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.
