by Estevan Fernandez
I'm pretty sure you have, at least once, heard the song Titanium by David Guetta, but have you seen the video? It starts by showing a kid who is trying to make sense of his devastated life, with no help, parents, or friends to turn to. He is presented as an outcast, a "weirdo", and is feared by people for being different. It can be most simply described as just "fiction with good special effects", but what I saw was more than just entertainment. As described in the news channel in the video, a "supernatural occurrence at public school" is what happened. The innocent kid destroyed the inner installations of a school, outcome caused by an outburst of rage due to exclusion and loneliness. The producers make it seem as if it was an extremely rare event only possible in fiction movies, sadly, it has happened in real life too.
We all look for acceptance in one way or another, maybe because it makes us feel important or because it builds up our self-esteem, but when you have no one to turn to, no one to talk to, no one to share your problems with, you learn to deprive your feelings and notice that everything that is left are memories of rejection and unpleasant experiences. Living in conditions like these often leads to depression, outbursts of rage, or even suicide. Such is the case of the "Columbine Massacre" in April 20th, 1999, where Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, two students tired of mistreatment, killed twelve other students, one teacher, and themselves, causing a total of fifteen deaths.
According to the CDC (Center for Disease Control) "suicide is the third leading cause of death among young people, resulting in about 4,400 deaths per year." Yale's School of Medicine researches have shown that victims of bullying are between "2 to 9 times more likely to consider suicide than non-victims." Considering that for every suicide, there are at least 100 suicide attempts and that 14% of high school students have, at least once in their lives, thought of committing suicide.
The message of the song is positive and encouraging. Talking about finding your inner strength and triumph over the adversary. Unluckily, not everyone who is bullied is as strong as "titanium". But it's not because they're not strong that people should stop bullying, it is because it’s simply the right thing to do. It is unethical to make people feel less with themselves. It might make you feel better with yourself, but what about the bullied? Most of the times it is impossible to know what a person goes trough at home, some try to get out of home to escape a danger, but when at school, all they find is a replacement. Create consciousness of your own acts and care for the lives of those in danger. They have feelings too.
