Internet Suicide

Yahoo Article on Teen that Commit Suicide Online

I can't believe that we live in a day and age when this kind of thing can happen. There are two things that I see as very wrong with this picture: 1) the fact that anyone would want to broadcast their own suicide to an audience, and probably more disturbing, 2) the fact that people would WATCH said suicide live and not report it or do anything to prevent it from happening.

Since Abraham Biggs was being treated for a bipolar disorder, the fact that he was a candidate for suicide is not what makes this such an interesting story. Rather, the fact that he chose to televise the suicide over the Internet is what makes the story noteworthy. In many ways this typifies the urge of teens in modern society (and not just teens, but people of many ages) to broadcast any and every iota of their lives online.

I just joined Facebook a few weeks ago, and so I can testify firsthand to how addicting it is and how much it can govern your lifestyle, instead of the other way around. In my opinion, creating relationships and forging bonds over the internet should be SECONDARY to forming friendships with real people - as apparent in this article, many of those online "friends" are not going to do anything to help you in real life.

That brings me to the most disturbing aspect of this article: how could you watch someone kill themselves by ODing on medication, and then write something like, "he he" or "LOL" when the police show up? Does our society not have good Samaritans any more? I know I am not a saint, and I know that I have turned a blind eye to suffering, but I hope that I would NEVER watch someone die - at their own hand or anyone else's - and not do something to stop it. Unfortunately, I think that this story is most disturbing because it illustrates some ugly aspects of human nature; our self-centeredness and our apathy to suffering, not to mention our modern addiction to entertainment in any form.