“Go drink bleach.”

“Time to die. Jackpot.”

“If you committed suicide, people would laugh.”

“Kill yourself.”

These phrases have become the new norm as Generation Z takes to “dark humor,” and jokes progressively become more incorporated in students’ daily lives.

It is one of many trends to crack suicide jokes like peanuts and use them as insults, comments and even greetings. As we turn a blind eye to the implications of our dark humor, those requiring help go unnoticed, part of the new wave of comedy.

It’s time for today’s teens to stop, think over their words and consider how they could be misinterpreted.

Suicide jokes create a “boy who cried wolf” situation. Since many of us mention suicide frequently, the chance of a person requiring help going unnoticed increases day by day. Outright admitting suicidal intentions can be misread as a joke. By joking about this situation to the extent we have, the teens who aren’t joking about “drinking bleach tonight” have been brushed under the rug, forgotten until it’s too late.

Generation Z is the generation of so many tragedies in our nation’s history. Most of the generation was born in the prelude or soon after perhaps the greatest loss of life in over 40 years, 9/11. Afterwards, death became commonplace in our vocabulary.

We were also born into the era of the school shootings; Columbine and Sandy Hook claimed countless young lives. By seeing consistent deaths littering the news every day, it is inevitable that eventually we would stop taking it seriously. We have become so numb toward death, we don’t realize how awful our words are and how others will take them.

Students have no way of knowing who has attempted, is contemplating attempting or will attempt suicide. While telling people to kill themselves may not trigger a suicide out of nowhere, it could have the ability to push a person over the edge. Jokes are an important part of communication, but they should not take priority over caring for each other as people.

Some may say making jokes about suicide is making light of a dark situation. While this may be true, there is a line many of us have crossed. Students are no longer making light of a dark situation; they are encouraging a dark situation.

The words we speak can have a toll on others we never expected or hoped for. They create an environment in which those requiring help go ignored. The implications of deaths are weakened and humor is taking priority over caring for others. Students should refrain from cracking “jokes” such as these.

Our words are capable of holding immense meaning, and it is far better to kill off a joke than to kill off a friend.