http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gtO167ywBhMURgOmp4ScpR7rBdvgD94JV9P80
... there are several other articles about the sad news, if you follow links provided on the websites.
To summarize, a college student in Miami, FL, took it upon himself to overdose on bi-polar drugs over live web-feed on a bodybuilder's website a few days ago. There's no telling how many watched -- the website it was aired on hasn't said the number -- but it's pretty evident from the article that not only people watched, some encouraged and others thought it was fake.
Through my teen years of internet socialization (and probably internet addiction), there were a number of times in which online friends had mentioned that they were thinking of suicide and I would do what I could to talk them through it or out of it. What I don't understand is how so many teens are jaded enough to not take it seriously and regard another person's life as not worth their time -- through webspace or in real life. While there are those who threaten suicide to get the attention they feel so deprived of, I don't believe it is worth the risk to think they're faking it. Even if an individually is just looking for attention, there is still the issue that that person does not already feel loved enough that they don't have to look for attention. What else is going on psychologically and emotionally? Don't we all want to feel and know the comfort of being loved? Don't we all act out -- in large or very small, internal and external ways -- when we do NOT feel loved?
The message that comes across when we write it off as just an act is, "I do not care about you. Your life is worthless to me."
A college student, probably a freshman or maybe sophomore, killed himself "publicly" and people watched. Granted I think that if he took a gun to his head like the fellow in another Florida location, someone may have acted sooner. Really though, why would that change anything - as if gun suicide is more serious than pill suicide?
Or for those who thought he was joking and it was done to get some laughs... Why would anyone joke about overdosing on a pill?
Why is death funny?
Also, I wanted to highlight a quote from the Associated Press article:
Montana Miller, an assistant professor of popular culture at Bowling Green State University in Ohio, said Biggs' very public suicide was not shocking, given the way teenagers chronicle every facet of their lives on sites like Facebook and MySpace.
"If it's not recorded or documented then it doesn't even seem worthwhile," she said. "For today's generation it might seem, "What's the point of doing it if everyone isn't going to see it?"
Ms. Miller brings out a good point that teenagers publicize every facet of their lives via the internet. Having more or less one of those teenagers, only using the 'archaic' LiveJournal, I totally relate to her statement. But I'd like to push it further than simply saying that if something isn't documented it doesn't matter. There is a ring of truth in that... I'd dare say that every detail is given also because it creates this sense of intimacy with other people. Especially with journaling and blogging. "This is my journal, and you are reading it. This is the kind of stuff I share with my friends... sometimes my closest friends. Because you know this about me, you must be one of my friends and care deeply about me. If I know you in real life and you read this, then I don't have to talk about it with you because you know it already." At the very least this is how I reflect on my journaling habits during my teen years. I would write about guys I liked, thoughts on sexuality, thoughts on religion (why I hated it and later on my process of becoming Christian) when I felt very sad or hurt or pissed off, and so on. In many ways my teen angst is spelled out loud and clear for the world to see for however long LiveJournal exists. These are the kinds of things that used to be recorded in private journals that any teenager back in the hayday would be agast if anyone actually read it.
But I didn't actually know most of the people who would read that journal. I never met them face to face, although few I did talk with on the phone and others I wanted to actually meet. But it created a world of comfort and secruity for me, that there were people knew me and understood me. Some of them I believe did care for me but it created a sense of longing that would likely never be fulfilled -- which easily lead to hours upon hours of late night online sessions, and becoming angry/depressed when the internet was taken away (in place of getting grounded as a penalty).
Not that the internet is bad or having friends who live in Indonesia or Australia, or just on the other side of the U.S., is bad. That isn't what I'm getting at and to think so is to seriously miss the point. The point is that it calls to question our own securities, I think... and calls out that we are afraid to know people and look them in the face, knowing they know us too. Why can't we just talk to the person next to us, get together with the friend who -- if you're in college -- lives right down the hall?
Why are we so afraid of what we crave the most?
I think it's worth discussing, that's for sure.
1 comment:
Unfortunately, we as a culture have desensitized ourselves to death from exposure to, say, films in which minor characters or extras die (in explosions, battle scenes, etc) with no emotional attachment to be broken.
Watch Braveheart, for example, and you see hundreds of men slain on the field, but Wallace's death itself is the only one drawn out emotionally (his friends watching from the crowd, the score welling up in heart-wrenching cadences that block the sound of his own agony) and is the only one that actually censors the brutal end of his death, when they stab him through the abdomen (implied, but not seen).
So in real life, if someone we know deeply (like a protagonist) dies, we mourn, but if it's anyone else (say, terrorism victims in India), we shrug it off and turn to the next page in the newspaper.
Maybe our over-exposure to the mind-numbing fiction of movies and TV makes us unaffected by not just violence, but removes our real need for relationships - talking to the person across the hall, for example. Personally, I became really frustrated last year when I'd go to Greg's house and his roommates were hosting "social" events that consisted of watching movies or sports. I don't think sitting next to people and all staring at the same glowing box counts as socializing.
Sadly though, I know I'm as guilty of this as the next person. I wonder if it's possible to get people in western culture to *care* again, and how?
----
Off the topic, will I be seeing you a week from Saturday?
Post a Comment