The Internet versus…You?

By   |  December 9, 2008

Since the advent of message boards, blogs, and online streaming sites, the Web has encouraged user-driven created content from people of all sorts of backgrounds. A couple of years ago, the Times hailed the ‘Person of the Year’ as ‘you,’ as the blooming star. Ironically, the fact that this very post exists is a testament to how far along this idea has come along as well as the huge reliance on blogs in the 2008 elections and their influence even within the political parties.

However, the power of having anonymity on the Internet has also been growing to creating elitism and arrogance…an abuse and darker side that many avid users are aware of yet casually take as something inherent to the Internet. Yet what happens when these start to make dramatic influences on people’s lives? What happens when enough fans bemoan their favorite star or enough people chant for an extraordinary event that leads to someone’s death? Although there have been past cases of suicides and deaths influenced by something from the Internet, this year has brought the issue into the limelight with some serious cases. Here are two of the bigger incidents this year:

Choi Jin Sil: Ms. Sil was a popular Korean actress, branded as ‘the nation’s actress’ due to being considered one of Korea’s finest. She led a successful career, being branded with great leading roles in Korean dramas to landing several prominent movie deals. Her personal life was not as rosy however. She was in a rocky, high profile marriage with a baseball star that ended up in a messy divorce along with a high amount of mysterious debt continuing to ratchet up. In 2008, after Sil’s close friend committed suicide, heavy rumors began to leak in the Internet that Choi Sil was the reason why the suicide happened and that she was involved with loan sharks. On October 1st, Choi reportedly texted and called several friends to say goodbye and the next morning, she was found to have committed suicide by hanging herself in the shower with medical bandages.

Ms. Sil was on antidepressants after the divorce and told several interviews that she loathed the Internet and their constant hounding. Especially in Korea, where the Internet is much more prevalent and vicious in everyone’s life, Sil was constantly bombarded by Internet ‘paparazzi’.

Abraham Biggs: Mr. Biggs was a 19-year-old man from Florida who posted a live video feed on justin.tv. Earlier, he went on another forum and gave specific directions on how he would commit suicide, which he apparently had threatened to do before, and stated that he simply was not fit to live. Forum members chided him for his past action and encouraged him to finish the deed. Abraham was depressed and took several medications beforehand such as one for bipolar disorder. He went on justin.tv sometime around 3AM, took several different drugs at once and committed suicide. Nearly 1,500 viewers were apparently watching the live feed and mostly encouraged him on, thinking it was another normal Internet prank. 12 hours later, while the feed was still rolling, a police officer came into the room after being tipped off by the feed moderator.

What course of action should be taken? The Internet is such a huge communication medium that it is difficult enough to manage as is with the mantra of free use in mind for many users. Aren’t their parents or loved ones responsible for keeping them in check or is there a moral responsibility that Internet users have when they see or post malicious rumors or rants? Shouldn’t these people have enough common sense when to tune out all the rants and raves from the millions of people online or is there a serious case of online libel that should be better defined as illegal? Isn’t this simply just a series of unfortunate events that happen randomly or are these a chain of more events to come?  Obviously, there is no clear-cut answer here and the types of regulations and actions that should be taken are better saved for more thorough research and discussion.

At least, in my opinion, it should be a reminder of ethics that apply on the Internet just as in actual reality. Everyone has an opinion and all people have their right to make a comment, but some common courtesy and respect can go a long way to perhaps prevent incidents like this from happening.

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3 Comments on “The Internet versus…You?”  (RSS)

  1. This bitetr little man has never grown up. Just like the kid in school who would do or say anything to get attention, this 67 year old man needs to have people pay attention to him. Since he cannot do so by putting out a quality radio program, he’s trying to be provactive. But his problem is that he sucks at both. It is time for Malloy to grow the up & understand he is not as important as he believes he is. Face it, Mike, your rating suck, & the numbers never lie. Maybe it’s time to put you out to pasture & give someone younger with some fresh ideas behind your mic, you have had more then your share of second chances. Then again, nobody cares, & that may be the biggest slight of all.

  2. The problem these days is that no one seems to believe in ethics, just as no one seems to want to take responsibility. I recall seeing the biggs suicide thing a day or to after it happened and I recall that a lot of the people who had cheered him on were retaliating against their detractors with comments like how were we supposed to know, or what could we do. Umm well lets see you could have contacted the authorities immediately for the simple reason that he was threatening to selfharm and therefore should have been dealt with by a proffesional as opposed to a bunch of scum who rather than help thought only of goading him on, but no unfortunately this simple approach never once entered their supposedly superior minds, ergo the result in this case, a successfull suicide. It is a shame that those who posted the things that encouraged him to take his life were not brought to justice as say aiders and abeters in suicide, something like a manslaughter charge may have wiped the arrogance from their cowardly faces. In the end all it takes is contacting the emergency services and alerting them to the situation and at least there then is a chance that something can be done, and if it turns out that it was someone pulling a hoax, well a few years in prison might make them less inclined to act the moron in future.

  3. “At least, in my opinion, it should be a reminder of ethics that apply on the Internet just as in actual reality.”

    I agree with this. I love joking around on the internet as much as the next guy watching funny videos or pranking people, but the flaming that’s taken over the web is out of control… I’m tired of responses like “dude, it’s just the internet!”… actually, dude, humans have complex emotions, and nothing is ever as one-dimensional as it seems… especially these days!

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