[url]http://www.efluxmedia.com/news_Family_Of_Web_Suicide_Teen_Reacts_To_Viewers_Cruelty_29680.ht
ml[/url]
Family Of Web Suicide Teen Reacts To Viewers’ Cruelty
From eFluxMedia.com
"The entire world was in shock at the news that a 19-year-old boy took his own life in front of a live webcam,
but no one could have been more shocked than the teen’s family. As Abraham Biggs took an overdose of
drugs to commit suicide, an audience watched and encouraged him to do it."
A tragedy, no doubt. As a survivor of a suicide attempt, it always disheartens me to see some unfortunate
soul who didn't get the help they needed to triumph over their personal demons. However, my sorrow was
soon muted by moral outrage.
"Abraham’s father told reporters that both viewers, and website administrators, are to blame for the incident."
WHAT. THE. FUCK. This poor soul committed suicide because there was a forum to broadcast it, and an
audience of depraved shut-ins to watch? Why not blame his doctor and the pharmaceutical company that
manufactured the medication? Why not blame the company that built the computer? Why not steve balmer
(or Jobs, depending on the OS)? No, no, it's certainly the website (which has nothing to do with suicide
or depression or bipolar disease).
“I think they are all equally wrong,” Mr. Biggs said. “It’s a person’s life that we’re talking about. And as a
human being, you don’t watch someone in trouble and sit back and just watch,” he added, calling for some
kind of regulation to put an end to such incidents."
So why weren't you there with him, Mr. Biggs? Where were you while your son ate most of a bottle of anti-
depressant sleep aids? Why wasn't he living at home with you, if you knew he was at risk of taking his own
life. The article also cites how he had made suicide threats before, and yet Mr. "blame the internets" Briggs
was not on hand to prevent a clear and present danger he was obviously aware of.
I guess we can be glad that he's not a gamer, otherwise Mr. Father of The Year would be coming after EA
and Activision instead of Justin.tv and teh internets.
My thoughts are with Mr. Biggs Jr's rational family. His father needs to learn a bit about causality before he
starts spouting off to media outlets before he can earn my sympathy.
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I'm writing a term paper on the tendencies of people to blame media for violent events. It's crazy to think that a piece of media alone could drive a person to murder or suicide. There are always outside factors and a lot of them.
I'm willing
to bet that most people watching
probably
thought that is was a joke or some
kind of
hoax and didn't realize he was
actually
going to kill himself. If you think
about it
how weird would it be to see a suicide
live,
and on the internet?
What Atlas said ^
Yah, why does that happen to some peoples text formatting? It's probably a browser issue or something.
And this is just another case of the parents not willing to accept that the kid wanted to take his life for whatever reason.
I don't believe it's right to blame the website administrators, but I think it's probably safe to say that the less-than-helpful audience didn't help matters.
They should have stuck to telling him to "put shoe on head".
where are the people complaining about the police department who kept recieving calls but called it a hoax until someone realized they were getting alot of calls about it and decided "maybe we should check this out"?
where are the people complaining about physicians who call depression "poppy cock" and tell patients to cheer up? where's the out rage that this happens because it's so hard to afford psychiatric help when needed? or the insurance companies who jack up your rates or refuse you insurance because you've contiplated suicide? why don't people take a stand against these drug companies that make anti-depressants like xanax or prozak that tend to increase suicidal tendancies in some patients? why does no one take a stand against doctors who when you tell them about these side effects they tell you "your body needs more time to adjust to it"?
the problem is society always looking for who to blame when the real problems are so embedded into our society we never even think twice about it until it effects us personally. video games and the internet are this generations rock-and-roll or other things that the youth grow up with and accept as part of the way the world is, yet the elders find "new, intimidiating, and don't understand". sadly enough, years from now we will be the ones confused by the trends/technology of our children/grandchildren.
but by the time that is us we will be the old/crazy/intolerant ones, then we will understand. just like kids now cant comprehend life without cell phones/google/dvr's and on demand, we wont comprehend the crazy shit our generations youth will have. it's the way the world works, is it right? no. will being old bitter-hateful-racist old people be fun? YES
He's just upset. His son passed away, give the guy a break internet.