Another Teen Dead, Social Media Involved
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Another story is in the news about a teenager who was "bullied to death."
A 14-year-old girl committed suicide after she had filed criminal charges against a neighbor boy whom she accused of raping her. Classmates taunted and bullied her when the alleged rape went viral around her school and community when she was interview by a Fox news reporter.
The man accused of raping her used social media to fight against what he said were, "Lies, Lies Lies." Bullying continued until the girl was driven to suicide.
Though the bullying was what led to her suicide, social media as the driving force behind the bullying. Her attacker was a senior, she was a freshman. The attacker posted various tweets on his twitter account spreading the word that it was not rape, it was consensual sex.
Obviously, many of his classmates agreed and targeted the victim as a source of ridicule.
Would she still be alive today if social media was not the center of the teenage life? Would she have been bullied so severely if Twitter had not been available for the attacker to spread the word of his proclaimed innocence and her wrong?
Though tragedies like this consume the media, people still do not understand the power of social media.
Suicide rates will continue to increase while teens are able to touch more people than they could ever imagine with the most powerful bullying tool in the world--words.
5 comments:
This is a rather sad story, but I will always wonder why people think ending their lives is a solution to all their problems.
I think this is a very upsetting story. While I think this is a very tragic event, I also believe that social media is not to blame for this death. There are many other factors that should be questioned such as why did this not block these people that were causing this damage? Why weren't her parents supervising her usage of social media at the age of 14? I think these are some of the important questions that need to be asked before completely blaming it on the social media.
Although it might sound weird at first, wouldn't it help if people had to pay a fee to use Twitter or Facebook? I would imagine that many kids or teenagers will rather spend their money on other stuff.
Cyber-bullying might be a rising problem and someone will eventually find out a way to relieve the situation. What if social networks were restricted to people under the age of 18?
I could guarantee that the amount of users will diminish and, perhaps, the cyber-bullying too.
Bullying has always been around and social media is just another outlet to bully and be bullied. I agree with Paul. Her parents should have been more involved in helping her through the difficult time.
Was the senior boy ever convicted of actually raping her?
Personally, if I was being bullied as bad as her via social media I wouldn't get on it. Why look for something you don't want to see.
The girl isn't the one to blame though. Even if she stopped looking at social media those bullying her would still be on there gossiping and spreading more rumors about here.
Someone should have intervened before it was too late.
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