[bloomshed]

The title of this post is so ridiculous I refuse to honor the link by reading it.

Anyone who really thinks Farmville or social networks had anything to do with this incident needs to learn about what it means to have a mental illness.

This is a tragic incident that could have been prevented if people had understood and identified what was really going on with this woman. I'm extremely uncomfortable with this post's existence.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _

Edit: I'm extremely uncomfortable with this LINK's existence. Gizmodo is being stupid with this article.

[Tycho]

But can you imagine how different the reporting would have been if say a teenager had killed his baby brother after being interrupted during a game of GTA or Manhunt.

[bloomshed]

I don't know if I follow what you're saying. We could make up hypothetical situations all day.

Mental illness/child neglect/child abuse are all tragic things that exist independently of media.

If the title of this article were "Study shows link between social media and depression" it would be a different story.

Right now the gizmodo article is titled something outrageous just to illicit hits to their site.

[Tycho]

I think gizmodo have caught onto an undercurrent of media hypocrisy regarding real-life violance and its association with computer games. If this murder had occured in 'connection' with a mature/violent video game, there would be a huge furore followed by baseless claims about cause-and-effect. The fact that this violence stemmed from a session of 'Farmville' of course completely undermines the 'violent games cause violent acts' hypothesis, hence the broader media and public are ignoring it.

Disclaimer: I've never played Farmville. I assume it's non-violent gameplay.

[bloomshed]

Good point.

The only thing violent about farmville is how zynga relentlessly pursues your email list and real life dollars in exchange for worthless worthless digital items for your farm.

Zynga does do a bit of charity awareness and fundraisers in the game (the Haiti Earthquake relief fund, for example) but the best way to get blocked from everyone's news feed is to post a bunch of farmville stuff on your profile.