The Energon Pub

I was watching the news earlier and they were talking about this. They are looking at pressing charges to some of the people who encouraged him to do it then waited 9 hours to get a site moderator. I cannot believe anyone would be on the internet for 9 hours. It is sad his life ended like that and from the interview his father gave the boy had a history of mental illness.


http://www.nydailynews.com/news/us_worl ... suici.html

Definitely not the first time this has happened. Hopefully it will be the last.

What's even sicker is how people in the anonymity of their own homes can reveal just how sick and deprived they really are without the restraint of social norms or the wrath of an impending fist coming at their face. The people who encouraged this person to do that deserve whatever karma has in store for them.

The sad and unfortunate fact is that there are a number of people out there using the internet and with the cloak of ambiguity that is presented by hiding behind forum names, let alone guest status and/or "User #???".

Behind that barrier, they feel that it doesn't matter what you say, or what morals you conduct yourself. Once that sets in it's easy to allow yourself to do pretty much anything seeing "there is no way I'll be caught".

It's not a matter of being caught, It's a matter that what is really being thought is "there is no I will be held accountable"

This covers actions by people on all types of websites/forums whether downloading/torrenting music/TV shows, gambling, adult activities (you know what I mean but I have a weird filtering programs at work Thank you government of Canada) and in this case the completely detachment of common sense to not try and intercede in order to hopefully save the guys life.

Sorry if this sounds preachy, it's not meant to be, just stating on a sad state of affairs.

that is just sick. i undr stand the guy needed help, and someone to talk to, but instead got a bunch of "do it".. so is the internet community dropping to the level of romans feeding christians to the lions?

there is a time and place to be a jerk, but when someone genuinly needs help is neither..

what is wrong with these people?

they need to find the IP adresses of the people who egged him on and charge them with accessory to murder, or manslaughter. these freaks are worse than Dr. Kovorkian was charged with.

I understand that the kid had mental problems,but why is everyone attacking the other users? For all they knew it was just something someone was doing it to get attention. They might have thought he was faking at first. How could they have had any real knowledge that he did in fact take a lethal dose of pills? I'm not supporting their actions, but I am saying that it is easy to assume stuff is fake, especially on the net. If I'd seen that I would have thought the kid was acting and not actually offing himself, but that would only be because I would'nt sit through 9 hours of someone I deemed an attention seeker. I would have probably seen a couple minutes and then left. Why? Because I would have assumed it to be fake.

A prime example of why I hate the internet culture of aloof mockery. Where people who don't go looking for new and improved ways to be an asshole get fobbed off with witty quips like "omg srs bisnes".

If someone who is obviously depressed and looking for a little comfort presents themselves to you, it wouldn't hurt anybody to be sympathetic instead of dismissing them in the rudest manner possible.

So yeah, the other users aren't even remotely innocent, they only proved what nasty pieces of work they really are.

I'm surprised that the eggers on and the site wasn't a '-chan' and their 'an hero' crap.

I hear the family wants legal action against the other people on the site. I do not know if they will get it though.

robofreak wrote:I understand that the kid had mental problems,but why is everyone attacking the other users? For all they knew it was just something someone was doing it to get attention. They might have thought he was faking at first. How could they have had any real knowledge that he did in fact take a lethal dose of pills? I'm not supporting their actions, but I am saying that it is easy to assume stuff is fake, especially on the net. If I'd seen that I would have thought the kid was acting and not actually offing himself, but that would only be because I would'nt sit through 9 hours of someone I deemed an attention seeker. I would have probably seen a couple minutes and then left. Why? Because I would have assumed it to be fake.

So you see nothing wrong with telling a suicidal person that they should kill themselves?

Shadowman wrote:

robofreak wrote:I understand that the kid had mental problems,but why is everyone attacking the other users? For all they knew it was just something someone was doing it to get attention. They might have thought he was faking at first. How could they have had any real knowledge that he did in fact take a lethal dose of pills? I'm not supporting their actions, but I am saying that it is easy to assume stuff is fake, especially on the net. If I'd seen that I would have thought the kid was acting and not actually offing himself, but that would only be because I would'nt sit through 9 hours of someone I deemed an attention seeker. I would have probably seen a couple minutes and then left. Why? Because I would have assumed it to be fake.

So you see nothing wrong with telling a suicidal person that they should kill themselves?

