Why are so many young people in Japan killing themselves? I am concerned that the Internet has changed people's relationships and communications styles. The Internet enables us to communicate with anybody via e-mail, chat rooms and bulletin boards, even as the opportunities to communicate face to face seem to be decreasing. Although young people nowadays are not good at communicating with others, they are inclined to hate loneliness. This seems contradictory.
Some young people with these traits cannot talk about their troubles with friends, parents or anyone else. If they directly confess to others, for example, that they are thinking of killing themselves, of course everyone says don't do it, yet on the Internet, they make friends who are in the same situation and then go on to write anything they want to say.
The Internet provides those who feel most isolated from society a means to communicate with others all the time, even if the communication is superficial. They feel all the more anxious if they are not connected with someone else, and start asking themselves questions like why they exist.
For a similar reason the cell phone also has become an indispensable device for them.
This is a serious problem. If I could, I would advise these people to keep an objective eye. I would try to get them to consider the possibility that what they are dwelling on is, in reality, a small matter, and that many different people in the world are facing different circumstances.
I beg the government to spend more money on measures to prepare a new generation for the challenges of the Internet age.
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