Among the bad things about the internet

[TheMercenary]

This is sad.

A college student killed himself live on the Internet


http://apnews.myway.com/article/20081122/D94JV9P80.html

[Bullitt]

Not the first time, nor will it be the last. It's rooted in the way people change their persona to fit with the supposed anonymity of the internet. It's an evolution of that person with a video camera in the crowd of people watching if a guy will jump off a building or not. Still sad and unfortunate, but not out of line with typical human behavior.

[jinx]

"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?'"


She likened Biggs' death to other public ways of committing suicide, like jumping off a bridge.

[TheMercenary]

I even doubt the guy with the camera watching to see if a disturbed person is going to jump off a building would also see the crowd around him chanting "jumpl jump jump". And if the person did so and there was a splat on the sidewalk at the feet of the chanters that some of them would not be changed forever. The anonymity of the internet has encouraged a new kind of behavior like those that encouraged him without any recourse to their feelings. That is the part that I think is different about these internet suicides.

[Bullitt]

Originally Posted by TheMercenary

I even doubt the guy with the camera watching to see if a disturbed person is going to jump off a building would also see the crowd around him chanting "jumpl jump jump". And if the person did so and there was a splat on the sidewalk at the feet of the chanters that some of them would not be changed forever. The anonymity of the internet has encouraged a new kind of behavior like those that encouraged him without any recourse to their feelings. That is the part that I think is different about these internet suicides.

Agreed.