But with increasing exposure to the world wide web, comes the creation of global socialising networks that enable people from all parts of the globe to connect to each other. People who have never met each other in real life can claim to be in love, be best friends or even sworn enemies. This 'connection' we forge with virtual strangers, can it really be considered true friendship?
Hiding behind a computer screen, anyone can claim to be someone they are not. And sometimes, this deception is taken too far.
This is 13 year old Megan Meier. Megan that commited suicide after getting depressed over a MySpace hoax. She got to know a 16 year old teen called Josh Evans over MySpace, and over the course of their chatting and correspondence, their relationship bloomed. However, things took a very different turn when Josh suddenly changed his attitude towards Megan.
On October 15, 2006, Josh sent Megan a message saying, 'I don't want to be friends with you anymore because you're not nice to your friends'.
That post triggered hate posts from many other MySpace users.
"All of Josh's friends and all of Megan's friends were calling Megan a whore, a fat ass. Calling her all kinds of god awful names," Megan's mother,Tina, told the ABC network in an interview last year.
Meier hanged herself on October 16, 2006 after receiving the cruel messages, including the last message sent from Josh which read: "The world would be a better place without you."
However, the tragedy took an even worse turn when it was revealed that this Josh Evans did not even exist. Lori Drew, a 48 year old mother was passing herself off as a 16 year old guy, just to monitor anything negative that Megan was saying about her daugther.
The childishness and insensitivity of her actions led to the tragic suicide of a young girl. Her actions and intentions were extremely cruel, even more so because she knew the Meier family personally, and Megan and her daughter were friends. How can anyone (especially an adult, a MOTHER, for that matter) stoop to such levels to bully and harm a young teenage girl? (FYI, the authorities were unable to charge Lori Drew for Megan's death as they could not find a law she had broken. Instead, all the woman got for her deliberate and evil actions were one count of conspiracy and three counts of accessing protected computers without authorisation to obtain information to inflict emotional distress. Each of the counts carries only a maximum possible penalty of five years in prison.)
This is why I feel interpersonal communication is only valid and real if it's truly a face to face interaction between 2 people. Your virtual 'friends' can make themselves out to whoever they want to be to you, but you'll never really know who's the real person hiding behind a computer screen.
10 comments:
This issue is definitely going to have 2 distinctly and oppositely opinionated categories of people.
We all have heard of stories whereby people claim they have met their soulmates through chat rooms on the world wide web; however, do we really have the statistics of how many of these couples are truly happy and stay together for the rest of their lives?
In my opinion, to truly evaluate someone of their character, there has to be face to face interaction; if not, your imagination begins to conjure up an ideal person according to your own set of beliefs, to which the other party can easily play along with.
After all, it is said that the eyes are the windows to the soul. So maybe there IS some truth in that saying.
i feel that the girl (megan) is kind of responsible for her fate because she let herself fall into the situation. She should not have let herself get so involved with a virtual stranger, even going on to fall for him. granted, she is young, and maybe naive and impressionable, but still, i feel that she should have been wiser.
yes i totally agree with the saying that eyes are the windows to the soul. i feel that anyone claiming to be best friends or lovers with someone they've never met in person can't honestly think they can know everything about their virtual friend, and that the person is absolutely truthful with them.
i think this is a classic example of how dangerous the internet can be. falling prey to a trick like this really is a sad thing for the girl..
this is why parents should keep tabs on what their children do on the internent. although it might seem very oppressive and unreasonable to the child, youngsters can become the victims of such tricksters unknowingly. people always think that what they read or hear about are always worst case scenarios that will never happen to them. but do you think megan meier expected it?
no offense, but i really think its the girl's own fault for falling for a ruse like this. she's a pretty girl, i'm sure with no lack of suitors. why become besotted with a virtual stranger online? she should have just ignored the 'boy's' unkind remarks and brushed it off. she's already 14, considered a sec 2 student in singaporean terms. i honestly think she should have been wiser.
personally, i feel that one shouldn't be that affected or emotionall distressed over such a small matter. Megan should have treasured her life and not ruin it because of a virtual character she doesn't know exist or not.
although megan had met with a sad and unfortunate end and most people will say it's pretty much her fault for being so naive, i have to disagree. the girl is only a teenager, and prior ro the myspace incident she was already suffering from mild depression. with her fragile state of mind, it's no wonder she was easy prey for the evil woman and her childish and sinister plan.
megan is young and perhaps too trusting and impressionable, thats why she could fall for her online "boyfriend" so easily, and got so affected and upset over "his" betrayal.
often, our judgment is clouded by our perception. for example, while playing a game online, we assume diff characters. and obviously, we will dress them up to make them look as pretty/handsome as possible. similarly, when we look at cute characters, we assume that in RL, they look roughly the same. how disappointed we are when we find out the truth. lol
i think that that is sad that is whyi dont have a myspace only kidz world and i never use my real namew and adress even pictures
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