6 minute read
Eric Tijerina
ERIC TIJERINA
TED Talk
Video
One can access Tijerina’s talk here: https://bellevueuniversitymy.sharepoint.com/:p:/r/personal/kcarter_bellevue_edu/_layouts/15/Do c.aspx?sourcedoc=%7B7C271EC6-49AC-4021-96C453D38252866C%7D&file=Tijerina.%20Eric%20%20Military%20Suicide%20vs%20Data%20Analytics%20%20TED%20Talk.pptx&action=edit&mobileredirect=true. Simply click
on the powerpoint, and it contains the YouTube video with the TED Talk.
Greetings,
Was suicide as common now as it was back in the 90s? Growing up, it seemed like suicide was rare, and when it did happen it was someone famous. Maybe my parents and society did not highlight that kind of stuff, or maybe it is more common these days. Are we dealing with psychological reasons that enable depression; has life gotten harder even though our basic human necessities are being met at a higher level than ever before? I can’t speak to what we can do to solve the world or the country’s suicide rate, but I can present a case for the United States military. According to a 2020 article by USA Today, the military suicide rate has been on an upward trend since 2014, from 18.5 suicides per 100,000 service members in 2014 to 25.9 in 2019. When 498 service members die by suicide in one year, you better believe there are big problems that we need to figure out. Without a doubt, suicide prevention is a top priority for the Pentagon, but how can they get after it? How they have been going about it is through efforts in the form of awareness training, down days, commander’s calls, and also hiring counselors to walk around the workplace. But what if a possible solution was figured out by Target almost ten years ago? In 2012, an angry father walked into Target to talk to a manager about the coupons that they were sending to his teen daughter. The man doesn’t hate savings but when the coupons are pregnancy-related and addressed to his teen daughter, I can see why he might be upset. The manager had nothing to defend himself and apologized. The manager going above and beyond, he later called the father to follow up, and the father told him that his teen daughter was actually pregnant and that he was sorry for the outburst. How did Target know before the dad? That’s crazy right? Well Target’s statisticians can take the credit for the stalkerish prediction. Shoppers are tied to their credit cards or rewards programs; through this they can be identified and their consumer habits can be analyzed for direct advertising. Target happens to have a pregnancy prediction score that they tied to a number of products. The teen was identified in Target’s customer base, and she had happened to buy enough of those related products that Target felt confident that she was most likely pregnant; therefore, they sent her coupons of products that they knew would eventually be needed. It’s genius but kind of creepy. If we break down this 2012 capability, you can write it up as a collaborated result of statistics, customer tracking, and data analytics.
Technology is a wonderful thing, am I right? From the Internet to our self-driving cars. . . Technology has come a long way in just a short period of time. It’s hard to imagine that other elements in life can keep up. Privacy being one. User agreements, geolocation, mobile cameras, wearable accessories, and companies that sell your information. It’s hard not to be tracked in some way. Getting off the grid and staying off the grid would take a pilgrim lifestyle to pull off. So what do we do with this technology; how can we use this to prevent or stop suicide? Well, service members make up a small fraction of the United States population. These members sign on the dotted line and they are technically government property. The Department of Defense requires less legislation to make it’s members provide their banking activity, social media, and consumption habits. With analytics that Target was able to do back in 2012, how do you think this could be used in terms of preventing suicide? Through studies we know that some external expression of suicidal ideations include social withdraw, giving away things, and talking about death. Surveillance of a few data commonly used sources would provide the data needed to analyze. For example, a twenty-two-year-old soldier starts going to the bar a lot—no red flags there. But you notice that some of these outings are consistently through the week. You also notice that the soldier has been posting some questionable things on social media. Then you see that this same soldier is giving away valuable belongings to strangers on Facebook Marketplace for free. The weighted system would than assign a high-risk score to the soldier, and his or her commander would have the option to take action with maybe a directed mental health visit. Is that ethical? Is it ethical to profile people based off of their activity? In the same way that Target direct-advertised to that pregnant teen, the Department of Defense would use those same analytical techniques to prevent suicide. By identifying trends of consumer and social media activity, the authorities would at least develop a means of proactive prevention. That would be a big step in the right direction in getting after the suicide problem, but is it ethical?
Is it ethical to be tracked?
Is it ethical to be profiled?
Is it ethical to diminish freewill?
But is it ethical to know you can do something to stop someone from killing themselves, but don’t take action?
The balance between freedom and security has been one of the biggest challenges in the 21st century, and I would argue that this ethical question fits under that category. Actually, as I was listening to YouTube music videos in preparation for this talk, a depression medication was advertised between videos. Looks like YouTube knows what I’ve been researching or saying. Pentagon leaders would have a great way forward in bringing a new line of effort against suicide. So far the military is dependent on selfreporting and coworkers having the courage to ask the question, “Are you thinking of hurting yourself?” Using the data analytic technique would take emotion out of asking the question. As for enforcing this, the military specializes in group punishment and accountability. Like how military members have to ask permission to leave the local area or can be told that they are going to the Middle East for a year without their family. A lifealtering requirement can be placed on the military without pushback; the military do not really have the same rights as civilians, which some find it surprising. Along with the state and federal laws, service members are also held to the articles of the Uniform Code of Military Justice. The technology, enforcement, and the means are all there. This is possible, but is it worth the cost of privacy? Will the future look something closer to the minority report, or will we hold true to what we still have in this technologically evolving world. Will we place importance on privacy and keep freedom of choice over security?
That is for you to decide.
Thank you.
*A transcript reflects spoken language present in the corresponding video, so editing is minimized to reflect what was spoken as opposed to what is grammatically accurate.
LaGrone, S. & Eckstein, M. (2020). Pentagon “very concerned” with military suicide trends: Effect of pandemic on 2020 rates unclear. United States Naval Institute. https://news.usni.org/2020/10/01/pentagon-very-concernedwith-military-suicide-trends-effect-of-pandemic-on-2020-ratesunclear
Brook, T. (2020). Suicide rate among active-duty troops jumps to six-year high: COVID-19 stress could make it even worse. USA Today. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/10/01/suic ide-rate-among-active-duty-troops-jumps-six-yearhigh/5879477002/
Hill, K. (2012, February 16). How target figured out a teen girl was pregnant before her father did. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2012/02/16/howtarget-figured-out-a-teen-girl-was-pregnant-before-her-fatherdid/?sh=e62938c66686
Ellis, M. (2019, September 10). 5 warning signs of suicidal behavior that are easy to miss. Bridges to Recovery. https://www.bridgestorecovery.com/blog/5-warning-signs-ofsuicidal-behavior-that-are-easy-to-miss/
