Noah Baron, Associate Editor
Ideology: Religious Progressive | Writing from: Columbia University
According to this article rates of extreme depression have risen in each generation since 1915. The Centers for Disease Control and Protection have released a report which states that suicide rates amongst young girls (ages 10-14) have risen 76%. The report goes on to state that between 2003 and 2004, suicide rates for all youth (people aged 10-24) had risen 8%, the largest single increase in almost two decades.
Opinions seem to vary on the causes, ranging from increasing numbers of people defaulting on their credit to high levels of stress during the holidays. And, while the general rise in depression might seem to imply a higher suicide rate, the stunning increase in youth suicide and depression would appear rather anomalous in this context: children do not have credit upon which to default, and I think most would agree that younger people generally do not feel terribly stressed during the holiday season.
Something far more deep-seated is at work here, namely a culture of consumption and materialism. Both of the previously-mentioned theories are merely symptoms of this deeper problem. Many people are stressed during the holidays because they are worried about how much they will be able to spend and how much debt they’ll be in after the frenzy. And credit card debt comes from the drive to spend despite potential financial harm to oneself.
Meanwhile, in their quest for profits, America’s corporations have spent decades fostering a culture in which unnatural thinness and the newest most fashionable clothes are of paramount importance — a culture which is ultimately destructive of the self-esteem of our youth. According to the Social Issues Research Centre, 81% of 10-year-old girls have dieted at least once in order to lose weight; and according to one study, “taller men earned around $600 per inch more than shorter [men].” Because the standards of beauty promoted by today’s media are only achievable by approximately five percent of the population, more and more Americans whip out their credit cards more and more often, in the hopes that, even if their purchases don’t make them look better (as we are promised in commercial after commercial), then perhaps they will serve to make them feel better.
And, of course, there are others who agree with me. There’s Adbusters, which has been railing against destructive consumerism for years. But recently, The Epoch Times, a Canadian newspaper ran an article discussing a growing list of studies that establish a link between depression and materialism–a strong attachment to material goods to the exclusion of spiritual or intellectual values.
And The Epoch Times is not alone in this assessment. Alternet, in its Health & Wellness section, also posted an article about how out-of-control consumption is reminiscent of well-known behavioral patterns of substance abusers. One of the most disturbing quotes in the article, however, is from an Australian public health researcher:
Addiction is really a hallmark of our era, and I think it reflects that we don’t have culturally promoted kinds of other deeper forms of meaning and purpose in our lives. So we make up for it by consuming more. But the evidence is overwhelming that people who are characterized by materialistic attitudes and values actually experience lower well-being, lower happiness, more depression and anxiety and anger than people who aren’t materialistic. (Emphasis mine.)
I think it’s time that we, as a society, admit that we have an addiction–some would say to oil, others would say to war. But the fact of the matter is that it’s an addiction not to war or to oil, but to spending and to consumption. One might joke about drowning one’s sorrows in drink, yet the reality is that the credit card is the new booze. Our society is addicted, and it’s killing us, one at a time.
“” Addiction is really a hallmark of our era, and I think it reflects that we don’t have culturally promoted kinds of other deeper forms of meaning and purpose in our lives. So we make up for it by consuming more. “”
As a religious person worried about the rise of “me, me, me” indulgent atheism (different from the Dawkins/Hitchens types) I could not agree more.
Awesome article, it highlights a major problem in our generation.
I too have observed that more tweenagers (10-14), particularly girls, seem much unhappier then they ought to be. I think that if it’s not because of materialism, then it’s usually because her FRIENDS are materialists, and she will feel like the only one with depth. (Speaking as one with a 14-year old sister with depression issues)
I do agreed that there is an excessive amount of consumption, but correlation does not imply causation. There are many factors that contributed to clinical depression and suicide. One should consider such things as increased access to illicit drugs and alcohol, media’s portrayal of romantic relationships, and an excessive use of pharmaceuticals (whether they be prescribed, illicitly take, technology, or ingested through pretreated food, i.e. animal hormones).
I have seen and worked with many suicidal people of all ages and there reasons are vast, but teenage girls tend to mostly discuss loss of romantic interests as a cause for their actions or after extensive drug use.
It could also be argued that the great technology we embrace is limiting essential human contact which is necessary to happiness.
Also, consider how much psychological counseling was conducted before the 80s. Psychological ailments were considerably more taboo 50 years ago and parents were probably hesitant to bring their daughters to a psychiatrist for fear of a stigma. Part of the increase since 1915 may just be an increase in reporting instead.
I do believe money has an impact on people’s psyche (having been to a call where a man shot himself to death over a stock market loss), but each individual has their own reasons and they vary greatly by age, gender, religion, and culture. Usually there it is a culmination of reasons that leads to depression and suicidal ideation.
What Conor calls “indulgent atheism” I think is better described as what Weber called “aesthetic indulgence,” and, as I wrote in my column published yesterday, I wholly agree that it is degrading our civilization.
As I also wrote there, however, stoking religious fervor is not the solution. Of all the noble lies we can tell, religion (and, worse, fervent religiosity) has proven historically destabilizing. This is, as I said, where neoconservatives erred.
There are yet ways to spur a stabilizing communitarian spirit without involving theodicy or blind and injurious nationalism (the other tenet of mid-late 20th century neoconservatisism). I am confident that we can manufacture other value-creating activities in the civil sphere to do this.
Doing so will be, as I said, the task of a “new neo-conservatism,” and history will judge our generation for our ability to succeed at it.
Your article depressed me, so I think I’m going to go shopping to make myself feel better.
In case you missed the memo, 2/3 of America is overweight and 1/3 is obese. Obesity is linked with some of the most serious health conditions that affect Americans, especially heart disease, and, in fact, even some forms of cancer (including the most common form of cancer in women, breast cancer).
Consumerism is the consequence of our preferences. Firms attempt to understand those preferences and market to us so that we’ll buy their products, not the other way around.
It must be easy to have a high-class upbringing and think that the most fashionable close are essential for self esteem. I’ve dressed like crap my whole life because my family never had money, and nobody ever cared. Being an idiot is far more difficult in our society than being underdressed.
It must be easy to blame everything on corporations, instead of blaming the masses of idiots who flock to throw down their hard-earned cash on a bunch of worthless, useless crap.