The Internet Tragedies

I heard a story on the radio a couple of nights ago, which got me thinking about about the power of the Internet. The story noted that during 2009 alone, there have been 29 reported 'Internet suicides'. These people who eventually took their own lives, did so after careful planning during 'chat sessions', where other suicidal users edged them onto a morose fate. Of course not all the people who took part in these 'chats' eventually took their own lives. Some, were much too concerned with giving dark words of suicidal encouragement to others. This truly disgusted me.

Surely, the people who decided to take part in these sorts of chat sessions, were really just crying out for help? These people felt immense inner pain, no doubt, and they needed someone to listen to them. Someone who could understand their pain.

So, a group of lost souls found themselves in the private, yet public, confines of the Internet meta-scape, ominously linked together in tragedy

I am not suggesting that these people who committed suicide on the Internet, were not unstable to begin with. What I am saying, is that very often people are greatly influenced by those whom they communicate with. Sometimes, all someone needs are the right words (or in this case the wrong words) to get them in just the right psychological frame of mind to commit suicide. The Internet, it could be said, is also an incredibly intimate form of communication. Meaning, that even though the Internet is a very public sphere, social networks, often make the individual feel as if they are in their own little world.

A great example of this was the case of another story, I heard about not long ago. It was the story of a young girl who was bullied so much over the Internet, that she eventually killed herself. This young girl did not plan to take her own life well in advance, but did so after being psychologically abused on a social network by another girl. Hanging sentences, to the affect of "why don't you just kill yourself" and "you're a waste of space", were sent to her repeatedly by the other girl. These things that were said to her, were obviously extremely painful and had such profound effects on her, that she ultimately took her own life.

These awful instances reminded me yet again of the power a communicative medium like the Internet, can have on an individual. the Internet can literally put us in touch with just about anyone on the face of the earth. A complete psychopath or a friendly loner, just reaching out. The Internet does not segregate. Various individuals can communicate with one another, who in the past would never of had the opportunity to do so.

I think that also because the Internet allows a person to be anonymous if they so wish, it has the capacity to produce a sense of 'grandeur' from the 'speaker'. In other words, people are more likely to say the things that they would not dare to day to another individual on a face to face basis. People get careless with their words on the Internet, I have found. Forgetting ultimately, that words are incredibly powerful. They have the capacity to hurt or to heal another individual. The written words stays out there, especially in the web meta-scape.

To read a story that also relates to the shocking issue of Internet suicide, check out the following link: http://www.news.com.au/technology/story/0,25642,23218368-5014108,00.html