No, what I mean is that I think people assumed it to be an act. Why else would so many people egg him on? I know some people are jerks, but I'm curious to know home many of these people who were egging him on actually thought it was fake?

robofreak wrote:

Shadowman wrote:

robofreak wrote:I understand that the kid had mental problems,but why is everyone attacking the other users? For all they knew it was just something someone was doing it to get attention. They might have thought he was faking at first. How could they have had any real knowledge that he did in fact take a lethal dose of pills? I'm not supporting their actions, but I am saying that it is easy to assume stuff is fake, especially on the net. If I'd seen that I would have thought the kid was acting and not actually offing himself, but that would only be because I would'nt sit through 9 hours of someone I deemed an attention seeker. I would have probably seen a couple minutes and then left. Why? Because I would have assumed it to be fake.

So you see nothing wrong with telling a suicidal person that they should kill themselves?

No, what I mean is that I think people assumed it to be an act. Why else would so many people egg him on? I know some people are jerks, but I'm curious to know home many of these people who were egging him on actually thought it was fake?

How many people do you think the dead kid thought were serious? Even if they didn't know it was real, they still told a suicidal person to kill himself.

i see where robofreak is comimg from, everyone is desinsitized to these kind of things. but do we ave ANY evidense of people trying to talk him out of it? was every post a "do it" post?

i'm sure we've all seen fake crap on the interwebs. if everyone believes everything on the net then we're doomed as a society. the media isn't going to say 3 people told him not to do it.

this is still sick, but we can't afford to call the cops on everyone who posts a "i want to die message". well we could but then alot of people would spend time for hoaxes. i understand this is still horrific, and those egging him on were wrong, but how many fakes have happened with nothing happening. Short of him holding each pill to the camera and someone else cross referencing them online with the enteraction warnings, most people can't tell an asperin from morphine.

this is a horrible tragedy, and hopefully it will teach people to not do similar things in the future.

the feeling of annonimity that makes us all feel safe online, is the same thing that lets us be inconsiderate assholes without a second thought.

After all how many of those people that said do it would have the fortitude to say it to his face? I'd bet dollars to dimes less than 20%...

robofreak wrote:
No, what I mean is that I think people assumed it to be an act. Why else would so many people egg him on? I know some people are jerks, but I'm curious to know home many of these people who were egging him on actually thought it was fake?

Also this wasn't a teenager he was 19 a legal adult. So his parents didn't have any control over him at all. Second the moderator of the sight was acutally not responsable because of the fact he only moderates this on a part time basis and wasn't home but at work when the said incident happened.
The father has no legal recourse because: The parties involved were not aware this was real. The victim himself has threatened to do it before and never did it.
And in this day an age of covert advertising. Such as the popcorn being popped by cellphones and lets not forget Lonely Girl. How were the people watching not know he was swallowing M&Ms or tic-tacs?
This guy and his family fell into a trap their son was too old for them to legally have any control over his life and they couldn't hover over him without violating his civil rights.
So thier is no one to blame only to mourn.

Sky Glory of Iacon wrote:
And in this day an age of covert advertising. Such as the popcorn being popped by cellphones and lets not forget Lonely Girl. How were the people watching not know he was swallowing M&Ms or tic-tacs?

So thier is no one to blame only to mourn.

sad but true. in this age of "anything is ok, unless its real" its hard to point fingers. it doesn't justify the situation but needs to be the precident to set the bar to save us all form future happenings

society as a whole has become to jaded for our own good.

Sky Glory of Iacon wrote:

robofreak wrote:
No, what I mean is that I think people assumed it to be an act. Why else would so many people egg him on? I know some people are jerks, but I'm curious to know home many of these people who were egging him on actually thought it was fake?

Also this wasn't a teenager he was 19 a legal adult. So his parents didn't have any control over him at all. Second the moderator of the sight was acutally not responsable because of the fact he only moderates this on a part time basis and wasn't home but at work when the said incident happened.
The father has no legal recourse because: The parties involved were not aware this was real. The victim himself has threatened to do it before and never did it.
And in this day an age of covert advertising. Such as the popcorn being popped by cellphones and lets not forget Lonely Girl. How were the people watching not know he was swallowing M&Ms or tic-tacs?
This guy and his family fell into a trap their son was too old for them to legally have any control over his life and they couldn't hover over him without violating his civil rights.
So thier is no one to blame only to mourn.

You're logic is still flawed. If they didn't know it was real (Which is still just an assumption, you can't say some people didn't think he might actually do it), does that make it okay that they egged him on?

