In my office the other day, I made reference to “13 Reasons Why, “ the Netflix hit show about teenage issues, to which a student laughed and said, “why are you watching that?” My question to him was “what percentage of teenagers do you think are watching this show?” His answer...at least 80%. In clarifying the role of a School Counselor, we exist to deal with the underlying problems that impact a student’s growth and well-being, in regards to mental health, social growth, academic success, goals and directions; therefore, we deal with anything that may positively or negatively affect a teenager’s growth and well-being. With that said, we deal with questions in identity, place of belonging, prejudice or discrimination, invasion or boundaries, personal rights, issues of betrayal or respect etc.
Teenagers of this generation are heavily infulenced by social media, technology and cybersecurity and/or invasion. In dealing with these concerns, it is important to my position, as a school counselor, to understand the influences that surround my students and the messages that they may take from these influences; as a parent, it is even more important.The following are 13 reasons why you should watch this show:
- Teenagers watch...what we take in from this show, they take in from this show...only they are too ripe to understand how to process these messages.
- Self-harm/Suicide- Suicide recently replaced homicide as the leading source of death (https://www.prb.org/suicide-replaces-homicide-second-leading-cause-death-among-us-teens/)
- Date Rape- About 44% of rape victims are under age 18 (https://www.teenhelp.com/sexual-abuse-trauma/teen-date-rape/)
- Racism- Racism seems to be making a comeback: 82 percent of American teens today believe racial discrimination is a problem for their generation, whereas only 44 percent of teens in 1966 had this attitude (https://www.vox.com/2016/5/15/11673808/teens-racism-newsweek)
- Drugs- Approximately 50% of teens have misused drugs/ 3.6% of 12th grade students have reported using illicit drugs in the last year (https://www.projectknow.com/research/teen-drug-addiction-statistics-alcoholism-statistics/)
- Depression/Anxiety- 7.4% of youth (or 1.8 million youth) experienced severe depression/ 64.1% of youth with major depression do not receive any mental health treatment.
- Bullying-About 30 percent of teenagers in the U.S. have been involved in bullying, either as a bully or as a victim of teenage bullying (http://www.bullyingstatistics.org/content/teenage-bullying.html)
- School violence/guns – In 2018, there have already been 23 school shootings where someone was hurt or killed...averaging out to more than 1 shooting a week. (https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/02/us/school-shootings-2018-list-trnd/index.html)
- Athletic power- The question of athletes using their star status to intimidate: (High School) College men who participated in aggressive sports (including football, basketball, wrestling and soccer) in high school used more sexual coercion (along with physical and psychological aggression) in their college dating relationships than men who had not. (https://www.campussafetymagazine.com/safety/sexual-assault-statistics-and-myths/)
- Runaways-The National Runaway Switchboard estimates that on any given night there is approximately 1.3 million homeless youth living unsupervised on the streets (http://www.ncsl.org/research/human-services/homeless-and-runaway-youth.aspx)
- Counseling- The need for adolescent counseling has become dire for many teens considering that “between 50% and 75% of adolescents with anxiety disorders and impulse control disorders (such as conduct disorder or attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder) develop these during adolescence. “(http://www.nccp.org/publications/pub_878.html)
- Girls/Relational problems- Girl bullying is much more quiet and private, but can hurt just as much...” Relational bullying is a different way of bullying than the other types of bullying because the actions are usually quiet and hidden from others and happens between friends (http://girlsguidetoendbullying.org/Relational_RecognizeBullying.html).
- LGBTQ issues- In a recent survey, 20% of teenagers identify as LGBTQ (https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/20-percent-millennials-lgbtq-glaad-study_us_58dd140be4b05eae031d8f9c)
Yes, this is just a show, but it is a hit show watched by majority of our teenage children....Why watch? We can choose to ignore the reality of the issues plaguing our children, or we can become aware enough to understand what our children are going through. Like it or not, the success of this program exists because the students identify with the issues presented; and these students often end up in my office to discuss their feelings of confusion or disillusion...and we need to be able to guide them in these feelings.
