I just finished reading “The Tipping Point”. The point of the book is that “fads” and other social phenomona are often like the spread of a virus. A couple of very well connected people get infected and they make up the majority of the infection vector. (eg a handful don’t just infect 5 or 6 people they each infect 200 people who each infect 5 or 6)

One of the studies in the book was over the sudden rise of suicides amoung Maori teenagers. It seemed to be traced back to one highly popular teenager who committed suicide. (It is actually a little more complex than that, but that is the gist.)

Are we seeing that amoung the Japanese? I understand they have a very high teenage suicide rate. (4 X the average among industrialized nations) Why? Has the advent of the Internet and cool people promoting it lead to this? (web sites where teens get together and talk about it.) Teenagers in general often try exciting and dangerous things. They lack a sense of their own mortality. (eg the accidential death hump from age 16 to 35 especially amoung males; the tendency for mortality rates (and morbidity) to rise from 16 to 25 and then fall. So a male in that age range has a larger probability of dying in any given year than a male or similar health at age 25.)

Unfortunately, you can’t really just try suicide for the heck of it and then try something else. It is pretty much a one way trial. (if sucessful)