"Emoji"

You are the type of person who reads complete sentences.  I know this because you're reading one right now.  I think people like us are on the way to extinction.  I even text people with spelled out words and punctuation.

I understand that there are millions of people who don't use words anymore.  They just grab an emoji someone else has created to express the quickest thought or emotion.  They click "like" on Facebook without pausing very much to consider how much they like the post, or even bothering to watch/read the post.  Hurry up, hurry up, you have more time to waste on other things online while hoping someone likes something you've posted.  Maybe someone will even type a poorly spelled sentence in response?

In a way, it's all just fun for fun.  I read your blogs, you read mine, it's a happy, international sharing community -- but we're the grownups who actually have thoughts and the patience to read complete sentences, and I'll be the first to admit that I spend way too much time hitting "like" or other useless online endeavors.

I think the emoji world of desperately seeking likes is another story.  Conversations are limited.  People are isolated and lonely.  Young people have never lived in the world where people actually had verbal conversations with ideas and feelings communicated and commiserated.

I'm saddened this week that Kate Spade and Anthony Bourdain committed suicide.  You'd think they would've been happy given their successes?  They both seem to have had people who loved them.  I'm sure they both racked up tons of likes along the way, and yet they were clearly miserable.

Misery has existed as long as humans have existed.  Suicide has also always existed, but the rate has increased 25% in the US since 1999.  Globally, it increased 60% in the last 45 years with a death every 40 seconds.  The World Health Organization says it will be every 20 seconds by 2020.  That's a lot of miserable, hopeless people -- and you aren't going to cheer them up sufficiently with an emoji.  They need real conversation with an empathetic person, and they aren't getting it from an eggplant cartoon.

Everybody knows this, and still, every suicide is a shock.  It shouldn't be at this point, but it is.

Maybe you're the unhappy one.  Reach out.  Talk to someone without emojis.  Use words and sentences to really communicate what you feel and what you need.

If you're happy, spread that around.  Reach out to someone who could use a helping hand.  Listen.  Care.  Avoid telling others how they "should" feel or what they "ought to" do unless that's really what the other person is hoping from you.  Listen some more.

Projected statistics aren't an unavoidable eventuality.  We can change them.  My hope is that all of us will contribute to a better future where those who want to escape life can see happiness shining through.