11/18/2007
It's not the club, it's the hand holding it.
Human beings, being human beings and loathing genuine self examination will always seek to shift the blame. There's a story about a girl who committed suicide after a cyber friend told her that she wasn't a nice person and didn't want to be friends anymore. It turns out that this was done via a social networking site. The people behind the "prank" were the adult family of a former friend of the girl who hung herself a day after she found out that her new friend didn't want to talk to her anymore. The girl, all of thirteen with known emotional issues, had been to lead to believe that the cyber friend was a cute boy her age and had recently moved to the neighboring town. This went on for some time.
So we have two, possibly three separate issue here:
1) A girl with mental health issues who wasn't able to be saved.
2) Adults who feel that it is a socially acceptable use of their time to manipulate a child.
What is not a problem is the tool used to achieve this. One of the comments I saw was by someone blaming a certain well known social networking site the Internet in general. The comment, which I don't feel the need to attach any descriptors to what-so-ever went on to blame the Internet and the SNS for; pedophiles, perverts, bullies and a plethora of other ill behavior types.
Remember boys and girls, before the Internet:
There was no rape, there was no murder, sex was unknown except in the bounds of socially acceptable marriages, teen sex never happened at all, pedophiles were a thing much like unicorns; oft talked about but never seen, the lion laid down with the lamb and of course there were no bullies because everyone treated each other with love and respect.
At twelve I was severely confused by the ability of people to blame the club and not the club wielder, at fourteen after having put the issue aside for a time and reexamining it I was aghast. Now, I wish I could call myself jaded, but I'm pretty certain I left that label behind a long time ago.
Labels: mucking forons, psychology, society