No it is not ok that they behaved that way. It is horrible that people would ever act that way no matter if they thought he was joking or not. I sure hope the people who participated in that have a healthy dose of guilt and even some fear that the authorities will find some way to charge them. I have heard on several morning news programs that the police are looking into if they can find any way to charge the people involved. I have seen my share of attention seekers who say outrageous things to get attention. It takes just a few seconds to say a kind word then move on. There is never any call to behave that way.

So here we have a person with bipolar disorder that has already attempted suicide twice already.

There are two things I find odd about this story, since I have a relative with bipolar disorder:

- He sends his mother a text which causes enough alarm for her to phone, but after talking to him doesn't come to see him.

- After two failed suicide attempts, he is still left on his own for 12 hours.

You could argue that a nineteen year-old doesn't need supervision, but in my opinion (and experience), anyone that suffers from severe depression\suicidal tendancies needs a high level of care. If not, those crys for help or genuine attempts can go unnoticed. You can't monitor someone all day every day, either - that's impossible. Suicide happens - the best we can do is try to minimise the need\risk of it happening.

The matter of the internets involvement in this affair is hazy at best. Would or wouldn't he have killed himself anyway? We'll never know. The report linked to doesn't actually say if people were viewing the video for those twelve hours - the time taken for someone to call a moderator could easily have been the time it took someone to notice the attempt was genuine.

I'm not going to say that the people who "egged" him on were cruel\sadistic\whatever because people on the internet are generally idiots and with the increasing amount of hoaxes one the internet, telling a real situation from one imagined\faked can be difficult.

A tragic ordeal for his family? Yes.
Sole blame for the internet users that encouraged him? No.

Amelie wrote:So here we have a person with bipolar disorder that has already attempted suicide twice already.

There are two things I find odd about this story, since I have a relative with bipolar disorder:

- He sends his mother a text which causes enough alarm for her to phone, but after talking to him doesn't come to see him.

- After two failed suicide attempts, he is still left on his own for 12 hours.

You could argue that a nineteen year-old doesn't need supervision, but in my opinion (and experience), anyone that suffers from severe depression\suicidal tendancies needs a high level of care. If not, those crys for help or genuine attempts can go unnoticed. You can't monitor someone all day every day, either - that's impossible. Suicide happens - the best we can do is try to minimise the need\risk of it happening.

The matter of the internets involvement in this affair is hazy at best. Would or wouldn't he have killed himself anyway? We'll never know. The report linked to doesn't actually say if people were viewing the video for those twelve hours - the time taken for someone to call a moderator could easily have been the time it took someone to notice the attempt was genuine.

I'm not going to say that the people who "egged" him on were cruel\sadistic\whatever because people on the internet are generally idiots and with the increasing amount of hoaxes one the internet, telling a real situation from one imagined\faked can be difficult.

A tragic ordeal for his family? Yes.
Sole blame for the internet users that encouraged him? No.

I couldn't have said it better. Thank you Amelie.

has anyone heard any news of ANYONE trying to talk him out of this?

the news can be one sided in interest of a "better" story.

have any more details been released?

still a tragedy, my condolences to the family.

Meh.

I think that the folks who were viewing it are screwed up in their heads.....

Merc With A Mouth wrote:I couldn't have said it better. Thank you Amelie.

^ This.

Merc With A Mouth wrote:

Amelie wrote:So here we have a person with bipolar disorder that has already attempted suicide twice already.

There are two things I find odd about this story, since I have a relative with bipolar disorder:

- He sends his mother a text which causes enough alarm for her to phone, but after talking to him doesn't come to see him.

- After two failed suicide attempts, he is still left on his own for 12 hours.

You could argue that a nineteen year-old doesn't need supervision, but in my opinion (and experience), anyone that suffers from severe depression\suicidal tendancies needs a high level of care. If not, those crys for help or genuine attempts can go unnoticed. You can't monitor someone all day every day, either - that's impossible. Suicide happens - the best we can do is try to minimise the need\risk of it happening.

The matter of the internets involvement in this affair is hazy at best. Would or wouldn't he have killed himself anyway? We'll never know. The report linked to doesn't actually say if people were viewing the video for those twelve hours - the time taken for someone to call a moderator could easily have been the time it took someone to notice the attempt was genuine.

I'm not going to say that the people who "egged" him on were cruel\sadistic\whatever because people on the internet are generally idiots and with the increasing amount of hoaxes one the internet, telling a real situation from one imagined\faked can be difficult.

A tragic ordeal for his family? Yes.
Sole blame for the internet users that encouraged him? No.

I couldn't have said it better. Thank you Amelie.

Same here. I agree with all of these points that Amelie has stated.