attachment, or they feel as if they do not belong. Anomic suicide, on the other hand, is caused by a lack of moral regulations or by normlessness. People feel lost, and they do not know what to do with themselves.
In his studies on social integration and egoistic suicide, Durkheim chose to focus on certain religious groups in European countries. He found that countries with more religious freedom and an emphasis on an individual relationship with God had higher rates of suicide than those with strong social ties to the church. These people were less integrated and became more dependent on themselves and had an increased chance of suicide. An example of not being properly integrated into society could also be someone who is not married, has no kids, and is not part of any real social group.
Anomic suicide was studied by looking into divorces and separations throughout Europe. Those who were married had lower chances of committing suicide. Marriage helps to regulate one’s life sexually, emotionally, and in general. Once these marriages end, that sense of social regulation also comes to an end and increases one’s chance of feeling lost and their chances of committing suicide. Another example would be if someone was attending school their entire life and then suddenly stopped and had no plans for what to do after. Their life would suddenly have no regulations.
Suicide is a very real issue that we, especially adolescents, are currently facing. According to Maimon and Kuhl (2008) , suicide is the third leading cause of death in young people. “During the ‘teen years’ the incidence of suicide attempts, suicide ideation and self-harm peak and suicide is a leading cause of death (Young, Sweeting, & Ellaway, 2011). Age, Period, and Cohort Trends in Mood Disorder Indicators and Suicide- Related Outcomes in a Nationally Representative Dataset, 2005–2017 discusses that 17% of people with depression have attempted suicide, that in 2016 alone 45,000 lives in the United States were lost to suicide, that rates of suicide among younger age groups have increased significantly in the last 20 years, and so much more. The statistics show that there is a clear problem with young people and suicide, but the question is what is causing this increase.
Throughout my own life, I have been around handfuls of people who have had thoughts of suicide, who have attempted suicide, and who have committed suicide. After studying Durkheim in class, it came to my attention that modern social factors that Durkheim did not include in his studies could be at play in this epidemic like the internet and differences in schooling. I also realized that he focused his entire study of egoistic suicide on religion, when religion now is not seen with the same amount of importance. How has this lack of religion impacted our society? Egoistic and anomic suicide seem to be the most prevalent in our society.
People have less social interactions with each other now more than ever with the introduction of the internet and cell phones. “... Individuals who spend more time on social media and less time with others face- to-face report lower well-being and are more likely to be depressed (Twenge, Cooper, Joiner, Duffy, & Binau, 2019)” People are constantly texting, going onto social media sites, and so on in place of talking to other human beings and forming real connections. In Social Control and Youth Suicidality, (Maimon & Kuhl, 2008) it is stated that even criminological research has shown that lack of integration into society leads youths to engage in deviant behaviors such as violence to themselves or to others. If people are not talking to each other anymore in person, then how is anyone ever supposed to feel like they are being properly integrated into society. Terms like outcast, loner, wallflower, and so on are being used more and more by young people to describe themselves because they do not feel like they belong. It is becoming more and more common for people to feel isolated.
In schools, people are forced to form connections with each other, but now with social media it is easier to feel left out. You might have a group of friends in school that all continuously go out without you and post about it. In the past, you would not have known that the events had even occurred but with the internet, you would be getting live updates of it happening. People tend to only post themselves doing fun things online, and this may cause other people to feel left out because they might not even have the ability to do those things. With social media, someone might even feel left out just because they see themselves as ugly and everyone else as pretty. It makes them feel like they do not belong or like they are the odd one out. Bullying and cyberbullying do not help with these issues. The internet makes it easy to feel like you do not belong to any one group.
In the age of the internet, it is also easier for people to make other people feel as though they are not a part of their society. “Today, many youths are subject to cyber-bullying through email, cell phone texting, and internet social sites, perpetrated by other adolescents or even adults (Amitai & Apter, 2012).” Cyber-bullying is a major issue where someone or even groups of people may come together to single out an individual. It makes you feel worthless and as if no one is ever going to accept you. Social media sites are used as a form to connect socially to other individuals, but this can become tainted if other people decide to use these sites maliciously. If someone tells you “You don’t belong here,” you will start to believe them, and it could lead to egoistic suicide.
Nowadays, there is less of an emphasis on religion in our society than there was in the past. This lack of religion has led us to live lives with less regulations because people are not as scared of “sinning” and “going to Hell” as before. “Adnan highlighted risks factors such as instability in society, the absence of family/religious protecting factors that have contributed to the rising rate of suicides cases in Malaysia. It seems logical that a sudden removal of excessive regulation or control as a result of social change will give rise to anomic behaviours (Kok & Goh, 2013).” People used to live their lives following all of the rules of the Bible. Now, a lot of people don’t even attend church. People are lost, and they don’t know what to do with their lives, or they feel that their lives have no meaning. This is what leads to anomic suicide in our society today.
Schools are one of the biggest social institutions in place in most societies. Students spend a majority of their lives in these institutions. When they finish with their general education, they can decide if they want to go to a university, or if they want to start working right away. Most people decide to go to university, and once they graduate they no longer know what to do. Their entire lives were set up for them the second they started attending school, and now they have to figure out what they want to do for their entire lives. There are so many possibilities, and there is no one telling them what to do because there is no one right answer for what to do with your life. This lack of regulation in one’s life is extremely detrimental and can also lead to anomic suicide.
Durkheim paved the way for studies on suicide with his discovery of egoistic and anomic suicide, as well as altruistic and fatalistic suicide. He discovered that a lack of integration into society or a lack of regulations in one’s life could lead people into committing suicide. In modern times, the introduction of cell phones and the internet have not only decreased the amount of social integration that people may receive, but it has also made it easier to make other people feel as they do not belong. We also no longer put a huge emphasis on religion, but we do structuralize every aspect of every child’s life up until they reach a certain age and then we leave them to their own devices. Both of these events lead to a lack of regulation in people’s life and an increase of feeling lost and like life doesn’t have any meaning. Suicide should not even be an option, but it is, and these are some of the factors influencing young people to do it today.
