Adolescent behavior can be influenced by a huge amount of aspects, not only family and friends but also the media, which have recently undergone incredible changes due of the time spent by teenagers spending in this area which is no longer just fun. The media can influence teenagers in aspects such as identity, lifestyle, body image, world issues and more. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original EssayNowadays, one of the most influential media tools in teenagers are television shows and movies because they depict a lot of what is happening in their lives. This is why media is more than just entertainment, it now depicts many social problems that teenagers go through, conveying messages to them, it has such a great influence that teenagers can adapt some ideas and behaviors from the shows they watch. Netflix is ​​one of the largest and most famous platforms for broadcasting series of this type. When series show scenes with sensible topics, they want to open conversations among viewers and make them think. However, the impact it has on viewers can create controversy, as is the case with Netflix's 13 Reasons Why. 13 Reasons Why (3 seasons, released March 2017) is a fictional drama series based on the book by Jay Asher, which shows a wide range of real-life difficult problems experienced by adolescents; very graphically depicting issues such as suicide, sexual assault, bullying, gun violence, drug use and depression. The series revolves around Clay Jensen and the death by suicide of his friend Hanna Baker, after experiencing painful events around high school, leaving only 13 tapes to explain the reasons and the people who contributed to making this decision, showing the great impact of those events. had in his mental health and sense of self. With teenagers and young adults being its target audience, the main aim of the series is to raise awareness among its viewers of such issues, open productive conversations and help people realize the situations that teenagers can be exposed to, identify models and prevent multiple dangerous situations. . The controversy over this series goes beyond how they depicted those topics, scenes, and language; it is also about how it describes real high schools in the United States causing concern among experts; that according to Northwestern University, 62% of teens agreed that the high school portrayal was authentic and 80% say that people their age act and deal with problems just as they are portrayed in the show. This essay will examine how teenagers in the United States have reacted to this series and the impact it has had on their lives, due to the popular belief that teenagers should not watch this show because it will only harm them. To examine its impact, this essay focuses on 3 topics: adolescent suicide, adolescent mind/behavior, and communication between adolescents and their relatives. The graphic scenes within the show as well as the quotes/phrases around those scenes only add to the controversy about the impact on teenagers and their behavior at school, with their parents, and even with themselves. Suicide is a major health concern in the United States. States especially for young people, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2017, the year of the publication of 13Reasons Why, suicide was the second leading cause of death for individuals between the ages of 10 and 24. Therefore, many mental health experts such as those at the Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry were concerned about this increase in suicide as a leading cause of death; considering the media, language and depiction of a suicide attempt in the show “13 Reasons Why” as an influential point. In light of this, it is important to highlight how the suicide scene was developed, the shocking use of language, its purpose, and teenagers' opinion of the 13 Reasons Why suicide scene. The biggest concern among experts is the suicide scene which lasts almost 3 minutes, begins with Hanna staring at her reflection in the mirror evaluating her life before sitting in the bathtub with tears and a razor blade to pierce her left wrist upwards. at his elbow focusing only on Hanna screaming in pain with that long trail of blood in her arms, gasping for blood all around her. Soon after, Hanna's mom discovers her daughter's lifeless body in the bathtub with nothing left to do, showing the grief of Hanna's parents and friends throughout the show. Naturally, a scene of this type could awaken many feelings in vulnerable adolescents and in parents who have a child dealing with this type of situation, which is why the choice to air such an explicit scene has opened many discussions between mental health experts, questioning the series' efficiency with what they claimed was its purpose. Therefore, the people who took part in the making of 13 Reasons Why spoke and showed some of the reasons why they decided to film that scene. The creator, Brian Yorkey (2019), states that the creative intent in portraying the ugly and painful reality of suicide in such detail in the first season was to tell the truth about the horror of such an act and ensure that no one would ever wish emulate it. This fits perfectly with the particular situation experienced by Nic Sheff, writer of the series who, within Vanity Fair, wrote about his struggle to get that representation of suicide on the show based on his own story; the precise moment he was committing suicide and how a story a woman told him some time ago about her suicide saved his life by showing him how terrible suicide really is: terrible. Language was another concern, because it could make it easier for teenagers to identify with the main character encouraging the impersonator's suicide. Phrases like: “when you feel like you have nothing left. And no one. Like you're drowning and no one's going to throw you a line." “I wanted a purpose… a reason to be on this planet.” “I started thinking that everyone's life would be better without me.” This phrase could have a huge impact on teenagers who feel like Hanna, showing that there is only one way and that everything is full of guilt, like another Hanna's phrase: "I'm about to tell you how my life ended , and if you are listening to this tape, you are one of the reasons why.” When really everything can be done totally differently; there is a lack of discussion about mental health. Furthermore, the sentences that showed Clay's pain “memories sometimes they are relief. And sometimes they are torture,” depicting the effects suicide has on loved ones. Certainly, each person is different and the reaction they will have when faced with that scene will be different, especially for teenagers who have experienced these situations being sensitive towards them or, on the contrary, teenagers who may be more prepared to face situations like this. This is why the contagion of suicides amongadolescents, a well-known phenomenon resulting from exposure to suicidal behavior, has been a major concern not only for experts but also for survivors who were aware of the show; a Teen Vogue publication showed what they thought of that scene, most of them agreeing that they were showing a "step-by-step guide" to suicide, romanticizing it and sidestepping the mental health issues Hanna may have been going through. In contrast, it should be different for teens who are not struggling, reading their opinions on another Teen Vogue poll, for them it wasn't shocking but for others who don't have prior knowledge they might misunderstand the show's message due to the lack of discussion on mental illness and its overcoming, also because it presents suicide as revenge. This brings to light important key findings, as Hanna is known to have left tapes for those she discovered that influenced her choice to commit suicide with psychological and physical assault; such as sexual violence, cruelty, bullying and self-exposure; It's reasonable to think that his goal with these tapes was to make them feel guilty. This is where the lack of discussion about mental health emerges, as a person who understands well the meaning of mental health can identify patterns and distinguish between what is truly a good decision and what is not. By avoiding or even not clarifying what the main character is going through, those who are unfamiliar with this may feel that that kind of behavior is okay, that suicide is the only solution, and as core beliefs the show can become one step after the other. 'other. guide to suicide. However, the statistics should show the truth: a research by JAACAP called "Association between the Release of Netflix´s 13 Reasons Why and Suicide Rates in the United States: An Interrupt Time Series Analysis" hypothesized that the release of this series would have a lasting impact on suicide rates among youth due to poor suicide prevention, basing their research on the CDC Web to obtain data on suicide deaths among adolescents and analyzing suicide rates one month before and after the release of the show. They found approximately 195 additional suicide deaths with the release of the series for teens under 17, but without conclusively proving any association with the series. The suicide rates of boys being the ones that increased compared to those of women with a non-statistically significant difference. Suicide contagion is an important aspect that must be taken into account, it only affects those who strongly identify with the person who committed suicide, since language is an excellent means for this, therefore a youth suicide rate should have been observed female, which did not appear in the search results mentioned above. This is supported by a research article published in January 2020 by Daniel Romer titled “Reanalysis of the Bridge et al. study of suicide following the publication of 13 Reasons Why,” which also shows that the increase in suicide rates among teenage boys was a general increase that began in early 2008, so while it might have affected those who they are not the target of suicide contagion, as with boys, it had no impact on them, it was just an overall increasing rate Neither the portrayal nor the language had any impact on the increase in suicide rates among adolescents in the United States, however, 13 Reasons Why had a positive effect on non-distressed adolescents by using language to identify patterns and prevent abuse.:.