I’m quitting NetFlix.
I was listening to one of my favorite podcasts this week, The Holy Post, with Phil Vischer, Skye Jithani and Christian Taylor. They look at news articles and give a Christian perspective with thoughtfulness and humor.
They covered a story in this episode about the Netflix series 13 Reasons Why. It’s the story of a school-aged girl who creates recordings about all the people in her school who mistreated her. She then commits suicide. It’s the “you’ll be sorry when I’m gone,” storyline taken to its natural conclusion.
The show is based on a novel of the same name by author Jay Ashur, and it’s making a bunch of money for NetFlix. It is a hit.
But – and this is a big but…
There was a 28.9% spike in suicides for boys ages 10 to 17 in the month following the show’s initial release.
The nine months after the release saw an extra 195 deaths by suicide in this age group than would have otherwise been expected from seasonal patterns alone, according to the study, published Monday in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. – From CNN
According to Phil and Skye, the effects of suicide contagion have been studied and verified since a book depicting suicide was released in 1774! This is not a new phenomenon and NetFlix was not unaware of the dangers.
Now, with this study in hand and clear proof that 195 deaths can be linked back to this release, NetFlix is going ahead with season three.
When there is a mass shooting we cry out for gun control, we scream from the housetops that something must be done.
But here, for the love of money and the sake of entertainment, we just let NetFlix continue to kill our children.
I’m not saying we shouldn’t talk about suicide, and I’m not trying to quench freedom of speech, but this is not the way to solve what is a huge problem in our society.
Well, I for one am quitting NetFlix. Hey – bad enough I allowed it to kill so much of my time. Now that I am aware it’s moving forward with content that literally took the lives of nearly 200 children in a nine-month period, I can’t do it any longer.
I may never learn what happens at the end of Friends, or miss what finally drives Abby off NCIS, but I can’t sow my money into this field of death. In my mind, this is the worst kind of human trafficking because we’re all supporting it.
I hope you’ll join me.
Thanks for coming by today.
Walk in the light.
Ben
Here are the links:
The Holy Post – http://thephilvischerpodcast.libsyn.com/episode-353-beating-guns-into-garden-tools-with-shane-claiborne
CNN article – https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/30/health/13-reasons-why-suicide-rates-study/index.html
Journal Article – https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0890856719302886
Well said. Too many swallow the lies that the media spews as fact and reject the Bible as being an old book. From lying to us to brainwashing.
Thanks for weighing in Mark. Brainwashing is right.
Thank you, Mr. Ben, for making us aware of what is happening so we can make wise choices moving forward. God bless you .
Bless you Debbie!
I don’t watch Netflix. never have. I have heard about this book and it should be taken off everyone’s must read list. To make a TV series of it is uncaring at the highest level. but I can tell you why Abby left NCIS. It is one of the shows i watch with my wife. That and Fixer Upper.
We dropped cable a few years back, as the cost kept going up and the value of what was on kept falling. We got Netflix for the movies, and I quickly learned how addicting it could be. But it was slowly making mush of my brain. This was a wake up call for me.
I’m too many seasons behind on NCIS to be ready for the big reveal though, so you can keep that secret. I’ll catch the reruns in heaven.