I think for a lot of people there's a huge disconnect between internet and reality. On the internet it's often just words on a page, with no association to real people.
Also, there's so much shocking material and people joking around on the Internet sometimes it's hard to realize what's "real" and what's not. People like guy who pranked Zed Shaw a couple weeks ago certainly don't help: http://zedshaw.com/blog/2008-10-30.html
This shows why Zed acted appropriately. It just as easily could have been someone like this kid who killed himself. Better to find yourself pranked than to not investigate and find out someone died and wondering if you could have done something to alter the outcome.
Can't be done. What we need to do (and should have before the internet) is have a better support system for people with mental health issues. Once you're broadcasting the fact that you're thinking about suicide on the net, it's only a matter of time. It's a shame that people seem to have spurred him on, but there's a really high chance people in his life saw something coming (or would have if they knew what to look for) and didn't act, and that even if he hadn't done it yesterday, he'd do it at some point in the future.
"Once you're broadcasting the fact that you're thinking about suicide on the net, it's only a matter of time."
Do you really think that every time someone talks about suicide on the internet that they are actually serious? Or even most of the time? Certainly I agree that a better support structure is needed, but talking about suicide on the internet may not necessarily be as much of a warning sign as you seem to think (a study on this would probably be reasonably insightful to the matter).
Yeah, I do. Suicide is a cry for attention, and as such usually begins with other (often directly related) cries. I'd say that most people who start talking about it live on webcam are going to attempt it at some point if they're not helped. Just conjecture on my part.
I guess in many cases the problem is that it is not obvious how to react to mental health issues. There are only theories on how to cure someone, but few certain measurements. Still, at least attempts at cures should be made (or at prevention).
As their family member it's obvious how to react: tell them to get help, and ride them about it until they do. I've done this. The second part is probably the more important.
There's no guarantee that help will be successful of course, but you've at least done what you can.
Reddit recently had a discussion about this. Here is the top rated comment in the thread.
Sysiphuslove:
"I don't think it's so much the anonymity of the poster as the anonymity of the victim. There's obviously a 'real person' on the other end of the conversation, but there's no face, no voice...a victim online is stripped of his humanity just enough to salve the conscience, but not enough to make an unsatisfying target.
An online victim is a perfect blank slate for projection: he is represented only by the narrowest of opinions or acts, with no other definable characteristic besides an avatar and/or screen name. It is satisfying to shoot down these faceless assertions. It isn't really personal, just a private exercise of retaliation.
Look at it this way: when someone pisses you off on the highway, are you mad at the person? Or is it, in some abstract way, the car?"
Hmm, I certainly think the point that the post you quote is getting at does have some relevance.
However, I personally feel that it is the anonymity of the poster more so than that of the victim which contributes to this "astonishing cruelty" that is sometimes evident online. I agree that it's not personal on the part of the poster. In 99.9% of cases, really how could it be? I believe the "private exercise of retaliation" is performed due to stressors in the posters life that he feels frustrated about and powerless to solve. Be those stressors related to work, family, friends, finances or whatever. They get some degree of relief by taking out their frustrations online where they can do so with this effective anonymity.
I think aside from the previously discussed anonymity, it also has a lot to do with what is acceptable for a given social group. People are capable of truly sadistic and terrible acts when they have been made to feel that those acts are acceptable by their peers. When one is not alone in their cruelty, even ostensibly "reasonable" or "normal" people can become monsters.
But well, when someone pisses me off on the road I am squarely pissed at them, not the car they're in, neither in an abstract way or otherwise. I'm not really sure what that analogy is trying to say. Were I a member of an Amazon tribe who had never seen a car before and didn't know what a car was, and one day a car shoots by, nearly running me down, then yeah, I imagine I'd be super pissed at that car.
Yeah the analogy is a bit flawed, I think of it more as, "Are you really mad at the person driving the car for that event or are you projecting your other frustrations and hatred onto that person because they are a safe target."
The anonymity of the poster certainly has a lot to do with it too. I just liked the comment because it gave me a different perspective on the issue.
"Are you really mad at the person driving the car for that event or are you projecting your other frustrations and hatred onto that person because they are a safe target."
Yes, that makes more sense and is along the lines of my own thinking above.
This german article gives some good reasons: http://www.spiegel.de/netzwelt/web/0,1518,591783,00.html (in german, unfortunately). Maybe some people really are cruel, but there are other reasons (as with the shoutings of "jump already" if somebody jumps off the roof). People resent being manipulated, which a suicide does (just look at the pushy comments here, about what justin.tv HAS to do now). And by saying "so what" they make the suicide seem meaningless, which might help in some cases to prevent it - if the suicide candidate wants the attention but doesn't get it.
Also, there's so much shocking material and people joking around on the Internet sometimes it's hard to realize what's "real" and what's not. People like guy who pranked Zed Shaw a couple weeks ago certainly don't help: http://zedshaw.com/blog/2008-10-30.html