Entertainment - by Josh Becker on Monday, November 24, 2008 13:54 - 12 Comments - 43 views
In case you missed it, a Florida teenager overdosed on prescription pills and let the world watch through a live, streaming webcam on the Web site Justin.tv.
Obviously, his death is a tragedy, and suicide should never be taken lightly. But I’m fascinated by how Millennial this episode was.
Have we reached the zenith of over-sharing? Giving birth on camera is nothing new (half of Discovery Health’s roster of shows is of the women-perilously-going-through-labor variety), but here we see a homemade snuff film and a paradox most emblematic of the MySpace Generation, encapsulated in the teen’s suicide note:
“I have come to believe that my life has all been meaningless,” he wrote on another message board. He found his life meaningless, yet still felt the need to share his death with the world. Such public communication suggests that he actually felt his life had plenty of meaning. I am not doubting his depression, and I’m not saying he was an idiot—what I am saying is that anytime you put something on the Internet, you imply its importance to others. After all, if it wasn’t important, why would you share it in the first place?
Such is the Facebook dilemma. You create your own page to share your life with others and express your individuality, but when everyone around you has a Facebook as well, and the same applications and the same Favorite Music and profile pictures from the same wild party. Well, it’s not that individual at all. In fact, the more people that use the Internet, the less it becomes about showing who you are—it becomes a game of catching up, of not being left behind, of “I have to post this somewhere or it won’t count.” I have a website just for the pictures I take with my dinky camera—I am just as guilty of this as anyone else, if not more so.
When you transmit your suicide over cyberspace, what you’re really saying—besides the fact that you’re wildly depressed and should have received help a long time ago, which is the real shame in all this—is that you want others to watch. You want your death to “count,” to mean something, to be important and encrypted and cached for all time. And maybe, that you want someone to step in and offer a hopeful voice.
Of course, those watching the teen’s suicide only egged him on. Someone called him a “faggot.” When the police finally showed up, several commenters exclaimed, “LOL.” If he could read the comments after he swallowed those pills, Abraham Biggs would have had his worst fears about himself confirmed: that his life was meaningless, worth nothing more than a chuckle on cyberspace.
What’s frightening is that we’re all online—do any of us mean anything? Does the mundane gain artificial importance by being stored on a website’s servers? In other words, would this have been such a big story if it didn’t happen online?
Photo by Flickr user fd used under the Creative Commons
12 Comments
Henry Chan
Not everyone egged him on. Just as many urged him to stop, especially when they realized it wasn’t a joke.
The whole thing is rather morbid (duh). I can only imagine what it must have been like to be one of those people who watched him kill himself. I would have been horrified.
I think, really, what should be asked here is not why he put his suicide online, but why no one did anything to help. Beyond the comments that egged him on or asked him to stop, no one did anything until it was WAY too late to do anything. What does that say about our society, that we’re willing to watch someone kill himself because it’s mildly entertaining? Even those who asked him to stop now have a story to tell to other people.
I didn’t realize there were people actually asking him to stop.
Still, you’re right, curious why more wasn’t done to help. I’d like to retain a little faith in humanity and believe there wasn’t anything they could do.
Heather Bonsack
Many didn’t believe it was true nobody saw him take the pills, that part he did not “air” It’s sad but how many people would actually believe that somebody would put themselves dying on the web. One witness commented saying he didn’t look like he was “drugged out” he just looked tired and I didn’t believe it was true. This is a situation where no one knew him no one knew his state of mind. It’s a tragedy and shouldn’t have happened.
dene chen
i hate to be a bitch and all but i feel like this should be filed under cultural detritus or something to that effect.
Henry Chan
Hah. And not ‘Entertainment’.
roflmao.
How sick are people that they would write “LOL” when someone has just said they were going to KILL themselves! Even if he hadn’t taken the pills, obviously this boy was in total distress, could’ve been maybe that he was contemplating suicide. Whoever said that after he took the pills and read those sick idiot’s comments egging him on, just ensured him that he was right, hit the nail on the head. His life had no meaning. Maybe he was waiting for someone to help him. Many people “accidentally ” commit suicide. They call someone to tell them, the people think it’s a joke, ignore it, then the person is dead. I’ll bet this boy broadcast his suicide thinking that the MANY people watching this would call someone or do something. No one did a thing! And whether he was kidding or NOT, DO SOMETHING! Call someone, get help! There’s a boy possibly dying! What’s wrong with this world! OMG! If it was me LOLing and poking fun, this would be on my conscience for the rest of my life. I would KNOW that I contributed to a sad young boy’s death. That I did not one damn thing while he lay there and slowly died. Shame on you people! Shame on you! Can you imagine what this boys mother feels about all these people who did nothing? I know what I’d feel and I don’t think I can post it.
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Ian McKinney
“… worth nothing more than a chuckle”? Perhaps at the time, to the callous people who watched it. But I think your article and others show that there is something to be … learned, or gained, or at least thought about seriously that is a direct result of his suicide.
One person usually can’t decide the importance of an act, or a life. Often the context of the act, or the life, has to be sorted out by many. I think you’re helping. Keep up the good work.
I just had a friend commit suicide because a boy got her pregnent. And i got through it so why cant u!
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It definitely would not have been as big a story. He streamed live video of himself committing suicide. Had he not streamed it over the internet like he did, or if he videotaped it and left it behind after his death- then word probably would not have spread as quickly, if it did at all. Many probably would not be as interested.
I agree with you, having people watch on the internet surely means he valued his life on some level. It’s a tragedy, I’m sure if some people gave him words of encouragement, to just say “stop” rather than calling him a faggot things would be different.